August 2014

Tamworth paedophile jailed for 18 months

A CONVICTED Tamworth sex offender who downloaded child abuse images while undergoing rehabilitation has been jailed for 18 months.

Shaun Garron received a community order from a judge when he was prosecuted in 2009 for having DVDs containing indecent images of youngsters.

But in March last year police checked to see if he was complying with sex offence prevention measures and found a total of 20 images of child porn on his iPhone.

Garron had also deleted the search history on the phone, a breach of his Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

Mr Paul Spratt, prosecuting, said six images on the iPhone were of category A, which defines the most serious acts of depravity against children. There were two images of category B and 12 category C. The defendant had also distributed nine images, including two in category A, to men he had met in internet chat rooms.

Garron, aged 32, who lived in Watling Street, admitted three charges of making indecent images, three of distributing indecent images and a breach of the SOPO.

Judge Michael Challinor told him the 18 month sentence was “a punishment and a deterrent”.

“It sends out a message that those who do [this] will be sent to jail.

“The public frequently find it difficult to understand why people who download indecent images don’t go straight to prison. Very often the reason – probably the reason you escaped custody in 2009 – is because protection of the public is paramount and community orders with appropriate sex offender programmes have been deemed successful in turning sex offenders away from that type of behaviour.

“You have been through this programme, no doubt co-operating, but at the very time you were undertaking this you were downloading more indecent images of children and, more seriously, distributing them.

“The harm that distribution does is more significant than possession because, as you said to the probation officer, it’s people like you who join people like you.

“The purpose of the sentence I am imposing is to punish you and deter others and to give confidence to the public that sex offenders will be properly punished,” said the judge.

Mr Spratt said Garron was given a community order in 2009 after his partner discovered DVDs containing indecent images of children.

During a three-week period between August and September 2011 Garron downloaded 20 indecent images to his iPhone. He told police following the check in 2013 that he had “fallen in to a conversation with like-minded individuals on an internet forum” and distributed some of the images. Four contacts were found on his phone.

Mr Michael Grey, defending, said the images had been downloaded when Garron was at a low ebb, two years after the SOPO was made. “He was feeling low at the time, he had been ostracised at work and subjected to name calling. He had been a happy-go-lucky person beforehand, he now describes himself as a recluse.”

He had ceased contact with those he met online, deleted the images from his phone and put an end to this behaviour himself.

November 1998

Seven life terms for child sex attacker

A paedophile who preyed on his victims for nearly 20 years has been given seven life sentences at the Old Bailey.

Michael Griss, 48, bribed them with substantial gifts including mountain bikes, computers, trainers and cash.

Griss, a painter and decorator from Dagenham, Essex, admitted a series of serious sex offences involving five boys between 1979 until 1997.

All were under 16 and two were as young as 12 at the time.

Judge Gerald Gordon told him: “Not only did you indulge in prolonged, progressive and corrupting behaviour with all of them, you used substantial bribery and coercion to obtain your needs.”

Griss was arrested after the mother of one of his victims discovered what had happened to her son.

He had then tried to minimise his role by blaming his victims.

Griss, who has convictions for indecency dating back to 1968, had “made a career” of assaults on boys. .

“You have shown no remorse and do not agree with what you did was wrong. You have, by your attitudes and actions, declared war on society’s standards of decency for its young people.

“It is right you should be kept away from the public until that is no longer so,” said the judge

Walter Ballantyne was a stallholder at Dalston Market during his time with the notorious paedophile ring, “the dirty dozen”. He was also one of the ringleaders of the network – In 1987 he was convicted and jailed for 6 years 3 months for his part in the gang.

August 2000

The evil pied piper paedophile

YOUNG boys gather round in delight as the chatty, cuddly older man entertains them with his harmonica… It looks like an innocent family scene at a riverside leisure park.

But we can reveal that the harmonica player is a convicted paedophile who was once a member of Britain’s worst child-sex gang dubbed The Dirty Dozen.

Pot-bellied pervert Walter Ballantyne, 60, booked into the leisure park under a false name.

And like an evil pied piper, he used his harmonica and magic tricks to entrap youngsters for sex abuse.

Mums and children at the picnic benches were blissfully unaware the harmless-looking “entertainer” has a long history of molesting young boys and is a deadly accomplice of Britain’s most hated men, child-sex killers Sidney Cooke, Lennie Smith and Robert Oliver.

Ballantyne’s perverted gaze lingered for hours over the half-naked boys at Roydon Mill leisure park and camp site in Hertfordshire.

But the slimeball was unaware that HE was being watched – by Sunday People investigators.

He openly admitted to us at the campsite that he was there to hunt child victims, and told us how he’d changed his name to evade police.

He also sickenly boasted of getting away with abusing a string of young children over the last 10 years.

But while the rest of Britain agonised over what to do about the paedophile threat, this newspaper took firm action to halt Ballantyne’s disgusting behaviour.

April 1989

13 years for sex crimes against children

A 65-YEAR-OLD sex offender whose catalogue of abuse against boys dates back 47 years was jailed for 13 years at the Old Bailey yesterday.

Two other men were also jailed, one for nine years and one for seven years.

Kenneth Martin from Kilburn, who was convicted by a jury of 11 offences and pleaded guilty to a further four, was told by Judge Henry Pownall that he was a menace.

“You have done enormous harm, almost unimaginable harm,  to these boys because they did not for a period even know what they were sexually because of you.”

Martin, who now walks with the aid of a stick, has committed offences against hundreds of boys and still has a “voracious” sexual appetite, said detectives who arrested him. “He needs a boy a day,” one of them said.

Martin’s first conviction for a sex offence against a boy was for buggery of a 12-year-old in 1942. Since then he has received a string of prison sentences, including a term in Dartmoor, for offences against boys.

Martin was variously convicted of or pleaded guilty to offences including buggery, aiding and abetting buggery, and indecent assault.

Charles Wellings, 54, of Hugh Gaitskell House, Stamford Hill, London, was given a total of nine years after being convicted of five offences including buggery, aiding and abetting buggery, and indecent assault.

Brian Howard-Edmonds, 60, of Fortunegate, Harlesden, north London, who pleaded guilty at the start of the six-week trial to six offences including buggery, attempted buggery and indecent assault, was given a total of seven years.

A police surveillance operation, code-named Operation Hedgerow and launched with the co-operation of Brent social services, led to the current trial and also the unearthing by police of what was described as Britain’s biggest boys-for-sex ring.

In February, at the end of a separate trial, four men, one of them a barrister, were jailed for a total of 34 years for involvement in that ring. The jury in the current trial heard that Operation Hedgerow began with a complaint from a 10-year-old boy.

January 2001

FORMER SALVATION ARMY BAND MEMBER JAILED FOR SEX ASSAULTS

A FORMER Salvation Army band member broke down in tears as he relived the years he spent sexually abusing vulnerable young boys.

Ernest Hinsley Platt, 66, was jailed for 14 months after he admitted systematically abusing a child he befriended between 1971 and 1974.

At the Court of General Gaol Delivery on Wednesday he also admitted abusing another boy over a five-year period between 1976-81. The dates cover the entire period he lived in the Island.

The matters only came to light last year and Platt was arrested in Cornwall by Manx police.

The boys were both aged over 11.

In relation to the first victim, Deemster Kerruish said: The boy was vulnerable and had a disturbed background.

You seized upon his vulnerability and corrupted him. He didn t like what was happening to him.

Platt admitted two counts of indecent assault and two of procuring an act of gross indecency on the boy. He asked for two further indecent assaults on the second boy, committed between 1976-81, to be taken into consideration.

Advocate Dawn Jones said Platt had been abused as a child during his time in a children s home, an act he then inflicted on others.

Advocate Michelle Norman, prosecuting, said both Platt and the first victim were members of the Salvation Army band.

The abuse began when Platt taught the boy to play a musical instrument. Platt would pull his and the boy s trousers down and indecently assault him. Platt admitted this happened on about six occasions.

The court heard how the boy finally snapped and shot an air rifle through a window at Platt s home.

When questioned by police Platt said that at the time he thought the acts were mutual but he now felt awful about them and knew the boy hated it most of the time.

Miss Norman said Platt met his second victim through the Salvation Army band.

Platt invited the boy to watch pornographic films at his home and it was during these visits that Platt indecently assaulted him.

Advocate Dawn Jones said Platt s immediate admissions of guilt were important.

She said: It would have been extremely difficult for the police to have proved this matter.

The offences were committed 25 years ago and the chances of finding corroborative evidence may have been impossible.

She said the court should also take into account Platt s change of lifestyle.

Since his last conviction in 1985 for theft she said he has lived a hard-working and industrious life in Cornwall.

His life in Cornwall is gone, Mrs Jones said.

He has lost his house and his belongings but he didn t shy away from anything.

She also said sentencing should take into account the fact that Platt was not at the centre of the original police inquiry.

She said his name was only mentioned in passing which led to further investigations.

Platt sobbed in the dock as the evidence emerged.

Deemster Kerruish said he was substantially reducing the sentence, which could have been 10 years, because of the mitigating circumstances outlined.

Platt was given 14 months in jail for each indecent assault offence and 10 months for each offence of procuring an act of gross indecency. All the sentences are to run concurrently.

August 2014

Middlesbrough chef jailed for second time for filming up schoolgirls’ skirts in Teesside stores

A chef has been jailed for the second time for filming up girls’ skirts and been banned from owning a camera.

Kevin Preece, 49, from Middlesbrough, roamed stores across Teesside and he had over 300 ‘upskirt’ images when he was caught.

A dad out shopping with his family was outraged at Preece’s behaviour near a girl of 14 or 15 and he alerted police in the street nearby.

An officer from Cleveland Police’s Public Protection Unit listed 17 separate victims on his camera which resembled a mobile phone.

Preece had been jailed for 21 months in 2007 for similar offences in stores in Stockton.

Prosecutor Harry Hadfield said Preece admitted when he was arrested on October 28 in TJ Hughes store in Captain Cook Square, Middlesbrough: “Yes I’ve been doing that, I get a kick out of it.”

He produced a device which turned out to be a camera with images of young girls.

The store’s CCTV footage showed him following a girl around with the device in his hand.

He followed her to a make-up stand and then to the counter where he bent down and appeared to be taking photographs up her skirt.

Mr Hadfield told Teesside Crown Court: “He had deliberately manoeuvred himself into a position to make the recordings.

“The girls were aged between 12 and 14 and the recordings all appeared to have been made in shops in the Middlesbrough area. He had also taken some down the tops of girls.

“None of them appeared to be aware that they had been photographed in this state.”

The woman detective in the case said that one of the pictures stood out because the victim was about five years old.

She was near to some toys in a shop and Preece had moved very close to her to operate the upskirt shots.

When he was interviewed Preece said that he had taken the device with him with the intention of filming up the skirts of females.

He said that he left a scheme for the unemployed and he went directly to the shops.

Preece said he went to stores such as Primark to target young girls, and he would look at the images at home to obtain sexual satisfaction.

John Nixon, defending, said that Preece insisted that his interest was in the underwear and that he was not sexually attracted to children. He said that Preece bought the camera after he lost his job, and that none of the images involved nudity.

Judge Peter Armstrong told Preece: “You say you are not interested in children themselves, but the nature of your offending is serious and warrants a custodial sentence.”

Preece, of Parliament Road, Middlesbrough, was jailed for two years, ordered to register as a sex offender for seven years, and given a five-year Sexual Offence’s Prevention Order banning him from owning a camera, contact with girls under 16, or using any device capable of accessing the Internet.

He pleaded guilty to seven specimen charges of taking indecent images of children

February 2007

Phone camera pervert jailed

A camera pervert who filmed up schoolgirls’ skirts was jailed for two years yesterday.

The mother of an 11-year-old girl reported Kevin Preece, 41, after she saw him pointing a mobile camera phone at her daughter and friends when they were out shopping in Stockton.

Preece was staring intently at the girl and it appeared he was taking pictures of them, said prosecutor Harry Hadfield.

Preece’s description was flashed to the town’s CCTV headquarters and the cameras tracked him as he followed two girls of 10 or 11 in and out of shops for 25 minutes.

He leant forward towards one girl with his left arm close to her skirt holding what looked like a mobile phone, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Mr Hadfield said Preece stood near two girls in one store, bent down with a camera phone in his hand. He held the phone at an angle pointing under the girl’s dress.

Preece said he had travelled to Stockton from Hartlepool by car and he took his camera with him.

He walked along the High Street looking for girls of 13 to 15 who were wearing skirts so he could use his digital camera to photograph up their skirts.

Mr Hadfield went on: “He said this activity had taken place with a number of girls. He said he would try twice, and he would take it home to view it in private, and he would obtain sexual gratification from it.

“He said he did not let anyone else view them.”

Preece had a previous conviction years ago for indecent assault of a child under 16.

Sam Andrews, defending, said Preece openly admitted what he had done.

Judge Michael Taylor told Preece: “Your behaviour was very disturbing.

“You are in the streets and the shops taking stills and videos of young children for your own sexual gratification. You must be made aware that society will not permit this sort of behaviour.

“What you did in that period of time was persistent and it was very worrying indeed.”

Preece, of Ashvale Homes, Hartlepool, was jailed for two years and given a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for five years banning him from unsupervised contact with a child under 18, and from owning a camera or camera phone after he pleaded guilty to taking indecent photographs of a child on 23 September last year.

He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

November 2013

Former garda is jailed for defiling boy in graveyard

A former garda who had oral sex with a teenage boy in a graveyard has been jailed. 

Damien Jermyn (30), who was formerly based at Killarney garda station, pleaded guilty to two charges involving the defilement of a child.

Jermyn first came into contact with the boy via a gay website.

It is the fourth time that an officer has been jailed on foot of a Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) probe.

GSOC official, Nicholas Hardem, said it received a formal complaint that a garda was involved in a sexual relationship with an underage boy.

Jermyn, who is gay and was a serving officer for eight years, was immediately suspended. During the course of the investigation, Jermyn later resigned.

The former garda referred to himself on the website as ‘Kerry Dude’. The teenager referred to himself online as ‘Sexy Cork Boy’.

More than 700 texts were exchanged between the pair. On two of their meetings, Jermyn had oral sex with the teen.

The court was told that Jermyn was not aware on the first occasion he met the youngster that he was underage.

However, Mr Hardem said that on the second occasion they met up, the defendant knew that the teen was aged under 17.

The court was told that Jermyn provided the teen with alcopop drinks.

Jermyn admitted the offences against the boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Jermyn, of Main Street, Bantry, Co Cork, had pleaded guilty to both defilement charges on the first occasion they came before Cork Circuit Criminal Court last April.

Defence counsel Tom Creed said Jermyn deeply regretted what happened.

Judge Sean O Donnabhain acknowledged Jermyn’s plea, his remorse and his co-operation with investigating gardai as well as the loss of his career.

“But I cannot for a moment lose sight of the enormous breach of trust,” he said.

The judge jailed Jermyn for two years, with 12 months suspended, and also listed him on the Sex Offenders’ Register.

July 2014

Glossop man jailed for indecent images of children

A Glossop man has been jailed for 18 months for possessing more than 2,000 indecent images of girls as young as two.

Steven Rowland admitted ten charges of downloading and distributing indecent photos and films of children and one count of having extreme pornographic films of women having sex with dogs and horses.

When police searched the 48-year-old’s home, on St Mary’s Road, they found 2,954 illegal images and films in total, including 837 which were graded with the most serious classification for such material.

Derby Crown Court heard last Thursday, that when two officers arrived to search his address on November 13, Rowland told them to “give him ten minutes” as he needed to “get rid of some stuff”.

Six hundred and fifty five films and 2,231 indecent images were found on his hard drive and 64 images and four films were found on his laptop of girls aged two to 16, dating from July 2011.

Prosecutor Sarah Slater said the defendant had shared images online through instant message service Yahoo Messenger, after sourcing them in chatrooms and pornographic websites.

She said: “He started with female adults and moved onto children. Some had been saved the day before police arrived.”

Richard Dewsbury, defending, said after “initially panicking”, his client had led police to the right drives on his computer and made full and frank admissions.

He said: “After a split from a long-term partner, and despite an outwardly successful career, he found himself drinking, in significant debt and spiralling into depression. He was ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’, spending all his social time alone at home on the internet.

“He started to save, collect and swap images with others. He became caught up in what he himself called ‘almost a game’ where instead of online gambling,which he could no longer afford, he now was dealing in illegal material.”

Mr Dewsbury added that being caught was a relief for Rowland, who now felt remorse and shame, as it saved him from “a decline into depravity”.

He told the judge that Rowland had distributed images on an “ad hoc and small scale” and that no money had exchanged hands and that he had not been involved in the production or solicitation of images.

Recorder Michael Elsom took into consideration Rowland’s previous good character and remorse, but said he was unable to suspend a prison sentence for his offences.

He was also ordered to pay a £100 statutory surcharge and made subject to a ten-year sexual offences prevention order.

October 2007

Sex Beast Who Vowed To Attack Is Set Free

A VICIOUS paedophile who has vowed to attack another child is back on the streets after prosecutors lost a desperate battle to keep him in jail.

Colin Macdonald, caged for assaulting an 11-year-old girl with intent to rape, told two psychologists he would strike again when he got out and earn himself a life sentence.

Macdonald threatened to use a knife on a child and even referred to paedophile murder victims Holly Wells, Jessica Chapman and Sarah Payne.

The beast made his chilling threats as prison bosses prepared to release him after two-thirds of his six-year sentence.

And in a highly unusual legal move, the Crown tried to use his own words to keep him locked up.

Macdonald was arrested as he was about to leave Peterhead prison and charged with breach of the peace over his warnings to the psychologists.

He was accused of conducting himself in a disorderly manner and placing the psychologists, both women, in a state of fear and alarmfor themselves and others.

Despite protests from Macdonald’s lawyers, judge Lord Bracadale ruled that he should face trial at the High Court.

But the defence appealed last week and two out of three judges found in their favour.

And the charges were formally thrown out at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, leaving Macdonald free to leave prison.

Macdonald will be under supervision for the next six years. But a police insider warned last night: “We can’t keep an eye on him 24 hours a day.”

The source added: “It seems remarkable that he is free to walk the streets despite the disturbing accounts of two psychologists.

“This decision sends out all the wrong signals and it is shocking that he has escaped punishment.”

Macdonald was jailed in 2002 for his sick attack on the 11-year-old.

He grabbed the child on a grassy area in Denny, Stirlingshire, put his hand over her mouth and pushed her to the ground.

Macdonald, then of Manor Street, Falkirk, threatened to kill his terrified victim if she screamed and punched her repeatedly on the head.

The pervert had previous convictions for sex offences and was on probation at the time of the attack.

Trial judge Lord Dawson told Macdonald: “You are a danger to the public, in particular to females, and the public requires protection against you.

“You must be sent to prison for a considerable period and on release you ought to be supervised. Unless someone is looking after you, you are likely to commit offences of this nature again.”

Macdonald was interviewed in jail by psychologists Angela Holmes and Christine Bonathan last year as the authorities prepared for his release.

The experts’ job was to assess the risk that he would strike again. In one interview, Macdonald said he was a dangerous predator who had not been rehabilitated.

He spoke of violent sex fantasies and said he intended to commit a sex crime that would see him jailed for life.

When Macdonald was interviewed again, he threatened to attack a child with a knife.

He also made references to eight-year-old Sarah Payne, kidnapped and murdered in 2000 by paedophile Roy Whiting, and Soham victims Holly and Jessica, both 10.

Prosecutors insisted Macdonald’s words amounted to breach of the peace.

Last week, as he appealed against Lord Bracadale’s decision to send the case for trial, Macdonald’s counsel Gordon Jackson QC said: “Two experts came to see him in Peterhead prison and he said certain things.”

But Mr Jackson said the Crown were trying to use the breach of the peace charges as a “device” to keep his client in custody.

He added: “You cannot charge anyone who tells a psychologist of a sexual fantasy with breach of the peace.”

Appeal judges Lord Johnston and Lord Clarke ruled that the charges were not competently brought. Their colleague Lord Marnoch backed Lord Bracadale, but the charges were thrown out by a 2-1 majority.

Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken MSP said he could see both sides of the legal argument.

But he added: “We now have a man who has exhibited worrying attitudes out of jail early. I have to wonder why some action was not taken in terms of mental health legislation.

“If this man were to offend again, the public would find it all rather hard to take.”

December 2002

Sex offender jailed for attacking girl, 11

A CONVICTED sex offender who attacked a terrified 11-year-old girl, intending to rape her, while he was on probation, was jailed for six years yesterday after a judge branded him a danger to the public.

Lord Dawson also imposed a six-year extended sentence on Colin Macdonald which means that for the next 12 years he will either be in custody or under close supervision in the community.

Macdonald, 28, of Manor Street, Falkirk, who was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in 1993 for a previous sex offence and was on probation for a shameless indecency charge at the time of his latest attack, admitted assaulting the girl on September 16 last year in Denny, Stirlingshire

August 2014

Devon man with 4,000 indecent images of children escapes jail

A MAN has escaped jail after being caught with nearly 4,000 indecent images of children on his computer.

Nicholas Russell appeared at Plymouth Crown Court after pleading guilty to seven counts of making indecent images of children, ranging from category A – the most explicit – to category C, between November 2010 and Jan 2014.

The court head Russell, 24, who gave his address as a bail hostel in Stonehouse,was already made subject of a Sex Offenders Prevention Order when a support worker attended his address and discovered images on Russell’s computer.

Crown prosecutor Alistair Verheijen said police were called and the computer was taken away for analysis. Interrogation of the computer found 28 stills of category A, 35 stills of category B and 3,849 stills at category C. The images were found across the computer, including in its live files as well as deleted and cached files.

Mr Verheijen told the court that during interview with police Russell was open about having “an interest in young male children”.

The court heard that in 2008 Russell was handed a community order after committing a sexual assault on a male under the age of 13.

In July 2011 he was jailed for 12 months for breaching a SOPO.

His advocate Ali Rafati said Russell was deemed to have Asperger syndrome – a form of autism – as well as mental health problems. He added that Russell was a “young man with a particularly low IQ”, noting that it was recorded at 63.

Mr Rafati said: “Less than 70 would cover the bottom two percent of the population.

“Between 60 and 70 the person is described as educationally the age of an eight or nine year old.”

As a result, Russell was not suitable to be placed on a number of programmes aimed to help sex offenders change their behaviour.

He noted that while in prison Russell had been bullied and assaulted. In addition, he was deaf in one ear and virtually deaf in the other.

Mr Rafati added: “He would be a very vulnerable prisoner. He is a man who desperately needs help.”

Judge Paul Darlow told Russell: “You are a very worrying individual. You are quite unable to recognise the harm done to children whose images appear on those you choose to collect.

“I don’t accept that you aren’t someone who goes looking. You do. The searches on your computer show me that.”

He noted how a probation report found Russell to be a “very high risk of serious harm to male children”.

However, he noted how the offences for which he was to be sentenced were for “non contact offences” and he could not “overlook the plain vulnerabilities you have in getting through your everyday life”.

He asked: “If I take a chance on you and don’t put you away will you do what you are ordered. Will you live where they tell you to live, attend anyone they tell you to.”

Russell, wearing a court-issued amplifier headphones, answered quietly “Yes, I do.”

Judge Darlow sentenced to 10 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with a two year supervision requirement.

He also passed an indefinite SOPO and ordered Russell to be put onto the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years. He also barred Russell from working with children and young people.

August 2014

Facebook groomer Samuel Bowers exposed his penis to schoolgirl in Cambridgeshire marina

A man who groomed two schoolgirls on Facebook and exposed himself to one of them at a Cambridgeshire marina has been spared jail.

Samuel Bowers, 22 sent one of the 15-year-old girls a sexually explicit picture of himself on the social networking site and then grabbed a girl he had lured to Isleham marina – before showing her his genitals.

Bowers, who admitted attempting to meet a child following grooming and sexual activity with a child under 16 in 2013, was given a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years with supervision.

Jonathan Seely, prosecuting at Cambridge Crown Court, said Bowers sent sexual messages to the first victim on Facebook and tried to get her to meet him. He also admitted sending her a picture of his private parts, but told police the “flirting” was “general banter”.

He then spoke to a girl from a troubled background with mental health issues and met up with her at the marina, where he made unwanted sexual advances including lifting up her top, the barrister said.

Mr Seely, who said Bowers knew the girls were underage, added: “She told officers that when they were at the marina he kissed her and she said she did not want to. He said she did want it and he pushed her against a wall and told her she wanted to have sex and he then exposed his penis to her.”

Simon Spence, mitigating, said his client had only recently been diagnosed with an autism-related condition.

He said: “He is clearly a vulnerable young man. He has come to court prepared for a prison sentence. He is full of trepidation about how he will cope with that.”

He added he is undergoing cognitive behavioural therapy “to make him understand the outside world better than he does”.

As well as the suspended sentence, Bowers, of Sparkes Close, Isleham, was made subject to a sexual offences prevention order, which runs indefinitely and includes a ban on unsupervised contact with children and restrictions on computer use.

Judge Gareth Hawkesworth, sentencing, said: “The most important feature of your behaviour, its seems to be clear from the various reports that I have read, is that you are substantially disadvantaged mentally-speaking as a result of a syndrome that you suffer from.

“That has the effect of making you awkward in company and it makes it very difficult for you as to how you approach the issues of contact.

“You are a young man who as a result of that is somewhat isolated with few friends and the friends that you do have are younger than yourself.”

He added: “These were two young girls, one of which was particularly vulnerable, who suffered significantly as a result of your attentions.”

August 2014

Church choirmaster jailed for six years for abusing boys

A CHOIRMASTER who used his respected church links as “a cloak” to groom and abuse boys is now starting a six-year prison sentence.

Robert Lambie, now 77, treated his two victims to days out and made them feel special before persuading them to be photographed in their underwear.

The former music teacher moved on to abusing them once their complete trust had been won, a judge at Teesside Crown Court said yesterday.

Lambie lived in Darlington and was highly thought-of within the church and the community – but led a secret double-life only his victims knew about.

One of those he abused was given permission to read an impact statement in court, and revealed why he finally went to the police in January last year.

He had promised to keep his ordeal private unless he became aware others had been targeted or that divorcee Lambie was again working with children.

The victim said he had “carefully and deliberately” put it in the past, but felt he had to act when he saw that the pensioner was advertising music lessons.

Another victim said in a statement, read out by prosecutor Paul Cleasby: “All the things lavished on me were a way of getting me to trust him . . .”

Lambie, now of Bowmont Walk, Chester-le-Street, County Durham, admitted four charges of sexual assault when he was due to stand trial.

His barrister, Annalise Haugstad, told Judge Peter Bowers that his guilty pleas had saved the victims from reliving their ordeals in the witness box.

Speaking to one of the men after the case, the judge said: “Thank you for having the courage to speak out about what happened to you.

“Without victims such as you coming forward – and they are often afraid to – predatory defendants are not brought to justice.”

Lambie was also banned from working with children, put on the sex offenders’ register for life and stopped from having unsupervised access to under-16s.

The judge told him: “It is necessary the public are assured that you are not teaching children in the future.

“You gained a high degree of respect and trust, but that was used by you as a cloak behind which you would gain the confidence of those boys.”

The court heard that Lambie was living in the Thirsk area of North Yorkshire at the time of his arrest.

After hearing the police were looking for him, Lambie is thought to have used file deleting software to get rid of pictures of young boys from his computer.

Miss Haugstad said: “The defendant has taken full responsibility, apologises to his victims and his own family for the distress he has caused.

“Within the context of Mr Lambie’s 77 years, the period of offending over which these incidents took place is a relatively short one.”

Judge Bowers was handed a bundle of “impressive” references from family, friends, people linked to the church and parents which “emphasised what was a long life of public service”

The judge told him: “Whether you realised it or not, by your conduct, you were carefully grooming them to ensure your advances were not rejected.”

August 2014

Teacher jailed for 5 years after groping 8-year-old girl in head’s office

A teacher who groped a pupil aged eight while giving her extra reading lessons has been jailed for ­five-and-a-half years.

Kevin Marriott, 53, from Fairview in Daventry arranged the tuition in the headteacher’s office while his boss was away and told the victim not to tell anyone.

He carried out at least 10 attacks over a year, until the girl confided in her mother.

Prosecutor Christopher Gabbitas said: “He abused her by having her sit on his knee and touching her.”

Northampton crown court Judge Timothy Smith told Marriott, of Daventry: “You exploited this girl’s reading difficulties for your own sexual gratification.”

Marriott was cleared of a sex assault but convicted of three others. He must sign the sex offenders’ register and will be banned from working with children.

Judge Timothy Smith said: “Your actions had a severe impact on the victim’s family: her own father cannot play with her in the same way for fear of reminding her in any way of her ordeal.

“This will cause, for the victim, a scar that she could bear for the rest of her life.”

August 2014

Pervert swamps girl, 13, with texts and calls before grooming her for under-age sex

A pervert who told ridiculous lies in an attempt to avoid conviction for grooming a young girl for sex is facing sentence.

Peter Spence claimed it was not him who contacted the 13-year-old victim and had sex with her.

A judge said prosecutor Catherine Donnelly’s suggestion that Spence’s story was absurd was correct

August 2014

‘Entrenched paedophile’ from Earley avoids jail

An “entrenched paedophile” from Earley has avoided jail after being caught with more then 6,000 indecent images of children.

David Croton, 65, was sentenced at Reading Crown Court on Thursday after admitting one count of possessing indecent images of children and seven counts of making indecent images of children.

Croton was arrested when police raided his home in Sutcliffe Avenue, in July 2013.

They seized two computers and two memory cards containing a total of 6,575 indecent images of children.

Jane Davies, prosecuting, said the images ranged from the lowest level of seriousness to the highest level and involved a number of different boys and girls, some she suspected as young as four.

On one of the memory cards were eight pictures of young girls at a nudist camp taken by Croton from inside his caravan.

Miss Davies told the court Croton said he took them 10 years ago.

Analysis of Croton’s computer also found he had searched on the internet for child abuse images and a video of him performing a sexual act while while watching indecent images.

Croton was sentenced to five months in prison in 2006 for 12 indecent image charges also relating to downloaded images and pictures he had taken of young children at a French nudist camp.

He was taken off the sex offender’s register four years ago.

Jonathan Coode, defending, told the court Croton had suffered abuse as a child and had shown a willingness to comply with treatment.

Mr Coode said Croton was not a well man, having broken his back in a car accident several years ago and more recently suffered a heart attack.

Speaking before sentencing Judge Peter Ross said Croton was an “entrenched paedophile”.

He continued: “It is clear that you have an obsession with indecent images of children. A better way of describing those images is images of child abuse because that is what they are.

“The fact that they may be viewed by you on a computer screen does not lessen the fact that somewhere in the world, in order to create this material to turn people like you on, a child will have been abused.

“It is a vile trade and if it wasn’t for people like you then it would not be happening.”

Croton was sentenced to 15 months in jail, concurrent on all counts, suspended for two years and ordered to complete a sex offenders’ treatment programme.

He was also given a two year supervision order, a sexual offences prevention order without a time limit, and made to sign the sexual offenders’ register.

August 2014

Lincolnshire man jailed for six years for child sex offence

A Sleaford man convicted of sex offences against a young girl has been jailed for six years at Lincoln Crown Court.

James Osler denied two charges of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and a further charge of sexual assault between June 1 and August 29 last year but the jury took less than 30 minutes to return guilty verdicts.

Andrew Vout, prosecuting, said that Osler carried out the offences last summer when he sexually abused the young girl and warned her not to tell anyone what had happened.

He said that the girl was four or five years old at the time of the offences.

Osler, 25, of Butler Way, Sleaford, wept in the dock as the jury foreman announced the verdicts and went on to shout abuse at Judge John Pini QC as he was being sentenced.

He later apologised to the judge after being brought back into court today for his sentence to be clarified.

Judge Pini told Butler: “This offending occurred when the girl was a very young child.

“She was four or five years of age. You have shown no remorse at all.”

Robert Underwood, in mitigation, told the court: “What you have here is a young man who is now 25 with an offending history but for nothing of a like nature.

“He has been to prison before. He knows how such people are treated in such an environment. He is going to find it a particularly hard burden.”

August 2014

High Court clerk downloaded indecent images of young girls on laptop

A former clerk of the High Court and Court of Session admitted downloading indecent images of young girls on a laptop at his home in Edinburgh.

Donald Bruton was handed a two-year supervised community payback order and placed on the sex offenders register at the High Court on Tuesday.

Bruton, of Milton Road East, pleaded guilty to downloading the images between July 24, 2011, and October 3 last year at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.

The 60-year-old resigned from his court position soon after his arrest. Police had received intelligence about Bruton’s actions and attended his home on October 3 last year.

They told him of the reason for their visit and he directed them to a laptop.

Fiscal depute, Aidan Higgins, said at the hearing in July: “He told the police he had been downloading these images of children for some time out of curiosity and had taken to searching for indecent images”.

The fiscal added that there were 16 still pictures – four at level one in the scale of pornography, one at level two, four at level three, four at level four and three at level five, the highest level.

There were also three moving pictures, one at level three and two at level four.

All the images were of girls aged between ten and 15 years of age.

Defence solicitor, Mark Harrower, told Sheriff Alistair Noble that Bruton had co-operated fully with the authorities since October last year and had voluntarily taken part in a government-sponsored programme for child abuse offenders.

He said: “He is highly embarrassed and deeply ashamed of the shame he has caused his family. He had been having a very stressful time at home and his judgment was affected by what was going on at the time”.

Bruton’s father, who was being looked after in the family home, would have to be placed in a care home if he was sent to prison as Bruton’s wife would be unable to cope, he added.

Mr Harrower said the social work report showed his client acknowledged his behaviour had been unacceptable and there was no possible risk of his re-offending.

The solicitor added: “He has lost a lot in his personal and professional life.”

Sheriff Noble acknowledged that Bruton, at the age of 60, was a first offender and there had been difficult domestic circumstances in his household over a number years.

There had been a very small number of images, he said, although some had been at higher levels of the scale.

He placed him on a supervised community payback order for two years with the requirement that he notify his supervising officer of any internet devices he had access to.

Such devices should be made available for inspection by his supervisor or officers of Police Scotland.

The sheriff also ordered Bruton to carry out 225 hours of unpaid work within a year and to register as a sex offender for two years.

August 2014

Paedophile poses as young girl to talk to older men and trade images

A SOUTHAMPTON man posed as a young teenage girl to talk to fellow paedophiles on Internet chat room sites, the city crown court heard.

Nathan Long was arrested after police had received a tip-off from computer giants Microsoft who provided details of an email account being used to download pornographic pictures of children.

They traced the information to a house in Southampton where Long immediately confessed he had been responsible. His computer and iPhone were then seized for analysis.

Long told investigators he had been using the site for up to two years after someone had sent him an image. He said he knew it was wrong but he continued.

He then went on to describe how he had posed as a 13-year-old girl to talk to older men, and had traded images.

Prosecutor Rachel Robert-son told the city crown court: “He had also discussed at various times the kidnap, rape and murder of children and encouraged others to act in that way.” He also claimed he had been abusing children but insisted it was all fantasy.

Long, 24, of Westwood Road, admitted 35 charges incorporating the possession and distribution of more than 850 still and moving images Recorder Nicholas Haggan QC jailed Long for two years. After his release he must attend a probation service run Internet sex offenders programme.

Long also received a sexual offenders prevention order to run indefinitely, was banned from working with children and placed on the sex offenders register.

In mitigation, Mark Florida-James described Long as a depressed and lonely man. “He is terrified of going to prison,” said Mr Florida-James. Long was of previous good character.

August 2014

‘I looked up and he was outside smiling at me': Teenager reveals horror at discovering paedophile who abused her at 13 moved in over the road after leaving jail

A teenager who was abused by a neighbour has told of the moment she discovered he had moved in over the road from her again.

Demi, 18, who has chosen to waive her right to anonymity, was abused by family friend John Breckon, 52, for several months when she was just 13 and babysitting his daughter after school.

Breckon, who was jailed for two-and-a-half years after admitting three counts of sexual activity with a child, was jailed after the teenager told Hull Crown Court how he groomed her, showering her with gifts, before lunging at her when she was barely into her teens.

He was sent to prison but upon his release, the paedophile moved into the house in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, left to him by his late mother – opposite the home of his traumatised victim.

Demi said: ‘He was freed from prison in 2012 and banned from coming near me for a year, but the day the ban ended, when I was home alone, I looked up and he was there.

‘I couldn’t believe what I was seeing: he was outside his house, looking straight at me and smiling.

‘I was devastated. That man had served his prison sentence but had then got his old life back and was free to sneer at me from over the road.

‘Yet my life was still ruined.’

The teenager says she and her mother, Angela, 39, asked local police and social services for help, yet were told there was nothing they could do.

As a result, Demi has had to move house to a new property miles from her childhood home.  But she said that despite moving away from her abuser, her life has been ruined by what he did to her.

She said: ‘I met John because my mum was friends with his mum, who lived over the road from us in Bridlington.

‘John was older and married to a nurse called Karen, and when I found out she was pregnant I was over the moon – I love babies, and I couldn’t wait to help them.

‘Five years ago they had a little girl, and I was soon babysitting for them after school, at weekends, and even before school sometimes.  They offered me money for it but I refused, because it felt wrong to take money for something I so enjoyed doing.’

Demi said that while Breckon and his wife had a house a couple of streets away, they were doing up his elderly mother’s house opposite her family home, so they split their time between the two.

She said: ‘I met John and Karen not long after my parents had separated, and while I still saw my dad, John was much older and felt like a father figure to me.

‘I would often look after his daughter while they worked on his mum’s house, and then I started staying the night at their house when Karen, who’s a nurse, was on an 8pm-8am shift.’

Because she refused money for the childcare she did, Demi was not surprised when Breckon began buying her gifts. 

Demi said: ‘At first he would buy me the occasional thing – GHD hair straighteners, maybe a piece of jewellery – and then it got more and more, to the point where he was taking out £300 from the bank.  I didn’t really think anything of it.’

But then one day he asked her if she wanted to come for a run, and as they rested on grass having run out of the town, he lent over to kiss her.

The teenager said: ‘I was just sitting on the grass when he lent over to try to kiss me, but he saw a passer-by with a dog so he looked the other direction and nothing happened.

‘On our way back, I asked him what he was going to do, and he said “I would have tried to kiss you”.

‘I was just 13 at the time and certainly wasn’t attracted to him – all I was interested in was children, not going out or boys. 

‘I couldn’t get my head around what had happened – it didn’t really sink in.’

The abuse began from there, with Breckon, a former bacon factory worker, preying on the girl while his wife was working nightshift.

Demi, who had had a troubled childhood before she met Breckon, didn’t dare report it until it occurred to her he might be a threat to her younger sister.

She told a teacher, who called police, and after around six months of abuse, he was arrested and charged with child sex crimes.

She said:’After he was freed from prison he was told to keep away from the streets near my house and my school.  But the very day the ban ended, I saw him over the road.’

Distraught, the teenager called her mother home from work, but said they were powerless in front of the paedophile who merely sneered at them.

She said Breckon now continues to live as he did before, dividing his time between his old house, two streets away, and the house his late mother left him over the road from Demi’s family in the East Yorkshire coastal town. 

He is believed to be still with his wife, who stood by him, and their daughter, who is now five.

But while the convicted paedophile has picked up his old life, his victim is still suffering.

She said: ‘I’ve had to move away and I have such severe anxiety and depression that I’m on medication for both and I can barely leave the house.

‘I want to go to college and train to become a social worker, but my problems mean that that is a dream at the moment.

‘I can’t be out of the house because the minute someone stands near me, I get panicky.  My life is ruined.’

Demi married her partner earlier this year. She is virtually housebound too because Demi panics if she leaves her alone in the house.

Demi said: ‘I think there should be a lifetime ban stopping paedophiles living near their victims.  He’s ruined my life and I’ve had to move away because of him, while he can just get back on with his.’

Breckon’s wife Karen, 49, said: ‘He is entitled to live where he wants.’

August 2014

Suffolk: Beauty pageant judge spared jail over grooming and sexual assaulting girl

A 25-year-old beauty pageant judge who groomed and sexually assaulted a young girl has been spared jail.

Ipswich Crown Court heard Charlotte Holl had exchanged 1200 messages with the girl whom she contacted through texts and a social media network.

Holl, of Elizabeth Avenue, Newmarket, was given an 18-month sentence suspended for two years when she appeared at her sentencing hearing.

She had previously admitted four sexual assaults on a girl and being an adult who met a girl following grooming.

Prosecutor Robert Sadd said Holl had no previous convictions.

Duncan O’Donnell, representing Holl, said his client had presented herself as vulnerable and immature. He added that she was ashamed of her actions.

Mr O’Donnell told the court: “Throughout these proceedings she has indicated she has been horrified by what she did. She acknowledged in (police) interview what she did.

“These are offences that are never going to happen again.

“She has pleaded guilty and indicated her full horror over what she has done and in my submission while the custody threshold has been passed in the circumstances of this offending behaviour it is a custodial sentence that falls within the bracket that could be suspended.”

Sentencing Holl Judge Overbury acknowledged she was a vulnerable individual according to a pre-sentence report.

However, he also said: “It’s plain to me, as it was to the probation service, you certainly did have the intention of going further than kissing.”

Judge Overbury described Holl as carrying out the assaults for her own sexual satisfaction.

The court heard messages between Holl and the girl included Holl suggesting she was thinking of living with the girl and possibly taking her to Florida.

It was said Holl had clearly used grooming behaviour towards the child including cigarettes and alcohol.

Conversely the judge also acknowledged that probation officers do not see Holl as a danger to children and categorised her as a medium risk.

As well as her suspended sentence Holl was ordered to carry out 300 hours’ unpaid work within 12 months. She was also given a two-year supervision requirement.

In addition Judge Overbury made Holl the subject of Sexual Offences Prevention Order until further order “in order to protect young members of our society from you committing further offences”.

The restrictions include no unsupervised contact with a child aged under 16 and prohibiting Holl from attending any pageant nationally where females under 16 are performing.

Holl was also made subject to the notification requirements of the Sexual Offence Act for five years.