March 2015

Convicted child rapist delivers post to schools in admin blunder

A convicted child rapist was allowed to land a job delivering post to schools and businesses due to an admin blunder.

Now TNT Whistl is carrying out a review of all 3,000 of its delivery staff after the ‘administrative error’ led to Andrew Horrocks being employed.

Horrocks, who was jailed for 12 years in 2007, was convicted of four counts of rape and two of sexual assault against a five-year-old girl.

But he was employed in December 2013 as a delivery operative for Whistl, based at its sorting depot in Sedgley Park, Prestwich. He was sacked this week after the company was alerted to his conviction by another member of staff.

Horrocks, from Wigan, had declared to Whistl that he had an unspent conviction for a ‘sexual offence’, but the company claim he did not give them the full details of the offence.

The firm, which employs 4,500 nationally, says it then did a Criminal Record Bureau check on Horrocks, which confirmed he had a conviction but the information was not passed on during the recruiting process.

No attempt was made by the company to glean the full details of his conviction.

– SPOKESMAN FOR WHISTL

Andrew Horrocks was employed as a delivery operative by the company in autumn 2013. He was subject to a CRB check and the ongoing associated Mail Integrity Code of Practice for the delivery of mail.

“He had declared an unspent conviction and due to an unacceptable administrative error, the conviction was not highlighted. As soon as we became aware of the conviction, we met with Mr Horrocks and agreed to terminate his employment.

“We are currently undergoing a thorough review of the existing paperwork for delivery personnel and recruitment processes to ensure that this is an isolated incident. We are distressed that this situation has arisen as we aim to work to the very highest standards.”

One member of staff at the Prestwich depot said:

“This has caused panic among the management at work. Horrocks has been going to schools and businesses as well as private homes – that is what we do. We deliver post to those kind of premises.

“I think it is shocking that this can happen.”

February 2007

Man sentenced for rape of 5-year-old girl

A man has today, Friday 23 February 2007, been sentenced to 12 years in prison for the rape and sexual assault of a five-year-old girl in Wigan.

Andrew Horrocks (born 09/12/79) of Belle Green Lane in Ince was found guilty of four counts of rape and two counts of sexual assault at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday 9 February 2007, after a five-day trial.

On Friday 18 August 2006 the five-year-old confided in her grandmother telling her that Horrocks had raped her in his home on several occasions.

The attacks took place during a seven-month period between 2 January 2006 and 13 August 2006.

Detective Constable Sue Molyneux from the Child Protection Unit at Bamfurlong said:

“Any sexual offence is despicable but it is particularly harrowing when the victim is so young.

“I want to pay tribute to her courage throughout this trial. Horrocks has heaped a further ordeal on her after everything that she has been through, by running a trial.

“She has been very brave in giving her evidence and in being cross examined in court and she is an inspiration to other victims of sexual crime.”

March 2015

Paedophile man faces years in jail for rape and abuse of young girls

A BUILDER is facing a long prison sentence after he was found guilty this afternoon of raping a girl and sexually abusing two others.

Paedophile Shane Bowden preyed on the children over the space of six or seven years, a jury decided.

He raped one girl and indecently touched the others after getting them alone, Plymouth Crown Court heard.

A judge told the 44-year-old he believed he was “extremely dangerous”.

Judge Simon Carr told Bowden: “I take the preliminary view that you pose a risk to children. The prison sentence you will receive will be of some considerable length.”

Bowden, of Thames Gardens, Efford, showed little reaction when the forewoman of the jury announced the verdicts after a week-long trial.

The panel took about three hours to unanimously accept the evidence of the three girls – who were all forced to give evidence by Bowden’s lies.

Judge Carr urged members of their families and supporters of Bowden to show restraint in the public gallery before the verdicts.

Several women were in tears as Bowden, who was in custody through the trial, was taken away.

Judge Carr said he was considering an extended sentence, which would see Bowden released two thirds through his prison term rather than at the usual half-way point.

He will be assessed by a psychiatrist to assess the risk he poses to children.

Bowden, a self-employed builder since the age of about 25, denied raping a girl aged under 13 in 2006 or 2007. He also pleaded not guilty to the alternative charge of sexually assaulting the girl.

Bowden also denies sexually assaulting a second girl under the age of 13 in 2010 or 2011.

He finally pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexually assaulting a third girl under that age between 2010 and 2013.

Bowden was found guilty on four charges. No verdict was needed on the alternative count.

Two of the girls said they were too young to understand what Bowden had done to them.

The rape victim said she had felt “horrible” and hated her tormentor.

Two victims added that Bowden had told them not to tell anyone about what had happened.

Bowden was remanded in custody to be sentenced in the week of April 6.

March 2015

Nudist farmer from Redditch found guilty of 9 indecent assaults on young girl

A NUDIST who began “naked farming” on his family’s Redditch smallholding – even driving a tractor with no clothes on – is now behind bars after being found guilty of nine indecent assaults on a young girl up to 40 years ago.

Peter Summers, now 65, took to wandering around “stark naked” at the smallholding in Stock Lane, wearing an adornment on his private parts, the trial heard.

Summers, now of Sambourne Lane, Sambourne, Redditch, denied indecently assaulting the girl between 1975 and 1983 but a jury of 10 women and two men took six hours and six minutes to deliver unanimous guilty verdicts on all counts at Worcester Crown Court.

Judge Michael Cullum, jailing him for four years, told Summers he had “ruined” a large part of the life of his victim, now aged in her 40s, after grooming her and then indecently assaulting her.

“Your later activities of parading around naked clearly caused her significant distress,” said the Judge, who told him he would serve two thirds of the sentence in jail and the rest on licence.

“For some years you had abused her, touching her when and where you liked.”

Summers has also been place on the sex offender register for life.

Abigail Nixon, defending, had told the jury that Summers may be an “odd” man with long white hair.

But she questioned whether his naked behaviour around his family’s smallholding may simply have “embarrassed” his alleged victim.

“She expected him to answer the door naked or be naked on his tractor,” said Miss Nixon.

“She’s seen him naked, riding about in the fields without clothes on.”

The victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the jury her abuse had ruined her life and she had been disgusted by seeing him walk around naked, with an adornment on his private parts.

In a victim impact statement – read to the judge by Peter Cooper, prosecuting before sentencing – she listed her feelings now, including that she felt “dirty, dead inside, ashamed, sad inside, not normal”.

She added that she hated sex, hated her body and never felt she could cope with the intimacy of childbirth.

She had suffered depression, self-harm and thoughts of suicide.

“I feel like I’ve never been allowed to forget the physical abuse,” she added.

Some of the alleged indecent assaults had happened in a caravan where Summers had lived with his then wife, Patricia, who later left him for his own father.

Judge Cullum, summing up to the jury, referred to Summers’s practise of “naked farming” and added that his family had the “strangest of set-ups.”

Giving evidence, the victim had said she felt ashamed and dirty because of the abuse.

She eventually told her husband and a community support officer about the alleged assaults, before making a DVD of her evidence.

In the evidence, she told how Summers at first tickled her and later began touching her.

Summers himself did not give evidence to the court.

There was drama as the jury delivered its verdict when the woman foreman swayed and collapsed on to the bench, supported by neighbouring jurors, as she delivered the verdict to the final count.

The judge adjourned the case so she could be checked by a first aider and another juror then took over to confirm the verdicts.

Miss Nixon told the court Summers had been “clearly shell-shocked” by the verdicts.

March 2015

Former lorry driver from Newlyn is facing jail after being found guilty of raping a young girl

Norman Wood went on trial at Truro Crown Court last week accused of indecently assaulting the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and raping her on two occasions in the mid 1980s.

The 58-year-old had perviously admitted charges of indecently assaulting a second girl.

Jason Beal, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said the first girl told police that she remembered Wood being a bit touchy feely with her and that he had kissed her on the lips.

Mr Beal said: “She obviously realised it was not right.

“He said ‘it is okay; it is allowed.”

The court heard Wood, of Chywoone Avenue, Gwavas Estate, touched the girl sexually and raped her.

“He said what was happening was to be their little secret,” said Mr Beal.

“Making this young girl think that if she said anything it would be that would be in trouble.”

Mr Beal said Wood called the girl “his little princess” and that the abuse happened on a number of occasions.

The court heard a complaint was made to the police in 2013 after the two girls, now adults, got in touch with each other on Facebook and shared their stories.

At an earlier hearing, Wood admitted five offences of indecent assault on the second girl.

He denied three counts of indecent assault and two of rape in relation to the second victim.

In interview, he told officers that he “completely and absolutely refuted any of the allegations made about him” by that girl, Mr Beal said.

Closing the case, Jeremy Leaning, for the defence, urged the jury to find Wood not guilty.

He said evidence about Wood’s work records obtained from HMRC pointed to his clients innocence.

He said: “Treat this prosecution evidence with the greatest of caution especially against a background of information sharing.

“Norman Wood had an inappropriate and unlawful relationship with [the second girl] when she was under the age of 16.

“Events which he will fall to be punished for in due course.”

Last Friday, the jury found him guilty on all counts.

The case was adjourned Friday [March 6] for sentence.

Remanding Wood in custody, the judge Recorder Edward Burgess, said: “You will receive a substantial prison sentence.

“The only question in my mind is how long that will be.”

March 2015

St Merryn man, 87, jailed for sexually assaulting three boys at boarding school

A ONE-LEGGED 87-year-old man from St Merryn has been jailed for four years after he admitted sexual offences against three young boys while he was working at a boarding school in the 1980s.

Peter Hancock, of Jasmin Way, gave his victims alcohol before touching them sexually, Truro Crown Court heard on Thursday.

At an earlier hearing, Hancock admitted three counts of indecent assault on three different underage boys in the early 1980s when he would have been in his mid-50s.

David Sapiecha, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said Hancock was employed as a house father at a boarding school at the time.

He said: “The Crown’s position has always been that this defendant was the house father responsible for their social lives, activities in school and their care.

“The boys, the prosecution say, were not complicit, they were compliant, inevitably, given the power that Mr Hancock had over them.”

Mr Sapiecha said Hancock invited pupils to his home and plied one boy, aged 15, with gin and tonic before telling him to lie on the bed and sleep it off.

The boy, now an adult, told police that he woke up to find Hancock touching him sexually and encouraging a second boy to join in.

That second boy, also a victim in the case, told police he enjoyed going to Hancock’s home to watch television and be away from the other pupils.

The court heard Hancock engaged in sexual activity with that 15-year-old on a number of occasions.

A third 15-year-old boy also reported being indecently assaulted by Hancock.

Rupert Taylor, for the defence, urged the judge to give Hancock credit for having the good sense and courage to plead guilty.

He said: “For a man who is almost 87, he is doing reasonably well [health-wise], despite the amputation of one leg.”

Of the victims, he added: “Their accounts have been believed, the court will act on those accounts and there will be punishment … that allowed some closure for those three people.”

Sentencing, Judge Christopher Harvey Clark, QC, said: “The boys at the school were, at least in some instances, particularly vulnerable.

“You were in a position of trust and you were responsible for the care of your pupils.”

Judge Harvey Clark said Hancock had given at least two of his victims with alcohol before abusing them sexually.

He said there was evidence that one of the victims had developed alcoholism, while another had gone on to commit sexual offences against children as a result of what Hancock had done.

“[He] learned from you that there were no moral or legal boundaries when it came to sexual activity with children.”

Hancock was jailed for four years.

Judge Harvey Clark added: “I trust that this sentence will bring closure to your unhappy victims.”

March 2015

JAILED: Serial child rapist sexually abused young girls for nearly 20 years

A MAN who groomed, raped and abused young girls for nearly two decades has been jailed for 13-and-a-half years.

A jury took just one hour and 25 minutes to find Christopher Clark guilty of 19 historic child sex offences, including six of rape.

Hull Crown Court heard Clark, 50, used “classic grooming techniques” of offering his three young victims “treats, bribes and threats” before repeatedly abusing them between 1980 and 1998.

Clark, of 36th Avenue, north Hull, targeted the girls when they were aged between seven and 13, and raped two of them.

He showed no emotion as a jury of ten women and two men found him unanimously guilty of all charges.

Sentencing Clark, Judge David Tremberg told him: “You have been convicted of a series of offences of rape and serious separate offences against three different complainants.

“The abuse in question began when each girl was aged about eight and went on for several years.

“In the case of the first two complainants it progressed into full sexual intercourse.

“You acted as a depraving and corrupting influence on these children, who accepted what you did to them as being part of their normal lives.

“While you may not be the most sophisticated or intelligently gifted of individuals, you had enough about you to ensure the girls’ silence.

“You caused, or risked causing, serious emotional harm. Mercifully, none of them appear to have been severely affected by this abuse, as many victims of such offences are.”

The judge said that after seeing Clark giving evidence it was clear he was “not the most able or intelligent”.

He said Clark was “barely literate” and described him as being “of below average cognitive abilities”.

But Judge Tremberg told Clark: “I am entirely satisfied that you well knew from first to last that what you were doing was seriously wrong.”

Clark was found guilty of seven counts of indecent assault, six of rape, and six counts of indecency with a child.

He will be released on licence halfway through his sentence and must sign the sex offenders’ register for life.

March 2015

Victims left in shock after Derbyshire serial child abuser is told he will be back on the streets in just three years

Victims of a predatory sex attacker who came forward after they were inspired by the Jimmy Savile scandal have been left stunned after they were told their abuser will be back on the streets in just three years

Allan Pettinger, of East Street, Renishaw, abused the children – aged between nine and 15 – while he was a leader of a St John Ambulance group in the 1970s.

Derby Crown Court heard today (March 6) that the 61-year-old, who was found guilty of five counts of indecent assault in February, had abused the boys on camping trips to the seaside and the Hope Valley between 1972 and 1978.

The court heard that the abuse had massive emotional impact on the victims, who are now in their 40s, but that they had contacted the police after the details of the Jimmy Savile probe came to light.

Judge Hilary Watson told the court that Pettinger (pictured) would be jailed for a total of six years for the abuse, but that he would serve the second half of his sentence back in the community.

Speaking after the sentencing, victims who attended the hearing said that the prison term did not represent the severity of Pettinger’s actions or the breach of trust that his behaviour demonstrated.

One victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: “I’m pleased that he has finally gone to prison but I’m not happy with the sentence. He’s been given six years and it should have been 16.

“As victims we have suffered for years and this doesn’t reflect what he has done.”

Victims described how they had been left emotionally scarred following Pettinger’s assaults, suffering nightmares and depression.

One victim told the court he had been unable to bath his own child when she was little because he was so traumatised by what had happened and he had problems seeing his own children naked,

But defending Pettinger, Barry Gilbert said that the abuse was historical and urged the judge to be as lenient as she could.

He said: “It’s very easy to overstate the impact – it could be somewhat of an exaggeration. These offences were some 40 years ago and with other offences the court would say ‘it’s a very old offence’.

“In the years that have gone by he has lived a blameless existence and the burden is going to fall with his family.

“When these offences were committed, he was probably in his early to mid 20s, and the man who committed these offenses was a more immature and less stable individual than he grew up to be.”

“These may not have been the worst examples of this type of offense that the court is ever going to see.”

Judge Watson said that at the time the offences were committed, the maximum she could have sentenced Pettinger to was ten years in prison, but that modern guidelines would have allowed her to jail him for a maximum of 14 years.

“Sentencing, she told Pettinger: “You were the officer in charge, so when you took these boys away you had parental consent and you had parental responsibility.

“You were in a position of responsibility that you were able to hide behind and exploit.”

Pettinger was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

Despite the sentence, police urged other victims of historical sexual abuse to come forward.

DC James Wall, who investigated the offences, said: “I would like to thank all the witnesses and victims who came forward to tell me about what had happened to them and what they had to endure at the hands of Allan Pettinger.

“Pettinger was a supervisor in the St John Ambulance charity in the 1970s when he committed these offences. Without the courage and bravery these men have shown by talking about their ordeal Allan Pettinger would not have been brought to justice.

“I would like to take this opportunity to urge anyone who has been subjected to any sexual offence, however long ago, to have confidence that their allegations will be investigated. Derbyshire Constabulary will take those allegations seriously and do everything possible to bring the case to court.”

March 2015

Sex offender used Skype to target boys as young as 8 – Avoids prison

A MAN used a popular website to try to encourage a boy he believed was 15 to perform a sex act on camera.

Liam Boagey, 21, asked Skype users to send him indecent pictures of teenage boys and tried to get one to carry out a sex act for him, Teesside Crown Court heard.

He was caught with a collection of 1,131 pictures of children aged between eight and 15, including 289 showing serious sexual abuse.

It was said Boagey resorted to trawling the internet for sex chat and images of teen boys instead of admitting he was gay to his family.

He was spared jail so he could get treatment to cure his interest in young boys.

Police seized two computers and a mobile phone which Boagey had used to download the indecent pictures and movies when he was arrested at home on November 4 last year.

Harry Hadfield, prosecuting, said: “The investigation established he had also been using the laptop to engage in online Skype chat

“Examination of the Skype chat logs proved the defendant had been instigating conversations of a sexualised nature in order to incite distribution to him of indecent photographs of children.”

He said Boagey would start a truth or dare to talk about sexual preferences before trying to obtain indecent images from them.

One Skype user offered to send him a link to indecent material in January 2013.

In September 2013, Boagey asked the same user if he had any pictures of boys aged about 14.

The court heard that in July 2013 Boagey talked about sex to a Skype member, who said he was 15, and Boagey encouraged him to perform a sex act over a webcam.

The authorities could not establish if the sexual activity did occur or if the person Boagey spoke to was actually 15.

Boagey pleaded guilty to attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity and inciting the distribution of indecent images.

He also admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and one of possessing extreme pornography.

Jim Withyman, mitigating, said Boagey was 19 when he committed the offences.

He said: “This is a young man who had difficulty coming to terms with his sexuality.

“He’s homosexual and wished to keep that secret from his family and friends.

“It led him to lead a somewhat solitary life and to look to the internet.

“He can be helped and realises his behaviour was completely unacceptable.

“He’s incredibly embarrassed about what he’s done and ashamed at the embarrassment he’s caused his loving family and wishes he had just dealt with wrestling with his own sexuality in a very different way.”

Judge Tony Briggs said: “Those who try to encourage other youngsters or people who they think are youngsters to act in this way need to be discouraged.”

Boagey, of Lightfoot Crescent, Hartlepool, was given 15 months prison suspended for two years.

He will also be on the Sex Offenders’ register for seven years and made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for the same length.

March 2015

Convicted rapist from Hythe– found with vile images of children on his computer – claimed he was secretly tracking perverts

Matthew Brown told police he had been sickened by inmates making fun of child sex pictures.

The 25-year-old married man, from Palmer Drive, said he had stored up images of children as young as four years old – after planning to pose as a policeman to trap paedophiles.

But Judge Heather Norton rejected the vigilante account after hearing he had been jailed in 2005 for rape and sex assault on children.

She also heard how after being released from his sentence in 2011, he set up a Facebook account using an alias…and kept that secret from police.

Canterbury Crown Court heard that when officers raided his home in June last year they discovered he had also been indulging in chats with other sick perverts about threesomes with children.

His barrister Guy Wyatt claimed that the weblogs were just talk, adding: “There is no evidence it was more than just shared fantasies”.

But Judge Norton ruled that Brown, who admitted four charges of downloading illegal images of children, posed a serious risk to children and jailed him for two years.

She told Brown, who also admitted failing to tell police about the alias, that he will serve three-quarters of that sentence – and then added another two years he will serve on licence when released.

Prosecutor Dominic Connolly said that when police raided the house, Brown, who was with his wife, told them: “I know what this is all about.”

Officers seized his computer and mobile phone more than 70 sick child sex images – including of victims aged between four to six – and five minutes of movies.

Mr Connolly said that initially Brown denied having accessed the Internet to look for illegal pictures – and then claimed he was making a collection in the hope of trapping paedophiles by posing as a police officer.

But the judge told him: “It is impossible to accept that as an explanation.”

She also issued an order prohibiting Brown for having a phone or a computer accessing the Internet without special software to monitor which sites he uses.

March 2015

Pervert urged woman to sexually abuse baby – Jailed 5 years

A paedophile who tried to get intimate photos of a baby girl, and distributed child abuse pictures on-line, has been jailed for five years.

Danny Lamb used a social media chat room to speak to a woman who said she had access to a baby, Bristol Crown Court heard.

As well as encouraging her to interfere with the baby he tried to get her to take photos of the baby’s private parts, but none was taken.

Lamb, 25, of Walnut Buildings in Radstock, pleaded guilty to arranging or facilitating child prostitution or pornography, and arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence.

He also pleaded guilty to three charges of distributing an indecent photograph of a child, and seven charges of making an indecent photograph of a child.

Judge Geoffrey Mercer QC jailed him for five years and ordered him to serve a four-year extended licence period.

The judge told him: “These are serious sexual offences to which you eventually pleaded guilty. They are wholly unattractive and very wrong.

“They display, clearly, an interest by you in very young children. The images which you collected and distributed included images of penetra- tive sex involving young children.”

The judge said Lamb could be defined as a dangerous offender, after a probation report concluded he posed a high risk of harm to children and there was a likelihood of him re- committing a sexual offence. He handed him an indefinite Sexual Offences Prevention Order, including a proviso that he must advise police of internet use on devices retaining his internet use history.

Nicholas Fridd, prosecuting, said in mid-2013 Lamb was sharing a house in Bath but he left at short notice and took an occupant’s phone with him – which he claimed was sold to him.

When police examined the phone they found Lamb had accessed a number of websites and encouraged a woman called Sophie to interfere with and photograph a baby she said she had care of.

The court heard, however, that the woman lied to Lamb that it was her baby, and did not accede to his sick requests.

Police also discovered Lamb had downloaded child abuse pictures and video clips of tots as young as two. He was also found to have forwarded pictures to others.

Nicholas Wragg, defending, said his client distributed a small number of images categorised in the highest level of concern. He said one recipient expressed a favourable interest in the images while another recipient was indifferent.

Mr Wragg said dyslexic Lamb suffered from anxiety and depression as well as “life-long low mood”. He said he had problems forming friendships or intimate relationships.

Mr Wragg added there was no actual contact involved in the case, other than by messaging, and no indication Lamb had the intention of committing a sexual offence directly with a child.

March 2015

Man pleads guilty over indecent images of children cache

A man has appeared before Londonderry Crown Court on Friday, admitting a string of offences connected to indecent images of children

Police found Gareth McAuley, 45, in possession of hundreds of photographs and videos.

Some of the pictures are in the most serious category of child abuse images.  

Gareth McAuley, originally from the Waterside area of Derry, now lives in Eglinton Street in Portrush.

He was arrested after police officers discovered a cache of images on electronic devices.

During a brief hearing on Friday, he confirmed his identity before he was formally charged.

In total, 37 charges were put to him in relation to making, possessing and distributing indecent images.

It is understood the charges are linked to the discovery of hundreds of images – both still photographs and videos – that depict the sexual abuse of children.

They range from category one, the lowest level of seriousness, to category five, the highest.

When the charges were put to him, McAuley stood in the dock with his head bowed and replied that he was guilty.

According to court documents, all the offences were committed over a 12 month period leading up to July 2013.

McAuley has been told he will be placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register – but for how long has yet to be determined.

Judge Philip Babington released McAuley on bail.

He will be sentenced in April after the court has received pre-sentence probation reports and psychiatric reports.

March 2015

Combe Martin man jailed for raping schoolgirl babysitter

A JOINER from Combe Martin has been jailed for 11 years after being found guilty of raping a young babysitter who looked after his children in the 1970s.

Graham Staddon started abusing the vulnerable schoolgirl when she was just 13 and went on to rape her when four years later after she stayed overnight in a spare room at his home.

His assaults began when he was walking her home and took her down dark alleys in Combe Martin and became more serious when he attacked her in his car while giving her lifts to or from babysitting.

The rape happened when Staddon’s two young children were playing in a corridor outside the bedroom where she was attacked.

The girl suffered physical abuse at home from her strict and violent father and was too frightened to tell anyone what Staddon was doing to her.

She eventually revealed the truth to the police 40 years later after undergoing counselling and therapy and being emboldened by high profile abuse cases.

Police praised her courage after Staddon was found guilty and jailed at Exeter Crown Court.

Staddon, aged 63, of King Street, Combe Martin, denied rape and six indecent assaults but was found guilty and jailed for 11 years by Judge Graham Cottle.

He told him: “Your victim had an unhappy home life in which she was subjected to emotional and physical abuse. She was a lonely child who sought to escape by babysitting for you when she was 13.

“You saw her as a vulnerable child and began to abuse her sexually when the opportunity arose. Now, after 40 years, you have eventually been brought to justice because she has summoned the courage to come forward.

“I bear in mind there was only one incident of rape but set against that you had been indecently assaulting her regularly for four years.”

Sean Brunton, for the prosecution, said the offence was particularly serious because of Staddon’s breach of trust as the girl’s employer and the 40 years of psychological anguish she has suffered since.

Staddon had denied any form of sexual contact other than a single and innocuous goodnight kiss on one occasion when he took the girl home.

Greg Richardson, for the defence, said Staddon had lived a hard working and blameless life in the 40 years since the offences occurred.

After the case Detective Constable Sam Napier, of the Barnstaple child abuse investigation team, said:”Staddon targeted a vulnerable young girl and abused her. I hope this verdict and sentence will allow the victim to rebuild her life.

“I would like to praise the courage of the victim and the other witnesses in coming forward in this case.”

March 2015

Man who abused a nine-year-old girl in a public toilet has been jailed for 12 years

John Newton, 26, admitted going into the toilet in Workington’s Vulcan Park park intending to sexually assault the girl in August last year.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to false imprisonment with intent to commit a sexual offence, common assault and assault causing actual bodily harm.

Judge Paul Batty described the crime as “every parent’s nightmare”.

Newton, of Fisher Street in Workington, had also admitted one count of voyeurism and two breaches of a sexual offences prevention order.

Newton was told he posed a risk to children and would have to serve at least eight years before being eligible for parole.

‘Extremely dangerous man’

Judge Batty added: “This type of offence is about as bad as it gets.”

Speaking after the case, Isla Chilton, of the Crown Prosecution Service North West, said Newton was an “extremely dangerous man”.

She said: “This young victim showed great tenacity in refusing to comply with the demands of a strange man, even in the face of violence.

“She then bravely called for help causing him to flee, before this particularly serious incident could escalate further.”

Det Con Insp Mike Brown, who led the investigation, said: “Newton presents a significant danger to children and the wider community and the court have recognised this by taking away his liberty.

“We thank the public for their assistance in this case. They played a big part in providing information and evidence that helped to build a compelling case against him that led to his guilty plea and subsequent sentence.”

March 2015

Tiverton man admits historic sex assaults against four girls

A man from Tiverton has admitted historic sexual assaults against four different girls which date back to the 1990s when he was a teenager.

Richard Yabsley, aged 36, pleaded guilty to a total of seven charges when he appeared before Judge Graham Cottle at Exeter Crown Court.

Yabsley, from Tiverton, admitted indecency and indecent assault against one girl; the same charges against a second; two charges of indecent assault against a third and a single charge of indecent assault against a fourth.

He denied a further ten charges, which will not be pursued.

Miss Mary McCarthy, prosecuting, said the pleas had been notified in advance and were acceptable.

Mr Richard Crabb, defending, said:”This has been a very difficult process for a man in his position. The allegations are of non penetrative activity with four girls between 1994 and 1997 when he was in his teens.

“For the past 15 years he has led an honest and industrious life and has a wife and young children.”

Judge Cottle adjourned the case for a probation pre sentence report and ordered Yabsley to sign on the sex offenders’ register immediately.

March 2015

Sex offender jailed for 18 years as victim describes her ordeal

A 36-year-old man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison as part of Operation Bullfinch and work by police into the sexual abuse of young girls in the Oxford area.

Tilal Mahdi of Friars Street, Hereford was convicted by a jury at Oxford Crown Court of:

March 2015

32-year-old Man pretended to be boy to ‘groom’ 12-year-old

A PORT pervert preyed on a frightened 12-year-old child online by using a false identity and bombarding him with a series of sickening sexual advances.

Daniel Doherty, 32, ‘groomed’ his schoolboy victim and told him he wanted to meet up and kiss him after targeting the youngster on Facebook.

Doherty took on the persona on the social network of someone whom the lad thought he knew — then lured him into his vile fantasies by asking to be his ‘friend’.

He went on to send the boy smutty pictures of himself, tried to engage him in inappropriate chat and also told him that he ‘loved’ him.

Greenock Sheriff Court heard how the flow of disgusting messages came after he sparked up an initial chat by calling the child ‘mate’ and asking what he was up to.

Doherty’s fictitious online personality included a profile picture of someone else.

Prosecutor Pamela Brady told how the victim — who had turned 12 just three months previously — was enjoying a break at his grandmother’s house when Doherty first messaged him.

The fiscal depute said: “The complainer did not recognise the profile picture but he thought it was his gran’s friend’s son.

“The accused started asking him questions about girls and if he’d ‘done anything’ with girls.

“He also asked the boy if he had a six-pack and then sent a picture of himself with no top on.

“The accused began asking him if he liked to wear jeans or jogging bottoms and also what type of underwear he liked.”

Doherty sat with his head bowed in the dock, staring at the floor, as the facts of his behaviour were narrated in court.

Mrs Brady told how he made the boy feel ‘uncomfortable’ by sending a picture of himself in underwear and another with his hand down his shorts.

But Doherty kept his victim communicating with him by chatting about football before diverting back to his sordid aims.

The court heard that Doherty told the boy that he ‘couldn’t tell anyone’ about his messages to him, which made the victim feel ‘more and more uncomfortable’.

He also asked the child if he had access to the live online video messaging service Skype.

Prosecutor Mrs Brady said: “The accused asked the complainer where he stayed and indicated that he wished to meet up with him.

“He sent a message asking the complainer if he would kiss him.”

Mrs Brady told the court that Doherty’s messages became ‘increasingly sexual’ and that he declared to the child that he was aroused.

The fiscal depute said: “The complainer was embarrassed.”

Doherty was caught after the victim’s grandmother saw that the boy was still logged in to his Facebook account on a tablet computer after he’d gone for a bath.

Mrs Brady said: “She read the messages and formed the view that her grandson was being groomed. She became angry and upset about it.

“The 12-year-old didn’t realise that this person on Facebook was in fact a stranger and thought he was speaking to a person he had known.”

The court heard how the boy’s mother logged into her son’s Facebook account after being alerted by the grandmother.

Mrs Brady said: “The mother couldn’t quite believe what she was reading and was utterly disgusted.

“She phoned the police.”

Doherty quickly deleted his false Facebook account after receiving a ‘friend request’ from a woman and asking his victim if he knew who she was.

But the incriminating series of messages remained, complete with the IP (internet protocol) address of where they originated from — Doherty’s home in Port Glasgow.

The 12-year-old victim told police that he was ‘a bit scared’ by Doherty’s advances.

Detectives carried out a 7.30am raid on the house where Doherty lived with his parents in Cardross Avenue on 4 April last year and seized computers.

Fiscal depute Mrs Brady said: “It was explained to the accused’s parents why the police had attended and both of them became very distressed.”

The court heard that Doherty was turned in to the police by his father after confessing: “I’m sorry, it was me.”

Shamed Doherty, currently on bail to an address in McLean Place, Paisley, admitted on indictment through lawyer Ellen Macdonald to intentionally sending the boy sexual written communication between 12 and 17 October 2013.

Mrs Brady said: “It is quite clear that the 12-year-old was affected by the nature of the communication, which caused upset and horror to his family and had impact on the Doherty family.”

Doherty had been also been charged with targeting another 12-year-old boy in an identical way but his not guilty plea to this was accepted by the Crown.

Sheriff Derek Hamilton deferred sentence for a background report and ordered Doherty to register with the police as a sex offender.

The Facebook predator is due to learn his fate on 8 April.

March 2015

Jail for pub chef who says he became ‘addicted’ to viewing indecent images of children

A pub chef who became ‘addicted’ to viewing indecent images of children has been jailed.

Jason Duncan, 48, built up a vile collection of 3,291 sickening images and stored them on three mobile phones and his home laptop.

Some of the images showed the sexual abuse of children aged as young as four.

Duncan, of Walk Mill Close in Wardle, Rochdale, would look at images for three to four hours a day and for up to eight hours a day if he wasn’t working, Manchester’sMinshull Street Crown Court heard.

He shared seven of the images he collected with another man.

Duncan pleaded guilty to 11 charges involving the possession and distribution of indecent images and was jailed for 20 months.

Lisa Boocock, prosecuting, said: “He accepted that he was addicted to indecent images of children.”

The court heard Duncan was arrested after a police swoop on his home. The raid followed information passed to police by child abuse online watchdogs who had become concerned about Duncan’s use of a network, which allows users to disguise computer use to enable anonymous communications.

Ms Boocock said analysis revealed graphic internet search terms and images had been transferred from the laptop to be stored on the phones.

Of the images, 1,367 were classed within the highest level of indecency.

Duncan transferred seven via his mobile phone to a contact. The court heard he claimed that he got the contact name and phone number from an ‘advert’ he saw in a toilet cubicle at a bus station. His haul also included cartoon and CGI images and images of extreme pornography.

Janet Ironfield, defending, said there was nothing ‘commercial’ about Duncan’s distribution and he was frank with police.

She said he worked long, unsociable hours as a chef and added: “He widened his searches from pornography he had become de-sensitised to. This was a solitary activity for this defendant. He fears he may have lost his relationship. He fears that he will lose his job and is contemplating moving away.”

Judge Maurice Greene said images were accessed and built up between 2012 and last year. He added: “They were particularly abusive images.”

A 10-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order was passed to restrict Duncan’s future computer use and he must also sign the Sex Offenders’ Register.

March 2015

Man found guilty of sexually abusing schoolboy

A FATHER-OF-TWO has been found guilty of having sex with a teenager in the 1980s.

Lance Middleditch, 56, of Queenborough Lane, Braintree, was charged with 19 offences from May 1980 to December 1988, including indecent assault of a male, indecency with a child under 14 and buggery.

Middleditch denied all charges and a five-day trial began on Monday last week in which jurors were told how the defendant began abusing his victim at the age of 12 when he stayed on his sofa after a fireworks party in 1980.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard that Middleditch used to walk his dog with the youngster, and the boy would regularly stay at his house after school when he lived in Chelmsford.

And as the boy got older, the abuse continued during long country drives and in the bagging shed when no one else was around at the Mid-Essex Gravel pit in Essex Regiment Way, where Middleditch worked at the time.

Middleditch also worked behind the bar at nearby Channels Golf Club, ran the Chequers pub in Writtle and became bankrupt, before taking up chef work in Suffolk.

The abuse was also said to have taken place during caravan holidays to Cromer in Norfolk.

A letter from Middleditch’s former wife to her parents in 1997, where she sets out why the marriage broke down, included concerns she had over the defendant when she found him in bed with a young boy.

The court heard that the abuse stopped in about 1988, when the victim had just come back from a holiday, where he had started taking drugs to block out what had happened.

A former partner of the victim told the court of an incident in the mid-90s when he saw the defendant in Chelmer Village shopping centre, becoming angry and agitated.

The court was told that Middleditch had pleaded guilty at Norfolk Crown Court to a separate sexual assault charge in 2004 on a young man who had been staying at his home, when the defendant came into the victim’s room and sexually assaulted him.

Middleditch was interviewed about these allegations at Colchester police station on January 8 last year and denied everything, claiming the victim was a drug addict trying to extort money from him.

During his interview with detectives, Middleditch said: “It was something I didn’t really want around my children. He was always after money when he was into drugs, so maybe that’s what he’s trying to do.”

But on Friday he was found guilty of 11 out of the 19 charges, including counts of eight indecent assaults on a male and three charges of buggery.

He was cleared of eight counts of indecency with a child under 14. Middleditch was released on bail and will be sentenced on Monday, March 30.

March 2015

Former soldier battered seven-month-old baby so badly its eyes rolled to the back of its head

A former soldier who battered a seven-month-old baby so badly its eyes rolled to the back of its head has been jailed for JUST 20 months

Brutal Paul Davies, 28, left the unnamed tot with life-changing injuries and lied to its mum about the baby suffering a seizure.

She had left Davis looking after the tot and when she returned home he claimed the baby had “gone rigid” after having some milk and vomiting.

Prosecuting, Tara Wolfe said: “He said he started to become panicky.

He said he tried to call 999 but his phone wasn’t working.”

The baby was “pale and stiff” when paramedics arrived.

They rushed it to hospital where scans found bruising around the neck, a brain bleed and bleeding to both retinas.

Experts told the court the brain injuries were probably due to shaking, and the full effects of the trauma may not be known for years.

The victim’s mum, who is also not being identified, told the court she had “trusted” Davis with the baby.

Davis, of Clevedon, Somerset, initially denied injuring the tot implying it could have been forcefully treated by its mother or paramedics.

But he pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to the infant and was jailed for a 20 months at Bristol Crown Court.

Judge Michael Roach told him: “We will never know precisely how the baby came by its injuries.

“Whether through temper or loss of control, you caused devastating injuries to that small child.”

Defending, Fiona Elder said: “It was a one-off incident and a momentary loss of control.”

She said Davis had been using his former partner’s phone and the day before the incident she had cancelled her contract leaving him unable to call 999.

February 2015

Troon double killer Andrew Cameron’s brother Rodney jailed for rapes stretching back to 1987

The younger brother of notorious double murderer Andrew Cameron has been jailed for rape and other sick sex offences.

Andrew Cameron remains behind bars for the killing of teenagers Kay Wyllie and Nancy Nicol 30 years ago.

We can now reveal his twisted brother Rodney,39, is now also in jail after being found guilty by a jury.

The middle class pair were brought up in Troon’s exclusive Sarazen Drive before Andrew Camerons’ dreadful crimes ripped the family apart.

He killed Kay,19, in July 1984 by strangling her with her bra and dumping her in a ditch on farmland at Dunure.

The hotelier’s daughter had been driving home in her Mini from her boyfriend’s house near Dundonald when she came across her killer.

Ten months later he strangled Nancy,18, and threw her body into the sea at Little Craigs rocks near Royal Troon Golf Club.

Nancy’s body was found a month later by winkle pickers.

Ironically Andrew Cameron could get out on parole later this year after serving his minimum term of 30 years.

Sources are stunned his brother has now joined him in custody.

One said: “It is shocking that Rodney Cameron also turned into what he did.

“This one family is responsible for an awful lot of heartache.

“They say he was tipped over the edge by what his brother did, and nothing could ever be the same.”

He was jailed for four years at the High Court in Livingston last week.

He was found guilty of raping and assaulting a girl and lewd and libidinous practices towards another.

Rodney Cameron, of Telford Court, Walker Avenue, Barassie, had been remanded in custody since the trial which ended on January 12.

All offences dated to a period which began two years after his brother’s killing spree.

The rape and the lewd assaults happened in Mossblown and Troon between 1987 and June 1994.

Rodney left their luxury mock-Georgian home in Troon with his mother and father for a caravan in Mossblown after Andrew,now 48, was jailed for life.

But he returned to Troon with his mum Ivy after his father Jack died.

They lived in Harbour Road but she died aged 76 two years ago – and he was allowed out in handcuffs to her funeral and visit her grave at Troon Cemetery.

He was just 19 when he was jailed and Ivy could never accept what he did, saying: “I’ll always stand by him. I know he’s a rascal but he would never have harmed anyone.”

It turned out her golden child Rodney – who she was particularly close to – also shattered lives.