December 2016

Man put phone in bathroom to film girl

A Perverted agricultural contractor who secretly filmed a teenage girl in a bathroom for his own sexual gratification, a judge said.

Martin Pennells claimed he had no sexual interest in the girl and was not trying to film her as she used the toilet but a jury at Exeter Crown Court rejected his claims.

The girl spotted his iPhone as she used the bathroom of a house in a village near South Molton, Devon, early one morning in March this year.

She had previously noticed the phone in a toilet in the house but not told anyone about it. When it happened for a second time she told a school friend in a Facebook message.

The girl did not appreciate at first the seriousness of what had happened but her friend persuaded her to tell a teacher, who called in the police.

Pennells, who worked as a contractor on farms all over North and Mid Devon, admitted making four or five recordings but denied doing so for any sexual reason.

Pennells, 43, of Dorchester, Dorset, was convicted of four counts of voyeurism or attempted voyeurism.

Recorder Mr Philip Mott, QC, jailed him for 12 months, suspended for two years.

He gave him a four month nighttime curfew and he was put on the Sex Offenders’ register for ten years.

The judge told Pannells he planned and executed what he did over a period of months for his own sexual gratification.

December 2016

Predatory paedophile guilty of abusing young children

A paedophile pensioner who committed a string of sexual offences against young children has been found guilty.

David Sime of Seaton Sluice, had been charged with eights counts of indecency against male and female children who were under the age of 13. The jury found Sime guilty on two of the indecency charges.

The court was told that Sime is sexually attracted to prepubescent children and that two of the victims had not yet reached puberty.

The judge placed Sime on the sex offenders register and then released him on further bail for background and probation reports to be prepared ahead of sentencing in January at Newcastle Crown Court

December 2016

Pervert caught for second time by online child protection team 

A pervert who groomed and arranged to meet a 14 year old child for sex has been jailed after he was snared for a second time in less than a year.

The court was told that Alan John Pocock, 30 of Woolwich believed he had been chatting to a child, but instead was actually in conversation with a decoy from the online child protection team ‘Internet Interceptors’

Throughout the chat, Pocock expressed his desire to engage in sexual activity and was very explicit in what he actually wanted to do with the child.

He was found guilty of grooming and attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity

Pocock admitted that he had groomed another child in the past and had been convicted before.

Pocock arrived at Woolwich Crown Court four hours late for his sentencing.

The judge sentenced him to 12 months imprisonment, and told him he must register as a sex offender for a period of seven years

December 2016

Convicted sex offender caught for second time

A sexual predator who was convicted earlier this year for grooming what he believed to be a 14 year old boy has been arrested again after grooming and meeting the same online protection team that snared him in July.

Marc Wanstall, 43 of Kidbrooke traveled to Greenwich Park on Christmas eve to meet what he thought was a 15 year old boy but instead of meeting a child he was actually met by the online child protection team ‘Internet Interceptors’

Wanstall believed he was grooming the boy for sexual activity via online chat. He quickly turned the conversation sexual by expressing that he wanted to ‘suck the boy off’.

The court was told that back in July Wanstall was exposed and convicted for grooming what he believed to be a 14 year old boy. He was spared a prison sentence. He was however given a sexual offences prevention order and placed on the sex offenders register for a period of five years.

Wanstall, who works for a security company and who has grown a beard since the first sting, now faces a prison sentence after being arrested for a second time for grooming and attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.

He will also face charges of breaching his sexual offences prevention order.

He has now been bailed with conditions

December 2016

Jailed: Pervert believed he was grooming schoolboy for sex

A pervert who believed he was grooming a 14-year-old boy for sex cried in the dock as was jailed.

Dermot Storan of London initiated an online conversation with a decoy from online protection team Public Justice PHL.

After sending a number of sexually explicit messages, Storan arranged to meet the decoy on the 24th December 2015 at Kings Cross.

Storan arrived by pushbike, and was shocked when he realized that the child he had groomed was infact a team dedicated to catching online perverts who groom children. Angered at being caught, he attempted to get away. However he became violent when the team seized his bike to stop him. 

He was in court on Monday 31st October 2016, for a two day trial for charges of grooming and attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity. Public Justice PHL gave evidence against him.

He was found guilty by a majority of 10-2 by the jury

On 14 December, at Blackfriars Crown Court, the judge sentenced Storan to 18 months in prison.

Storan broke down in the dock and started to cry as he was led out to start his sentence.

He was given a Sexual Harm Prevention order and told he must register as a sex offender for 10 years dermot broke down in the dock as he was being sent down

December 2016

Teaching assistant groomed 13-year-old girl after telling her she would ‘make her fall for her’

A teaching assistant groomed a vulnerable girl after telling she would make her “fall for her” a court heard.

Leah Roberts, 21, sent the 13-year-old girl a series of sexual text messages, despite knowing how old she was, the court heard.

Snaresbrook Crown Court heard that Roberts met the young girl at a youth club before they started messaging each other.

During their messages on Whatsapp, Roberts asked if the girl was single, and when she told her she wasn’t, she said she could “change that and make her fall for her.”

Martin Hooper, prosecuting, said: “The defendant met the complainant through a third party at a youth club.

“They had met in the summer of 2013. She was contacted through whatsapp, and they began to message.

“The messages became of a sexual nature,” he continued.

“The defendant asked her age, the victim asked her to guess. She then told the defendant.

“She was asked if she was single, she said she wasn’t, and the defendant said she could change that and make her fall for her.

“They met up on at least five occasions and kissed.

“There was one occasion where she tried to put her hand lower on the body of the victim but she stopped her.”

Mr Hooper told the court the victim then broke off the relationship, reported it to her school, who then contacted the police

Roberts, who has worked for agencies World Class Teachers and Exciting Teaching Sports Coaching, admitted meeting a girl under 16 for sexual grooming but denied non-penetrative sexual activity with the teen.

That charge was left on file following her guilty plea to the grooming charge.

Judge Oscar Del-Fabbro gave Robert a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years, as well as a restraining order, forbidding her from contacting the victim directly or indirectly.

He said: “There was clearly a sexual purpose to your intentions.”

Roberts, of Oban Street, Poplar, was also given a 60 day rehabilitation activity requirement, and a two year mental health treatment requirement.

August 2016

Four years for teen that enjoyed sexually torturing young boy

A sadistic teenager who tortured and raped a seven year-old boy for a series of imagined ‘crimes’ has been jailed for four years.

Ibrahim Coulibaly, 18, subjected the youngster to various punishments for a range of perceived grievances over a year-long period between 2012 and 2013.

Those punishments included suffocating the youngster with a pillow to the point he thought he might die to forcing him to squat in a ‘stress position’ for hours on end.

August 2016

Man jailed for sex with boy of 13 he secretly filmed at his Isle of Dogs apartment

A man who enticed a 13-year-old boy for sex back to his Thames riverside apartment near Canary Wharf has been jailed for nearly five years.

Federico Traversa found the boy through a gay dating app and agreed to meet at his home on the Isle of Dogs in east London.

He showed the boy videos of young children performing sex before engaging in his own sexual activity with him in the bedroom.

It only stopped when the boy pretended to get a phone-call from his mother and left the flat.

But 31-year-old Traversa had secretly filmed them without the boy’s knowledge and later sent it to his mobile phone—which was his undoing.

It led to his arrest a few weeks later by the Met’s Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command.

“Traversa claimed his victim was above the age of consent,” Det Con Jonny Newell said. “But the boy told him he was 14—that didn’t stop Traversa engaging in sexual activity.

“The evidence we recovered later showed his sexual interest in children and I’m pleased he has brought before the courts.”

Traversa continued contact with the boy on social media after the incident last March at Galleons View apartment block in Stewart Street, Blackwall, by sending him the video and indecent images of young children, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

But the boy lent his mobile phone to his sister who saw the video. Police were called and Traversa was arrested on April 15, despite protests that sexual activity was by consent and that the boy said he was 16.

Traversa later admitted five charges in court—sexual activity with a child, causing a child to watch a sexual act, taking indecent photographs, possessing indecent images and possessing indecent moving images of a child. He was jailed yesterday for four years and eight months.

October 2015

Pervert shopped by his broadband provider

A telephone engineer was caught in possession of over 2,000 indecent images of children after he was shopped by his broadband provider

Peter Hogwood, 62, downloaded 2,174 images in total.

He avoided prison, but was told he must register as a sex offender

October 2011

Man posed as a teenager to groom girls on internet

A pervert that sexually groomed five young girls via a social networking site has been jailed for five years.

John David Lawson (25) was arrested in relation to two victims and initially ordered to stop using Facebook by the police – but continued to re-offend.

Leicester Crown Court was told the girls were aged between 12 and 15.

The defendant met the first victim, a 15-year-old with learning difficulties, in Leicester and tickled her on the hips.

They cuddled and kissed and he made repeated suggestions about sex acts.

Mary Prior, prosecuting, said: “When the 15-year-old’s parents checked her computer and saw the sexual content of the chat between the defendant and their daughter they phoned him and identified themselves, but he put the phone down.”

Lawson pretended to be 18 or 19 when he contacted the girls – and was sexually explicit in online chats and phone texts. While pursuing some of his victims, he offered them “a free party with fags and beer”.

Mrs Prior said he tried to encourage victims to expose themselves to him via webcam.

The second victim was aged 13 and he repeatedly asked to meet her.

The third girl was aged 12 and the fourth and fifth were 14.

Mrs Prior said the girls were emotionally affected and upset by their contact with the defendant.

Lawson, of Howden Road, Eyres Monsell, admitted sexually grooming the five girls between July last year and May this year.

Sentencing, Judge Robert Brown said: “I’m satisfied you didn’t sexually assault your victims, but in the case of the first girl you intended to have sexual intercourse with her.

“She was vulnerable with learning difficulties.

“Fortunately her mother accessed her Facebook account and intervened to prevent you from having sex with her daughter.

“You were arrested and interviewed and told to stop using Facebook. Notwithstanding that, you carried on using Facebook using a false identity.

“You then engaged in sexual advances towards others.”

Lawson was banned from working with children under 18 and will have to enlist on a sex offenders’ register for life.

He was also made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order, restricting his contact with young girls and allowing the authorities to monitor his future computer use.

December 2016

Sex pest told to register as sex offender

A sex pest who bombarded a 13-year-old girl with Facebook messages as he sought to have sexual activity with her has received a suspended prison sentence.

Danny James Barry Harris was twice the age of the victim and made “vulgar, crude” suggestions to her, the Honorary Recorder of York Paul Batty QC told York Crown Court.

Earlier Michele Stuart-Lofthouse, prosecuting, said Harris knew she was underage, but sent her a picture of himself in his underwear and talked about wanting to have sex with her.

The pair met on one occasion, but nothing sexual happened between them, and the girl herself stopped the exchanges after two months because she knew he was an adult and didn’t want it to continue.

The transcript of the exchanges, which were started by Harris, filled 180 pages.

The judge told Harris, now 26: “You bombarded her with Facebook messages. In fact you were twice her age and it would appear you became utterly infatuated with her.”

Harris, of Kitchen Drive, Selby, pleaded guilty to meeting a child after sexual grooming shortly before he was due to stand trial.

He was given a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years on condition he did a four-month nightly curfew from 7pm to 7am and 60 days’ rehabilitative activities.

He was also put on the sex offenders’ register and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order curtailing his behaviour towards children, both for ten years.

November 2003

Man who raped 8-year-old girl jailed

A child sex fiend who raped a six-year-old girl when she came to his home to play has been jailed for eight years.

William Lalobo, 31, lured the youngster into his bathroom and locked the door before brutally raping her.

September 2015

Rapist sentenced to 10-years imprisonment

Daniel Shuttlewood (30) was today sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment at Portsmouth Court Martial Centre after being convicted of several historic sexual offences against under age girls in the 2000s

On 24 Jul 15 Shuttlewood who had pleaded Not Guilty was found Guilty of four charges by a civilian board (or “jury”) at Bulford Court Martial Centre.

He was convicted of two counts of rape and two counts of sexual activity with a child (under 16) involving penetration; considered an aggravating factor.

Shuttlewood was acquitted of indecent assault whilst on a school trip against a 15 year old, in 2003. 

Shuttlewood groomed two underage girls utilising his position of authority and later social media, to enable his offending.

Arrested on 30 Aug 13 Shuttlewood claimed that he did not know the age of the girls he made contact with and that sexual activity was consensual

In 2003 Shuttlewood befriended a girl aged 14/15 when he was 17/18 years old. Some months later Shuttlewood arranged to meet the girl at some disused squash courts on site at the Joint Headquarters Germany (JHQ) where he raped her.

In 2009 when Shuttlewood was 24 years old and working at a media company in Rheindahlen he used Facebook to befriend and begin grooming a girl aged 14/15, who was the sister of one of his colleagues.

The crimes including oral sexual penetration took place over a number of months.

During this time Shuttlewood had an increasing number of sexual encounters with the 14/15 year old girl, culminating in her rape at his parents’ house.

Shuttlewood lived with his family in 2003/4 and again when back in Germany in 2009.

His father was a teacher at the Windsor British Military School in Rheindahlen, Germany.

As a dependent of his father Shuttlewood was a “civilian subject to service law” and criminal law of England and Wales. For this reason the case was referred to the Service Prosecuting Authority.

December 2016

Child sex offender avoids prison after abusing young girl

A pervert has been given a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to sex offences involving a young girl.

Benjamin Poolman, 23 of Loughborough was charged with a string of sexual offences for which he faced a trial:

• Rape of child aged under 13

• Sexual assault of a child under 13 by penetration

• Sexual assault of a child under 13

• Three counts of sexual activity with child

• Indecent assault

At Peterborough Crown Court, Poolman was found not guilty on some of the charges and instead pleaded guilty to two charges which was accepted by the court:

• Sexual assault of a child under 13 by penetration

• Sexual assault of a child under 13

The offences took place in Ramsey in Cambridgeshire in 2008. He admitted licking, sexually touching and penetrating the victim multiple times.

In April 2015, the victim disclosed the abuse she had suffered when she was aged between 10 – 13. The police were informed immediately.

Poolman was sentenced at Cambridge Crown Court to 16 months imprisonment which was suspended for two years

He was told that he must carry out 300 hours of unpaid work in the community, as well as undertaking a 30 day rehabilitation activity requirement.

Poolman was disqualified from working with children, and was given a £250 fine towards court costs

In December 2013, Poolman was arrested in Loughborough for a rape allegation. When the police investigated this, another girl came forward. However the CPS decided there was not enough evidence to go to trial.

November 2016

Pervert avoids prison over indecent images

A pervert has avoided a prison sentence after he was found guilty of making (downloading) indecent images of children

Mark Ashley Grindon, 33 of Mannings Heath, Horsham was found guilty of six counts of making and possessing indecent images of children which covered all three categories of indecency.

Grindon was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment which was suspended for 2 years

He was told he must register as a sex offender for 10 years and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) was put in place to restrict his contact with any person aged under 16 years old.

December 2016

Paedophile found guilty of sex offences against 12-year-old girl

A paedophile that abused a young girl 37 years ago has finally been convicted.

Frederick Thirtle, 68 of Playters Old Farm, Ellough, Near Beccles was found guilty at Ipswich Crown Court of two counts of indecent assault against a child aged under 13 years old.

The offences were committed in Ellough in 1979 against a female child who was aged 12 years old.

Thirtle was released on bail until his sentencing next week.

August 2016

Man jailed for five years for sexually abusing young girl

A SUPERMARKET worker has been jailed for five years for sexually abusing a vulnerable girl over a three-year period when she was as young as eight.

Adam Bond was jailed at Warrington Crown Court on Friday after being found guilty of five offences against the girl, having previously admitted another count, in relation to incidents between 2005 and 2007.

The 27-year-old’s offending began when the victim was eight, with Bond admitting that he pulled the girl’s tracksuit bottoms down and touched her inappropriately.

Bond’s sexual behaviour towards the girl continued when she was aged 10 and he forced her to put her hands in to his underwear and touch him.

On a number of occasions the following summer Bond, of Dudley Street in Orford, put his hands in the 11-year-old victim’s underwear and sexually assaulted in his bedroom and a park.

In 2012, she contacted Bond on Facebook to confront him about what had happened – he apologised and offered to take her shopping.

The girl did not report the incidents until she told a counsellor in 2014, with the police informed shortly afterwards.

Bond answered a no comment interview when questioned but when he was first contacted by police he said: “I did it, I’m not going to lie – I touched her.”

He was convicted of four counts of sexual assault and one of inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity on June 23 after a trial having earlier pleaded not guilty – Bond, aged between 14-17 when the offences were committed, admitted a further count of indecent assault on the morning of his trial.

In a personal statement read out to the court, the victim said she had experience depression, anxiety and sleeping problems because of the abuse she suffered and had also attempted self-harm.

She added that her confidence had been affected and she has felt ‘worthless’.

Her honour judge Tina Landale jailed Bond for five years and also subjected him to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

He will serve half of his sentence before being released on licence.

Judge Landale added: “You were found guilty after a trial by jury of a series of the most serious offences committed against a vulnerable child.

“This has had a significant psychological effect on her and she has not been able to recover from what she suffered as a child.”

The victim’s parents released a statement following the sentencing.

They said: “Due to the despicable abuse that Adam Bond inflicted on our beautiful daughter at the age of 10 and 11 he has robbed her of her innocence, causing her to take a different direction in life.

“He is a disgusting individual with paedophilic tendencies.

“The pain and suffering has had a phenomenal impact – she became a shadow of her former self, withdrawn and shy.

“She no longer trusts men and has nightmares to this day.

“We are satisfied she’s got the justice she deserves and can try to move on with her life.”

Bond, who had no previous convictions, was an employee at Asda Birchwood and had been on a management programme with the supermarket giant.

June 2012

Leicester man in sex attack on teenager he befriended on Facebook

A man who sexually assaulted a vulnerable teenager in an alleyway after befriending her on Facebook has been jailed for four years.

Gareth John Evans (26) groomed the teenage victim, who has learning difficulties, and twice sexually assaulted her after meeting her in a park near her Leicester home.

The teenager, who had no sexual experience, was left distraught.

Sentencing Evans at Leicester Crown Court, Judge Simon Hammond said: “He took advantage of a vulnerable young female for sexual gratification.

“Vulnerable females need to be protected from sexual predators. He groomed her on Facebook by flattering her.

“During the trial she was distressed. She said she felt she was taken advantage of by this man and no longer trusts people.

“She was sexually innocent and she has been left feeling insecure and frightened.”

Evans, of Dunbar Road, Northfields, Leicester, came into contact with the victim on social networking site Facebook, and flattered her by saying she was “cute and sexy,” the court heard.

He told her he wanted to meet her to ask for advice about his girlfriend and she agreed to meet him near her home in Leicester at 6pm on July 6, 2010.

They went to a park, but he said he told the victim he did not want to be seen, because of his girlfriend.

She suggested they went to a nearby alleyway to talk and told him she was upset about her exams, so he gave her a cuddle.

Judge Hammond said: “No boy had ever given her a cuddle before.”

Evans began to kiss the teenager on her neck, cheeks and lips and then sexually assaulted her twice.

Judge Hammond said: “She made it plain throughout she was not consenting.

“The next day he changed his mobile phone number so it wouldn’t show a link to her.”

Evans denied twice sexually assaulting the victim, but was convicted on both counts by a jury by 11-1 majority verdicts.

He still denies any wrongdoing.

Julie Warburton, prosecuting, said the victim, who formerly attended a special needs school, felt Evans targeted her because of her difficulties.

Evans will be on a sex offender register for life and was placed on a sex offences prevention order so his future computer use can be monitored by the authorities.

January 2017

Pervert caught with child abuse images after sending texts to undercover police officer

Lying pervert Philip Dono was caught downloading hundreds of indecent images of children – after sending incriminating texts to an undercover police officer.

The 57-year-old was arrested after he exchanged messages which showed he had an interest in children with the officer.

Police searched his Meir home and found more than 1,800 child abuse pictures on three computers.

Now Dono has been handed an eight-month suspended jail sentence at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court.

Prosecutor Jonathan Dickinson said police arrested the defendant in May 2015.

The court heard police found 493 indecent images at category A – the most serious – on a laptop; 405 at category B and 845 at category C.

Mr Dickinson said: “207 were really accessible including extreme category A images of young children.”

On another device, police found 15 images at category A; 19 at category B and 48 at category C.

And on a mini laptop there were two category A images; one category B and six at category C.

Mr Dickinson added: “Children as young as three were depicted. He accrued the images over a long period of time, going back to June 2012. There were moving images as well as still images.”

In his police interview the defendant denied any sexual interest in children.

However, Dono, of Skipacre Avenue, Smallthorne, went on to plead guilty to 12 charges of making indecent images of children and one offence of possessing an extreme pornographic image.

Judge Paul Glenn sentenced Dono to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, with a 40-day rehabilitation activity requirement and an order to complete the sex offender group programme.

Judge Glenn said: “Your actions came to light after you had been posting on a dating website and subsequently became involved in correspondence with an undercover officer. Your home was searched and various items were seized. You denied any sexual interest in children and having any indecent images. Analysis of the devices showed you were lying.

“These offences are serious because people like you who access this material for entertainment encourage the perpetrators of this vile abuse. These are real children being abused and irreparably damaged.”

Dono was placed on the sex offenders’ register and was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which will run for seven years. He must pay £350 costs.

January 2017

Sex monster ‘preyed on children for 40 years’

A PENSIONER raped a young girl, tried to rape another, and sexually abused three more children over a period of almost 40 years, a jury has been told.

Martin Connolly, known to many as Mark, preyed on the youngsters who were aged from four years to 14, when he was living in Penhill, Swindon Crown Court heard.

The 77-year-old, whose daughter Alison was murdered in 2015, has admitted trying to rape one girl when she was 13 or 14 years old.

And he also accepted he had indecently assaulted the same child, between 1978 and 1980, having been caught on tape talking about it. The pensioner later told the police that he had tried to rape her three to four times because he was ‘sexually frustrated’ at the time.

But Connolly, now of Windmill Court, Uxbridge Road, Freshbrook, denies a series of allegations relating to one boy and three girls. It is said that he first targeted a young lad in the late 1960s, getting him to touch him intimately in exchange for money.

Steven Jones, prosecuting, told the jury of nine men and three women how the boy was aged six or seven when Connolly abused him.

He said the lad’s older brother told how on one occasion, when he was hiding, he heard the defendant telling his younger sibling ‘touch this and I’ll give you a shilling’.

Mr Jones said one of the girls claimed Connolly, who she knew as Mark, started to sexually abuse her in 1989 when she was just seven years old. She said the abuse, which is alleged to have taken place at his home on Penhill Drive, went on until she was 12 years old in 1995.

He would give her sweets, then cigarettes when she was older, Mr Jones said, and he would rape and sexually abuse her while his partner was elsewhere in the house.

She said he had sex with her the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom, and was also shown pornography by him.

Another girl also told how, while he was looking after her, he had also shown her pornography.

“The prosecution say that the similarities of this behaviour is important evidence in a case of this nature,” Mr Jones said. He said the second girl told the police how she was abused by Connolly after learning the first had come forward in late 2014

When the pair spoke the first girl, who alleges she was repeatedly raped, told the second ‘he had taken her childhood’, Mr Jones said.

Another friend of the second girl told how when she was 13 or 14 the defendant would touch and squeeze her breasts, he said.

On one occasion she said she was at his Penhill Drive home in the early 2000s and he put his hand up her skirt and touched her under her knickers.

Mr Jones said when Connolly was questioned by police he replied the three girls and a boy were lying.

He said he had kissed the girl who accuses him of rape, but he insisted she had come on to him and that no more happened.

Connolly denies four counts of rape, seven of indecent assault, one indecency with a child and one of indecent assault of male child.

He admits attempted rape and two counts of indecent assault on the same victim.

The case continues.