November 2014

Salesman convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl and abusing five other young females

September 2014

Man Who Claimed Secret Lover Downloaded Indecent Images Faces Jail

A Kilbirnie man who was caught with hundreds of images of children being sexually abused is facing a prison sentence.

Ronald Sproul, 62, claimed the pictures were downloaded by a gay lover he started an affair with and met while walking his dog late at night.

He said the mystery man, called Ronnie, who as a acquisitions Assistant, with East Renfrewshire Council had a key to his home and used his computer in the early hours while his unsuspecting male partner slept upstairs.

But Sproul, a chargehand joiner, could not explain why he did not know the man’s full name, where he lived and why he didn’t tell the police after being arrested.

A jury found him guilty of two charges of downloading and possessing more than 300 indecent images between September 2009 and October 2012.

Sentence at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court was deferred until next month and Sproul was freed on bail.

Sproul, who with his male partner runs a dog breeding company called Khandro

November 2014

Pervert flashed 12-year-old in playpark

A FILTHY pervert has been placed on the sex offenders register after flashing a 12-year-old boy in a playpark.

Lukaz Pazera, from Ramsay Court in Troon carried out the sickening act just yards from Newton Primary School on September 22 this year.

Ayr Sheriff Court heard how the boozed-up 29-year-old exposed himself during an argument at the park on Russell Drive.

Pazera was also found to have been shouting and making gestures during the incident, although he refused to accept that the exposure was sexually motivated.

His solicitor Niall McFadyen said: “Mr Pazera has clearly given the author of the report the impression that he seeks to distance himself from the offence but that’s on the basis that he deems that charge two was sexually motivated.

“Exposing genitals is a sexual offence, it may not be sexually motivated.

“There was compelling evidence in the case that Mr Pazera was extremely drunk and he was shouting and gesticulating and the exposure was part of that.”

Sheriff Desmond Leslie added: “Mr Pazera I shall require another report before I can sentence you.

“I’ll try and get that report as quickly as it can be allowed but in the mean time you’ll continue to be remanded in custody.”

He will reappear later this month to find out the rest of his sentence

November 2014

‘Indecent child sex photos were art’ – says man who collected more than 18,000 of them

A MAN who collected more than 18,000 indecent and abusive pictures and films of children as young as four regarded them as “art”, a court has heard.

When police raided Arron Ball’s house in Swansea they found thousands of images and movies on a computer, a hard drive and a mobile phone, many of them showing sex acts involving young children.

Some of films were classed as Category A, the most extreme.

After being arrested, Ball told police he liked looking at the images and he regarded them as “pure”, “untouched” and “art”.

Ball, who turns 25 tomorrow, pleaded guilty to 13 counts of making and possessing indecent images when he appeared in the dock at Swansea Crown Court.

The court heard officers had executed a search warrant at the house Ball shares with his mother in Acacia Road, West Cross, on September 10 as part of an ongoing investigation into child abuse images.

They seized a computer, hard drive and phone which were then sent to the South Wales Police’s specialist unit in Bridgend to be examined.

What officers found on the devices was a haul of more than 18,700 images and films stored in almost 200 electronic folders which had been acquired between November 2012 and August 2014. Some of the films showed girls as young as four in sex acts with adults.

Many of the images appeared to have been downloaded from a Ukrainian website, the court heard.

Alex Scott, in mitigation, said his client had made full admissions to police and had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, adding that he was a “young man of hitherto clean character”.

He urged the court not to impose an immediate custodial sentence, but to put Ball on a programme of “intervention and treatment” to address his problems.

After reading a pre-sentence report on Ball compiled by the Probation Service, His Honour Judge Paul Thomas QC said Ball seemed to regard the images he had amassed as “in some way art” and felt that society was “over-reacting” to them — an attitude the judge said he found troubling.

He told him: “The little girls are forced — forced — to take part in these disgusting activities. Four-year-old girls do not take part because it gives them pleasure — they are forced. It is reprehensible.”

Judge Thomas said he needed more time to consider the appropriate sentence for Ball, and remanded him into custody until November 13.

November 2014

Fraud probe finds indecent images

Indecent images of children were uncovered at a house in Selkirk during an investigation into an attempted £15,500 fraud.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs investigators were searching William Brown’s home at Bleachfield Road when they came across naked images of children.

Police were informed and 61 indecent images, all at the lower end of the scale, were found.

Brown, 35, now living at Torwoodlee Road, Galashiels, admitted possession of indecent images of children at his then home on May 8 last year.

“HMRC were exercising a warrant and during that search a number of naked images of children were found,” explained procurator fiscal Graham Fraser at Selkirk Sheriff Court, pictured, on Monday. He added: “Police were informed and carried out a search, seizing an extensive number of SIM cards, memory cards etc. Teen pornographic magazines and a number of naked pictures were also found.”

Mr Fraser said the images were all at level one of the definitive scale, adding: “Some were hard copy and others were in digital form.”

November 2014

Perth man who admitted having ‘extreme’ animal porn and child abuse images banned from computer

An admin worker who was caught with a stash of depraved animal porn has been banned from owning any computer until the police install monitoring software on it.

Wayne Hopkins was sacked from his job with Scottish and Southern Energy after being arrested in connection with a horde of 1,000 child and animal indecent images.

Hopkins was allowed to walk free from court after a “conduct requirement” was imposed upon him restricting his access to and use of the internet.

He is only allowed to own one computer and one smartphone and has to reveal his password and email address to the police. He was also banned from encrypting any material.

Hopkins was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for three years and ordered to carry out 300 hours unpaid work in the community by Sheriff Fiona Tait.

He admitted having indecent images of children at his Sidey Place, Perth, home between June and November 2012.

He also admitted having extreme pornography depicting in “an explicit and realistic way” sexual activity between people and animals between November 2012 and February 2013.

Fiscal depute Stuart Richardson told the court: “Police received information that photographs of child abuse might be found at the address where he resided and they obtained a search warrant.

“A quantity of computer equipment was removed from the house and was then examined. The first hard drive was found to contain a total of 1,274 indecent photographs of children.”

He said 32 extreme bestiality images were found on that computer, along with a further 257 similar pictures, and another 64 child abuse images were contained on storage devices.

Solicitor David Holmes, defending, said: “He lost his employment as a result of these proceedings.”

November 2014

Suffolk paedophile jailed for 18 years over string of child historic sex assaults

Colin Adwent and Jane Hunt

A Suffolk man has been jailed for 18 years after being convicted of a catalogue of “abhorrent” historic child sex offences.

Following Glen Martin’s imprisonment detectives praised his two victims for having the courage to come forward.

Martin, of Aldwyck Way, Lowestoft, was found guilty of three rapes, three counts of buggery, two indecent assaults and two counts of gross indecency with a child.

The 53-year-old was acquitted of a further indecent assault and a third count of gross indecency with a child.

Although Martin had denied all 12 offences he was found guilty by a jury after a trial at Ipswich Crown Court which lasted just over a week.

After his conviction Detective Constable Lisa Hogan-Green from Suffolk Constabulary’s dedicated rape investigation unit said: “We are delighted on behalf of the victims that Glen Martin has been sentenced at court to an 18-year prison term.

“The crimes he committed against his young victims were abhorrent.

“His victims were incredibly brave to come forward a number of years later to report the offences to us and to relive the trauma of what they were subjected to and we will ensure that the victims receive ongoing support.

“Suffolk Constabulary is committed to investigating rapes and serious sexual offences whether current or historic.

“Hopefully the sentencing of Martin will go some way to reassure and give confidence to victims of such offences to come forward to us, safe in the knowledge that we will fully and thoroughly investigate these types of crimes to ensure those responsible are brought to justice.”

Martin was charged earlier this year and made his first appearance before North East Suffolk Magistrates Court in Lowestoft on March 4.

The case was then committed to Ipswich Crown Court.

Some of the former car valeter’s offences dated back almost 30 years. At the time he was living in north London and Cheshunt.

Other sex assaults took place several years later and occurred in Hemsby, Norfolk, and Lowestoft.

Martin was accused of seven assaults on one boy and five on another.

November 2014

Pervert admits making indecent images of children

A man has been given a community order after 180 indecent images and movies of children were found on his computer.

Stephanie Hancock, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court that in June 2011 a legitimate website was hacked into and indecent images were uploaded on to it.

It was only active for 57 hours but in that time 3,500 different users from the UK logged in to it. Gloucester police traced the individual IP addresses and in February this year local officers went to Russell Cutts address in Whitehill Drive, Halifax.

Two computers were seized on which 137 still images and 43 movies were discovered the vast majority in the lowest category of seriousness but involving girls ranging from about six to 13. Specific search terms had been used to find such images.

When interviewed in April this year Cutts said his search was motivated by curiosity rather than any sexual gratification.

Cutts, 50, admitted 11 charges of making indecent images and was given a three year community order with a high intensity activity requirement. He must register as a sex offender for five years.

Judge James Spencer QC said: “You have not been in trouble before but you decided, for whatever reason be it curiosity or something else, to make a determined effort to find this child pornography on the internet.”

He said it was clear from the pre-sentence report Cutts did not really understand his criminality which the probation service would now help him appreciate.

The judge added: “Those who watched such images gave the suppliers a financial motive for profit to abuse the children depicted. Those children are the ones who suffer as long as there are people like you prepared to look at them.”

November 2014

Pervert admits having indecent images of young children

Police discovered child abuse images and movies on a Linthwaite man’s mobile phone after information from another force.

Louise Pryke, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court today that it was intelligence received from Kent Police that Lewis Shaw was receiving such images that led officers to execute a search warrant on June 7 last year.

Items seized from his home included a mobile phone which was found to have eight movies and one image at Category A, the most series level involving young children.

He also had six movies and one image at Category B and 69 images and three movies at Category C.

Rukhshanda Hussain, representing Shaw, said he had been frank with the author of the pre-sentence report that he had progressed from adult pornography to see if the child pornography satisfied his needs better.

She said he had not sought to minimise his behaviour. He had deleted the items but they had apparently been stored somewhere in his phone. His family were supportive although the case had had a devastating effect on them.

She said: “He recognises his criminality and wants to move forward with his life. He is remorseful and wishes to express that today. His conviction on this matter will follow him throughout his life and act as a constant reminder of his deviance.”

Shaw, 21 of Whitehall Road, Linthwaite, admitted six charges of making indecent images and was given a three year community order with 60 days activity. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for five years.

Sentencing him the Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier QC said: “You came to the attention of the police because of information they received from elsewhere.”

As a result of examining his digital devices the images and movies were found. He said such behaviour was “wholly unacceptable” since it was those looking at such images that provided the market which led to the abuse of children involving them in acts “which will undoubtedly blight their lives.”

He said Shaw acknowledge he needed help addressing his behaviour patterns and the activities run by the Probation Service would, through group and individual work, “address your sexually deviant behaviour. That seems not only in your interest but the public interest to do so.”

November 2014

Bognor Regis man gets ban on living with children lifted

A Bognor Regis man who abused a nine-year-old girl more than 30 years ago has convinced top judges to lift a ban on him living with children.

Iain Andreas Merritt was 17 when he subjected the youngster to “disgraceful and disgusting” abuse, exposing his genitals and encouraging her to touch them.

Merritt, now 49, of Southwark Walk, was caged for 16 months at Chichester Crown Court in June, 2011, after he was convicted of indecency with a child.

He was also hit with a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO).

It banned him indefinitely from living in the same premises as anyone under the age of 18, without their parents’ informed consent.

But three top judges at London’s Appeal Court have upheld a challenge by Merritt against the SOPO, saying his “isolated” offence did not justify the restriction on his liberty.

Lord Justice Davis said the offence took place in the early 1980s. As he abused the girl, Merritt told her: “There is nothing to be scared of.”

November 2014

Redditch child rapist jailed for 22 years

A child rapist who took a young girl to brothels while he had sex with prostitutes has been jailed for more than 20 years.

Tony James would sexually assault the child “on a whim” when she was aged from just four to nine years old

He had previously physically and sexually assaulted two other children, West Midlands Police said.

James, 62, escaped punishment for 30 years until one of his victims turned him in in October 2012.

He was jailed for 22 years after admitting 19 counts of indecency with a child, child cruelty, indecent assault and rape.

A second girl was forced to play indecent games, repeatedly assaulted and ducked under water as a bed-wetting punishment.

The boy was indecently assaulted by James after drinking sessions.

Det Con Gemma Dixon, of West Midlands Police’s Public Protection Unit, said: “He is one of the most cold-hearted offenders we’ve encountered.

“He used the children for his sexual gratification and often abused them on a whim.

“He showed no remorse and did not display any emotion when statements were read out in court detailing how his victims were traumatised by what happened and continue to suffer to this day.

“The victims showed commendable courage to draw a line under the abuse they suffered as children and to see their attacker face justice.”

James, of Ibstock Close, Redditch, groomed the first girl in Balsall Heath in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The other children were abused at a flat in Turves Green.

The court heard he beat them, sometimes with a stick, and regularly forced his female victim to touch him inappropriately when he visited the bathroom.

But James told police the allegations were false and the children had colluded to invent their stories.

Det Con Dixon, added: “We will always take reports of sexual abuse seriously – and victims need not worry that offences occurred many years ago because, as cases like this show, we can still build compelling cases against offenders.

“I would urge anyone who has suffered abuse, no matter how long ago, to contact West Midlands Police so we can investigate.”

West Midlands Police’s Public Protection Unit can be contacted on 101.

The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) can be contacted on 0808 801 0331 and at www.napac.org.uk .

November 2014

Judge says he will not send a convicted sex offender who admitted child abuse images offences back to prison

Christopher Martin McGuinness, whose address was given as Ventry Lane, Belfast, pleaded guilty to a total of 37 indecent images charges.

They include making an indecent photo of a child, possessing extreme pornographic images and possessing prohibited images of children.

The offences were committed between May 27, 2011 and May 5, 2012.

Derry Crown Court heard the 48-year-old was arrested for sex offences and police searched his Greysteel home.

They seized a number of items during the search, including DVD’s and computers.

The items were examined and a laptop was found to contain 222 indecent images of children, ranging from the least serious category to the most serious.

November 2014

Grandfather jailed for sending sexual Facebook messages to schoolgirl

A grandfather who sent messages of a sexual nature to an under-age girl on Facebook has been jailed for three and half years at Lincoln Crown Court.

Construction manager Terrence Walker, 56, was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life after he admitted two charges of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Both offences occurred in the Grantham area over two years ago after Walker, who now lives in Peterborough, had been in contact with the girl on Facebook, the court was told.

Passing sentence, Judge Michael Heath told Walker the age difference between him and girl made their contact on Facebook “totally and utterly inappropriate.”

“There had been some Facebook correspondence with this girl for some time,” Judge Heath said.

“There had been some attempt to conceal evidence of what was inappropriate by getting her to delete messages.”

Giles Beddloe, mitigating, told the court Walker now recognized what he said to the girl was unquestionably wrong.

Mr Beddloe said Walker expected his remarks to be taken as a joke and had no intention of any sexual activity taking place.

The court heard Walker was well regarded after working for the same company for 13 years and had now moved to Peterborough.

Mr Beddloe added: “He is a father and grandfather.”

Walker, now of Nicholas Taylor Gardens, Bretton, Peterborough, admitted two charges of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Both offences occurred during 2012 when the girl, who can not be named for legal reasons, was aged under 15.

Judge Heath told Walker the matter was too serious for him to pass a suspended sentence.

“The only thing I can justify for this kind of behaviour is immediate custody,” Judge Heath said.

November 2014

Met police officer avoids jail ‘because of his background’ after being caught with ‘seriously disturbing’ child abuse images

A Met police detective was caught with nearly 2,500 indecent images and movies of children, including one in which an 18 month old child was being raped.

Former DC Simon Lawes, 57, told colleagues from Hertfordshire who raided his home in Berkhamsted that he had only viewed child pornography in the course of his work.

Prosecutor Peter Shaw told St Albans Crown Court today that officers launched an investigation after Lawes’ former partner Susan Smith asked her new boyfriend to check a bag Lawes had left at her home in Hemel Hempstead, which she thought contained DVDs.

The man was perturbed when he found indecent images of children and the police were called.

Officers carried out a dawn raid the former soldier’s home in October last year and when asked if he had viewed indecent images of children, he replied: “Yes during my work.”

But his computers, including one that had previously belonged to the City of London police, were examined. 348 movies were found – 228 were at Category A, the most serious level, 101 at Category B and 19 at Category C, the least serious level.

There were 2,134 indecent images of children. 912 at Category A, 605 at B and 617 at C. There were also 212 extreme images involving human sexual activity with horses, dog and pigs.

Most of the abuse images involved girls aged around 10, but in one an 18 month of baby was being raped.

Lawes pleaded guilty to 12 charges of making (downloading) indecent photographs of children, two of possessing indecent images and one of possessing extreme pornography. He had no previous convictions.

Robert Fitt, defending, said Lawes was of positive good character. He had served in the British Army for nine years until 1985, being posted in Northern Ireland where he had a “bad time.”

He said he was seeking advice for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and had been “self-medicating with alcohol” since 1978. “He is a functioning alcoholic,” said Mr Fitt. Lawes joined the Met in 1991 after a number of other jobs and left in December last year.

Judge Michael Baker QC told him: “Quite clearly these are seriously disturbing images and in the course of making them the lives of a number of children will have been significantly affected.”

The judge said he had thought hard about sending him immediately to prison but said he could suspend the sentence because of Lawes’ background.

He passed a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years, with 18 months’ supervision by probation officers. He must attend an alcohol treatment programme and abide by a nine-week curfew between 7pm ad 5am.

Lawes must abide by the terms of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order and sign the sex offender register for 10 years. His computers and storage devices were forfeited and he must pay £500 costs and £100 victim surcharge.

November 2014

Former police officer jailed for sex attacks on young girl (7)

Former police officer Alan Martin left a woman “traumatised” for 30 years after indecently assaulting her for two years during her childhood.

The victim was just seven when the abuse began and Martin, 71, was jailed for six years after being found guilty of eight counts of indecent assault.

Sentencing him at Nottingham Crown Court, Judge James Sampson said he would serve at least three years in prison.

Family and friends of Martin gasped in the public gallery as he was sent down.

Judge Sampson said: “The maximum sentence for the behaviour of which you were convicted was then five years. It’s now significantly higher, had your offences been committed in recent times.

“The impact of custody will be significant.”

The court heard the victim was neglected by her family – and that she was blamed after being discovered in bed with Martin.

“This left her sore and scared and even more isolated,” the judge said.

“While you went on to marry, she has suffered 30 years of being traumatised by her experiences.”

Martin worked as a police constable at Bulwell, Hucknall and Radford Road police stations, although none of the charges relate to Martin’s work as an officer.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had previously told the court Martin repeatedly told her to “shush” the first time he sexually touched her in the 1970s.

She said: “Not at any time did I cry out or tell anyone.

“I was just too scared of him. He just frightened me and scared me.”

Adrian Reynolds, mitigating, said Martin suffered from a range of health problems and has to take a “chest” of medication.

He added: “The man who you have to sentence today is vastly different from the man who committed these offences.”

Martin was given two years for one count of indecent assault and a further four years for the remaining seven charges.

DC Neil Beddoe, who investigated the case, said: “(The victim) has shown significant strength to give evidence and talk openly about what happened to them.

“She was determined to see Martin brought to book for what he did. The abuse has affected her whole life and been in the forefront of her mind.”

November 2014

Scarborough man has today been imprisoned for seven years for historic sexual and cruelty offences against two children

Mark Andrew Scotter, 38, was sentenced at York Crown Court after being found guilty following a trial.

The offences against the boy and girl, which included rape, attempted rape, gross indecency, indecent assault, and assault, ill treatment and neglect, occurred between 2000 and 2003 in the Scarborough area.

North Yorkshire Police launched an extensive investigation into Scotter’s offending in June 2012 when he was arrested.

The victims have received specials support and care throughout the inquiry.

Detective Sergeant Mike Moorhouse, of North Yorkshire Police’s Protecting Vulnerable Persons Unit, said: “Mark Scotter is a vile, sadistic individual who deliberately abused the victims who were only young children at the time of the offences.

“Thankfully he is now in prison for a very long time and it’s a place where he deserves to be for the physical and emotional trauma he has caused.”

DS Moorhouse added: “I have nothing but praise for the victims in this case who have shown true courage in coming forward to seek justice. Whilst the outcome at court can never make up for the ordeal they have been through, I just hope they can now begin to rebuild their lives.”

Any victim of sexual abuse is urged to contact North Yorkshire Police on 101.

Always dial 999 if you are in immediate danger or your safety is threatened.

Victims can also seek independent advice, support and services from Bridge House, North Yorkshire’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC). Please call 01904 669339. or visit http://www.turntobridgehouse.org

November 2014

Child abuser Ronald Peel jailed for 17 years

A PENSIONER has been jailed for 17 years for a series of sex assaults on young children.

Ronald Peel, 78, spent more than 40 years abusing youngsters before he was confronted and admitted what he had been doing, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.

Judge Christopher Ball QC said: “Your only mitigation is the fact your guilty pleas have saved your victims the ordeal of giving evidence.”

Peel, formerly of Willow Avenue, Kirby Cross, but now of no fixed address, admitted 20 charges of indecent assault and sexual activity with children, and one charge of attempted rape.

November 2014

Police officer sexually assaulted 3 women and attacked two-year-old boy

A police officer raped a woman and attacked a two-year-old boy as part of a string of assaults, a court has heard.

Kevin Storey was found guilty of eight charges against three women and a child at the High Court in Edinburgh.

He was convicted of rape, attempted rape, indecent assault and assault committed at various locations in the Borders.

The 48-year-old, from Melrose, will be sentenced in December and was warned he faces a substantial prison term.

During the trial, one woman said she felt he was “untouchable” because he was a Lothian and Borders Police sergeant.

The woman said she had felt “used” by Storey and found some of his sexual practices “painful and disgusting”.

Storey was found guilty of assaulting his first victim in 1989 at a house in Galashiels. She was grabbed by the body and pushed out of the house and seized by the neck.

A second woman, now aged 46, was also assaulted at addresses in the Borders town during the 1990s and Storey also tried to rape her.

The woman said he was also physically abusive and would grab her by the neck and push her on the body. He would say things like “you f***ing slapper”.

She told the court: “I wasn’t feeling very good about myself. I really stopped enjoying my life.”

A third woman, now aged 41, was also subjected to abuse and violence which began in the 1990s. She was also raped and indecent assaulted.

During one assault she had ended up against the cooker in a house while Storey rained blows down on her.

Storey, who was placed on the sex offenders’ register, was also found guilty of assaulting a two-year-old boy by shouting and grabbing him by his clothing.

Following his conviction, chief superintendent Gill Imery said: “It is a matter of deep regret to me when a police officer – whose work is to keep people safe – has been shown to have failed the very high standards of professional behaviour we expect as an organisation.

“Domestic abuse does not respect social boundaries, occupations or rural or urban communities. A key part to how we deal with this crime is to use all available methods at our disposal to track down abusers and bring them to the courts.”

November 2014

Pensioner peado facing lengthy jail spell for over 2,000 attacks on three kids

Self-styled hardman Jim Mitchell is today unmasked as the ‘bastard in the attic’ – a career paedophile and child sex abuser.

Pensioner Mitchell faces the rest of his life behind bars after being found guilty of a stomach churning catalogue of sickening child sex abuse going back half a century.

We are now able to name and shame the 74-year-old sex monster thanks to the bravery of his victims, who want the community to know the secret life of their abuser. 

A jury at Belfast Crown Court found him guilty on 31 charges of child sex abuse, including multiple rape, buggery, common assault and cruelty, brutally inflicted on two sisters and their brother. It is estimated that he carried out 2,000 separate attacks on his helpless victims. 

Mitchell’s sordid past began to unravel when he was confronted by one of his victims as he drank a pint in a city centre pub.

The incident led to Mitchell being arrested by cops on suspicion of a succession of child rape charges dating back nearly 50 years. Mitchell refused to admit his crimes, forcing his now middle-aged victims to endure the harrowing ordeal of four separate criminal trials. 

During evidence, the court heard how Mitchell also forced the girls to drink his urine and eat human faeces.

Mitchell was the eldest boy in a respectable family from the Short Strand in east Belfast. When the family moved to a house on Madrid Street, he was given the front attic bedroom – which was to become the scene of much of the abuse. Mitchell’s life changed when, 50 years ago this month, three young children – two girls and a boy – arrived at the family home having been abandoned by their parents in New York. 

The eldest, a girl, who we will refer to only as ‘Miss A’, was six years old. The youngest, another girl – who we will call ‘Miss B’ – was just 11 months and their brother was five years old. Jim Mitchell’s mother May eventually agreed to raise the children along with her own family.

Mitchell told the court he remembered well the moment the children arrived. 

“They were like refugees,” he said. 

He also told the court he had no feelings for them throughout the years they shared the same home. But it was only six months after the homeless kids arrived that Mitchell carried out his first sex attack on Miss A, as she prepared to make her First Holy Communion. 

He called the child up to his attic bedroom, where he sexually assaulted her. When he was finished, he ordered the traumatised girl to dress herself and go back downstairs. This marked the first of an estimated 1,000 brutal sex attacks on the child, until she eventually escaped the sex fiend’s clutches by running away when she was 17. 

Violence, and the threat of it, was a regular feature in Mitchell’s depraved behaviour.

Miss B told us she is still haunted by the sight of Mitchell seconds after he had raped her older brother.

“I can still see his wee face being pressed into the wall by Jim Mitchell’s heavy right hand. I tried to get in to the bedroom to save him. Mitchell was shoving his face into the wall. The tears were streaming down my brother’s face and he was clearly in a lot of pain.

“I looked down and saw he didn’t have any trousers on. There was blood running down his leg and I was squealing for Mitchell to let him go. He wouldn’t. He flew into a rage and he threw me over the banister.

“There are times when I can’t get the image of my brother’s face out of my head. I suppose it will continue to haunt me until the day I die.”

Like her elder sister, Miss B was first attacked around the time of her First Communion. Mitchell regularly forced the child to engage in oral sex and and buggery and if she resisted he beat her about the head.

Sometimes, while having sex with one child, Mitchell forced the other two to watch. All three were regularly on the receiving end of a beating.

Miss B, who it was also estimated had been attacked around 1,000 times, eventually escaped Mitchell’s clutches when the sisters and their brother moved out.

“I was determined that one day Jim Mitchell would pay for what he did to us in that house,” she said.

She tried to reveal Mitchell’s abuse, but was persuaded to keep quiet in return for his promise to stay away from kids. However, 10 years later she decided to get even with her attacker. Fuelled by alcohol and armed with a knife and a pair of scissors, she appeared outside Jim Mitchell’s home in the early hours screaming for him to come down from his bedroom and open the door. 

When he did so, Miss B stabbed him in stomach and the shoulder blade. Mitchell never called the police or made any complaint. In August 2011, Miss B spotted Mitchell enjoying a pint as she walked past a Belfast pub.

She confronted her tormentor and without uttering a word, she punched him in the face. The blow was so hard it drew blood on his large and bloated face. A police officer asked Mitchell if he wished to file a complaint and he refused to even give his name.

Miss B then told the officer he was a paedophile by the name of Jim Mitchell and that he had raped her when she was a child.

He was immediately arrested and taken to nearby Musgrave Street Police Station. On June 4 this year, Jim Mitchell first appeared in the dock at Belfast Crown Court to face 35 charges.

On Tuesday, a jury returned guilty verdicts on 31 charges and a stoney-faced Mitchell was told he faced a lengthy jail sentence. As he was led away to the cells in handcuffs, Miss B and her family walked to the very pub where she had confronted the sex fiend.

As she sipped a glass of champagne, Miss B  said: “It was a long road, but we got there.”

She revealed she will not be in court to see him sentenced.

“I’ll be in New York to see my brother. He wasn’t able to face the trial, but I told him we would do it for him and we did. It was worth it in the end.”

July 2014

Scarborough Man Jailed For Child Sex Offences

A Scarborough man’s been sent to prison for child sex offences

27 year-old Geoffrey Alan Metcalf, from North Marine Road, Scarborough, admitted 8 counts of indecency with a child.

He’s been sentenced to 18 months in prison at Hull Crown Court.