February 2014

Plymouth bus driver had indecent images of children

A BUS driver was caught with more than 100 indecent images of children on his computer, a court heard.

Leigh Damerell, aged 55, has lost his job for downloading perverted images, Plymouth Crown Court was told.

Handing him a suspended prison sentence, a judge told him that the children forced to pose in the images suffered psychological damage in later life.

Judge Paul Darlow said: “They suffer a loss of innocence and a theft of their childhood.”

He added that some went on to commit sexual offences on the young when they reached adulthood.

Damerell, of Yealmpstone Drive, Plympton, admitted four counts of possessing indecent images.

Alistair Verheijen, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said police executed a search warrant at Damerell’s home.

He added officers found 95 indecent images, made up of 86 images at Level 1, three of Level 3 and six at Level 4.

Damerell also had nine prohibited images, which were animated.

Jason Beal, for Damerell, said he was suffering “embarrassment and shame” and had lost his job.

He added he was willing to tackle his perverted behaviour.

Judge Darlow told Damerell: “It is a sad day when a man of your age and your impeccable record, outside of this, is in court.

“You are a hard-working man, who has lost his job as a bus driver, and you represent a low risk of re-offending.”

He handed the defendant a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, under probation supervision.

Damerell must complete an internet sex offender treatment course.

He was also given a two-year Sex Offender Prevention Order, which will force him to save his internet history and make it available for inspection by police.

February 2014

Man who was caught in bed with girl, 14, jailed

A 31-year-old father of three who was caught in bed with a girl of 14 has been jailed for 18 months at Worcester Crown Court.

Simon Pyrah, of Shakespeare Drive, Kidderminster, pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child and to possessing cannabis worth £1,000.

Lee Egan, prosecuting, said the girl’s mother contacted police when she found her daughter missing from her bedroom on December 8 last year.

Officers went to Pyrah’s home where the girl had watched a DVD before taking part in sexual play.

Police also found a white tub containing herbal cannabis worth £800 to £1,000. Pyrah was a cannabis smoker and it was accepted that it was his year’s supply and he had not intended to market it.

Jason Aris, defending, said Pyrah had always been a hard worker and had obtained a full-time job making fence panels. He had three daughters under the age of 11. The probation service had assessed him as a low risk of re-offending.

Judge Michael Cullum said it was no mitigation to say that the sexual activity had been led by the girl. Although the encounter had been her idea, Pyrah had had the opportunity of not admitting her into his house but had been weak in allowing her in. He must sign on as a sex offender for ten years.

February 2014

Man avoids jail for naked sex act in his garden

A man who stripped naked and was spotted carrying out a sex act in his garden by teachers at a special needs school has been put on probation for three years.

Describing the incident as “quite disgusting”, Newtownards Crown Court Judge Piers Grant told 30-year-old Gareth Magahey if there had been any evidence the children had actually saw what he was doing “be in no doubt that a custodial sentence would be clearly appropriate and inevitable”.

Former law student Magahey, from Hyndman Street in Belfast, had pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child and committing an act outraging public decency on June 13 last year.

Prosecuting lawyer Sam Magee told the court how teachers at a special school on Meyrick Park in east Belfast spotted a man stripping off his clothes and moving towards the end of the driveway.

They watched as the naked man, who turned out to be Magahey, stood behind a bush but they managed to shepherd the children away and called the police.

Arrested and interviewed, Magahey initially claimed he had been cleaning a rabbit hutch when his clothes became dirty so he took them off, but later confessed he had done it before, it was for a “thrill” and he “just wanted to be in the garden while naked”.

He further admitted it had been “part of a game” and that the aim was not to be seen.

Solicitor advocate Darren Duncan submitted that in dealing with problems arising from his own sexuality, Magahey had become immersed in internet pornography and that the “game” he was caught playing was an extension of that.

As well as the probation period, Magahey was ordered to sign the police sex offenders register for five years and prohibited from working with children.

February 2014

Man convicted of having child sex abuse images on his pc wins appeal allowing him access to kids

A PAEDOPHILE caught with sickening photographs of children, has won an Appeal Court ruling which means he is allowed to be around youngsters – but his computer can be inspected by police at any time.

John Williams was handed a three-year community order at Luton Crown Court in October last year, after he admitted possessing indecent images of children.

The 35-year-old, of Viking Grove, Kempston, was also ordered to complete an internet sex offenders’ treatment programme and was given a sexual offences prevention order (Sopo).

Under the terms of that order, he was banned from having contact with children and was told his computer equipment could be scrutinised by officers – without any notice.

He challenged the order at London’s Criminal Appeal Court, with his lawyers arguing that it was ‘too oppressive’.

Top judges allowed his appeal against one aspect of the order, saying the condition banning him from having contact with children was ‘too wide’.

But they said the police should be able to check his computer at any time, adding that this would ‘concentrate his mind’ on his rehabilitation and ensure he sticks to the terms of the Sopo.

The court heard officers searched Williams’ home in June 2011 and seized his computer equipment, which was later found to contain 2,361 indecent images of children.

Judge David Griffith Jones QC said Williams had no previous convictions, was described by a probation officer as being remorseful, and was willing to engage in psychiatric therapy.

His lawyers argued the two terms of his Sopo were ‘too wide’ and restrictive and urged judges to vary them so that he be allowed contact with children and the police would only be able to visit him at certain hours of the day.

Allowing the appeal against the ban on contact with children, Judge Griffith Jones said there was ‘no indication whatsoever’ from psychiatric evidence that Williams was likely to commit an offence against a child.

However, the judge said the order that police could check on him whenever they wished should remain in force.

Sitting with Lord Justice Fulford and Mr Justice Griffith Williams, he added: “Having given this careful consideration, we conclude that this measure is both necessary and proportionate.

“It seems to us that, where someone has downloaded material in the privacy of their own home, it thwarts the protection this provision creates to say police can only attend or seek to attend within certain hours.

“The fact he will know that the police can inspect his computer equipment at any time will concentrate his mind to further reinforce his intention to obey the terms of this order.”

March 2014

Barnstaple man jailed for sexual assaults on three teenage girls

A FORMER drama student has been jailed for sexual assaults on three schoolgirls who he claimed to be mentoring.

Arran Mullen abused one girl after a charity party and another when she went to seek advice from him after school.

He had sex with a 14-year-old after she turned up at his home for an impromptu sleepover and groped another as they slept together on the floor after another party.

Mullen, 22, of Wimborne Terrace, Barnstaple, denied but was found guilty of assault by penetration and three charges of sexual activity with three 14-year-old girls in the summer and autumn of 2012.

He was jailed for three years by Judge Francis Gilbert, QC, at Exeter Crown Court who said the most serious offences had been committed without the consent of the girls.

He told him: “These girls reveal in their victim impact statements how they suffered considerable distress and harm as a result of what you did and are finding it hard it hard to cope.”

During a week long trial in January the 14-year-olds revealed how Mullen befriended them and then persuaded them to take part in various sexual activities with them.

He had full sex with one at a sleepover at his home after cajoling her into taking her clothes off and he groped another at a party which followed a Headway charity event at the British Legion in Barnstaple.

He met one of his victims through a drama group in the town and stayed in touch with her and one of her friends while he was away studying drama at university in Canada.

He even sent one a Facebook message offering to share his success with her when he made it to the big time as an actor.

Mullen claimed he had offered the girls a shoulder to cry on and never done anything more sinister than give them a supportive hug.

He told the jury he had no sexual activity with any of the girls and had not even been in the same room at them at the time of the alleged assaults.

He said: “I was showing compassion and empathy. I felt I could be a good role model. I felt sorry for one girl and felt she could not talk to anyone else. I felt obliged to help her.

“I tried my best to help her and keep her happy. I was afraid of what she might do. Look at what is happening now.

“I did not want her to feel bad. I don’t like anyone feeling bad. I am a people pleaser. I want everyone to feel happy.”

February 2012

CHILD KILLER ‘FINDS GOD’

Graham pictured above: Taken from ’Behind Prison Walls’ documentary

A CHILD sex killer is claiming to have found God after being ‘healed’ during a visit by a prison pastor.

Ronnie Graham — who was caged in 1981 for the callous murder of five-year-old Julie Cole in Antrim — has even made a behind bars online film talking about his dramatic religious conversion.

The 53-year-old, who had a previous history of sordid sex attacks on children, says he gave himself to the Lord after meeting Bangor cleric Martin Tuson in Maghaberry jail.

But the video has been slammed by his murder victim’s father Rick Cole, who described it as “disturbing”.

“Ronnie Graham is a convicted paedophile who murdered my five-year-old daughter,” 

“I don’t believe for a second that he has changed.”

In the film entitled ‘Behind Prison Walls’ Graham gushes about his new found love for God.

Ronald Graham trial – July 1981

At Belfast Crown Court on 2 June 1982 the prisoner, Ronald Terence Graham, was sentenced to life imprisonment, having pleaded guilty to the murder of Julie Anne Cole, a girl aged 5, on 2 July 1981.  An appeal against conviction, based on new evidence that the prisoner was suffering from Klinefelter’s Syndrome which altered his social and sexual behaviour and impaired his mental responsibility, was abandoned on 5 March 1985.  The prisoner has been in custody since 4 July 1981. 

2. The purpose of this ruling is to fix the appropriate “tariff” to be served by the prisoner under article 11 of the Life Sentences (NI) Order 2001.  The tariff represents the appropriate sentence for retribution and deterrence and is the term that the prisoner will serve before his case is sent to the Life Sentence Review Commissioners who will assess suitability for release on the basis of risk.

Factual background

3. In 1981 the prisoner was a single man of 22 who lived with his parents at Portlee Walk, Antrim.  He was unemployed.  At the beginning of July 1981 he was staying at the home of a close friend, Ivan Vaughan and his wife June.  They lived with their children at Mallusk Gardens, Steeple Estate, Antrim.

4. At 11.30pm on Thursday 2 July 1981 Mrs Evelyn Cole, then of Mallusk Gardens, Steeple Estate, Antrim, reported the disappearance of her 5 year old daughter, Julie, to police.  Julie had last been seen in the area at sometime between 10.20pm and 10.30pm.  A search party was organised consisting of some 20 local people including the prisoner.

5. The police called at the Vaughans’ house at 2am and June Vaughan told them that Julie had come to the house with another child at around 10.30pm in order to return a coat but had not entered the premises.  Later that same morning the police called again with Mrs Vaughan and looked through her house.  She told them that the prisoner had been in his bedroom when Julie had visited the previous night and repeated that the child had not entered the house.  She also said that her husband had not been present at that time.  The police went to the prisoner’s parents’ home at Portlee Walk and, contrary to the information received from Mrs Vaughan, the prisoner told them that he had been in the hallway of the Vaughans’ house when Julie had called to return a coat the previous evening.  The officers became suspicious and at around 5.50am they returned to Portlee Walk and asked the prisoner to accompany them to Antrim Police Station to help with inquiries. 

6. When first informally interviewed about his movements the previous day the prisoner said that he had been drinking with Ivan Vaughan from 1pm to 7pm.  He had consumed around 7 vodkas.  He arrived at the Vaughans’ home shortly after 9pm and saw Julie both call at and leave the house.  He then saw the deceased’s mother call at the house looking for her daughter.  The prisoner said that he then joined a search party before returning to his parents’ home.  He denied any involvement in the child’s disappearance.  The interview was terminated at 7.30am and police returned to the Vaughans’ home and conducted another search.  They then returned to Antrim Police Station and briefly re-interviewed the prisoner at which point he made his first statement.  The prisoner stated that the deceased was outside playing in the Vaughans’ garden when he returned to the house, that he gave the Vaughans’ daughter money for sweets and later saw the deceased return a coat to the house before leaving.  He also outlined how he joined in the search effort.

7. The prisoner was further interviewed at 11.30am at which point he made his first admissions.  When asked whether he had indecently assaulted the missing girl his composure was seen to change, he placed his head in hands and seemed almost in tears.  He was asked again whether he had assaulted the child and he nodded his head in the affirmative.  He told police that he had indecently assaulted and then left the child, alive, beside the Steeple Community Centre.  When pressed the prisoner admitted: “I put her up in the loft in the Vaughans”.  He made no reply when asked if the child was still alive but agreed to accompany officers to the house.  The police immediately went to the Vaughans’ house where, shortly after 12 midday, the body of the deceased was found in the loft.  She was later identified by her uncle.

8. At 4.10pm the prisoner told police that he wanted to “get it out of [his] system and tell the truth from start to finish.”  He made a number of verbal admissions and enlarged on those in a written statement, the material parts of which are as follows: - 

“I saw the wee girl Julie in the back garden at the pigeon shed.  I was standing watching this wee girl and something came over me I don’t know what it was but I just wanted to kill somebody no matter who.  This window was open and I shouted at her to come round the front of the house.  I had made up my mind to kill her.”

He called the child in and she followed him to his bedroom:

“Just as she came in the door of the bedroom I grabbed her with both hands round the neck.  I held her for about twenty minutes this way and she gave a few cries and passed out.  I then took my hands from round her throat and put her on the bed.  When I saw her lying on the bed I had an urge to have sex with her.  I then took off Julie’s shoes and socks and pants.  I then pulled my own trousers and pants down but didn’t take mine off.  I lay on top of her and tried to put my penis into her between her legs.  I couldn’t get my penis in.  I moved up and down on top of her and my chest was over her face and there wasn’t any sound from her.[1]  I moved up and down on top of her for about five minutes and I heard footsteps coming up the stairs.  I then got off her and hurried and pulled my trousers up.  June [Vaughan] then came into the bedroom and I said I’ve done something to the wee girl.  June thought she was dead.  I wondered what I should do and June said put her up in the loft and cover her.  I then lifted the wee girl and got up onto the banister and put her up in the lost…I then threw the socks shoes and pants up after her into the loft.  June then went into the wee girl’s room and got like a pink chest of things and got a chair and put it on top of the chest.  She got up and covered the wee girl….”

As to his subsequent actions he said:

“I thought if I searched too, nobody would think that I had anything to do with the wee girl.  I searched all round the bushes and the factories and Parkhall with this fella.  I saw other people out searching and I told several of them that we didn’t find her.”

The prisoner made a further statement on 7 July 1981 in which he said that both Ivan and June Vaughan helped conceal the deceased’s body in the loft.

9. On 13 August 1981 the prisoner made another statement in which he claimed that he had not killed the child but had caused her to pass out.  He placed the blame for her death on Ivan Vaughan.  He said that the deceased had been in the house playing with the Vaughans’ daughter when he had called her into his bedroom.  He had strangled her until she passed out.  He does not mention any sexual assault.  He continued:

“Ivan and June came flying up the stairs and asked me what I did.  I said something came over me.  Ivan said well let’s get the child up into the loft.  I said she wasn’t dead.  Ivan then got up in the loft with a brown pillow and I handed the child up to him and told him when I was putting her up that she wasn’t dead.  Ivan was in the loft with her and about 5 minutes later Ivan said she’s not alive now, she’s dead.  Then he came down again with the pillow and put it back in my bedroom, the back bedroom.  June then went up into the loft and I saw June covering the girl with oul’ teddy bears and clothes…”

10. A post mortem examination was carried out by Dr Thomas Marshall, State Pathologist, on 4 July 1981.  He concluded that the cause of death was manual strangulation.  Some bruising and abrasions could have been caused in a brief struggle.  Although it was noted that the deceased was not wearing underwear there was no post mortem evidence of sexual interference.

11. The prisoner was examined by Dr Curran, consultant psychiatrist, in 1982.  He told Dr Curran that the deceased was not dead when he passed her to Mr Vaughan in the loft and implied that Mr Vaughan suffocated the child.  According to Dr Curran’s report the prisoner had an IQ of 80, had achieved little at school and had an employment history punctuated by imprisonment.  His first referral to a psychiatrist was at age 10 due to school difficulties.  Dr Curran summarises the medical notes of this referral saying: “…it was thought that he could probably cope in special school.  He was reputedly then interested in cruel acts, especially on pigeons.  This propensity is seen by many to be characteristic of aggressive psychopaths and sometimes of murderers.”  The prisoner remained in contact with a clinical psychologist throughout his adolescence.  He was seen by a number of psychiatrists.  In 1977 Dr King, a consultant psychiatrist based at Holywell Hospital, concluded that the prisoner was “decidedly psychopathic with a very poor prognosis for same”, basing his opinion on the prisoner’s abusive attitudes and difficult, violent and antisocial behaviour.  Neither hospital nor medication would offer any solution.

12. Dr Curran’s report concluded:

“My opinion is that it is totally immaterial whether this man is labelled a psychopath or not … My opinion is that this young man is highly dangerous and will remain highly dangerous for society for many years to come.  There is no question of him or society gaining anything from his being confined to a Special Hospital or any other psychiatric facility.”

13. In a report dated 10 September 1981 Dr Lyons, consultant psychiatrist, reported on yet a further version of events given by the prisoner.  He told Dr Lyons that he had returned intoxicated to the Vaughans’ home on the evening of the murder.  He and the Vaughans had seen the deceased in the garden of the house and asked her in to play with the Vaughans’ daughter.  When the deceased came upstairs the prisoner called her into his room and immediately strangled her.  There was no sexual assault.  He said that he did not know that the child was dead at that time.  The Vaughans took her to the loft.  Dr Lyons gave the following opinion on the prisoner: -

“He showed a complete lack of remorse for his action and showed no evidence of emotional disturbance during my lengthy interview.  He was a very tall young man and obviously would be physically strong.  He showed no real evidence of psychiatric abnormality during my interview apart from his emotional indifference to the child and although he talked about suicide at some length, there was no very strong conviction in his statements.  Although his education level would be very much below average, I do not consider he was intellectually sub-normal …

The diagnosis in this case would seem to be of a severe psychopathic personality.  Since the age of ten, he has been constantly in trouble with anti-social behaviour….I consider him to be a very dangerous man …”

14. In a follow up report dated 2 November 1981 Dr Lyons reviewed the prisoner’s past psychiatric interventions and concluded:

“My opinion of the notes would suggest a long-standing personality disorder … there were obviously many warning signs that he was dangerous and an anti-social person but there have been many of these cases and it has been found generally that psychiatric treatment is not of much avail.  The cruelty to animals would be the most definite predictor of serious potential for violence in the future.  In my experience, one sees many petty criminals but most of them have a feeling for animals and this type of cruelty usually suggests that there is an element of sadism and is a predictor of violence towards others at a later stage.”

Antecedents

15. The prisoner has a short but relevant record consisting of 5 separate appearances before the criminal courts between July 1976 and April 1980.  He has convictions for offences including theft, burglary, malicious damage and forgery, but perhaps the most significant convictions are two for indecent assaults both of which led to immediate custodial sentences.  The first, an indecent assault on a 13 year old girl, was dealt with by Newtownabbey Petty Sessions in July 1976 and the prisoner was sentenced to 8 months’ imprisonment.  In a medical interview with Dr Curran he denied involvement in this offence, saying that he “just owned up for it although I didn’t do it.”  In a subsequent interview, however, he told the same doctor: “In 1976 I was having trouble having sex with girls in general and had been experimenting a bit about sex.  I didn’t know what to do so I tried it out on a 13 year old girl but couldn’t even perform with her.”  The second offence, which involved an indecent assault on a young boy, was dealt with at North Antrim Crown Court in April 1980 and resulted in the prisoner being sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment.  Again the prisoner later denied involvement only to subsequently admit it to the same psychiatrist who recorded: “In my second interview with him he readily confessed that he had indecently assaulted a young boy and that he attempted buggery.  This child apparently only lived two doors away from your client then and it was inevitable that he be detected.  Again this declaration of guilt was given to me on the second interview and again he had forgotten that he had vigorously protested his innocence to me on the first visit.”

Judge’s sentencing remarks

16. The judge sentenced the prisoner to life imprisonment saying: -

 “…everyone who knew of Julie Cole’s tragic death must have been deeply shocked, especially her family, who must have been grievously hurt.  Everyone must wonder how any person could kill a little child for no apparent reason.  By your plea, you have probably accepted that you did kill her.  Exactly why you did so may never be entirely clear…”

The NIO papers

17. The deceased’s mother, Evelyn Cole, has submitted a written representation in which she said that the prisoner destroyed her family’s life forever.  Her daughter’s disappearance and the events that followed were traumatic.  Mrs Cole says that the family was plunged into a “living hell” until her body was discovered.  She particularly recalled that the prisoner joined the search party that looked for Julie Anne and that he even appeared at her back door, ruffled her other daughter’s hair, and said “don’t worry, we’ll find her”.

18. Mrs Cole’s physical and mental health suffered immediately after the murder.  She lost her unborn baby at 12 weeks, spent 3 weeks in hospital and says that she wanted to die but had 2 other children who needed her.  Mr Cole gave up his job as he could not cope with the murder.

19. In her submission Mrs Cole continued that the prisoner also took away the family’s home of 12 years as it was situated just yards away from the murder scene.  They moved, but Mrs Cole’s mental health continued to deteriorate. She stated that their lives never returned to normal.  Her health never fully recovered and she had no will to live and no purpose in life.  She said: -

“I exist solely day to day trying to come to terms as to why Ronald Graham would murder my daughter.  To this day I have to live with constant reminders of what happened to my daughter, my love for her and feelings only a mother has, which will never die.  So how does anyone expect a family to come to terms with the murder of her daughter by a convicted paedophile?”

20. The prisoner’s solicitor, John J McNally & Co, submitted a written representation in which the following points were made:

1.      The prisoner was aged 23 at the date of his conviction for murder;

2.      The prisoner admitted causing the death of the deceased in the course of his interviews by police;

3.      The prisoner pleaded guilty to the offence of murder;

4.      The prisoner displayed remorse for having committed the murder;

5.      The prisoner suffers from Klinefelter’s Syndrome which, while not affording a defence of diminished responsibility, is a relevant mitigating factor;

6.      The prisoner’s criminal record does not reveal a course of violent behaviour or a violent predisposition;

7.      At the conclusion of one of the police interviews the prisoner stated, “I need treatment”.  This represented an acknowledgment of his wrongdoing and an earnest request for medical treatment or other intervention to deal with the source or cause of his offending.

Practice Statement

21. In R v McCandless & others  [2004] NICA 1 the Court of Appeal held that the practice statement issued by Lord Woolf CJ and reported at [2002] 3 All ER 412 should be applied by sentencers in this jurisdiction who were required to fix tariffs under the 2001 Order.  The relevant parts of the practice statement for the purpose of this case are as follows: -

“The normal starting point of 12 years

10.       Cases falling within this starting point will normally involve the killing of an adult victim, arising from a quarrel or loss of temper between two people known to each other. It will not have the characteristics referred to in para 12. Exceptionally, the starting point may be reduced because of the sort of circumstances described in the next paragraph.

11.       The normal starting point can be reduced because the murder is one where the offender’s culpability is significantly reduced, for example, because: (a) the case came close to the borderline between murder and manslaughter; or (b) the offender suffered from mental disorder, or from a mental disability which lowered the degree of his criminal responsibility for the killing, although not affording a defence of diminished responsibility; or (c) the offender was provoked (in a non-technical sense), such as by prolonged and eventually unsupportable stress; or (d) the case involved an overreaction in self-defence; or (e) the offence was a mercy killing. These factors could justify a reduction to eight/nine years (equivalent to 16/18 years).

The higher starting point of 15/16 years

12.       The higher starting point will apply to cases where the offender’s culpability was exceptionally high or the victim was in a particularly vulnerable position. Such cases will be characterised by a feature which makes the crime especially serious, such as: (a) the killing was ‘professional’ or a contract killing; (b) the killing was politically motivated; (c) the killing was done for gain (in the course of a burglary, robbery etc.); (d) the killing was intended to defeat the ends of justice (as in the killing of a witness or potential witness); (e) the victim was providing a public service; (f) the victim was a child or was otherwise vulnerable; (g) the killing was racially aggravated; (h) the victim was deliberately targeted because of his or her religion or sexual orientation; (i) there was evidence of sadism, gratuitous violence or sexual maltreatment, humiliation or degradation of the victim before the killing; (j) extensive and/or multiple injuries were inflicted on the victim before death; (k) the offender committed multiple murders.

Variation of the starting point

13.       Whichever starting point is selected in a particular case, it may be appropriate for the trial judge to vary the starting point upwards or downwards, to take account of aggravating or mitigating factors, which relate to either the offence or the offender, in the particular case.

14.       Aggravating factors relating to the offence can include: (a) the fact that the killing was planned; (b) the use of a firearm; (c) arming with a weapon in advance; (d) concealment of the body, destruction of the crime scene and/or dismemberment of the body; (e) particularly in domestic violence cases, the fact that the murder was the culmination of cruel and violent behaviour by the offender over a period of time.

15.       Aggravating factors relating to the offender will include the offender’s previous record and failures to respond to previous sentences, to the extent that this is relevant to culpability rather than to risk.

16.       Mitigating factors relating to the offence will include: (a) an intention to cause grievous bodily harm, rather than to kill; (b) spontaneity and lack of pre-meditation.

17.       Mitigating factors relating to the offender may include: (a) the offender’s age; (b) clear evidence of remorse or contrition; (c) a timely plea of guilty.

Very serious cases

18.       A substantial upward adjustment may be appropriate in the most serious cases, for example, those involving a substantial number of murders, or if there are several factors identified as attracting the higher starting point present. In suitable cases, the result might even be a minimum term of 30 years (equivalent to 60 years) which would offer little or no hope of the offender’s eventual release. In cases of exceptional gravity, the judge, rather than setting a whole life minimum term, can state that there is no minimum period which could properly be set in that particular case.”

Conclusions

22. I do not consider that the fact that the prisoner suffers from Klinefelter’s syndrome is relevant to the exercise that I have to carry out.  There is no reason to suppose that this reduced his culpability.  No medical evidence has been proffered to support such a theory.  Klinefelter’s Syndrome involves a chromosomal variation but unlike Down’s syndrome and even Fragile X syndrome there are often no very obvious physical or psychological effects. 

23. The “very serious cases” category identified in Lord Woolf’s practice statement is reserved for those cases where there have been a substantial number of murders or there are several factors present, each of which would attract the higher starting point.  Neither situation arises here.  The victim was certainly vulnerable since she was a child, aged just five years.  This consideration warrants a higher starting point but I do not consider that any of the other factors outlined in this section of the practice statement is present.  I have reflected on whether the sexual assault of the child would justify the view that more than one of the higher starting point factors was present.  I have concluded that it does not.  The evidence of sexual interference is equivocal.  There is certainly no evidence that the child was conscious when it took place or that it was a serious sexual assault.  There are factors present which may properly be regarded as aggravating and which justify an increase in the higher starting point tariff but these do not qualify as a basis for assigning this case to the very serious cases category.

24. The callous abduction of this child, the concealment of her body, the probable sexual assault, the participation in the search for her and (despite the prisoner’s solicitors’ claim) the documented lack of remorse are all substantial aggravating factors.  The single mitigating factor is the fact that the prisoner pleaded guilty to the murder.  In this instance, however, his plea of guilty cannot be viewed as warranting a significant reduction in the tariff that would otherwise be appropriate.  His apprehension for this crime and his conviction of the child’s murder were inevitable.  Moreover, the inconsistent versions of what happened and his attempts to blame others significantly offset any credit that might be due for his plea of guilty.

25. Paragraph 4 (2) (b) of Schedule 1 to the Criminal Justice Act 2003 provides that the murder of a child if it involves the child’s abduction or a sexual or sadistic motivation will prima facie warrant a whole life sentence.  This provision does not apply to Northern Ireland but it is an indication of how seriously Parliament regards this type of offence and I consider that I am entitled to take this factor into account in fixing the tariff in this case.  I also keep in mind that in this jurisdiction a whole life tariff may be imposed if the court is of the opinion that, because of the seriousness of the offence or of the combination of the offence and one or more offences associated with it, no minimum term should be applied.  I do not consider, however, that a whole life tariff is appropriate to this case.  I fix the minimum term that the prisoner must serve at twenty-five years.  This will include the time spent on remand.

February 2014

Paedophile’s victim tapes his confession

A PAEDOPHILE was jailed for eight years yesterday after the girl he sexually abused secretly recorded his confession.

Adam Reeves – a deeply religious IT worker who lived in Bicester until he was charged – admitted seven counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child after the covert recording was passed to the police and played during his trial at Oxford Crown Court in January.

She had recorded him confessing after police told her they were dropping their investigation.

Reeves, 45, was told by a judge that his victim has had her life “destroyed” by his crimes, which he refused to admit until the evidence was overwhelming.

Now an officer from Thames Valley Police has commended the young woman for her bravery in obtaining the proof which led to her abuser’s conviction.

Yesterday, Judge Mary Jane Mowat said the complainant was determined to see Reeves prosecuted as she told the defendant that his victim “was not to be fobbed off”.

She added: “She organised a meeting with you in which she recorded you confessing what you had done and in a way apologising to her.”

But Judge Mowat said even when confronted with this recording by the police, Reeves continued to deny his crimes and told officers it was God he was saying sorry to.

The judge said she had “never seen a witness more distressed” than the complainant when she listened to the tape in court.

She said to Reeves: “You told her not to tell anyone and on one occasion you tried to bribe her into silence with a Burger King meal.

“What you were doing, you were doing for your own sexual gratification.”

She added that it was clear from the letters she had received that Reeves, now of Sharps Close, Waddesdon, Aylesbury, was a successful IT worker who was still highly regarded.

Speaking after the hearing, investigating officer Detective Constable Natalie Thompson said: “While we would never encourage victims to put themselves at any risk, we commend the victim for her bravery in taping Reeves and his confession.

“It must have taken a great deal of courage for her to take action like this and we hope this sentence will go some way to helping her feel her actions enabled Reeves to be brought to justice.”

Reeves is now subject to a sexual offences prevention order banning unsupervised contact with anyone under 16 and he will be on the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life.

Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre service manager Natalie Brook said: “We don’t comment on individual cases but generally, yes, it can be difficult to secure the evidence that is required for a conviction to be reached, which is partly why we see such low conviction rates in the UK.

“It is often one person’s word against another. What we would suggest to improve that is to ensure that when victims come forward to the police, for them to be supported in the right way and to take them seriously enough to do the proper investigation that the case deserves.”

• Those who need support and advice can contact the Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre helpline on 0800 783 6294.

May 2001

Man gets five life sentences for killing family

A man was today sentenced to five life sentences after he admitted killing his wife and four stepchildren.

A judge heard that former roofer and removal man Lee Ford garrotted Lesley Ford, 36, and her children Sarah Tranter, 17, Anne-Marie Tranter, 16, Steven Tranter, 14, and Craig Tranter, 13, at their isolated home at Carnkie, near Helston, Cornwall last August.

The court heard he killed them separately with a 2ft long rope before hiding their bodies in a wood shed by the bungalow.

He later moved the two girls’ bodies and buried them in a field four miles away.

Police were alerted only after the family had been missing for more than a month.

Nigel Pascoe QC, prosecuting, said the attack was calculated and without motive.

He said: “This was not a crime of passion but of savagery.”

Mr Pascoe said the crime was “by any standards an enormous, pitiful tragedy and a tale of true horror”.

He went on the describe how there had been evidence of violence in the marriage and how he was having a sexual relationship with his eldest stepdaughter, Sarah.

According to Mr Pascoe, Ford told police his wife was killed in the bedroom and the children died in the kitchen.

He said to officers: “There was no struggle. It was with a rope from behind and they did not know it was coming.”

Ford added: “That my own hands had done – what a piece of rope has done – to five people is unbelievable.

“For the life of me I do not even understand why I did what I did. If I had planned to do what I did there is no way I would have left them on the property with my kids there.”

Jamie Tabor QC, defending, told the court Ford felt completely isolated in the run-up to the attack spending a lot of time locked in his garage watching TV.

He said he was terrified Mrs Ford would leave him taking the four stepchildren and his two natural children with him.

Mr Tabor said: “This utterly horrible and tragic event has no rational motive. There is no easy explanation.”

He said Ford had dismissed attempts to provide a psychiatric defence to the charges.

The judge, Mr Justice Hooper, sentenced Ford to life for each of the five counts of murder.

Ford, who wore grey shirt and had a moustache, beard and long hair, showed little emotion as he was led away.

Mr Pascoe told the court Ford had embarked on a full sexual relationship with Sarah after she turned 17 in March last year.

He said: “The defendant was openly and forcefully jealous of Sarah as she sought friendship with young men of her own age.

“That affords an insight into an excessive and violent nature for this defendant was unable to give any explanation as to why he should kill Sarah or any of the other children.”

Mrs Ford had sought an injunction and occupation order on their Cornish home because her husband was violent and she suspected a sexual relationship with Sarah.

Mr Pascoe added: “It is very likely that Lesley Ford was very frightened of her husband at times in the months before her murder.

“She was so concerned about the relationship concerning the children that she contacted social services.

“It is a matter or regret that no-one from that department thereafter interviewed Sarah.”

The prosecutor said the date of the murders had been pinpointed from mobile phone text messages sent between Sarah and a work colleague.

He added a poignant final message was sent to Sarah’s phone on August 30 – the day before the murders – with the words “How are you? Still alive?”

Mr Pascoe told the court Ford was arrested a month after the murders.

He admitted going up behind each of his victims with a rope and strangling them.

Mr Pascoe said the defendant claimed he “flipped” after a row with his wife about access to the children.

The court heard Ford told police he smashed his wife in the face with a rounders bat belonging to his youngest daughter.

He said to officers that he went to the family garage to cool down after the row, where he found the rope.

He added: “The next thing I remember is she is lying on the floor dead. I do not know why or what went through me.”

But Mr Pascoe alleged instead of killing on a whim, the post-mortem examinations and Ford’s subsequent actions showed how calculated the killings were.

He said: “The cause of death was given as ligature strangling. They were garrotted so precisely as to leave little or no bruising and no damage to the structure of the neck.

“He admitted using a rope from behind to kill each of his victims.”

The prosecutor added the four stepchildren had been killed in the kitchen.

Anne-Marie and Sarah had been dressed casually while the two brothers and his wife had been wearing night clothes.

Mr Pascoe told the court Ford embarked on a cover-up to mask the killings.

He reburied the decaying bodies of Sarah and Anne Marie after police first called at his home on Saturday, September 30 last year.

He packed their rotting bodies in polythene and wore a face mask – which was later found near the burial spot – to shift them in his car boot from a woodshed near his home to a field about four miles away, Mr Pascoe said.

The prosecutor added that after he reburied the bodies on Monday October 2, he packed his two youngest children off to see their grandparents in Telford, Shropshire, intending to rebury the remaining three bodies.

The court heard he was instead arrested as he was returning to Helston and questioned by detectives at Camborne police station.

Mr Pascoe said: “It is quite plain but for his arrest this defendant would have sought another opportunity to rebury the other three bodies.

“That is why he took his children to their grandparents.”

Mr Pascoe added that before he owned up to his crimes he embarked on an elaborate cover-up. The court heard on September 1, the defendant

cancelled a job centre appointment claiming his family were suffering from food poisoning.

Within days he was telling friends his wife and four children had left him after a big row.

Mr Pascoe said he borrowed a pickaxe from a friend claiming he had to remove wood from the shed where three of the bodies were recovered.

Ford also tried to return a dog his wife had bought days earlier, moved his youngest child to a new school saying his wife would not cause a problem and tried to revive a relationship with an old flame amid claims “his wife would not be coming back”.

Mr Pascoe said that during September, the defendant also returned Craig’s and Steven’s school books and on September 28 he tried to cash in Sarah’s last wage packet.

Mr Pascoe said: “There is a body of evidence of concealment and clear cover-up.”

March 2014

Police are investigating the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl who was forced into a vehicle and kept in an unknown location overnight.

The teenage victim had been in the Haymead’s Lane area of Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, at around 8.30pm on February 16, when a dark coloured vehicle, possibly a Land Rover

The alleged kidnapper – a tanned, muscular white man wearing glasses, with “saggy” skin and a big nose – was driving a dark-coloured vehicle, possibly a Land Rover or SUV, which had a tinted rear windscreen and back passenger windows.

March 2014

1970s Derbyshire child-sex offence extends jail term for ‘reformed family man’ 

A 49-YEAR-OLD who was jailed for sexually abusing children as a youth has seen his sentenced increased after a fresh victim came forward.

John Moss was jailed for seven years in 2011 after admitting that he abused five children over a period of 14 years.

Derby Crown Court was told this week that Moss had successfully seen his sentence reduced to four-and-a-half years at the Court of Appeal and was due to be released this July.

But Christopher Dean, prosecuting, told the court that a new victim came forward to the police last summer.

The man told officers he was indecently assaulted in a field in South Normanton in the late 1970s when he 10 and Moss was 15.

Moss, formerly of Garden Crescent, South Normanton, pleaded guilty to the new offence.

Judge Jonathan Gosling handed him a 12-month sentence which would run concurrently with his existing one. The judge told Moss that the new sentence would add “a few weeks” to the time he had left to serve.

Judge Gosling said: “You could have confessed in 2011 to the additional offence but you did not.

“On the other hand, he (the victim) had to live with the torment over what happened to him and the anguish of coming forward thinking it might affect his job which, of course, it could not as he can never be recognised as being the victim.”

In 2011, Moss admitted abusing three girls and two boys, aged between five and nine.

At that hearing Derby Crown Court was told that, for the previous 19 years, Moss had been a reformed man – meeting his long-term partner, with whom he had children – and had not committed any abuse.

But, between 1979 and 1993, as a teenager and young man, he spent years indecently assaulting children.

Mr Dean, talking at the new hearing this week, said: “The new victim came forward last summer.

“At first he did not want to say anything and it had been boxed up in the back of his mind.

“But he was talked into going to the police where he told them about an incident that happened in a field.

“In his victim impact statement, he told how he suffered a nervous breakdown as an adult and looking back now he wondered whether this was as a result of what happened to him.”

Police visited Moss in prison, where he was arrested and questioned over the fresh allegation, telling detectives the new victim may have come forward “for financial gain”.

Mark Watson, in mitigation for Moss, said that the new indecent assault offence dated back to when his client was in his mid-teens.

He said: “This is a matter that goes back many, many years when the complainant was young and the defendant was young himself.

“They were known to each other and played together building dens, nests and rope swings in the woods.”

August 2012

MAN has been jailed for seven years for a sickening assault on a three year old

Kyle Smith, 20, showed no emotion as he was handed down the extended sentence which was imposed upon him at Preston Crown Court.

Smith always denied the allegation he deliberately caused the injuries to the youngster.

But medical experts concluded the child had non-accidental injuries to his arms, face and body.

The youngster was left with fractures to his arms and bleeding to the membrane of his brain.

Smith pleaded not guilty to causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent and cruelty to a child.

But the jury found him guilty following a trial at Preston Crown Court.

Judge Badley, sentencing, said: “The precise circumstances that led to the injuries are not known but the jury concluded that you injured this child deliberately and you intended to cause grievous bodily harm.

“The evidence from Dr Wild is that very considerable force was applied to the arms with a twisting, bending motion.

“In my opinion there is a significant risk to the public of personal injury caused by you committing further offences.

“This was a sustained attacked.”

The court heard the child has made a good recovery from his injuries.

Judge Badley said: “The ongoing effects on (the victim) fortunately is not as severe as it could have been.

“There is the possibility of psychological damage.”

Smith will serve at least half the sentence and be on licence for a further four years following his release.

January 2009

Paedophile who fled Spain was cleared to run children’s football team in Britain

A paedophile who escaped to England after being sentenced to 77 years in prison in Spain was allowed to work with children after passing criminal record checks. 

Jose Luis Magana Chueca was jailed in 1991 by a Spanish court for 15 indecent assaults on boys and girls to whom he gave football and music lessons. 

The judge said he should never be freed after hearing how he abused the children as they showered and offered them money to keep quiet. 

But the 55-year-old was granted bail to launch an appeal and fled, first to Kenya, then to Germany and finally to Britain. 

He was arrested by British police in 2003 but could not be extradited because of a 10-year limit under Spanish law. 

Chueca started a new life in Peckham, running a youth football team in Gunnersbury Park, after passing FA background checks. 

In 2006 he was given a job with a cab firm that held a council contract to take vulnerable children to and from school. 

For the position he had to apply to the Metropolitan Police to have an enhanced criminal records certificate. 

Within days police approved his application, despite having paperwork on file detailing his history. 

A spokesman for the Met insisted it had followed guidelines but said there was not enough evidence to prevent him taking the job. 

‘Only a certain amount of information was available at the time,’ he said. 

‘Without additional supporting evidence, a decision was made in this case not to disclose this information as it could not be corroborated.’

Police are now investigating an allegation that Cheuca assaulted a 10-year-old boy during a cab trip. 

January 1978

Musician jailed for child abuse images

Files reveal the full horror of sexual abuse at Knowl View school

Files reveal that at least a quarter of Knowl View special school’s 48 pupils had been victims of horrific sexual abuse – including boys as young as eight.

The children were said to have been put at risk of Aids through prostitution and liaisons with well-known sex offenders.

The files did not specifically name Sir Cyril Smith, but his name was linked

But whistleblower and former head of care at Knowl View, Martin Digan, said that he feared the political giant was among those abusing boys at the home and he verbally reported his suspicions to the police and council.

In 2013, the Crown Prosecution Service admitted Smith should have been prosecuted for abusing young boys in the 1960s. 

It was alleged he raped boys at Knowl View and abused boys at Cambridge House Children’s Home. 

He had a long association with Knowl View where he was on the board of management when he was a councillor. 

Smith was originally a Labour councillor in Rochdale and later a Liberal then Liberal Democrat MP for the town from 1972 to 1992. He died in 2010 aged 82.

This week former pupil Chris Marshall told how he was sexually abused by Smith when he was just seven or eight years old after being summoned from his bed in the dead of night.

Mr Digan became head of care at Knowl View – where  Cyril Smith was chairman of governors – in its final year.

On his arrival he was given access to a dossier of abuse suffered by vulnerable young boys at the school, which he told the Observer on November 17 was a ‘sweet shop for paedophiles’, and he immediately called for Knowl View to be closed down.

He said he was sickened to read files revealing that young boys were being transported into Manchester to meet men who would pay to have sex with them.

And he said a known paedophile had been allowed into the residential school at night to abuse the children.

Mr Digan handed the dossier to police and the council’s head of education Diana Cavanagh in 1994 and the school was earmarked for closure.

He told us: “There was only one reason for Cyril Smith to be on that governing body.

“He knew their vulnerability and saw an access to young boys.

“What I was successful in doing was making sure it didn’t go to LMSS (Local Management of Special Schools). And I sacrificed my career for this.”

Mr Digan says the unmasking of Cyril Smith as a predatory paedophile has come ’18 years too late.’

Shortly after the closure of the home, which had been widely believed to have been brought about by a fire, Mr Digan was made redundant by the council.

He decided to leave Rochdale because of intimidation from people angry about the closure of the special school.

He added: “When it closed I even had neighbours who would ridicule me – people who thought it was all just a pack of lies – and strangers would come up to me and make comments.

“It is sad that children who said they were sexually abused haven’t been believed. This is 18 years too late for these children. And there will be parents who don’t even know that their children have been abused.”

Mr Digan says he is aware of at least one former pupil who went on to take his own life because of the abuse he suffered at Knowl View, while others went on to commit violent crime. He said: “I raised the alarm as soon as I had time to digest what was in those files.

“When I was appointed head of care at Knowl View I was given access to the files and I acted on it.

“The place was in disarray and in the death throes and the writing was on the wall that it had to close.

“And it was thanks to the support of my doctor Dr Nick Dawes that I was strong enough to bring this forward.

“He signed me off sick immediately with stress because I couldn’t go back there. As soon as I digested what was in the files I went to the police.”

Mr Digan said he had also been alarmed to learn that Smith was pushing for the school to be placed under a policy called Local Management of Special Schools, which would pass him full control of Knowl View from the council.

A spokesman for Rochdale Borough Council said: “Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council has been made aware of alleged abuse that is said to have occurred at Knowl View School, which closed in 1995 and also at Cambridge House Hostel for Boys which closed in 1965. It should be noted that Cambridge House was not operated by Rochdale Council. 

“An investigation into these matters is currently being undertaken internally by the Council and also by the Police. As public comment may prejudice any on going investigations we are unable to comment further at this time.”

David Higgins was convicted of abusing boys there in 1971.

Rochdale Council was warned in 1991, in a report written by an AIDS specialist from Rochdale Health Authority, of “sexual activity” at the school that most people, including parents of boys at the school, “would be horrified were these facts to be made known”. 

Crystal Methodist in link to school described as ‘sweet shop for paedophiles’ as plans for Amsterdam holiday with male prostitutes is revealed

Shamed Co-op Bank boss Paul Flowers was linked to a special school at the centre of one of Britain’s worst child sex abuse scandals, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Methodist minister Flowers was vice-chairman of Rochdale Council’s social services committee which oversaw Knowl View School, during a time when it was described as a ‘sweet shop for paedophiles’. 

Yet a series of damning reports – at least one sent to Flowers – about the crimes at Knowl View were hidden from the public.

The residential unit for boys  aged seven to 16 with learning and behavioural problems is now subject to a police investigation into the sexual and physical abuse of former pupils.

Meanwhile Rochdale Council is conducting its own inquiry into Flowers’s years as a councillor in the light of his drug-taking

The Knowl View scandal broke last year after the Crown Prosecution Service accepted that the school’s founder, the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith, who knew Flowers through the council, should have been prosecuted for child abuse.

The school, founded in 1969, eventually closed in 1995, after a member of staff alerted council bosses to ongoing problems.

Yet alarm bells were being rung constantly by health professionals from 1988 to 1992 when Flowers held key council posts. 

Whistleblower Martin Digan, whose appointment as the school’s head of care heralded its closure, said: ‘Flowers was one of many people in power in Rochdale who knew what was happening and yet did not act to close the school down. 

He was vice-chair of the social services committee in 1991 when the first of three reports was circulated internally about the risk to pupils in terms of sexual and physical abuse. 

He knew what the parents of pupils were never told – that the school was basically a sweet shop for paedophiles.’

The current storm surrounding 63-year-old Flowers’s shocking drugs habit prompted his arrest by police on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs, including cocaine and crystal meth. 

The Treasury is holding an inquiry into the Co-op Bank, where he was chairman until his resignation in June, and the bank has launched its own internal review. 

Flowers was suspended by the Labour Party and the Methodist Church for which he was a minister in Bradford.

By the time Flowers moved to Rochdale in September 1986 to take over the Methodist church at Champness Hall in Drake Street, he was already a controversial figure. 

In 1981 while ministering in Southampton, he was fined £75 for ‘gross indecency’ in a public toilet with a trucker and was moved to West Bromwich by the church. 

Four years later, he was chosen as a Labour prospective parliamentary candidate for Meriden, in the West Midlands, but he resigned three months later when his criminal record surfaced.

Once in Rochdale, Flowers, an ardent Labour supporter, was elected to the council in 1988 and joined its education and social services committees. In 1988 Dr Alison Frazer, a child psychiatrist at the town’s Birch Hill Hospital, first alerted the council to possible sexual abuse at Knowl View. 

Three years later, Phil Shepherd, of the Rochdale Health Authority Aids Unit, was asked to go to the school to carry out a ‘sexuality’ training day with staff. 

His discoveries, penned in a report to council bosses, were shocking: ‘One boy who is homosexual has contact with an adult outside the school. Several of the senior boys indulge in oral sex with one another.

‘Reputedly five of the junior  boys have been or are involved in “cottaging” in and around public toilets. Men as far away as Sheffield are believed to be aware of this activity and travel to Rochdale to take part.

One eight year old is thought to have been involved .  .  . some boys have been “forced” to have sex with each other.’ He concluded: ‘We are committed to preventing the spread of HIV. The boys in this school look  to us to be increasingly at risk.’

One former pupil, Chris Marshall, now 41 but aged seven when at the school, told the MoS: ‘Our lives were a living hell. Teachers would take pupils to a public toilet in Manchester where the boys would have sex with men who had travelled from all over the North.

Men would come to the school and we were made to have sex with them. I was forced to perform a sex act on the late MP Cyril Smith who we called the Fat Man.

‘It had such an effect on us that some of the boys have either committed suicide or are in prison.

‘I feel let down by the council because we were vulnerable children and they were supposed to be taking care of us but instead we were exposed to the most horrible acts of depravity.’ 

The Mail on Sunday has seen a letter, dated April 16, 1991, concerning this report from the Director of Social Services to the local health authority, copied to Flowers among others.

By then, Flowers and his colleagues on Rochdale social services committee were already facing calls to resign over the Satanic abuse scandal when 16 children were wrongly taken from their parents and rehomed, some in Knowl View.

Last week, Rochdale Council announced an inquiry into his time at the authority. A spokesman said: ‘We have nothing to hide and want to move on from the past. 

It was a dreadful period and unfortunately Rev Flowers was around at the time, although whether he was calling any shots is another matter.’

There is no suggestion that Flowers was in any way involved in criminal activity at Knowl View.
However, Flowers had been going through a turbulent time.

In October 1990, he suffered a suspected heart attack a day after his car was stolen and his house burgled. The following month, he was forced to come out as gay after his gross indecency conviction came to light.

Last night, the MoS put the Rev Flowers’s link to Knowl View School as well as the latest text message revelations to his lawyer.

Solicitor Andy Hollas said: ‘I can make no comment whatsoever. It would be in everybody’s interests  if the spotlight was turned off to let the police make their inquiries.’

Flowers’s text to his rent boy: ‘I’ll use telephone banking to pay you… when I’m not so trolleyed’

Since The Mail on Sunday first revealed his debauched lifestyle,  the Reverend Paul Flowers’s fall  from grace has been accompanied by lurid text insights into a man obsessed by drugs and sex.

Now a series of text messages between the Methodist minister and  a male escort throws a fresh light on the depths of his depravity and  prove that his use of hard drugs  was no aberration. 

As these messages show, immediately after the story of his shocking lifestyle first became public, he was planning a trip to Amsterdam with two rent boys. 
And his favourite method of payment for the services of young men was telephone banking.

We join the minister on October 29, after he has spent the day waiting in vain to give evidence to the Treasury Select Committee, only for his appearance to be rescheduled.
He is reclining with one escort  while making plans to see two more the following night…

 

‘Still at it… had 8 grams of Charlie and some G’ 

Flowers surfaced mid-afternoon and once he transferred the money for sex, his mind was soon back to his other preoccupation .  .  . hard drugs.

 

‘No, seeing MPs wasn’t for church… it was for co-op’

It’s the following Wednesday and his appearance before the MPs is over

 

‘Coke, crack and weed before leading Cenotaph service’

With a prayer to read later that morning at Bradford’s Remembrance Day service, Rev Flowers limbered  up with an alarming unholy trinity of mind-altering substances.

‘In a k-hole for 12 hours… am a tad shaky’

His post-Select Committee bender still ongoing, a friend helps the Rev find a novel new way of imbibing his favourite horse tranquilliser, ketamine.

 

‘Disgraceful!’ The day after his exposure by the MoS

Worried by the sudden break  of contact, his friends ask if something’s wrong. It is. His  double life has been exposed by The Mail on Sunday.

…and then planning a trip to Amsterdam with rent boys

Ever the forward-planner, Paul Flowers is soon thinking ahead to when the story is all forgotten and holidays can be taken .  .  . with rent boys .  .  . in Amsterdam .  .  . naturally.

May 1983

12 years for pervert who sexually attacked girls

March 2014

Child rapist jailed for 26 years

A WINWICK man has been jailed for 26 years for raping two girls.

Patrick Desmond O’Sullivan, aged 67, was found guilty of numerous sex offences at Warrington Crown Court on Friday.

They included rape, sexual assault of a child under 13, and sexual activity with a child.

O’Sullivan, of Myddleton Lane, carried out the rapes, which ‘destroyed the lives of his victims’, between January 2005 and December 2012, in Warrington.

Two girls were raped between the ages of 11 and 15, and another girl of the same age was also sexually abused.

The paedophile had pleaded not guilty to 20 charges on the indictment.

However, a jury found him guilty after a five day trial last week on counts three to 20.

O’Sullivan has previous convictions for sex offences against another young girl.

The court heard sexually abusing children is ‘part of his make-up’.

He was found not guilty of two counts of rape against an adult woman.

Following the case, investigating officer DC Deborah Carter, from Cheshire Police, said: “This man has been convicted of horrific serious sexual offences, multiple rapes committed against children.

“He has targeted his victims and manipulated circumstances to afford him the opportunity to commit this vile abuse.

“It is not possible to comprehend the impact this has had on the victims, they have been left traumatised and their lives destroyed.

Det Chf Insp Nigel Wenham said: “Patrick O’Sullivan will he will be over 100 years old.

“He is a predatory paedophile, who abused children in the most horrific way possible.

“I would encourage anyone who has any concerns or is being abused to come forward, speak to us and we will help.

March 2014

Pervert with 12,300 child abuse images avoids jail to have ‘treatment’

A pervert found with over 12,300 indecent images of children has avoided jail because a judge said a prison term would wreck the treatment which could stop him offending.

Patrick Skerritt’s obsession was discovered by a 17-year-old youth who he had invited back to his home.

Mr Paul Spratt, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court: “The defendant took greater interest than was appropriate in the young man, buying him presents.”

On January 27 last year the horrified teenager stumbled on the hoard of child porn after being left alone in the living room for a short time during a visit to the home of 60-year-old Skerritt, the court heard.

Mr Spratt explained: “The computer had been left on and displayed a number of provocative, sexualised images of an unclothed young man aged 12.

“The young man went to a police station that night to explain what he had seen.

“As a result of this the home of defendant was visited by officers who took away the computer and hard drive.”

They discovered 12,350 still and moving indecent images of children and young people – almost 1,400 of which were from the three worst categories of this type of material, the court was told.

Mr Spratt concluded: “Any user of the computer could easily have found them, as was proved by the 17-year-old visitor.”

Skerritt, formerly of Bache Street, West Bromwich but now living in Hagley Road, Edgbaston admitted 18 charges of indecent images.

He had no previous convictions.

He was given a community order under supervision during which he will be kept under supervision and only allowed to live where directed by the authorities for three years.

He must also complete the Community Sex Offender Programme.

Judge Michael Dudley told him: “In many ways you deserve to go to prison.

“But it would not be for long enough to make any sense because you would not be able to complete this lengthy programme that is often successful.

“My concern is to pass a sentence that gives the public the best protection I can to guard against any repetition of this offending.

“Possession of images such as these is a serious offence because, in their making, young children are seriously abused in a way that will undoubtedly affect their lives and those who access the material ensure that more children are abused in the same way.”

Skerritt was also made the subject of a Sex Offenders Protection Order for 10 years and put on the Sex Offenders Register for five years.

March 2014

Slough man who admitted raping a boy aged under 13 years old has been jailed for life

A man from Slough who admitted raping a child has been jailed for life

March 2014

Man jailed for historical child sex offences

A mechanic has been locked up for 23 years after he was found guilty of a series of historical sex attacks on two children.

Alan Baskerville-Mansell, 59, of Sutton Road, Rochford, was sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court today after he was convicted last month of 13 sexual offences dating back to the 1960s.

The court heard Baskerville-Mansell, who lived in Uxbridge between 1968 and 1973, assaulted a girl from when she was 11 until the age of 16. This took place when he was 14 until he was 19.

Another victim, a boy aged between six and 11, was attacked at addresses in East Sussex and Essex at addresses in Eastbourne and Canvey Island in the early 1980s

Both victims came forward in 2012 and after a police investigation began, Baskerville-Mansell was arrested at his home on August 9 2012 and charged on July 8 2013 with 13 offences.

Detective Constable Helen Ider, from the Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command, said: “I hope that the sentence handed down today will reassure the public that the Met takes the investigation of child abuse and sexual offences very seriously.

“I would encourage anyone who suffered sexual abuse as a child or adult, regardless of how long ago that was, to come forward and speak to us.”

March 2014

Abbots Langley man, Stephen Starkey, caught with child sex abuse images given Community Order

An Abbots Langley man who was caught with almost 3,000 images of child sex abuse and extreme pornography was given a Community Order on Friday after a judge was told he had sought help.

Police seized two Acer laptops belonging to Stephen Starkey, 53, of Jacketts Field, when they raided his home on June 4 last year, St Albans Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Neil King said the newer computer had just six images of child pornography – one at Level 2, four at Level 3 and one at Level 4 – the second most serious level.

But on the older machine there were many more. Investigators found 26 films and 2,663 images at Level 1 – the least serious level. 21 movies and 29 images were at Level 2, 12 movies and 16 images were at Level 3, 105 movies and 34 images were at Level 4 and seven movies were at Level 5, the most serious level.

In total, Mr King said there were 171 movies and 2,748 images. In addition the police found 123 images of extreme pornography that involved sexual activity with animals. There were also 48 prohibited images of children, showing the lower halves of their bodies.

Starkey pleaded guilty to 12 counts of making indecent images – that refers to downloading – one of possessing extreme pornography and one of possessing prohibited images of children. He had no previous convictions.

He told the police he had been acting out of curiosity. Upon his arrest he sought help from the Lucy Faithful Foundation, a charity that helps offenders stay away from child sex abuse images.

Andrew Campbell, defending, said: “He recognised the full horror of the images when confronted about them. He has been open about it and has got help at his own expense.”

Judge John Plumstead praised the police policy of giving the details of a “Stop it now” scheme to offenders found with abuse images.

He told Starkey: “You are rightly ashamed of yourself, but you have taken steps to have help. In many cases the images you have viewed have involved serious sexual offending taking place. If people like you weren’t there to view them they would not be abused.”

He placed him under supervision by probation officers for two years and ordered him to attend a Sexual Offender Treatment Programme. He must also register as a Sex Offender for five years and have risk management software installed on his computers so the police can monitor his behaviour.

Starkey was also ordered to pay £250 prosecution costs. As he left, Judge Plumstead warned him: “This court does not expect to see you again.”