February 2015

Runcorn man who groomed three schoolgirls is jailed

A SEXUAL predator who groomed three schoolgirls on social media has been jailed for two years.

Anthony King, aged 22, of Greenbridge Close, Castlefields, Runcorn, was sentenced to 25 months today after admitting three offences of inciting a child into sexual activity and four charges of making indecent images.

He lied about his age as he cajoled them on Facebook, telling one he was only 15 and another that he was 18.

After kissing one 13-year-old girl and telling her she was sexy, he enticed her into some woods and coaxed her to strip and give him a lap dance.

She refused and he became moody. He then laughed as she stood, embarrassed in her underwear.

He asked another 13-year-old girl to perform sexual acts for him on Skype.

After having sexual conversations for four months with a vulnerable 15-year-old girl, he asked her if she would have his baby.

He sent one girl a picture of his genitals.

Police found one obscene naked photograph of a girl and other pictures of girls in their underwear posing for the camera on his phone and laptop.

Victims said the ordeal has had a profound effect on them.

One girl tried to commit suicide and is now undergoing psychiatric therapy.

Others have been forced to change schools because they were being bullied.

Jailing King at Warrington Crown Court, as his parents sat in the public gallery, Judge Raj Shetty said: “They were all children groomed by you. You were an adult.

“One girl was 13, you were going on 21. You knew she was 13 and a schoolgirl.

“These children were all very pliable and easily manipulated to your requests of a sexual nature.

“That is why the law exists to protect children and make sure they can’t be exploited.

“I’m horrified to hear that one of these victims has been bullied, harmed herself and had to move school because of your actions.

“You used these young girls to make up for your lack of adult intimacy in your life.

“These girls were an easy target for you.

“You asked one girl to perform a lap dance striptease for your gratification. You laughed at her. The effect humiliated her.

“You were persistent with your contact with these girls.

“These offences are so serious, they merit a custodial sentence.”

King was also given a sexual offences prevention order for 10 years.

Maria Masselis prosecuting, said: “One girl was feeling suicidal as a result of what happened. She made efforts to harm herself with knives and taking tablets.

“She feels alienated from her family because of the shame and embarrassment.

“Another girl suffered greatly from stress and is concerned about covering up her body.

“There has been a profound effect on these girls.”

Jeremy Rawson, defending, said there had been no sexual touching or physical contact.

He said: “He (King) is a sad, isolated, vulnerable individual who was bullied at school and retreated into his shell.

“He relies on his family for contact.

“He is remorseful.

“He is a person of previous good character. He has never come to the attention of the police for a caution or conviction.”

February 2015

Paedophile who raped a girl jailed for 14 years

A paedophile from Lancaster Road who raped a girl has been jailed for 14 years.

Nigel Welland, 62, was found guilty of eight sexual offences, with three under-age victims.

He was sentenced at Reading Crown Court after a trial at the same court.

For raping the girl he was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Welland was also convicted on six counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

He was also found guilty of sexual activity with a child.

He received eight year prison sentences for each of these crimes, to run alongside his 14-year-stretch for the rape conviction.

The crimes all took place in Maidenhead.

He was acquitted of charges of raping a girl, causing or inciting a girl into sexual activity, sexual activity with a child and causing or inciting a girl into sexual activity.

Welland was also acquitted of three charges of sexually assaulting a girl and one count of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child.

Welland will also be forced to sign the sex offender register for life, and has been banned from working with children.

February 2015

Pervert jailed after Dorset police investigation

A PREDATOR who groomed a 15-year-old online before having sex with her has been jailed for four years.

David Havis, 38, was well respected in the Territorial Army and the banking firm for which he worked, but in September last year he began online chats with a teenage girl via the messaging site Omegle, and later via WhatsApp.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard that Havis, a father-of-three from Essex, made no attempt to hide his age from the teenager, and was also well aware of her age as the pair discussed the disparity.

Prosecutor David Richards said: “They communicated daily and extensively.

“In one message she said ‘I have cancelled my counselling course, been getting worse again’ with a sad face. He replied ‘Oh hon, that’s not good’. He was aware she was a young girl with some vulnerability.”

He said that through the “grooming” the pair reached a “mutual” desire to meet for sex.

The court heard Havis met his victim at the Dolphin Swimming Centre in Poole on September 28 and the pair engaged in sexual activity in a changing cubicle.

In a message to him later that day she said: “I kept thinking I should feel freaked out by the age thing but I’m not.”

On October 26, Havis booked a room at the Queen’s Hotel in Bournemouth and the pair met up again, having sex twice.

The following month she told school friends and the matter was relayed through staff to the police and social services.

Mr Richards read statements from the victim, who was worried the incident might affect her exam performance, and her father, who said it had damaged their relationship and he had been physically sick at the thought of what Havis had done.

In mitigation, Tom Horder said his client had not sought out an under-age girl and had met his victim via a chat site aimed at adult users.

He said Havis “had a successful life” which had unravelled during 2013 as he went through bereavement and a separation.

Jailing Havis, Judge John Harrow said: “By this aberration you have shattered everyone’s confidence in you and to a large extent destroyed your life.”

Havis, of Westbourne Gardens, Billericay, admitted three offences of sexual activity with a child and one count of grooming. A Sexual Offences Prevention Order was imposed until further notice.

PANEL DORSET Safe Schools and Communities Team offer internet safety education and training packages to professionals who work with young people, raising awareness of the dangers of online grooming, cyber-crime, sexting and child sexual exploitation.

Detective Chief Inspector Chris Naughton, of the Dorset PolicePublic Protection Unit, said: “Offenders need to know that the internet is not a safe, anonymous space for grooming children. They leave a digital footprint and we will find it.

“Abusing children is an abhorrent crime, hidden in society for far too long. We are committed to rooting it out and stopping it.

“Everyone, teachers, GPs, parents and other adults have a responsibility to spot the signs of abuse and act.”

The Paedophile Online Investigation Team and SSCT can be contacted on 101. In an emergency. dial 999. Information relating to child abuse can also be reported anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000.

For more information visit saferinternet.org.uk

February 2015

‘Predatory pervert’, who duped 13-year-old girl into sending indecent pictures, guilty of child sex offences

A “predatory paedophile” posed as a woman online to get a 13-year-old girl to send him indecent pictures of herself.

Adrian Scarlett, formerly of Nursery Close, Dartford, was found guilty of causing a girl aged 13 to 17 to engage in pornography and meeting a girl under 16 following grooming.

The 39-year-old was cleared at Bexley Magistrates’ Court last week of paying for the sexual services of a girl aged 13 to 15.

The court had heard, after meeting the victim at a house in Downham on November 14 2013, Scarlett used a fake Facebook account under the name of ‘Ami’ to make contact with her.

He claimed ‘Ami’ worked for Littlewoods and if the girl sent him two topless photos of herself they would help get her work as a model.

Scarlett, of Pevensey Court, Maidstone, added ‘Ami’ would send the images to her ‘Uncle Adrian’, who would pay £50 for them.

He received the pictures on his mobile phone and, after admitting who he was, arranged to meet the victim at Beckenham tram stop to hand over the cash.

After his arrest on December 16 he told Detective Constable Laura Day, of the Met’s specialist sexual exploitation team, that when he first met the teenager she said she “wanted money and I knew she wouldn’t be able to pay it back.

“I just said ‘give me two pictures of your breasts and I’ll give you 50 quid for them’.

“She sent me two selfies. They were from the waste up and she had her hair over her breasts and that was it.

“She’s pretty but she had nothing going for her.

“They are everywhere aren’t they, selfies, everyone does it.”

During the interview it emerged the pictures of the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been sent to Scarlett’s Nokia mobile phone, which he later destroyed.

Scarlett alleged that at their first meeting the girl “was being really seductive”, “looked like a proper young woman” with a “tight top” and had her “boobs popping out”.

But when they next met at Beckenham tram stop she was dressed “just normal” and had no make-up on, though Scarlett still paid her the agreed £50.

He said: “I looked at her in jeans and I just said ‘don’t ever contact me again’.

“I just could have died there and then when I realised she wasn’t how old I thought she was.”

DC Day said: “This has gone from being ‘I’ll give you 50 quid for a picture of your boobs’ to the behaviour of a predatory paedophile.”

Scarlett will be sentenced at Inner London Crown Court on a date yet to be set.

February 2015

Pervert who tried to entice a schoolgirl to go to a hotel for sex with him has been jailed for six and a half years

Peterborough man Brian Riley sent scores of indecent text messages to the girl over a month long period.

Riley (53), who is black, pretended to be a ‘young white man’ called Steven in the explicit messages, sent between January and February last year.

But when his victim’s mother found out about the texts, Riley was traced by police and arrested.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to incite a child into sexual activity, making indecent images of children, and possession of indecent images of children.

He was found guilty of one count of exposure at a trial earlier this year.

Sally Hobson, prosecuting, told Peterborough Crown Court: “There was a huge volume of text messages sent. He sent pictures of a young white male, and asked for her to send naked pictures of herself.

“He asked her if he could meet at a hotel in Peterborough, but she did not go.”

When he was arrested, 479 indecent images of children were found on a computer and iPhone – some of the pictures showing tots as young as two, and some showing images of child rape.

John Kirkpatrick, defending, said: “He was going through a rough patch, and was drinking too much. He was depressed about a forthcoming redundancy.”

Sentencing, Recorder Peter Murphy said:” It is important you understand that the images you had for your sexual gratification show child sexual abuse.

“Each image subjects the child to physical pain and suffering, and also psychological suffering which may last the whole of the child’s life.”

A sexual offences prevention order was put in place to protect girls aged under 18 from harm by Riley, and he has been banned from working with children.

February 2015

Sexual fantasist locked up for grooming schoolboy and girl

A SEXUAL fantasist who groomed and abused two vulnerable schoolchildren has been branded a public danger and locked up for four years.

Kallum Goddard’s “lust for sex” had led him down “a very dark pathway,” Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Goddard, 20, will serve a seven year extended jail sentence, made up of four years’ custody in a young offender institution followed by three years on closely supervised licence.

The court heard he sent sexual text messages to a 14-year-old boy, when he himself was 16, then groomed and sexually abused a 14-year-old girl.

Goddard was convicted by a jury of three offences of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity in 2011.

He was one of many defendants who contacted a confused and vulnerable boy from the Bradford area on the internet.

Goddard and the child exchanged “serious, deviant sexual,” text messages, prosecutor Anthony Dunne said.

Last year, Goddard sexually molested a 14-year-old girl at his Bradford bedsit after “grooming and flattering her”, the court heard.

She was in foster care and played truant from school to meet up with him.

Mr Dunne said he abused her on his bed and stripped off his clothes, exposing himself.

The girl told her teacher she was absent from class because she was meeting her boyfriend, who attended a local school. When checks were made, she revealed Goddard was aged 20.

The police were alerted and Goddard, of Newbury Walk, Huddersfield, admitted sexual activity with a child.

While he was awaiting sentence, he told his probation officer the boy and girl were to blame for what happened.

The court heard that the girl was so upset about what Goddard had done that she spent three days in her room.

She felt dirty, ashamed and sick and suffered sleepless nights and bad dreams.

Goddard’s barrister, Allan Armbrister, said his client was immature and naive with “an insatiable sexual appetite”.

“He was confused about his sexuality and that led him down a very dark pathway,” Mr Armbrister said.

When he contacted the boy, Goddard was “wrapped up in his own fantasy world.”

“He had a lust for sex and was alone, bored and in front of a computer.”

Goddard did not have sex with either of the children or try to force himself on them.

Judge Jonathan Rose said Goddard was a manipulative sexual groomer who posed a very high risk of harm to children.

Goddard must sign on the sex offenders register for an indefinite period and a Sexual Offences Prevention Order bans him from contacting his victims or having any unsupervised contact with children under 16.

February 2015

Former policeman jailed for child sex attack

A former North Wales policeman turned insurance agent has been jailed for sexually assaulting a child 20 years ago.

Antony Huws, 66, was sentenced to three years after he was convicted of attacking the girl twice when she was about five and seven-years-old.

Mold Crown Court heard today Huws committed sex acts with the girl – the daughter of a customer – while babysitting her.

Judge Niclas Parry ruled the sentence should be served consecutively to a seven-year sentence he is already serving for a £22m mortgage fraud.

A press photograph of the defendant after his fraud conviction prompted the girl he attacked to go to police.

After the jury returned their verdict today, it was revealed Huws had a previous conviction for indecently assaulting a boy after visiting his family to sell insurance.

In 1996 Chester Crown Court fined him after he admitted that offence.

Judge Parry told Huws, of Parc Tudor in Kinmel Bay but formerly of Holywell, he had committed wicked crimes he carried out as a “trusted family friend”.

The told him: “Clearly you used the access that you had in to people’s home in the course of your employment to satisfy your sexual urges to abuse young children.”

He ordered Huws sign the sex offenders’ register for life.

During the trial Huws denied attacking the girl in the early and mid 1990s.

He said he sold insurance to the girl’s step-father, had never been to his home and did not know he had a daughter.

Jurors heard he suffered from depression, was taking medication and did not have any sexual thoughts.

Huws suggested the girl was after compensation following publicity around Jimmy Saville.

He named another man who he said he believed could have been responsible.

However, police investigated the allegation and found the person concerned could not have committed the offences.

After conviction, Philip Astbury, defending, said a lot of water had passed under the bridge since the offences occurred.

He said his client wished the court to know that following the fraud conviction he had made 29 complaints against officers in that case.

After the case DC Katie Ellis of North Wales Police said: “This was a horrific crime committed by a man in a position of trust.

“We are pleased with the three-year sentence he has been given.

“North Wales Police will support the victims of such crimes and bring offenders to justice.”

February 2015

Co Down pensioner convicted of abusing girls

A jury has unanimously convicted a Co Down pensioner on 13 counts of indecent assault against two girls between 1977 and 1990.

However on Thursday, 70-year-old Christopher O’Hare, from Drumsnade Road in Drumaness, was cleared at Downpatrick Crown Court on four counts of rape against one of the victims. 

He was also cleared on a further seven charges of indecent assault but the jury of six men and six women were undecided on one count of indecent assault.

The Crown are to take instructions as to whether O’Hare will face a retrial on that count, but Judge Piers Grant warned O’Hare that he faces a “certain” prison term for the convictions.

Sentencing was adjourned until 24 March and O’Hare was released on bail after signing the sex offenders register.

February 2015

Boston man admits string of sex offences against two young girls 

Mark Eaton, 41, pleaded guilty to 19 sexual charges when he appeared at Lincoln Crown Court by video-link from custody today (February 26).

The offences include six charges of rape, four charges of indecent assault, four charges of assault by penetration and a single charge of sexual assault.

Eaton also admitted two charges of engaging in a sexual act in the presence of a child and two charges of causing a child to watch a sexual act. All the offences occurred between January 2003 and December 2013.

The court heard Eaton suffered a spinal stroke in 2009 and had no previous convictions.

Catherine Bradshaw, mitigating, said Eaton wished to be sentenced straight away.

Miss Bradshaw told the court: “Mr Eaton does not request a pre-sentence report.

“Mr Eaton’s mitigation is ‘what I did is totally and utterly wrong. I don’t put forward any excuses.’ “

But Recorder Benjamin Gumpert QC said he was not willing to sentence Eaton without a report from the probation service which would assess his possible danger to the public once he is released.

The Recorder told Eaton: “You have pleaded guilty to very serious offences. A long prison sentence is inevitably the result.”

Eaton, formerly of The Causeway, Boston, was remanded back in to custody until March 26 when he will be sentenced by video-link at Lincoln Crown Court.

February 2015

Pervert jailed for sexually abusing girl ‘hundreds and hundreds’ of times from the age of six

A 5l-YEAR-OLD engineer has been jailed for 15 years for a catalogue of “disgusting and terrible” sexual abuse against a young girl.

Paul Yeadon preyed on the child when she was aged between six and 14, raping and assaulting her “hundreds and hundreds of times,” Bradford Crown Courtheard.

Yeadon was a long distance lorry driver living in Great Horton, Bradford, when he targeted the little girl almost 20 years ago, telling her it was “their secret”.

His victim, now a woman in her 30s, told the court he abused her at least once a week for eight years.

He sexually assaulted her after they watched TV together “as a treat” and molested her in the cab of his lorry, prosecutor Adrian Dent said.

Yeadon pleaded guilty in November to five offences of indecently assaulting the girl when she was six or seven years old.

But he continued to deny raping and abusing her over a long period of time.

Yesterday, a jury convicted him of a further 13 charges, including three sample counts of rape, three offences of indecency with a child, six of indecent assault and one of attempted indecent assault.

Burly and bespectacled Yeadon, now of Beancroft Road, Castleford, West Yorkshire, stood impassively in the dock as the guilty verdicts were returned.

During the trial, the court heard that the girl confided to her mother what Yeadon had done to her when she was aged 14.

But although her mother was horrified and disgusted, he got away with it for decades because the teenager was about to take exams and could not face becoming caught up in a police investigation.

In 2013, she plucked up the courage to tell the police what Yeadon had done to her.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, the woman told how she struggled to come to terms with the abuse.

Stress about the case had recently ended a recent relationship she was in and she suffered broken sleep and anxiety.

The woman wept in court as Mr Dent disclosed that she had flashbacks and was seriously unwell.

“I hope this brings closure and I can move on with my life,” she said.

Yeadon’s barrister, David McGonigal, said Yeadon was in his 20s when he abused the girl and had since led a blameless life.

He had always worked, giving up his job as an engineer only when the trial approached.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, told Yeadon: “This was a catalogue of sexual offending against a young girl, going back to the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“Your victim was abused from when she was aged about six. You persuaded her and drove her into a position where she could not resist you.”

The judge added: “This was disgusting and terrible abuse. There are hundreds and hundreds of offences spanning a considerable period of time.”

February 2015

Willenhall teen tricked children as young as 11 years old into posing naked online

A teenager is facing a lengthy jail term after tricking young girls into posing naked over the internet in exchange for fake modelling contracts and gifts.

Adam Cooke preyed on six victims by using fake Facebook accounts he had set up in the names of girls.

The names included 14-year-old singer-songwriter Lauren Thalia, who made the semi finals of Britain’s Got Talent in 2012, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

The 18-year-old, of Willenhall, told girls aged between 11 and 14 he could get them modelling contracts and a meet and greet with One Direction in return for posing naked on webcam.

Mr Glyn Samuel, prosecuting, said it had been a ‘short-lived but planned campaign’ by Cooke to gain sexual gratification.

In August 2013, officers from the child online safeguarding team sought the assistance of police to serve a search warrant on Cooke’s address following a tip-off. They seized a computer and Cooke was later arrested.

The court heard that at that time Cooke had been volunteering as a young Scout leader and was working with children as young as six.

Mr Samuel said police found evidence that girls had been tricked to believe they would be offered modelling contracts if they showed their naked or partially-naked bodies to their webcams so he could watch.

Cooke contacted the girls through the fake accounts and they only spoke to him via typed text.

He also drew up and sent some of them fake modelling contracts, which the girls showed to their parents who told them to ignore it.

Mr Samuel said he offered to set up a meet and greet with One Direction for some girls and one of the victims was offered the chance to go to a modelling shoot in London.

Cooke was found to have downloaded almost 70 indecent images of children, including 22 in the most serious category.

Mr Samuel said he was in possession of around 50 indecent images and videos he had made himself, including five in the most serious category.

Cooke, of Trentham Avenue, admitted eight counts of causing or inciting a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity, three counts of possessing indecent images of children and three counts of taking indecent images of children.

Judge Martin Walsh adjourned the case for psychiatric reports and Cooke is due to be sentenced at the court on April 29.

But he told him: “This is a very troubling case. A substantial imprisonment will follow.”

Cooke was given conditional bail.

February 2015

49-year-old Shropshire man jailed for grooming schoolboy

A married Shropshire man who groomed a schoolboy for sex on the internet and had sexually explicit photographs of the victim has been jailed for a total of three years.

Stephen Wood, 49, also had more than 800 indecent images of children on his computer, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard.

The court was told Wood, who had been married for 25 years, had been “living a lie” and had since accepted his sexuality.

Judge Robin Onions told Wood that he had become aware his victim was a teenager under the age of 16 but had continued with the communications.

“It was an unwise decision. You were the adult and were in a position of trust to protect him,” he said.

Wood, of Vennington, near Shrewsbury, had admitted a charge of sexual grooming, possession of indecent images of the youth and three charges relating to the indecent images of children in May and June 2013.

During a hearing yesterday, the court heard that there was increasing sexual content in online messages between Wood and the victim and the exchange of naked pictures of each other.

Mr Andrew Baker, prosecuting, said that while there was an intention to meet for sexual activity there was never any physical meeting between them.

He said the police became involved when the teenager’s father became aware of what was happening and Wood was arrested.

Mr Stephen Scully, for Wood, said his client had been “living a lie” having been married for 25 years and now accepted his sexuality.

He said Wood had believed the people on the website were all over 18 but had continued when it became clear the victim was under age.

Mr Scully said his client, having revealed his secret life, was now separated from his wife and he had lost his employment and his reputation.

February 2015

54-year-old Fetcham man jailed for taking indecent images of schoolgirl

A FETCHAM man has been jailed after pleading guilty to taking and making indecent images of a child.

Alan Weeks, 54, of Hazel Way, appeared at Guildford Crown Court for sentencing on Friday after entering an early guilty plea on one count of taking indecent images of children and another of making indecent images of children.

February 2015

‘Double-life’ of music teacher who had 5,000 indecent child images

A MUSIC teacher at a Hull school was caught with more than 5,000 indecent images of children on his computer

Mark Scullion, 40, taught at Thomas Ferens Academy, in Orchard Park, until his arrest.

He was caught with more than 5,352 images on his computer at his Beverley home.

It is likely he will be banned from working with children for the rest of his life.

Judge Michael Mettyear, sitting at Hull Crown Court, told Scullion: “You were, for a long time, a music teacher and it seems you were successful and well thought of during that work.

“But for at least part of that time, you were leading a double life, pretending to be respectable, pretending to be law-abiding, when you were, in fact, involved in the downloading of these disgraceful images of children.

“It will be horrible for parents of the children you taught to think back, knowing a person they trusted, was engaged in that sort of activity.”

The indecent images were of children aged seven to 15. Officers also found one extreme image involving a dog.

Scullion pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing indecent photographs, one count of possessing and distributing indecent photographs and one count of possessing an extreme pornographic image.

The distribution charge related to Scullion using “peer-to-peer” file-sharing programmes on his computer, which he originally used to download music.

Defending Scullion, who gave the court an address in Bretton, near Peterborough, in Cambridgeshire, Robin Smith said his client had lost everything as a result of his perverse interest, including his marriage.

“His marriage fell apart rather quickly and a divorce is imminent,” said Mr Smith. “He has a son and since these allegations came to light, he has seen nothing of him. That is one of the most distressing aspects of this case for him.

“He has had a long time to think about these matters and he is extremely distressed. He cannot explain why he got into viewing these images.”

Jailing Scullion for two years, Judge Mettyear told him: “There is no evidence you were involved in direct contact with these children or you abused them, but abused they were.

“It is a fact that people who want to download this material, encourage abusers to do what they do.

“This has completely changed your life, but you brought it on yourself. You are an intelligent man, you knew it was wrong and inappropriate and you continued to do it.”

Scullion was suspended from his post as soon as he was arrested.

Hull City Council says there is no evidence to suggest any of the offences relate to his pupils.

Paul Dyson, the Independent Chairman of Hull’s Safeguarding Children Board (HSCB), said: “As soon as he was arrested, he was immediately suspended from duty by the Academy.

“Local Hull Safeguarding Children Board agencies are already taking the necessary action to ensure that, in addition to his custodial sentence, he is barred from working with children in any capacity in the future.

“There is no evidence to suggest Mr Scullion’s offences relate to any local pupils, past or present.

“The academy and other members of the HSCB have worked closely with the police throughout this case.

“The outcome reflects the determination to ensure people who download indecent images of children will be prosecuted and punished.”

Scullion must also sign the sex offenders register.

February 2015

Former clay pit worker jailed for 12 years for raping young boy in the 1970s

A FORMER clay pit worker has been jailed for 12 years after being found guilty of raping a young boy from the St Austell area in the Seventies.

Kenneth Bawden, 58, took the boy, who was aged five to eight, to a secluded location before abusing him sexually, Truro Crown Court heard at the start of his trial on Monday.

Bawden, who had previous convictions for sexual offences against five other boys, lived in St Stephen and was working at the clay pits at the time.

The court heard the boy, now an adult, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the police the abuse happened on more than one occasion when he reported it in 2013.

Jason Beal, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “It can be many years before children, or adults as they then become, pluck up the courage to tell anyone in authority what has happened.

“He recalls that what happened to him had to be kept a secret that nobody could know about.”

The court heard Bawden had previously appeared in court on two occasions, realting to offences which happened in the later 1970s and 1980s – after the offences related to this boy.

After the conviction, Rupert Taylor, for the defence, said Bawden had spent much of his childhood in care.

Of Bawden at the time of the offences, he said: “He was but a teenager himself.

“He was living away from his family and he was a young man that obviously had a very troubled childhood.”

Mr Taylor said that since Bawden’s last court appearance, he had sought to live a law-abiding life with his partner.

Mr Beal said Bawden was interviewed following the revelations and told officers that he had been living in St Stephen at around that time and had worked at the clay pits.

He said he had never spent any time alone with the boy and had never done anything of a sexual nature towards him.

“He said that he could not think of any reason why it would be that [the boy] would now try to get him into trouble by saying something that was not true,” added Mr Beal.

On Tuesday a jury found Bawden, of Hampage Green, Havant, Hampshire, guilty of two serious sexual offences on the boy.

Sentencing, the judge, Recorder Edward Burgess, said there were elements of the case that suggested Bawden had deliberately befriended the boy.

“You exploited his innocence and his naivety for your own perverted sexual gratification,” he said.

“Although he desperately wanted to turn to his parents … he felt utterly unable to do so.”

Recorder Burgess said the victim had suffered considerable inner turmoil as a result of Bawden’s actions.

He added: “You told the jury obvious lies.

“You were thoroughly selfish and cowardly in your approach to this case.”

Bawden was jailed for 12 years and ordered to sign the sex offender’s register for life

February 2015

Hayle man who admitted sexually assaulting a five-year-old girl in a barn near Penzance has walked free from court

Christopher Prowse, 60, forced the child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to touch him intimately and then indecently assaulted her, Truro Crown Court heard at his trial.

Joanna Martin, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said the victim, now an adult, had not spoken about the incident until much later in life.

She said in about 2004 the woman confronted Prowse, of Riviere Towans, Phillack, who admitted that it had happened.

The woman agreed not to say anything further or go to the police but some years later began to be abused by members or Prowse’s family who branded her a liar.

On Thursday, the day after his trial started, Prowse changed his pleas and admitted indecency with a child and indecently assaulting a child on a date between 1974 and 1979.

In a victim statement, which was read out in court, the woman said she became quiet following the incident and never discussed it because Prowse had told her that if she told anyone she would get into trouble.

She said she had struggled with the “horrible memories” and the incident had affected her relationships.

“I will never fully know how my life and feelings would have been different had it not been for Christopher Prowse,” she said.

“It was very wrong for him to abuse me at the age of 5 and I have always lived with it.

“I now have grandchildren and I have really seen what a normal childhood is.

“I would like to end this whole matter and when this case is over I will try and move on with living my life through my family.”

Sarah Vince, for the defence, said Prowse accepted what had happened and was sorry for it.

She said: “The meeting that [the woman] speaks about in around 2004 did happen and Mr Prowse did admit at that time what had happened, and she showed him compassion for which he was grateful and that compassion adds to his remorse and regret for being here today.”

Sentencing, Judge Simon Carr said the incident had been “disgraceful”.

“You deliberately assaulted a five-year-old child,” he said. “That would have been terrifying for her as it would have been confusing and embarrassing.”

He said the victim had shown him “enormous compassion” by not going to the police in the mid-2000s but that when the matter became known locally, Prowse had acted in a cowardly way by denying it – an action which led some people to consider the woman a liar.

Prowse was sentenced to 18 months in prison suspended for 24 months and was ordered to pay £1,000 towards the costs of the prosecution. He was also ordered to sign the sex offender’s register

February 2015

Man jailed for sexual offences against under-age girls

February 2015

Mother disappointed at sentence for pervert who lured young victims using Facebook

This is the face of the sick Facebook sexual predator who targeted vulnerable young boys for his own sexual kicks.

Pervert Raymond Brennan (22), posed as a teenage girl on the social networking website in order to get boys as young as 11 to strip and expose themselves over a webcam.

He threatened to publish explicit images of one victim online if the child didn’t send him more.

Brennan told gardai that he didn’t think there was anything wrong with his behaviour and that he was just experimenting with his sexuality.

He convinced one 14-year-old boy to meet him and engage in sexual acts with him

He also tricked another boy, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, to talk about his underwear and to masturbate on a web-cam. 

But before he began stalking the Facebook pages of innocent children, devious Brennan had already been grooming and sexually abusing a young boy for years.

Now that boy’s mother has spoken out for the first time about the devastation Brennan’s sick crimes have caused to her family and to her son’s life.

The woman, who we are calling Kate because she agreed to speak to us on condition that we do not publish her name or her son’s name, has hit out at the sentence handed down to Brennan. 

Brennan pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 13 sample counts, including sexual assault, defilement and defilement of a child under 15 years old

Earlier this month Judge Mary Ellen Ring imposed a five-year jail term on the sex fiend, but suspended the last 18 months. She backdated the sentence to last June meaning that, with remission, Brennan is likely to be released from jail in early 2017. 

But his victims have been left to endure a life sentence after being manipulated and degraded for Brennan’s amusement.

The sexual abuse began when Kate’s son was aged 11 or 12. The court heard the victim has suffered from depression and anxiety as a result of the abuse and that it has had a huge negative effect on his family.

Kate said: “The judge in her sentencing made a mockery of my son’s bravery and all of the other victims too. My son and all of the other children and their families got a longer sentence. It will take years and years for them to recover and this sentence has just rubbed salt into very deep wounds. 

“We just wanted people to realise the impact this has had on all of us, but no words can describe it, and the court’s failure was the last betrayal.”

Brennan set up two false Facebook profiles pretending to be a 14-year-old girl and a 14-year-old bisexual boy. He then sent out random friend requests to males aged around 13 and 14. Judge Ring described this as a “phishing expedition” in which he used photos of particularly young teenagers to set up fake accounts. 

Around 350 people accepted the friend requests sent from the two fake accounts.

In one case he convinced a 14-year-old boy who has Asperger’s Syndrome to masturbate on a webcam. The pervert asked this victim if he would “do stuff on camera” with his 10-year-old brother, but the victim refused. 

The offences came to light when the mother of the first victim checked her son’s iPad and his Facebook messages and saw the sexually explicit conversations. 

Brennan made his first victim – Kate’s son – masturbate him in his bedroom, while both their mothers were in the kitchen downstairs. 

He forced this child to have sex and once showed the then 13-year-old online images of children as young as nine being abused by adult men. Brennan was charged with a number of offences of defilement and attempted defilement of a child. 

He claimed that it was consensual, saying: “If it did happen it didn’t happen like that. We would both do stuff to each other”. But a source close to the investigation said Brennan was grooming this victim from when the child was as young as 10. 

In another case, Brennan, again posing as a teenage girl, convinced a 13-year-old boy to appear naked on a webcam. He later threatened to publish images of the naked child on Facebook if the victim didn’t send more. 

Posing as a bisexual teenage boy, he also began exchanging sexually explicit messages with a 14-year-old boy.

Brennan later contacted the victim using his real identity and claimed that he was aged 17 and arranged to meet the boy.

He had sex with this child and he later told gardaí he thought this was okay because they both met of their own free will. 

Kate said she is devastated by how Brennan’s abuse has ruined her son’s life. 

“He saw me in court and walked right up to me, stood nose to nose with me with just a pane of glass between us.  I saw no remorse, I saw defiance, hatred and evil. The only thing this person is sorry for is that he got caught.”

February 2015

Man jailed for sexual exploitation a 13-year-old girl is to be ‘re-sentenced’

A Pakistani man jailed for the sexual exploitation of a 13-year-old girl in what was the first prosecution taken under child protection legislation has had his sentence vacated by the Court of Appeal.

Muhammad Hussain (32) with a last address at Steam Boat Quay, Limerick City, pleaded not guilty to travelling to meet a child with the intention of doing an act that would constitute sexual exploitation on July 22 2011.

He was sentenced to four years imprisonment by Judge Sarah Berkeley at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on April 4 2014.

Hussain successfully appealed against his sentence in the Court of Appeal today and a new sentence will be imposed on him on March 16.

Counsel for Hussain, Ciaran O’Loughlin SC, had submitted that because this was the first conviction for an offence under this section, it was not appropriate for prosecution counsel to suggest any sentence to the sentencing judge.

The Court of Appeal agreed and stated that where no guidance from an appeal court or, a reputable analysis of sentences typically imposed exists, then it is not appropriate to do so.

Giving background to the case, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan said Hussain met the intended victim, Ms F, in the early hours of May 25 2011.

Ms F was 13-years-old at the time, she had been residing in institutional care but did, however, have frequent contact with her mother. Hussain was 29-years-old at the time.

On the evening in question Ms F and her friend left the residence and got a taxi into the city.

Walking along a road on their own, they met Hussain. He had been travelling in a car with a friend and had stopped at some traffic lights and engaged in a conversation with the two girls. One of either Hussain or his friend, asked the two girls if they were prostitutes, the judge said.

The two girls struck up a conversation, got into the car, spent the rest of the evening with the two men and exchanged telephone numbers. They told Hussain and his friend they were 19 years of age.

Hussain rang the telephone number several times. Her mother answered on one occasion and she told him her daughter was 13 years of age, had gone missing and it was not known where her she was.

On July 17, 2011, Ms F retook her phone from her mother and sent a text to Hussain asking him to make contact. There then followed an exchange of telephone calls and text messages.

On July 22, Ms F and her mother received a telephone call from Hussain. It was recorded by Ms F’s mother and played to the jury.

It was clear Hussain wanted to meet Ms F, the judge said. He was offering to bring her items including alcohol and mobile phone credit. In that call he admitted he was aware of her age. 

While it appears there was some discussion about sex and sexual matters in that telephone call, Hussain did not commit himself to anything. He agreed to meet Ms F at a particular location that evening. The gardaí were then contacted by Ms F and her mother and they arrested Hussain at the location.

Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan said the prosecution is entitled to and should give assistance to a sentencing judge in relation to both to placing the offence at the appropriate point on the spectrum of severity and in identifying the sentence.

However, in this case, certain submissions which appeared to have been taken into account by the sentencing judge were impermissible.

She said it was not in accordance with principles for the prosecution to submit for consideration sentence decisions on offences other than the offence in question. Such decisions did not come within permitted guidance, she said.

It was not permissible to submit as was done by prosecution counsel: ‘the Director would say this is in the mid range of offending, perhaps even toward the upper end of the mid range’.

Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan, who sat with Mr Justice Gerard Hogan and Ms Justice Mary Irvine, said the trial judge erred in principle in considering those submissions.

The Court allowed Hussain’s appeal, vacated his sentence and remanded him in custody until March 16 pending a decision on a new sentence.

February 2015

Man who raped and abused former partner’s young child over ten-year period jailed

A Roscommon resident who repeatedly raped a child over a ten year period has been sentenced to 15 years with three suspended.

Andrew McCarthy (35) began raping his former partner’s daughter in 2006 when was she nine years old after taking her to a seaside town. In a victim impact report the woman said McCarthy took her innocence and childhood from her and left her a broken person.

McCarthy of Ballymoe, Castlerea, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to eleven counts covering the rape, oral rape and sexual assault of the child at houses in Dublin and Galway on dates between May 2006 and January 2011. The sample counts are from a total of 27 charges within that period 

Elva Duffy BL, prosecuting, told the court that the victim is happy for McCarthy to be identified in the press but wants her own identity to remain unpublished at all times.

Mr Justice Paul Carney said one aggravating factor in the case was the fact that McCarthy would ply the victim with alcohol to the point that she suffered liver damage. He also noted that McCarthy photographed and video recorded the abuse.

He suspended the final three years of a 15 year sentence on condition that McCarthy stay away from the victim and undergo 18 months of post release supervision. The judge also ordered that McCarthy be registered as a sex offender.

The abuse was discovered in March 2011 when the victim’s mother saw inappropriate messages on her partner’s Facebook account. In the messages McCarthy was telling the child that he loved her and would wait for her.

The court heard that McCarthy first molested the child in the summer of 2006 after taking her to a seaside amusement arcade where the court heard she had won two big teddies. 

He took her back to a relative’s house where they had to share a bed. After sexually assaulting her he told her he was sorry if it had hurt her.

Around Christmas that year he began asking her about the possibility of her giving him a “blow job” or oral sex. 

Sometime in 2009 he had raped her after she had said no to him. He told her that it would be easier if she just agreed and “got it over with”. 

The court heard McCarthy would take pictures of her partially and fully undressed. He would also take photos and video footage of him orally raping her. 

During this time her mother’s health wasn’t very good and McCarthy would tell her not to tell her mother about the abuse because it might disturb her. 

McCarthy began buying alcohol for the victim and her friends and she later had to be treated in hospital as a result of drinking alcohol from an early age.

He would promise to drive her places but then later make it conditional on her performing oral sex on him. He did this ten times in a three month period in 2009. He also began driving her to a lake area where he would rape her on the bonnet of the car.

In a victim impact report the woman said that instead of being a father figure McCarthy had instilled nothing but fear in her for ten years. 

She said she was too young to understand what he was doing until she went into fifth class. After that she felt disgusting all the time. She was bullied in school and her Leaving Certificate suffered because of an earlier trial during which he had pleaded not guilty.

She said his actions have left a wedge within her family. 

“I don’t sleep I always feel scared and vulnerable. I never feel safe. I have contemplated suicide. I have nightmares. I felt disgusting, insecure, used. I cannot open up to anybody,” she said.

McCarthy has one previous conviction for handling stolen property.

Peter Finlay SC, defending, said his client wishes to apologise for his actions but admitted he has limited insight.