January 2017

Norwich man cries in dock as he is jailed

A Norwich man wept in the dock as he was sentenced to six years in prison after admitting a string of sex offences against young boys.

Victor Goodrum, of Paragon Place, Norwich, was charged with 11 counts of sexual abuse concerning young boys, including indecent assault, gross indecency and another serious sexual offence.

Goodrum, 83, was sentenced at Norwich Crown Court yesterday, having previously pleaded guilty on March 11, 2015.

January 2017

Charity shop volunteer caught with indecent images of children avoids jail

A charity shop volunteer who was caught with ‘disgusting’ images of children has avoided jail.

Patrick French, who volunteers at the Sense for the blind shop in Accrington, downloaded indecent images and videos over a nine-year period before being caught by the police, a court heard

Officers executed a warrant at his home on Atlas Street in Clayton-le-Moors and found images and movies on two hard drives, a laptop and also on DVDs.

Burnley Crown Court heard how the material involved children as young as eight years old.

French, 46, pleaded guilty at Burnley Crown Court to two counts of making indecent images of children, one count of possessing indecent images of children and one count of possessing extreme pornographic images.

He was given a nine-month jail sentence, suspended for two years with a 50-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

He has also been given a sexual harm prevention order and made to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.

Mercedeh Jabbari, prosecuting, said police attended his home on February 18 last year and French told them that the equipment belonged to him as he was the only person living in the house who was ‘computer literate’.

A forensic examination found 12 category A images and videos – the most serious – along with three category B images and three extreme pornographic images.

Miss Jabbari said during two interviews with the police French denied intentionally searching for and downloading the material, but said he could have ‘recklessly downloaded’ it while accessing a number of online games through sharing websites.

However the court heard how police found evidence of ‘specific searches’ for indecent images of children.

The court heard how French was made redundant in 2005 after suffering a back injury and ‘became socially isolated’

Sentencing, Recorder Fiona Ashworth said: “That is regrettable but absolutely no excuse whatsoever for your conduct.

“I have read a description of the material. They are being abused in quite a horrible fashion. This is not a victimless crime. They have been recorded for the perverse pleasure of people like you.”

The court heard how French works as a volunteer at the Sense for the blind charity shop in Accrington, however this is not on the shop floor.

He also volunteers as a countryside ranger protecting wildlife.

January 2017

Man admits downloading indecent images

A Leven man has appeared in court for downloading indecent child images and extreme pornography.

Mark Duthie admitted committing the offences over a period of more than two years and the images included adults engaged in bestiality.

Duthie (30) admitted that between December 9, 2013 and February 17 last year at his home he was in possession of indecent photographs of children.

He also admitted that between August 17, 2015 and February 17 last year he was in possession of explicit and realistic pornographic images of adults with animals.

Claire Bremner told Dunfermline Sheriff Court that a search warrant was obtained and executed on February 17.

“The locus is the accused’s home. When officers went there they found him there with his mother. They searched the property and recovered a mobile phone and a lap-top.

“The devices were found to have indecent images of children.”

She added: “The accused was interviewed and during the course of this he made a full admission.

“He said he’d searched for the images for the purposes of sexual gratification. He said he had spoken via a messenger application to like-minded individuals.”

Sheriff Craig McSherry called for reports and Duthie will be sentenced on 1st March.

He was placed on the sexual offenders’ register.

January 2017

Company boss spared jail after raid uncovers more than 1,000 child abuse images

A COMPANY boss has avoided jail despite having been found with more than 1,000 indecent images of children.

Christopher Dovey, 48, who is a director at Capel Plant Holdings, based in Stephenson Road, Colchester, was handed a 12 month prison sentence suspended for a year at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday.

The sordid collection which mainly featured pictures of young boys aged between eight and 16, was found during a raid at Dovey’s home.

Essex Police had been tipped off by American and Canadian authorities after he had ordered DVDs from a company which was under investigation for selling indecent images.

All of the images were downloaded on to seven hard drives between 2006 and 2011, the court heard.

Dovey claimed he was searching for naturist pictures, had found the indecent images by mistake and did not look at them.

Dovey, of Grange Road, Lawford, admitted to three counts of downloading indecent images of children in November last year.

A total of 21 images were in the most serious category A bracket as well as one film, while there were 126 category B images and 1,047 category C images.

Recorder RJ Gordon QC said: “The children included in the images are vulnerable and are being exploited. These offences are very serious indeed.”

Dovey will also have to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work in the next year, where he will be under a supervision order from the probation service.

He will also be made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order and have to pay £320 costs.

January 2017

Inverness man shared hundreds of child abuse images and videos through online chatrooms

A 54-year-old Inverness man has admitted possessing nearly 900 child sexual abuse images and videos and distributing another 400 through internet chatrooms to other paedophiles

Mark Handlin, of Telford Road, pleaded guilty to both charges at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday.

Sheriff Margaret Neilson deferred sentence until February 9 for the production of a background report and placed Handlin on the sex offenders register.

Handlin admitted between August 7, 2014, and February 29 last year, at his home address, possessing and distributing indecent photographs of children.

Fiscal depute Michelle Molley told Inverness Sheriff Court that police entered Handlin’s home at 9.30am on February 29 last year based on intelligence they had received.

She said: “Officers received three devices – one white mobile phone, a black mobile phone and a tablet device.

“The black mobile phone contained three e-mail accounts. He shared images of small children between ages one and 16 years, between August 7, 2014 and February 29, 2016, using Messenger apps.”

Ms Molley said that on this mobile phone there were 186 images of the most sensitive type, category A, another 185 category B and 490 images under category C.

There were also a total of 19 indecent child videos spanning all three categories.

Ms Molley said that, on the white mobile phone, Handlin had “shared and distributed” indecent images and videos between July 29, 2015 and February 29, 2016 using Messenger apps.

On this phone he had shared 145 indecent images of the most sensitive category A type, another 125 images under category B and 125 under category C.

A total of 83 videos were recorded and distributed.

Ms Molley added that the sharing took place by use of a “dropbox” – an online link to a collection of pictures – through an internet chatroom.

Handlin first appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court in connection with the charges on March 2 last year, and made no plea and was committed for further examination and released on bail.

October 2016

Man, 39, jailed for groping teenage girl

A BURNHAM pervert has been jailed for nine months after groping a teenage girl.

Graeme Ward, 39, of Alamein Road, Burnham, appeared for sentencing at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday.

He admitted sexually touching the girl in Burnham last September and was sentenced to nine months in prison.

Prosecutor Raj Joshi said: “The defendant slept on the same sofa as the victim. He placed his head on her shoulder and cuddled up to her. Around 5.30am she took the blanket off herself.”

Ward placed the blanket back over the girl before touching her inappropriately underneath it.

This was when “matters came to a head” after a number of incidents of inappropriate behaviour by Ward towards his victim.

Mr Joshi told the court how he had made comments to the victim such as “your boobs are massive” and “you look pretty”.

The court also heard how Ward had made lewd suggestions to the girl, followed her into changing rooms and once wiped her breasts with a tissue after she had spilt ketchup on them.

Mr Joshi said: “The event has had an awful effect on the victim. She no longer leaves the house. She will only go anywhere if she is accompanied.

“She feels very isolated and anxious.

“She has said: ‘I feel scared when I go out and I think I see Graeme when he is not there’.”

Mitigating for Ward, Hannah Sutton said he may be autistic, as he had become fixated with relationships with friends he had made regardless of age or gender.

She added: “It is the case that Mr Ward has shown that he is extremely remorseful. He does not blame anyone but himself for his actions. His remorse is genuine.”

Recorder Peter Brook-Smith said: “Through the course of contact, which I am satisfied was deliberate, you got closer to the victim.

“I have been told there were various incidents prior to the listed offence where your behaviour was inappropriate and of a sexual nature.

“I have no doubt that you considered yourself sexually attracted to the victim and that was the reason for your actions. You will appreciate that this is a serious offence, made more serious by the circumstances I have outlined.”

January 2017

Man faces jail for exposing himself on webcam to girl he was babysitting

A PERVERT exposed himself to a schoolgirl on a webcam from another room in his house while he was babysitting her.

Craig Macmillan, 43, also tried to pay the youngster to perform sex acts on him.

Paisley Sheriff Court heard that he got the girl’s email address and hounded her for a video chat during an eight-year reign of terror against her and another youngster.

His first victim, who was just 14 or 15 at the time, repeatedly ignored his online advances but eventually gave in and accepted his video chat request.

When the video loaded up, she was shocked to realise it had been sent from the living room of the house she was in – by the man who was supposed to be looking after her.

And when the panicked schoolgirl closed down the computer, Macmillan raced up the stairs, burst into the room she was in and pounced on her.

Macmillan, a salesman, maintained his innocence during a trial, telling the jury: “I wouldn’t do that.”

However, he is now facing the prospect of a prison sentence after jury members rejected his lies.

They convicted him of forcing the girl to look at a sexual image by exposing himself to her on the webcam and sending her messages asking her to perform sex acts on him.

The jury also found him guilty of repeatedly sexually assaulting another youngster and he was placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.

Macmillan’s first victim, who is now 25, said the incident took place at his home in Lyle Crescent, Bishopton, sometime between June 2005 and June 2007.

She said she was on a computer in a bedroom in the house when a friend request came through from someone she didn’t know.

She explained: “I accepted and the person started talking to me. They claimed they knew my friends.

“I didn’t believe them at first. It led to them claiming they’d prove I’d recognise them.”

The victim, who can’t be named for legal reasons, said she was then sent a webcam image of a man’s genitals and knew exactly who it was, despite not being able to see his face.

She explained: “I recognised the picture on the wall and the TV in the background. There was just myself and Craig in the house at the time.

“I sat for a few minutes and then Mr Macmillan came running up the stairs.

“He came right up behind me and gave me a hug.

“I felt as if I just had to get out of there. I went out of the house.”

Macmillan also denied repeatedly sexually assaulting another young girl at the same property between September 2008 and August 2013, when she was aged between 10 and 14.

But the jury ruled he regularly exposed himself to her, grabbed her body and touched her private parts.

The jury were unaware that, in February last year, Macmillan was convicted of making sexual remarks to youngsters.

Sheriff James Spy called for Macmillan, who now lives in Beith, to be assessed by social workers and an organisation that works with sex offenders.

He ordered Macmillan to return to court next month to learn his fate and told him: “The fact I’m continuing bail doesn’t mean the sentence you’ll receive will be a non-custodial disposal.”

November 2016

Vile pimp forced girl to have ‘distasteful’ sex with strangers and even charged more for unprotected intercourse

A pimp forced a “vulnerable” teenage girl to have sex with strangers in a city hotel room without her customers wearing a condom.

Leighton Murray arranged for the teenager, who was in care, to move to Derby from Leicester under the pretence they were a couple.

But once he had got her here, he set her up with an identity in a dating website, made her have “distasteful” sex with customers, even paying her more to have intercourse with them when they were not wearing a condom and leading her to catch a sexually-transmitted disease.

The 31-year-old also pimped two adult women, who were already prostitutes, exploiting them from money for a number of months.

Tylar Neilson, (pictured below) who met Murray when the two of them were in prison, facilitated the exploitation by transporting the teen to him

Christopher Geeson, prosecuting, said: “There was violence, threats of violence, psychological abuse and degrading sexual activity of a victim that was passed around to different customers.

“She was set up on an internet site by Murray that was called ‘Adult work,’ given an online identity and the most aggravating feature was that she was subject to a number of different types of sex.

“Various different people would go to visit her and Murray arranged for her to be paid £50 more each time she had sex without a condom.

“It was not just common or garden sex, there were a number of distasteful things she was asked to do.

“She was clearly someone that had been used and exploited by Mr Murray under threat and he assaulted her on at least one occasion.”

Murray, of HMP Nottingham, pleaded guilty to one count of controlling a child subject to sexual exploitation, between December 12 and 15, 2015 and two counts of controlling prostitution for gain between April 14, 2014 and December 22, 2015.

And Neilson, from Leicester, pleaded guilty to one count of arranging or facilitating child exploitation between December 12 and 15, 2015.

Murray was jailed for four years and eight months and Neilson for eight months

“You (Murray) organised her activity on a number of occasions taking significant amounts of money from her.

“But it goes further than that. You encouraged her to have sexual intercourse without protection and manipulated her for your own gains because of her age.

“You (Neilson) had met your co-defendant in prison and (on release) you became involved knowing what was happening and what the consequences were.

“Your role was to transport this teenager from Leicester to Derby knowing she was going to be a prostitute.”

January 2017

Leitrim man jailed for abusing boy from the age of nine

A man who sexually abused a boy in his community while calling him “a dirty little queer” has been jailed for eight years.

Damien Reilly (39) was 17 years old when he began abusing the nine-year-old boy.

Reilly, of Bredagh, Carrigallen, Co Leitrim, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to sexual assault, oral rape and anal rape of the boy. The victim was aged between nine and approximately 14 years old at the time of the abuse which occurred between 1994 and 2000.

The victim told Pieter le Vert BL, prosecuting, that he wished to waive his anonymity. He told Reilly in his victim impact statement that he would never forgive him for what he had done.

The court heard Reilly suffered a stroke as a seven year old which had left him with a moderate physical disability and caused him to fall behind his peers educationally.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said the the offences were “grave” and the victim had suffered particularly serious adverse effects.

He said that in mitigation he was taking into account the early guilty pleas and acceptance of moral culpability. He noted Reilly was otherwise of good character and not at high risk of re-offending.

Mr Justice McCarthy referred to a medical report handed into court outlining the effects of the stroke and said as a “minimal factor” he was taking into account that Reilly had had difficulties of personality which may have rendered him more prone to socially unacceptable behaviour.

He imposed an eight-year sentence and ordered three years post-release supervision.

The victim, who no longer lives in the area, went to the gardai in 2014 after a chance meeting with Reilly in a local pub where the accused caressed the bottom of his back and walked away.

He said he was shocked by the effect that the incident on him and it had been the primary spur to speak to his family and friends about what had happened to him.

The man told the court in his victim impact statement that he had been a “small skinny innocent child.” He said he did not think there were words in the dictionary sufficient to describe the effect the crimes had on him.

“From the first time he placed his hand on my crotch I knew it was not a caring embrace but something to fear,” he said. He said he believed factors including difficulties in his home life made Reilly view him as the “perfect target.”

He said Reilly told him that no one would believe him and he believed the lies he was told. “I was a child who saw him as a grown up,” he told the court.

He said Reilly had alienated him from children his age and instilled a fear of disclosing the abuse.

“The fear of people finding out was as terrifying, if not more so than the abuse itself,” he said.

He said that he had worn a mask to try and hide what he was feeling inside and constantly felt afraid for no reason. He said he felt broken and hopeless. He described how he felt that he was the only one who could see that there was a monster in the room when he met Reilly as an adult.

The man said he felt relieved that he longer had to carry the burden of the abuse after finding the strength to break the silence and free himself from the hold Reilly had over him. He said he had felt immense love and support from those closest to him.

He told Reilly he had taken what was supposed to be the most precious part of his life and said “I will never forgive you for what you did to me.”

January 2017

Blackburn child rapist sent sick letters from prison asking to see victim

A CHILD rapist sent sick letters from behind bars asking for his victim to be brought to visit him in prison.

Meera Khan, 36, was jailed for 15 years with an extended licence after Judge Sarah Dodd said his ‘distorted views on the sexuality of young girls’ rendered him a danger to children

Khan, of Oakenhurst Road, Blackburn, was convicted of rape, attempted rape and two counts of sexual assault of a child under 13 after a trial at Preston Crown Court.

During the trial his victim, who can not be named for legal reasons, said she had confided in a school friend about the abuse and the pair had reported it to a teacher.

The school started safeguarding procedures and Khan was arrested, the court was told.

He denied he had abused the girl, and claimed she was lying about her ordeal.

But after being convicted by the jury, the paedophile wrote letters from prison, referring to the conviction as ‘the small charge’ against him.

He said he had been ready to confess but claimed he was advised against it by his solicitor.

The court was told he also wrote a letter asking for the youngster be brought to visit him.

Judge Dodd said: “You will blame anyone except yourself. You demonstrate a total lack of understanding of your offending.

“You were persistent, you were manipulative and you were abusive.

“It ended not because you stopped but because your victim somehow found the strength to tell about what had been happening.

“You are to be regarded as a dangerous offender, there is a significant risk you will cause serious harm to members of the public.

“I am satisfied your distorted views on the sexuality of young girls makes you a danger to them.”

Judge Dodd handed Khan a 15 year prison sentence with a three year extended licence period.

She also made a restraining order banning Khan from having any direct or indirect contact with his victim and her family.

January 2017

Pervert, 76, jailed for sex attack at Sikh temple

A 76-year-old pervert who sexually abused a 10-year-old boy at a Sikh temple has been locked up for 16 months.

The child was alone in the foyer of the Wolverhampton building when Tara Singh struck in January last year, the city’s Crown Court heard.

The defendant – who was a total stranger –praised the turban of the victim before inviting him for a ‘chat.’

The boy was encouraged to sit on the lap of the pensioner, who kissed him and fondled his private parts both over and under his clothing, revealed Miss Cathryn Orchard, prosecuting.

The distressed child finally managed to break free from the predator’s clutches and fled in tears to tell his mother what had happened. The defendant denied being responsible, but was later arrested after being identified from CCTV of the incident. He then admitted being the attacker and pleaded guilty to two charges of sexually assaulting the boy.

Singh, who set up home in Park Street, Goldthorn Park, arrived in this country on a six month visitor’s visa in 2002 but did not go back to India when it ran out

“It appears that he is an ‘over stayer’ and here illegally,” conceded Mr Simon Burch, defending, who blamed embarrassment for the man’s failure to express remorse or acknowledge the seriousness of the offence.

Judge Barry Berlin sent the defendant to prison and said: “You exploited and took advantage of this boy after gaining his trust through your age and the location.

“You did not know him and did not appreciate the temple CCTV was filming you when you invited him in a grandfatherly way to sit on your lap – but you had no intention of acting as a grandfather to him. He effectively had to fight his way from your grasp.”

Singh was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and put on the Sex Offender Register for ten years.

January 2017

Pervert says he viewed child abuse images because of ‘personal problems’

Pervert Andrew Ratcliffe said he started looking at indecent images of children online after his business and personal life went into decline.

Police searched the 30-year-old’s home and seized computer equipment containing around 250 videos and still images.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard Ratcliffe had viewed the material over a 14-month period.

Prosecutor Heather Chamberlin said: “Police executed a search warrant on August 2, 2016. Two computer items were seized – a laptop and a computer tower.

“They were examined and indecent images of children were found, in particular eight still images and 65 movies of Category A – the most serious category. Nearly all were of girls, aged between three and 13 years.”

The court heard Ratcliffe was interviewed by police and admitted what was on the computer equipment before it had been analysed.

Miss Chamberlin said: “He said he first came across the images accidentally, and then started to search for them. He said it was something he did when he was drunk.”

Ratcliffe, of Appleton Drive, Whitmore, went on to plead guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children between May 2015 and July last year.

The court heard his only other conviction was for a traffic offence.

Judge Paul Glenn said any prison sentence imposed would only be six-weeks in length, so the public would be better served by an alternative sentence.

Handing Ratcliffe a three-year community order, Judge Glenn said: “These offences occurred at a time in your life when you seem to have been at a very low ebb.

“The fact you have attended the Lucy Faithfull course indicates to me that you want to put this sort of offending behind you.”

He added: “These are serious matters because these are real children being abused. Those who view this material are encouraging the abusers.”

As part of his sentence, Ratcliffe must attend the internet sex offender treatment programme and complete a 20-day rehabilitation activity requirement with the Probation Service. He must also pay £535 costs.

As a result of the conviction Ratcliffe will be subject to notification requirements and barred from a range of activities involving children and vulnerable adults.

January 2017

Teen sex beast is locked up for four years after abusing schoolgirls

A teenage sex pest who abused three schoolgirls – one aged just 13 – has been branded a risk to women and jailed for four and a half years.

Barry Duffin, of Argyle Street, Paisley, “wore down” two other girls, who were 14 and 15 at the time, before they gave in and allowed him to have sex with them.

His youngest victim was just 13 years and two months old when he had intercourse with her last summer at an address in Paisley.

He repeatedly engaged in sexual activity with his first victim over a two-month period between December 2014 and January 2015 at property in Johnstone.

He was sixteen-and-a-half at the time and she was two years younger.

When this ended and he started dating another schoolgirl aged 15, he once again repeatedly had sex with her over an eight-month period between August 2015 and April, 2016.

Sentencing him, Sheriff David Pender said it was clear that the girls had not wanted to have sex with him, but he “wore them down” to the point where they gave in and “felt obliged” to cooperate with his demands.

Duffin, now 18, was said to have come from a difficult background in which both of his parents were drug users.

His mother had died at an early age from substance abuse and, suffering from ADHD, he experienced periods of low mood and bouts of self harm.

Duffin displayed behaviour that was often extreme or based on impulsiveness.

Reports presented to the court described him as someone who was immature and needing help.

Sheriff Pender told Duffin: “The public, girls and young women in particular require to be protected from you.

“In two of the instances where the girls were not wanting to have sexual relations, you in effect wore them down to a point where they felt obliged to have intercourse with you.”

The sheriff granted a five-year Non Harrassment Order to prevent him from having any contact with his three victims.

The period of detention, backdated to August 8 when he was first detained, will also have a two-year extended sentence in place for him to be closely monitored on his eventual release, which will see him returned to custody for that period if he re-offends.

Duffin, of Argyle Street, Paisley, also had his name placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.

January 2017

Pervert jailed over indecent images

A paedophile who was exposed in a sting by an online child protection team has been jailed for 27 months.

Former RAF air traffic controller Andrew Ralph Helman, 52, of Ellen Street, Preston, admitted a string of offences after police were alerted to his activities by a vigilante group, Preston Crown Court heard.

He was arrested in February 2015 on suspicion of grooming after a sting in which the group claimed he had tried to meet a 13-year-old schoolgirl – however they would not assist the police any further and no charges were brought.

But prosecutor Peter Barr said as a result his home was raided and he was found to have used an email address in the name of “Kinkerbell”

He added: “Various computers and hard drives were seized. Those were subsequently found to contain the images which have led to these proceedings.”

Helman admitted possessing 684 indecent photographs of children, three counts of making indecent images and distributing them.

Wearing a waistcoat and suit, he gave no reaction as Judge Heather Lloyd said: “It can’t be said you are of hitherto exemplary character because until you were stopped by police for about nine years you had been seeking out indecent images of children being abused.

“All the images include moving images which is an aggravating feature.

“All were spread over a large number of devices.

“Your offending came to light when you were suspected of having attempted to groom a child online and whilst it appears it was someone from a vigilante group, the case could not proceed because that group would not co-operate.

“You deny you are sexually attracted to children. With respect that is plainly untrue.”

Helman gave a no comment interview and ran no defence until the morning of his trial.

January 2017

Man jailed for nine years for sexual abuse of young and vulnerable victims 

A South Elmsall man has been jailed for nine years after being convicted of sexual assault.

Melvyn Wall, 66, was found guilty of sexual abusing three children between 1993 and 2014.

He was jailed at Leeds Crown Court yesterday after being found guilty of four offences of sexual assault, four of sexual activity with a child, two of indecency and three counts of indecent assault.

January 2017

Paedophile, 35, jailed after The Hunted One snare him in sting in Maidstone

A would-be child abuser has been locked up for a year after an online child protection team cornered him in Maidstone.

Neil Prior, who lives in the town, was arrested after group The Hunted One approached him in a sting operation.

The 35-year-old used a dating app to arrange sex with a 14-year-old boy. Chat logs posted on the group’s website show Prior, who was fully aware how old the boy was, using sexual language and facilitating the meeting.

He was then snared outside McDonald’s drive-thru on Barker Road. Video footage taken of the meeting shows Prior initially saying he had no idea who fictional school boy ‘Sam’ is.

After intense questioning he admitted he was there to meet with the boy and had been grooming him for two months, arranging to see him on 10 previous occasions.

He said: “I had no intention of ever sleeping with him, I said we would go as far as he wanted to but it would never have gone that far.”

However, when asked if he would have engaged with oral sex with the boy, he replied: “Maybe”.

He went on to say he “just wanted to be a friend” to the boy and had “never slept with any kids”.

The cameraman can then be heard informing him what he wanted to do was classed as rape and showing him one text message where he said he could “teach the boy things he could only dream of”.

Prior was later arrested and charged with arranging a meeting which would involve the commission of a sexual offence.

At Maidstone Crown Court he was jailed and handed a 10 year sexual harm prevention order. Prior will also spend a decade on the sex offenders register.

January 2017

Leek perverted ‘addict’ had 100s of indecent images of children

A TWISTED paedophile who had ‘I love Child Porn’ as his computer password has been caught with hundreds of indecent images of children – but was spared jail.

Cops found that Mark Kirby had hundreds of images and even 29 films on three discs – some of which contained children as young as two when they raided the 30-year-old’s Leek home.

The images were discovered on three discs – with the password ‘I love Child Porn’ – following last April’s raid.

Now Kirby, of Glebeville, Leek, has been handed a three-year community order after admitting possessing and making indecent images of children.

Prosecutor Kevin Jones said: “The defendant’s home was searched on April 20 and the police seized a number of digital devices. They included a number of CDs and DVDs and some of them were password protected.”

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard some of the children in the pornographic images were as young as two and three.

Kirby has also been handed a five-year sexual harm prevention order which bans him from a range of activities involving children and adults.

Judge Paul Glenn told the defendant: “When you were arrested on April 20 three discs were found and two of them were encrypted and contained images of children.

“Some of the children are very young indeed. You had made folders and you would not disclose the password which was later found to be ‘I love CP’ which speaks for itself.

“You are said to be genuinely remorseful. If you break the community order you will go to prison.”

Kirby must also attend a sex offenders’ programme and pay £250 costs.

January 2017

Child rapist confessed to mother of his ten-year-old victim

A child rapist who confessed to the mother of his victim has been jailed.

John Carignani sexually assaulted the ten-year-old girl on two occasions but the Crown Office considered the evidence was insufficient to bring charges.

When the girls’ mother contacted the sex offender he admitted his guilt, claiming he had lost control of himself and hinted he had considered suicide after the attacks.

In text messages he wrote: “I can only say I’m sorry for everything. I’ll be dead by the morning. I’m sorry.”

Carignani, 41, then sent her a letter saying: “I lost control of myself and I tried to hide that. Please don’t think of me as some kind of a monster, because I am not. Not really.”

A recording was also made of a phone conversation between the offender and the girl’s mother.

A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh was told  the contents of the letter, text messages and phone recordings provided the necessary supporting evidence for charges to be brought against Carignani.

Unemployed Carignani, formerly of Cuthelton Street in Tollcross, Glasgow, admitted the rape and sexual assault on the girl at two houses in the city in December 2014 and April the following year.

Lord Boyd sentenced Carignani to four and a half years’ imprisonment and ordered he be kept under supervision for a further three years and placed on the sex offenders register.

January 2017

Pensioner admits making indecent images of a child

Barry Fletcher (66): Stonethwaite Close, Wigan – Three counts of making an indecent photo of a child: Guilty pleas given and committed to Bolton Crown Court for sentencing on January 11.

January 2017

Man jailed for sexually abusing a child in Wisbech in the late 1980s

Paul Pluck, 44, of Eagle Way, Hampton Vale, Peterborough was found guilty of two counts of indecent assault on a girl under the age of 14 at a trial at Cambridge Crown Court on Monday (January 9).

The court heard that Pluck was about 17-years-old and babysitting the five-year-old victim when the offences occurred in the late 1980s in Wisbech.

Yesterday (January 11), Pluck was jailed for four years and six months for each count to be served concurrently.

Detective Constable Leanne Malinowski said: “The victim has shown great courage taking the brave step of speaking out. I hope that the guilty verdict and sentence given to Pluck will help her move forward with her life.

“We take all reports of sexual abuse seriously, no matter when they occurred. This case demonstrates that justice can and will be served.”

Pluck was found not guilty of two further charges of indecent assault on a girl under the age of 14 years.