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Howard Swift – Nantwich

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November 2014

Nantwich man has been found guilty of nine sexual offences against young boys

Howard Swift, of Shrewbridge Crescent, will be sentenced later this month after a jury found him guilty of two counts of indecent assault against a male, five counts of sexual activity with a minor and two counts of sexual assault.

The case was sent for re-trial at Chester Crown Court after the original jury failed to reach a decision.

Swift had denied the charges.

The court heard how the 65-year-old had groomed three young boys over a 14 year period ‘creating a sexual atmosphere’ and ‘groping’ them on a number of occasions. He told the victims dirty jokes, spoke about sex and touched them inappropriately.

He also offered them condoms, asked if they liked boys and bragged about sexual encounters with men and women in the back of his van.

The eldest victim spoke of Swift performing a sex act in front of him when he was just a teenager.

He said: “I didn’t like it at all. It just wasn’t right. It was like he was trying to act like a teenager himself.”

The jury was also told how Swift drove another younger victim to a layby in Welshman’s Lane and exposed himself to him.

The youngest victim told of how he was touched inappropriately from the age of about 11 right up to his adult years.

The victim said: “At first he would just put his hand on my knee, then he would basically grope me. That happened often.”

Swift returns to Chester Crown Court  for sentencing on November 28.


Andrew Cook – Lincoln

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November 2014

Married 47yr old Lincoln man had sex with under-age girl

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A married Lincoln man who had sex with an under-age girl has been jailed for four-and-a- half-years.

Andrew Martin Cook, 48, admitted two charges of having sexual activity with the child after taking her to an unoccupied house in the south of the city. Lincoln Crown Court heard Cook, a father-of-two, took the girl to a former property that was being renovated after picking her up from near a Lincoln park.

Robert Underwood, prosecuting, said the house where Cook took the girl was not the same property where he lived with his wife and family.

Mr Underwood told the court: “Significantly there was a mattress in the property.”

Cook admitted also taking indecent photographs of her on his mobile phone.

Mr Underwood said there had been some phone contact between Cook and the girl before the offence.

The court heard Cook was arrested after the girl, who can not be named for legal reasons, confided in a friend. She later made a video interview with specially trained police officers.

In a victim impact statement the girl said she did not want the activity to happen. The girl’s mother said she believed her daughter’s innocence had been taken from her.

During police interview Cook made no comment.

Cook, of Newark Road, Lincoln, pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual activity with a child and one charge of taking indecent images of a child. All the offences occurred on 2 February, last year.

Michael Cranmer-Brown, mitigating, said Cook disputed that there had been any grooming of the girl.

“He says this was not pre-planned, there was no targeting or grooming of this girl,” Mr Cranmer-Brown added. “It happened spontaneously.”

Passing sentence Judge John Pini QC told Cook: “You were 47-years-of age.”

Cook was also made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order which prevents any unsupervised contact with a girl under 16.

Michael Hollis – Peterborough

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November 2014

Man jailed for abusing young girl in the 1980s

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A man who sexually abused a young girl in the 1980s has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

Michael Hollis, 53, from Cathwaite, Peterborough, attacked the girl on a number of occasions at various addresses and places across the city.

He was arrested in January after the victim, now in her 30s, came forward to report the abuse.

Hollis was charged with seven counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency with a child.

He denied all of the offences but was convicted following a trial at Peterborough Crown Court.

He has been jailed for a total of six-and-a-half years.

Robert Ratcliffe – West Drayton

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November 2014

Pervert jailed for 22 years for a number of sexual offences against two girls and a boy

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Robert Ratcliffe, of Rowan Road, West Drayton, was found guilty at Reading Crown Court on Wednesday, September 17 of 12 sexual offences against the three children.

The 49-year-old was convicted of seven counts of indecent assault, two counts of indecency with a child, two counts of rape and one of attempted rape which took place across Reading and Basingstoke.

The Hillingdon man abused a girl when she was between the ages of eight and 11, a boy between the ages of four and six and a girl aged between six and eight years-old from 1980 to 1999.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Melanie Brown, from the Child Abuse Investigation Unit, said: “Ratcliffe’s offending spanned nearly 20 years and was of the most serious degree.

“He deliberately took advantage of children as young as four in order to satisfy his own sexual gratification.

“I want to take this opportunity to thank the three victims in this case for having the bravery to come to court and give evidence against him.

“It is because of their courage that he is now facing a long time behind bars.

“We will always take every allegation of sexual abuse extremely seriously, so if you’ve been a victim or know someone who has, please contact us and help us bring the offender to justice.”

In addition to the sentence Ratcliffe was given a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

Philip Blanch – Lowestoft

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November 2014

Paedophile guilty of 1970s child sex charges in Surrey

A 78-year-old man from Suffolk has been convicted of sex offences carried out in the 1970s in Surrey.

Philip Blanch, of Belaugh Avenue, Lowestoft, pleaded guilty to three indecent assaults and was found guilty of three others at Guildford Crown Court.

He was found not guilty of three charges of gross indecency with a boy aged under 14 and four charges of rape, while eight other charges were dropped.

He is due to be sentenced on 2 January.

Blanch has been released on bail until his next court appearance.

Terence Sturgeon-Clegg – Bicester/Irvine

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November 2014

Ex-swimming instructor guilty in historic child abuse case

AN ex-swimming instructor from Bicester has been convicted of physically and sexually abusing children in the 1970s.

Terence Sturgeon-Clegg, now of Irvine in Ayrshire, Scotland, was yesterday found guilty of seven counts of indecent assault and three counts of cruelty to children under 16.

As the verdicts were read out in Oxford Crown Court, the 62-year-old stared at the floor and shook his head.

Sturgeon-Clegg was also yesterday found not guilty of a further indecent assault and two other serious sexual offences.

But after 16 hours and 57 minutes of deliberating, the jury has not yet reached verdicts on a further six counts of indecent assault and two serious sex offences.

Judge Ian Pringle sent the jury members home for the weekend but asked them to return on Monday morning to continue considering their verdict.

Opening the case to the jury six weeks ago, prosecutor Oliver Saxby QC described Sturgeon-Clegg as “a man for whom there seem to be no boundaries, physically or sexually”.

The allegations of cruelty included hitting children with a weight-lifting belt, twisting their limbs until they said “submit” and forcing them to hold hot chips that were straight out of a deep fat fryer.

Barry Owen – Wirral

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November 2014

Wirral man downloaded over 11,000 child sex images – No prison

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A Wirral man who was found to have downloaded about 11,000 indecent images of children was told by a judge that they were “outrageous.”

He told Barry Owen that those in the most serious category were particularly “horrifying” with some involving very young children being tied up and abused.

But after hearing that in the two years since police raided his home in New Ferry he had made efforts to get help for his problem Judge Andrew Menary, QC, imposed a suspended jail sentence.

“You have come perilously close to an immediate jail sentence,” he told 40-year-old Owen.

Owen, of Pickmere Drive, had pleaded guilty to 13 offences of making indecent images, one of possessing them, one of possessing extreme porn and one of possessing a prohibited image.

Rebecca Smith, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that police raided Owen’s home in August 2012 and seized his computer. He admitted they would find indecent images of children and they were uncovered after forensic examination.

The court heard that there were a total of 10,396 images in the lowest category, 435 in the next most serious and 207 in the top category.

Trevor Parry-Jones, defending, said that Owen has no previous convictions and had a good job which he lost because of the offences.

He began looking at the images after his relationship broke down and his mental state deteriorated.

Since the offences were discovered he had sought help and taken rehabilitative courses, he added.

Owen was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. He is also under supervision for two years and has to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

Judge Menary also made a Sexual Offences Prevention Order restricting his internet use.

John Symons – Plymouth

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November 2014

Plymouth pensioner found guilty of sexually assaulting young sisters

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A PENSIONER has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two sisters when they were girls more than 30 years ago.

But John Symons, aged 65, has been cleared of attempted rape and other offences of indecency.

Symons denied eight offences during a four-day trial at Plymouth Crown Court.

The jury of seven men and five women spent more than eight and a half hours deliberating before finding him guilty on three counts.

Symons, of Fort Austin Avenue, Eggbuckland was convicted by majority verdicts of two counts of sexual assault against the younger sister between May 1976 and May 1978.

He was cleared of attempting to rape her, another indecent assault and three offences of indecency with a child.

Symons was also found guilty by majority verdict of indecent assault of the older sister between August 1971 and August 1973.

He appeared confused as the forewoman announced the verdicts.

Symons, a former car mechanic, had denied indecently touching the younger sister.

He added he could not remember being alone with her as a girl at her former city home or in his old house in Prince Maurice Road, Mutley.

Symons claimed any touching of the older sister above her clothing was accident.

The court heard that the sisters did not contact police until 2012.

High Court Judge Mr Justice Dingemans adjourned sentence for a probation officer to prepare a report on the defendant’s background.

His barrister Nick Lewin said that psychological and psychiatric reports would be available.

Symons was released on bail to be sentenced in Bristol, where the judge is sitting on another case, on December 9.


Peter Norval – Southwold

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November 2014

53-year-old man took photo up the skirt of 14-year-old girl and had indecent images of children on his computer

A Southwold man who took a photograph up the skirt of a 14-year-old girl was also found to have indecent images of children on his computer following his arrest, a court has heard.

Peter Norval was identified from CCTV footage at a store in Southwold where he was seen to put his camera phone up the schoolgirl’s skirt, Ipswich Crown Court was told.

Michael Crimp, 
prosecuting, said a friend of the girl saw what happened and heard the phone click as the picture was taken.

Police officers seized his laptop and an iPad and found a small number of indecent images.

Norval, 53, of Victoria Street, Southwold, admitted two offences of making indecent images of children and one offence of outraging public decency on February 1 by taking the photograph up the girl’s skirt.

The case was adjourned to allow the judge to assess the photos

Stephen Hindley – Plymouth

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November 2014

Plymouth man jailed for exposing himself to schoolgirls

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A MAN who indecently exposed himself to schoolgirls after luring them to his car has been jailed for more than two years – and banned from driving.

Stephen Hindley, aged 25, would use an excuse such as asking for directions before performing an indecent act in front of the teenagers.

The girls were left “shaken” and upset, Plymouth Crown Court heard.

Judge Paul Darlow jailed Hindley for 26 months for a string of offences and banned him from driving for two years.

A Crown Court judge is allowed to disqualify a defendant if he uses his car to commit an offence.

Judge Darlow said: “You targeted young girls in the early morning and on the way back from school. You would entice them to your car and ask them to join in what you were obviously doing.”

Hindley, of Little Dock Lane, Honicknowle, pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent exposure in and around Crownhill in April and May.

He also admitted seven counts of making or downloading indecent images of children.

Police found 30 pictures of Category A, the most serious; 101 of Category B and 191 of Category C.

Alistair Verheijen, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said on each occasion he would drive close to the girls and then use an excuse to summon them over – such as asking for directions.

But they would then see him performing an indecent act in the driver’s seat.

Mr Verheijen said: “The four victims immediately reported what had happened to the police. They were shaken, freaked out and disgusted.”

He added they later picked out Hindley from a video identification parade.

Rupert Taylor, for Hindley, said he had pleaded guilty as soon as he could in court.

He added: “This young man poses a risk and needs to be treated and he is willing for that to happen.”

Urging a suspended prison sentence, he said a prison sentence would not be long enough for him to get the treatment he needed behind bars.

He did not oppose the driving ban, saying the defendant did not need a car to find work.

Hindley will spend 13 months in prison, but will have to serve the full two-year driving ban

Philip Dimmock – Dunstable

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November 2014

Dunstable man jailed after 1,300 images of child abuse were found on his computer

A MAN caught with more than 1,300 images of child sex abuse on his computer has begun a jail sentence still denying his guilt.

Philip Dimmock, 54, was told by a Judge that because he was still hiding his perversion immediate custody was the only sentence available to the court.

Judge David Farrell QC said: “In the case of those who admit their guilt and seek help, the court can make some form of community order coupled with rehabilitation to ensure this behaviour is not repeated.

“But you deny it so there is no alternative to immediate custody.”

Dimmock, of Northfields, Dunstable was convicted by a jury at Luton Crown Court last month of 17 charges of making indecent images of children.

He was jailed for 18 months when he came back to the court to be sentenced on Friday.

The jury had heard how police raided his home in September 2012 and seized his computer.

They found a total of 1,354 sexual images of children on it, with sophicticated software that he had used to try and cover his tracks.

The majority of the images were in the lowest category of seriousness, but some were at a higher level including one of a baby and another of a child aged 5-7.

He claimed he used the computer to view adult pornography but had not sought out pictures of children.

Judge Farrell told him; “You have to realise that children are actually abused to produce material for your perverse sexual gratification. They are appalling images.”

Natalie Gough, defending said: “This case has completely traumatised him. He is not in the best of health and is a vulnerable person who will not receive the support he needs in prison.

“He still maintains his denial. He was very respected in his local community and feels he has let his family down.”

The Judge also made a Sexual Offences Prevention order for ten years, and Dimmock will have to register as a sex offender also for ten years.

Keith Whitgreave – Speke

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November 2014

Ex-firefighter who spied on naked teenage girls is spared jail

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A former firefighter who used video cameras to spy on teenage girls in the bathroom was today spared jail by a judge.

Keith Whitgreave, 44, was arrested by police in July on suspicion of voyeurism but was bailed while they gathered further evidence.

Liverpool Crown Court heard he used that opportunity to travel to Scotland where he tried to kill himself twice.

Rob Jones, prosecuting, said he spent all night outside up a mountain and was found suffering from hypothermia and then tried to end it by gassing himself in his car.

He was taken to hospital and later released but by that time police had recovered recording equipment from his victims’ house and evidence of dozens of videos he had recorded and filed under his victim’s names over an 18 month period.

When interviewed Whitgreave initially denied any wrongdoing but eventually pleaded guilty to voyeurism.

Patrick McLoughlin, defending, said Whitgreave, of Abbeyvale Drive, Speke, had since left the fire service and was now a driver for Eddie Stobart.

He added: “When you have an individual such as this who has fallen from grace hitting the ground is that much harder.”

Judge Alan Conrad, QC, said Whitgreave was “despicable”.

He said: “They were entitled to feel safe in their own home and assume their privacy was not violated by you.

“For your own perverted gratification you spied on them in their most intimate moments.

“Worse than that you recorded them and kept the product. This was voyeurism of the worst kind.”

He made Whitgreave the subject of a three year supervision order and told him to attend a sex offenders programme and register as a sex offender for the next five years.

John Evans – Plymouth

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November 2014

Plymouth man jailed for 12 years for raping and assaulting schoolgirl

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A PAEDOPHILE has been jailed for 12 years after he raped a girl who refused his bribe of a mobile phone for sex.

John Evans, aged 51, offered the child a BlackBerry if she slept with him, Plymouth Crown Court heard.

Evans also sexually assaulted the girl on another occasion and touched her indecently.

Jailing him for 12 years for a string of offences, High Court Judge Mr Justice Dingemans said: “Grooming behaviour was plainly used against the victim. The only effective mitigation is your plea of guilty.”

Evans, of Lake View Drive, Ernesettle, had earlier pleaded guilty to one count of rape and one of sexual assault between 2006 and 2009.

He further admitted three counts of indecency with a child.

Evans finally asked for two other offences, when he touched another girl indecently, to be taken into consideration.

Justice Dingemans jailed him for a total of 18 years, but reduced the sentence by a third for his guilty plea.

He will serve six years in custody.

Smartly-dressed Evans sat with his head in his hands throughout the hearing, which was watched by the brave victim in a packed public gallery.

Garth Richardson, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said that Evans formed a relationship with the girl.

He added: “At one time, she wanted a BlackBerry mobile phone. The defendant told her if she would sleep with him, he would get her one. She said no.”

But Mr Richardson said that Evans overpowered the girl and raped her.

He added the girl was having trouble forming relationships with boys.

Pamela Calder, for Evans, said he had shown “total remorse”.

She added he collapsed and was taken to hospital as he was questioned by police.

Mrs Calder said: “He is extremely remorseful and he has already required about the most suitable courses in prison. He did not want his victim to appear in court.”

She added he was a hard-working man who had never been in trouble with the police

Sonny Hanford – Newport

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November 2014

Caught in bed with an under-age girl… so pervert ‘pulls up the blanket and tries to hide’

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A man found in bed with a schoolgirl was jailed and told not to contact her again until her 16th birthday.

Police had already warned Sonny Hanford, 26, that he could be prosecuted after the girl’s mother contacted them, Cardiff Crown Court was told.

But on April 28, when the mum reported her daughter missing, they went to his home in Clytha Crescent, Newport, just before 10am.

“They found Mr Hanford and the girl in bed in one of the bedrooms,” said prosecutor Joanne James.

“He was wearing only boxer shorts and she was in her underwear.”

The court heard they had tried to hide by pulling a blanket up over their faces when the police walked in.

Hanford was arrested for child abduction but later said he had done nothing to force the girl and claimed she had turned up at his home saying she had been thrown out by her mother.

Ms James told the court: “The mother was concerned for her daughter’s welfare from the beginning of the year when she became hard to manage.

“Her concerns grew when her daughter began to associate with the defendant and she returned home with bruises she would not explain.”

On April 7 the police served an abduction notice on Mr Hanford and warned him that if he contacted the girl or let her into his home again he would be liable for prosecution.

They discovered her in his bed three weeks later, the court heard.

Defence counsel Stephen Thomas said someone else had let her into the house and there had been no coercion.

“He also wants to to be known that he was never violent towards her in any way,” the barrister told Judge David Wynn Morgan.

“The prosecution say her mother saw bruises but he is anxious for me to say that he was in no way responsible for any bruising.”

Judge Morgan jailed Hanford for 16 months and told him: “There was an abduction notice in place and it was breached.

“When this young girl came to your house you should have realised you were at risk and should have contacted others to take care of her.

“Instead you committed a very serious offence.”

A restraining order imposed by the judge prohibits Hanford from contacting the girl between now and her 16th birthday.

He had pleaded guilty to abduction as part of the court’s early guilty plea scheme, which the judge said was concerning because it meant not all the facts were immediately available.

It meat new information had only become clear minutes before sentence was passed, the court heard.

“It is most unsatisfactory,” Judge Morgan said.

Mark Mulligan – Dublin

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November 2014

Dublin based child abuse images maker talked about raping RTÉ news reporter’s kids

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A man who stalked a woman and later talked about raping her young son was disconnected from reality and desperate for friendship, a court has heard.

Mark Mulligan (39) told gardai he had developed a fantasy world for himself because he was very lonely. He said that this led on to online conversations in which he discussed raping and torturing boys and girls.

Mulligan of Railway Road, Clongriffin, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to harassment of a named woman at locations in Dublin on dates between 2008 and 2012. Mulligan also admitted possession of child abuse images at his home on July 7, 2013.

He had pleaded not guilty to a third charge of producing child abuse images at his home on dates between March 1 and March 17, 2013. Last month a jury of ten men and two women took 44 minutes to return a unanimous verdict of guilty.

The final offence relates to conversations with another person using the Skype internet programme in which Mulligan made sexually explicit references to RTE and TV3 “celebrities” and their children. Gardai discovered these automatically held transcripts of these “chats” during a search of Mulligan’s home as part of an investigation into a separate harassment case.

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In that other case Mulligan sent a former colleague a threatening text message and an image of a dismembered doll as part of his “rape fantasy”. Last July he received a prison sentence of four years with one suspended for harassing and threatening to kill that victim on dates between August 2012 and July 2013.

Today Judge Patricia Ryan adjourned sentencing in this new matter in order to give the Probation Services time to assess him.

In text conversations with an unknown person over Skype, described Mulligan’s own barrister as a “disgusting fantasy conversation”,  Mulligan said he would “love to rape” the three year old son of a woman he knew, because she “pissed” him off. 

He then sent a non-explicit photograph of the boy to the other person. This other man, using the online identity rodub82, said:

Mulligan also asked about raping Irish celebrities and suggested “any of the reporters on RTE or TV3”. The other user replied “prefer their kids” and Mulligan agreed and said it would give them something to remember.

He later told gardaí that the conversations were all just “sick fantasies” and he never intended to act on them.

Mulligan had taken the image of the child from the woman’s personal page on a social networking website. This woman had made a complaint to gardai in 2008 about Mulligan’s continued harassment of her via text messages and emails.

Gardai told the woman there was little they could do at that point but she should keep a note of Mulligan’s actions.

In 2009 he set up a fake account on the social networking website Bebo under the name of an actual friend of the victims and contacted her from this. When she became pregnant Mulligan emailed her a note of congratulations. 

In 2012 a third party contacted the victim because he had seen photographs of her being used on a fake Facebook account set up in a different name.

In a victim impact report the woman said she had to move away from where she lived because of the ongoing harassment. She said she has been left deeply upset and traumatised by Mulligan’s actions.

She said had developed a real sense of dread walking past Mulligan’s apartment because he would be out on his balcony watching her.

Garnet Orange SC, defending, said that his client had engaged in ongoing and deeply unpleasant stalking of the victim but has since expressed remorse and regret. He said a Probation Services report outlines how Mulligan experienced deep sense of loneliness and separation from the world and was in some ways disconnected from reality.

Counsel said that Mulligan had pleaded not guilty to producing child pornography because there was a contentious legal issue over whether or not the online text conversations between two private adults amounted to the production or distribution of child porn.

Garnet Orange SC, defending, told the jury during the trial that the online exchanges were between two people who were concealing their identities and were very disturbing but were in the context of a private conversation. He that nothing further was done.

In one online text exchange, on the morning of St Patrick’s Day, Mulligan told rodub82:

“Lots of horny kids around today in parade”.

He later wrote that he would:

“love to have a cottage in the middle of nowhere and take kids there and rape and torture them….and shit on their graves”.

Rodub82 said they could behave “like a couple of Nazi prison guards”.

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Mulligan added:

“Love to pick someone up late at night boy girl man woman and rape the bastard. Every time I heard someone got raped it’s a turn on – even more when they are killed?” 

He also said he’d like to kidnap and rape a pregnant woman and “get the kid out”.  Mulligan told gardaí that the conversations were all just “sick fantasies”.

He said:

“I was only saying it, I was never going to meet anybody. We were discussing fantasy rape, as far as I was concerned nothing would be done about it. It was fantasy talk only. 

“I get obsessed talking about rape and torture, I know I need help, I wish I didn’t have these thoughts.” 

He said that while on the website gayireland.com he contacted a user with the word perv in their internet name and during their Skype conversation he said he “stupidly” said he was interested in raping young people. 

Mulligan said he isn’t sexually attracted to children.

“I was lonely, curious, I felt like I was an undercover reporter, trying to get information. I didn’t have any real friends, anyone to talk to, I distanced myself from reality. I just wanted to talk to people,” he said.

Mark Mulligan dressed as He-Man said he would “love to have a cottage in the middle of nowhere and take kids there and rape and torture them….and shit on their graves”.

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Adrian Walton – York

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November 2014

A MAN has had his use of cameras restricted by a judge after getting a seven-year-old girl to film him performing a sex act

Adrian Walton, of Meadow Court, York, admitted engaging in a sex act in the presence of a child after police raided his home and found the video – which had been shot in the property, along with other indecent images and videos of children.

Rebecca Young, prosecuting, said the child did not speak out for years about the incident 

The 44-year-old also pleaded guilty at York Crown Court to 11 charges of possessing indecent images of children and three of possessing extreme pornography.

In mitigation, Emma Bennett said Walton was ashamed of the incident, which had been a one-off and that members of his family were supporting him.

She added: “He has found this difficult to explain to his family.”

Recorder Tim Roberts QC said Walton had taken the first step to involving the girl in sexual activity.

He said: “One can imagine what the next step would have been once he had got away with it.

“I am sure you have taken steps since that time to ensure that child’s silence.”

He jailed him for nine months, but suspended the sentence for two years on condition that Walton works with probation officers for two years and completes180 hours’ unpaid work.

He will also be on the sex offenders’ register for ten years and subject to a ten-year sexual offences prevention order restricting his use of the internet, possession of camera equipment and any contact with girls under the age of 16.

Brian Learmonth – Shrewsbury

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November 2014

Shrewsbury man admits string of sexual offences including making 140,000 indecent images of children

A man has admitted a string of sex offences including making almost 140,000 indecent images of children and indecent assault.

Brian Learmonth, 64, appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday to face 20 different charges.

He admitted six counts of making indecent images of a child, including 111,763 in category C – the least serious category – almost 18,000 in category B, and more than 10,400 in category A, the most serious category.

Some of the images were of a six year old child and dated back to 1989 while the most recent photographs were made in February this year.

Learmonth admitted three charges of making indecent films of children as well as having made more than 1,400 at category A and hundreds at lower levels.

And he admitted possessing 166 extreme pornographic images showing bestiality.

Further guilty pleas were made to three charges of indecent assault involving two children aged nine to 10 and one aged six to seven, all of which happened between January 1 1989, and December 31 1990.

He admitted two further charges of indecent assault which took place between August 9 and 10, 1989, and a final indecent assault involving an eight year old, which took place between April 5 1990, and April 6 1991.

Learmonth, of Poynton Road, Shrewsbury, denied three charges of distributing indecent images and videos of children and one of indecent assault.

Prosecutor, Mr Phillip Bradley, said the pleas were acceptable and indicated that he would ask for the three charges Learmonth denied to lie on the file, meaning no further action will be taken.

The court heard that Learmonth has previous convictions for indecent assault and taking indecent images.

Mr Recorder Nicolas Cartwright ordered reports to be prepared before sentencing and remanded Learmonth in custody.

Learmonth was told he will have to sign on to the sex offenders register.

The case was adjourned.

Geoffrey Woodward – Gateshead

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November 2014

Child rape victim tells of her ordeal at the hands of her father as he is locked behind bars

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Her innocence was stolen by the person she should have trusted the most.

From the age of 10, Lynn was continually raped by her father as she was told never to reveal her secret.

For decades Lynn has held the most horrid memories of sex fiend Geoffrey Woodward and how he ruined her life.

But now justice has been done and her disgraced dad has been locked behind bars for 18 years on the other side of the world in Australia where he may die in jail.

The 74-year-old has been handed one of the longest prison sentences ever imposed in New South Wales for historical child sexual assault — but he still blames his daughter victim.

Woodward, who put his daughter on the contraceptive pill at age of 13, told psychologists he “only had sex with his daughter” and could not understand why she had not forgiven him, the District Court was told.

Now Lynn, 52, who was repeatedly raped by him between the ages of 10 and 13 until her mother divorced him, has decided to courageously stand up for all other victims by wavering her anonymity and speak out to help others.

The Sunday Sun has followed Woodward’s story for two years when we first told in December 2012 how he was being extradited from his Gateshead home to Australia where he faced historic sex charges.

His despicable sex crimes against his own daughter happened when he lived with his family in New South Wales in Australia before moving back to the North East, where he had grown up, in 1979 and to Gateshead in 1980.

But after being hauled back to Australia, Judge Conlon jailed Woodward, a former army sergeant, for six years on each of five counts of rape and seven years for buggery after he admitted the charges. He imposed an aggregate sentence of 18 years to “reflect the total criminality of the offender”.

“For all I was the victim, I was determined to be the victor. I would never become a statistic, I couldn’t bear the thought of it. I could not let go of my hope, courage, truth and happy endings,” said Lynn, now a nurse, who is married with two children

Lynn’s nightmare started on her 10th birthday in 1972 when her father took her on a special boat trip.

“The morning of my birthday my father surprised me with a boat ride. He and I meandered through the calm waters of the inlet until we came to one of the small islands. We were going to have a picnic. Not a picnic but the first day of my life changed,” said Lynn, who lives in Adelaide. “Now I am a victim, although I do not realise it yet. My pain is immense and I am vomiting uncontrollably. My father, my abuser, assures me that this is all normal and what love is, but I must never tell as really bad things would happen. Control became my father’s demeanour, he had to ensure I would not tell his secret.”

Lynn added: “Too much to bear I created a box of sorrow and began to fill it with ‘real Lynn’ and all the pain and heartache I was suffering everyday, this was the only way to survive. As time went by it became apparent that this new normal life was not normal at all and this was the worst time of my life. I wanted, needed the lie to end but of course my father did not. His fear of the ‘secret out’ he used his brutality to keep me from speaking the truth.”

Lynn says the court case was not about seeing her father behind bars but about being a voice for other victims and being able to put her childhood behind her.

She added: “This is great sorrow, and somewhat of a grieving process but I hang onto the thoughts that this is the beginning of my healing. Justice done I can begin to live, have people’s judgement of me lifted or changed. In other words my justice is my truth, and my truth has always been my greatest desire.”

Mark Patterson – Leamington

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November 2014

Leamington man had indecent images of children as young as four

A Leamington man who distributed ‘grotesque’ images of adults having sex with children as young as four or five has been jailed for 28 months.

Mark Patterson, who had been downloading indecent images of children for more than five years, was also ordered by a judge at Warwick Crown Court to register as a sex offender for ten years.

Patterson, aged 44, of Arlington Avenue, Leamington, had pleaded guilty to six charges of making indecent images of children and six of distributing them.

Prosecutor Graeme Simpson said that after the police had received information about Patterson’s activity they went to his home in August last year and seized his computer equipment. On his computer and on an external storage device they found more than 6,000 indecent images of children as young as four or five.

They included 208 still pictures and 728 movies classed as being in category A on a scale of seriousness. A further 268 stills and 460 movies were in category B. And there were also 4,177 still images and 204 movies in category C.

Police computer experts also found evidence that, through the file-sharing website Patterson had used to obtain the images, he had also distributed still and movie images across all three categories.

Jailing Patterson, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano told him: “About a fifth of the images were moving images of children being sexually abused. They were images you had collected over more than five years. You were downloading them using file-sharing software, and in doing so you made what you were downloading available to others, which spreads this material wider than just yourself.

“You know these are really serious offences. I have seen the images this morning. They are grotesque images showing children as young as four or five years old.

“It doesn’t take much to imagine the distress caused to them which will live with them for the rest of their lives. These are real children; they don’t just live on your computer. They are images made for a market, and that market is you. You personally contribute to their abuse by downloading these images – and because there is distribution as well, the starting point is three years.

“The aggravating features are the ages of the children, and they are very young children indeed, and the large number of images, well into the thousands.

“It is also aggravated by the length of time over which they were collected, and by the fact that about a fifth of them were moving images and by the obvious distress to the children involved. I accept the distribution is not the most active form of distribution, but if you use software that makes these images available, the inevitable outcome is that other people have easier access to them.”

John Toal – Jordanstown

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July 2002

Pervert jailed for possession of child abuse images

A PERVERT jailed for storing sickening child abuse images on his computer also had a cache of images of disgusting sex acts with animals.

Disgraced Ulster helicopter pilot John Toal 39, was “addicted to internet porn” which was downloaded at night in his bedroom, a Belfast court heard this week.

Hundreds of sick images, including stills and videos, were found by cops on Toal’s computer when they raided his Jordanstown home last year.

Many included sickening child sex images and paedophile acts which he downloaded to feed his perverted sexual appetite.

But what did not emerge in court was that Toal harboured a huge cache of degrading sex acts with animals including hundreds of stills and videos.

But because bestiality is considered a lesser offence the sickening images – which included adults in perverse sex sessions with horses, dogs, pigs and sheep – were not taken into account.

An officer investigating the case said: “What was on those tapes was so stomach churning that it’s too horrible to recall. But there was nothing we could do about it.

“Cops have basically been caught napping as regards the internet and this whole thing. There’s not yet the legislation to deal with this stuff and it was simply disgusting.”

Perverted Toal stared at the floor as the court was told about the hundreds of sick images and videos seized from his Coolemoyle Park home last August.

The matter came to light after another man using the computer in Toal’s house, which was rented out to professionals and students, stumbled upon the images.

Judge Anthony Hart, who watched some of the material before handing down sentence, said no-one could be other than horrified by the collection which included children of both sexes, apparently not much more than five years of age.

But the court was told that the bestiality charges would not be part of the proceedings.

Instead Toal was convicted on 15 specimen counts of child porn and jailed for four months.

Toal, whose address was given as Doogary Road in Omagh, is expected to return to Co Tyrone on his release from jail in September.

His computer will be destroyed with the contents and he also been ordered to sign the Sex Offenders register for seven years. One cop said: “He should have got four YEARS.”

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