June 2014

Sentence slashed for Milton Keynes Asperger’s Syndrome man who had sex with 13-year-old girl

A Milton Keynes man who repeateadly had sex with an underage schoolgirl has convinced top judges to slash his sentence by more than a third.

Jonathan Devonshire, 20, who has Asperger’s syndrome, bedded the 13-year-old despite knowing she was below the legal age of consent.

Devonshire, of Radstock Crescent, Broughton, was handed two years and four months in a young offenders’ institution in February after he admitted two counts of sexual activity with a child, at Aylesbury Crown Court.

But today, three senior judges at London’s Appeal Court upheld a challenge by Devonshire – saying his sentence was “manifestly excessive” and cutting it to 18 months.

Sir Colin Mackay, sitting with Lord Justice Jackson and Mr Justice Andrew Smith, said Devonshire had protected and unprotected sex with the girl before police were alerted by her family.

He was hauled in by cops and admitted the consensual but illicit encounters, pleading guilty at a early stage.

The judge said that Devonshire had a diminished appreciation of the consequences of his actions because of his Asperger’s, but knew that what he had done was wrong.

He was, nonetheless, not a dangerous person and had no previous convictions, Sir Colin added.

On appeal, Devonshire’s barrister, James Fletcher, argued that the sentence was far too long – given his disability and frank admissions – and called for him to be freed on the spot.

As Devonshire, dressed in a white T-shirt, watched via video link, Sir Colin said: “There is force in the submission, although it does not justify going to the extent that Mr Fletcher invites us to go by considering a non-custodial sentence.

“It was a significantly serious matter, with the aggravating factors which we have mentioned, but, in our judgment, the sentence imposed was manifestly excessive.”

Reducing Devonshire’s sentence to 18 months, the judge concluded: “To that extent this appeal is allowed,” he concluded.

June 2014

Cwmbran victim speaks out as her abuser is jailed

A CWMBRAN woman who watched the man who raped and assaulted her be sentenced to 10 years behind bars, has spoken of the ordeal which has haunted her adult life.

Alfred James Brown was sentenced to 10 years at Cardiff Crown Court on June 5 and seven and a half of those years will be served behind bars. Watching the sentencing was Kate King, whose evidence in the trial helped lead to his convictions. She has bravely waived her legal right to anonymity.

Brown, 30, from Ty Fry Close, Blaenavon was found guilty of three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault, rape and sexual activity with a female under the age of 16. The charges related to incidents involving two females

All of the charges, aside from two of the assaults, related to the victim who has chosen to waive her right to anonymity to tell her story.

In 2004, the victim, now 24, began her relationship with Brown, who was her first boyfriend. Months later, aged just 15, she fell pregnant and gave birth to their baby daughter on Christmas day 2005.

After her daughter was born, social services allowed the victim and the new-born to leave the hospital with Brown, despite her mother’s reservations. Together, they moved into a flat.

“Whenever he kicked off he would punch walls and pull the electric lights out. He used to destroy the food in the freezer too, stamping all over it so his daughter had nothing to eat,” the victim claimed. “I felt I had to stay there.”

One of the convictions relates to an incident with a sword which happened in the flat at this time.

The victim said: “He chased me around with a samurai sword and threatened to slit my rabbit’s throat with [it]. I had to lock myself in the bathroom.

“In September 2007 he raped me. The following February I left. I couldn’t do it anymore. I made him leave and I wouldn’t let him back in.

“The reason I had stayed was I was on my own because he wouldn’t let anyone in. But then he started going out more and a friend started coming over who had seen what was going on. I felt a little better that I could get rid of him because I had someone there for support.”

Young and naive, the victim said she didn’t acknowledge she was a victim of domestic violence. She said: “I’d never had a relationship. I didn’t know.”

But things changed after the birth of her child – Brown became jealous of the attention the mum was giving her baby.

That made her stand up to him.

Later she locked him out and didn’t let him back in. After the relationship ended, the victim was assaulted by Brown in Cwmbran town centre, where he grabbed her by the hair.

Although the victim hadn’t reported these incidents to police prior to this trial, her mother, Nicola King, said she felt let down having tried to intervene at the beginning of the relationship. She said she told police her underage daughter was vulnerable and involved in a sexual relationship.

She said: “I went to the police and to social services and they didn’t want to know. She hadn’t been to school in three months.

“I was saying to social services, I need help. I was fighting a losing battle.

“If they had interfered then, none of this would have happened. I think everyone failed her. ”

A police officer approached the victim last year, after Brown had been arrested for an incident involving another woman. Miss King started giving evidence in interviews in November last year.

She said: “I had a break down. I couldn’t stop seeing it. I was on diazepam, anti-depressants – I was having night mares.”

The victim welcomed the sentence and said: “He’s got away with so much for so long. He’s got to be the dominating one, stripping the person of everything they’ve got until they are nothing.

“People should know what’s happened because it’s wrong what I’ve been through.

“I do feel angry because if I’d been told he had such a bad background it would have been different. The police and social services should answer to the fact they did nothing to help my mum put a stop to it.”

To anyone else who may find themselves in the situation the victim was in, her message was simple: “You need to go to police, because otherwise it will destroy you.”

July 2013

MAN avoids jail after being convicted of engaging in sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl

Matthew Watts, of Orchard Way, Kingham, was given a 12-month prison sentence, but Judge Gordon Risius said he would suspend it for two years.

He said that in October 2011 the 35-year-old had indecently touched a young teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Judge Risius told Watts that he had tried to make out the incident was just a “misunderstanding” but the girl had told a counsellor at her school and the matter had been reported to the police.

Tony McGeorge, defending, said the encounter had lasted “somewhere between seconds and minutes”.

He said: “This was a one-off. There is no suggestion that any behaviour like this has ever happened on any other occasion.

“It is difficult to imagine how something that is over and done with so quickly can have such a devastating effect.”

Judge Risius said Watts would also have to complete a sex offenders’ rehabilitation programme and be made subject to a sexual offences prevention order.

He told Watts it was “difficult to detect any real remorse” in him for what he had done.

The judge also praised the police officers who dealt with the case

January 2009

Mum groomed sex show girl… but goes free

A MUM-of-four who groomed a 13-year-old girl to perform live sex shows on the internet has escaped a jail term.

Former ballet dancer Zanythe Harrison, 28, got just three years’ probation for directing the vile webcam displays for paedophiles across the globe.

Twisted Harrison gave the schoolgirl access to a computer, positioned the camera, provided her costumes and offered her tips on how to look seductive as she performed sex acts.

When Harrison herself told cops what was going on, she claimed a mystery man was behind the plot – and was shocked when she was charged, Greenock Sheriff Court heard.

But Sheriff Vincent Canavan said that her part in informing police was one reason he would not send her to prison.

He said: “I have decided at this time not to jail the accused because of her previous good character, her genuine regret and disgust and her role in telling the police and enabling these matters to be brought to light and her assistance to the police.”

But as he ordered her to go on the sex offenders’ register, he warned her if she stepped out of line again, it was “inevitable a substantial jail sentence will follow as night follows day”.

The webcam shows took place in a house in Rothesay, on the holiday island of Bute, between October and November 2006.

Harrison, of Greenock, admitted she told her victim about an adult website and encouraged her to perform. But her lawyer Tony Lenaghan insisted a man from England dubbed Mr X was the main culprit.

He said: “He is the driving force behind the escalation of matters.

“At the start she simply thinks she has found a friend in this chap.”

He described Mr X as a “charming” and manipulative man who had gained the confidence of the accused, the victim’s mother and the victim.

It is understood Mr X lured the victim into taking part by promising her gifts of Playboy merchandise.

The court heard Harrison made no cash and gained no sexual gratification from the web shows.

When Harrison expressed concern that the set-up was getting out of hand, she was allegedly subjected to terrifying threats. The court heard Harrison had tried to warn the victim’s mum about Mr X – but she refused to believe the claims.

Harrison admitted facilitating the vile crime but charges specifying the girl’s sex acts were dropped.

The victim’s mother, who moved to Scotland with her family to escape crime in their English home town, broke down in tears and refused to comment after sentencing.

November 2008

Ballet dancer grooms girl, 14, for sex acts on webcam

A BALLET dancer has admitted grooming a 14-year-old schoolgirl to perform webcam sex shows for paedophiles all over the world

Zanythe Harrison, 28 – a mother of four – directed the sick shows in a flat on a holiday island.

And the victim’s mother, who brought her family to Scotland to escape crime in their former home town, fears Harrison used her dancing background to weasel her way into her daughter’s life.

The girl was plied with drink and made to perform sexually explicit shows by dancer Harrison while paedophiles watched on their webcams.

Harrison has been put on the sex offenders’ register while she awaits sentencing next month.

But she has been allowed to keep her two primary schoolgirl daughters and baby boy as well as her partner’s son from a previous relationship.

When Harrison admitted the charge last week, charges specifying the sex acts the girl was made to perform were dropped.

The victim’s mother said last night: “We moved because I feared for my family because all these serious crimes were rife in our neighbourhood in England.

“We came to Scotland for peace and security. And we thought we had found a safe haven.

“I can’t believe how wrong we were or how any woman, especially someone with young daughters herself, could exploit an innocent young girl in this way.

“This came to light two years ago and it has taken all that time for the case finally to reach a stage where she has admitted her guilt.

“These two years have been a nightmare formy daughter. She is a bright girl.

She wants to be a forensic scientist but her schooling has suffered terribly.”

Harrison claims she was coerced into directing the sick sex shows in a flat in Rothesay, Isle of Bute, by an unnamed paedophile from Essex.

But the girl’s mum rejected that, saying: “I know that Harrison is trying to put the blame on this man saying she was under his influence.

“But she knew exactly what she was doing. I cannot put into words what I feel about this woman. I am quite a sociable person, as are my girls, and I became friendly with a woman who introduced me to Zanythe Harrison, who weasled herway into my 14-year-old’s trust.

“To be honest, I don’t know how this all started but I have been in Harrison’s flat myself and she had pictures of herself on the wall performing ballet.

“I don’t know if she used that as a way of getting to my daughter.

“When my 14-year-old was interviewed by CID over a three-day period, she asked that I was not to be present because she was so embarrassed about everything.

“The only thing she has told me is that she was plied with alcohol. But she still cannot speak about anything else. It is still so raw for her.

“It is only in the past week, for instance, that we have gone back on the internet.

“There are so many ways that what this woman has done still continues to affect our lives.”

On the Friends Reunited website, Harrison, originally from Leicester, says she attended the Urdang Academy in London – which teaches ballet – between 1996 and 1998.

She also claims to have served in the Army between 1999 and 2002.

Harrison says on her most recent entry on the Facebook social networking site: “Currently living in bonnie Scotland….not that there’s owt bonnie about it lol!!!.

“I live with my partner Tony and my two daughters and my stepson.

“I’ve been up here now for three years and it’s driving me mad, full of blinkin scots lol….moving to Northern Ireland in the very near future…also five months pregnant with my 3rd….” She gave birth to a baby boy in May.

Her victim’s mother said: “I find it incredible someone capable of doing what she did is allowed to bring up kids.”

At Greenock Sheriff Court last week, Harrison admitted contravening the Protection of Children and Sexual Offences, Scotland Act 2005.

September 2011

Sanday man jailed for two years

A 77-year-old Sanday man has been jailed for two years for having sex with a 15-year-old girl.

Ian Muir, of Kettletoft, Sanday, was found guilty earlier this month when a jury returned a majority verdict following a four-day trial.

Muir was also placed on the sex offenders register for ten years when he appeared for sentencing at Kirkwall Sheriff Court today.

Jury deliver guilty verdict in underage sex trial

A 77-year-old Sanday man has been found guilty of having underage sex with a 15-year-old girl

Ian Muir, of Kettletoft, Sanday, was also placed on the sex offenders register at the end of a four-day jury trial. The jury returned with their majority verdict on Thursday afternoon and sentence was deferred, for social inquiry and community service reports, until September 28.

Muir was released on bail.

June 2014

Exeter paedophile jailed for defying order banning him from surfing the web for images of child abuse

A paedophile has been jailed for defying an order banning him from surfing the internet for pornography and downloading sickening images of child abuse.

Stephen Caventer was subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) after being caught with similar images in 2010.

The order should have stopped him repeating his crime but he used his own laptop and his girlfriend’s computer to seek out images of children as young as two, Exeter Crown Court was told.

Detectives recovered 371 images and five movies but suspected others may have been removed by so-called cleaning software.

Caventer, 54, formerly of Newark Road, Lincoln but now of Smythen Street, Exeter, admitted making and possessing indecent images of children and two counts of breaching his SOPO.

He was jailed for two years and six months by Judge Graham Cottle, who told him the offence was aggravated by Caventer’s persistence and his failure to abide by the terms of the SOPO.

William Hunter, prosecuting, said Caventer had a previous conviction dating back to 2010 when he was found with 133 indecent images while living in Lincoln.

He was made subject of a SOPO which imposed strict controls on his use of the internet and should have enabled police to monitor its use.

Officers received intelligence in 2012 that he had been accessing sites again and his computer was seized when police raided the house in Longbrook Street, Exeter, where he was living with girlfriend Heather Farley.

She also came under suspicion but the charges against her were dropped when Caventer admitted his guilt at the start of his trial.

Mr Hunter said a total of 371 images and five movies showing children of both sexes and all ages were recovered by police.

Adrian Moorhouse, defending, said Caventer should be given credit for admitting his guilt.

June 2014

Man had thousands of child abuse images

POLICE found thousands of images of child abuse images after searching a man’s computer, a court heard.

Sean Togher, 44, of Messingham Lane, Scawby, admitted three offences of possessing indecent photographs of children and another of possessing extreme pornography.

Jeremy Evans, prosecuting at Grimsby Crown Court, said that police went to Togher’s home under a search warrant on March 9 last year after receiving information about the use of an illegal website.

A laptop computer and CDs were seized.

A total of 7,549 deleted still indecent images were found on the laptop, with 982 still images on disks and 23 more on a memory stick.

Only a relatively small number were at the most serious levels.

Togher had first viewed images in 2008 but looked at legal adult images after he was arrested, said Mr Evans.

Togher had also viewed extreme pornography involving animals and adults.

Ian Haywood, mitigating, said Togher had no previous convictions.

“He is disgusted with himself and very ashamed to find himself in this position,” said Mr Haywood.

Togher had accessed pornography for a considerable time and realised he needed help.

Togher, a groundworker with his brother, was given a three-year community order, including supervision and a sex offenders’ treatment programme, and was given a five-year sexual offences prevention order.

He must register as a sex offender for five years.

June 2014

Shotton man jailed after taking indecent images of 4 yr old girl

A HORRIFIED mother rang police to say she believed a man had taken naked photographs of her little 4 yr old daughter.

Police seized Tadeusz Klementowicz’s mobile phone and found 15 still images and two films of the girl, which were of an indecent nature.

First questioned, he claimed there was nothing sexual in it and suggested he had done it from a photographic or artistic point of view. But on Friday at Mold Crown Court he was jailed for three years and placed on the sex offender register for life.

Klementowicz, 51, of King Edward Street, Shotton, had never been in trouble before, did not know why he had done it, and had now turned to his Christian faith for support, he said. There was now a suggestion he might be deported back to Poland.

Judge Philip Hughes said it was not known what psychological harm he had caused the victim as she grew up. He took into account the devastating effect it had on her mother and family.

The defendant kept the images on his mobile phone for his own sexual gratification, the judge told him.

“There was in my judgement a significant degree of planning,” he said.

The defendant, who admitted two charges of sexual assault and 18 charges of taking indecent photographs and movies at level one and three, was made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) to curb his future activities.

Klementowicz filmed and photographed the 4 year old girl’s private parts, said Jayne La Grua, prosecuting. He did close up photos of the child and his hand could be seen indecently assaulting her in some of the images.

He said he had done it on impulse and when questioned about the sexual assaults, said it was not with any sexual intention.

Mr Sabino said it was an extremely serious case as he touched the genitalia of a young child while she slept and had recorded it.

Klementowicz accepted full responsibility and appreciated the suffering and the trauma of the child’s family. “He is racked with guilt, shame and remorse,” he said, adding: “I had to ask him what his motivation was and he can give no explanation.

He was working hard, was isolated, and suggested that he was perhaps confused and curious. Before the incidents occurred, he had not contemplated any such reprehensible behaviour.”

There was no long period of grooming, no violence, no injury and no use of a weapon.

Mr Sabino said perhaps unsurprisingly, the defendant found it difficult to acknowledge responsibility for his actions, simply due to their abhorrent nature, but he had done so.

He had been as frank and as honest as he could be and was willing to co-operate with intervention.

July 2011

Kidderminster man jailed after being found guilty of child sex offences

A Kidderminster man has been sent to jail for six years after he was convicted of sex offences against children.

Gary Vincent Whitmore, aged 47, of Whittall Drive East, was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life when he appeared for sentencing before Judge Daniel Pearce-Higgins QC at Worcester Crown Court on Friday, 8 July.

In addition he was made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO). 

Whitmore denied one charge of committing an act of gross indecency with a child and eight counts of indecently assaulting a child but was found guilty by a jury at Hereford Crown Court on June 9 following a four-day trial.

The offences were committed between June 1995 and December 2001 and he knew both of his female victims.

One of them came forward to report his activities to police in February last year, 2010, and a second victim was traced soon after an investigation was launched by Kidderminster CID.

Detective Constable Shelley Aplin of West Mercia Police said that Whitmore’s denial of the offences meant that both his victims had to go through the ordeal of giving evidence against him in court.

She said: “These were vile offences committed by a man who was in a position of trust with these children and abused that.

“They are crimes that have had a lasting and deep impact on his victims, the first of whom came forward partly because she was concerned for other innocent youngsters who might come in contact with him in the future.

“Both have been extremely brave and I have nothing but admiration for them. I would also like to thank the other witnesses who had the courage to come forward and support the prosecution’s case in court.

“The victims are pleased that justice has finally been served and that Whitmore will be behind bars for a considerable time. They also feel that they have closure for themselves and can now move on with their lives.

“Both are also relieved that Whitmore’s activities are now out in the open and other people are now protected from him.”

“Cases of this nature are rare in West Mercia but hopefully the outcome will give other victims of sexual abuse the courage to come forward in the knowledge that their complaints will be fully investigated and offenders brought to book for their crimes.”

June 2014

Man awaits crown court sentencing after downloading nearly 900 indecent images of children

A man who admitted downloading nearly 900 images indecent images of children from a porn website he subscribed to is to be sentenced at crown court.

Gary Dobson, of Little Tufts, Capel St Mary, pleaded guilty to one count of making an indecent photograph of a child when he appeared before Ipswich magistrates.

However, the court was told the website the 52-year-old subscribed to had duped him into believing it only contained adult pornography.

Hugh Rowland, representing Dobson, told the court: “My client is not a paedophile”

“It was at a vulnerable time in his life that Mr Dobson’s interest in adult pornography led him to a website. That website purveyed adult pornography. It also made it clear that it did not have illegal images, but what happened is that he became sucked in by an unscrupulous website operator who introduced images of a certain type.”

Mr Rowland added Dobson accepted he did look at those images.

“He did not know what they were, but there came a time when he did know what he was going to see.

“He subscribed to the website for a while. There came a time when he cancelled his subscription because he no longer wanted to have that access. That was before he was visited by police in 2013.

“This was an unsophisticated method of downloading images. There’s no saving. There’s no storing.

“You have a man who has downloaded it (and) viewed images that were illegal. He stopped doing that of his own volition.”

Previously prosecutor Wayne Ablett said that during 2011 intelligence was gathered by Gloucestershire police which led to an IP address. This in turn identified Dobson’s computer, which he had used to download child pornography.

Suffolk police were informed in 2013 and police executed a search warrant at his home last September.

When his computer was checked the following month there were 395 images at Level One on the Copine Scale, 138 at Level Two, 174 at Level Three, 183 at Level Four and a movie classified at Level Five – the most serious grading for child abuse images (which involves torture and or sadism.

Mr Ablett said: “He says at the time – in his words – he was in a very dark place in his life and was spending a lot of his time searching websites, viewing pornography.”

Magistrates said the case was so serious it would be committed to Ipswich Crown Court for sentencing.

June 2014

Todmorden ex-teaching assistant had more than 370,000 indecent pictures of children

A former teaching assistant who claimed to have had a interest in child abuse images for more than a decade has been jailed for 10 months.

Bradford Crown Court heard today that when police seized three computers from the West Yorkshire home of Garth Hall last year they discovered a more than 370,000 indecent images of children.

Judge John Potter told Hall that the images depicted the most appalling acts of child abuse and said the 53-year-old had a “deep-rooted interest” in viewing such material.

Details of Hall’s previous involvement with schools were referred to in court, but as part of his sentence Judge Potter banned him from seeking any future employment which may lead to working with children.

Hall, of Rochdale Road, Todmorden, will also have to register as a sex offender with the police for the next 10 years and the judge also imposed an indefinite sexual offences prevention order.

Hall, who had no previous convictions, admitted 11 charges relating to his possession of the indecent images and the court heard that there were so many on the three computer hard drives that only half of them had been analysed by the police.

During his police interview Hall said he had compiled some images in a “power point” so he could save disc space on his computer.

Prosecutor Richard Davies said Hall told police he did not know why he had kept the images or why he viewed child abuse images.

Lawyer Mark Watterson, for Hall, said his client’s employment ceased in March last year when the police investigation began and the defendant acknowledged that any future employment would not be in the arena where he is teaching children.

“The defendant understands that this is a matter the court will take seriously”, conceded Mr Watterson.

“He accepts that the material will be held with the contempt that it deserves to be.”

Judge Potter highlighted the fact that Hall claimed to have been child abuse material for 13 years and added:’’Quite rightly the community will be shocked that somebody such as you, having held employment within the community that you have, should engage in this type of material at this level.

“Potentially hundreds of thousands of images seen by a teaching assistant at a school over a 13-year period.

“You richly deserve to go to custody immediately and to custody you will go.”

Hall stood with his head bowed as Judge Potter told him that if he had been convicted after a trial he would have been jailed for 15 months, but his guilty pleas meant his sentence could be reduced by one third.

June 2014

Dymchurch pensioner jailed for string of vile sex attacks on children dating back 40 years

An 85-year-old Dymchurch man has been jailed for 18 years for sex crimes dating back more than 40 years.

Sydney Head appeared in court in a wheelchair – and had to read his sentence on a computer screen because of severe hearing difficulties.

He had been convicted by a jury at Canterbury Crown Court on 14 rape and indecent assault charges of two victims.

His barrister Lucy Luttman said the sentence would probably mean the pensioner will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

She said: “This is not a sob story, but his legs and feet have swollen to grotesque proportions. He has not been able to shower for the past two weeks.

“He is feeling very isolated and vulnerable in prison. This is not a plea for sympathy, but mercy.”

She said he was suffering from multiple illnesses and could only get about on walking sticks – and needed help bathing and dressing.

But Judge James O’Mahony told him he had been fully fit and healthy when he had carried out these “wicked indulgences to feed your sexual appetite”.

Head sat slumped in his wheelchair at the side of the court as the judge said his attacks on the children amounted to cruelty.

“You have not shown any sympathy or remorse – not a jot,” he said.

Prosecutor Paul Valder had told the court how Head, of Green Meadow, had threatened one of his victims not to report the repeated attacks.

Judge O’Mahony told Head: “You carried out a catalogue of abuse, which is probably the worse that I have ever come across in many years of dealing with these types of cases.”

He said the “complete psychiatric breakdown and permanent problems” suffered by one of the victims suffered later in life “is down to your gross abuse”.

The judge added the second victim also suffered “drastic effects” from the vile attacks by the sick pervert.

Head had denied the charges and both victims had to give evidence at the trial – “and had to re-live their experiences”, he said.

Judge O’Mahony said the crimes deserved a 21-year sentence, but he would cut it by three years because of Head’s medical problems.

He will be 94 before he can be considered for parole.

June 2014

Highly-respected Royal Marine officer faces being kicked out of the forces after he admits spying on girl, 11, as she changed after a swimming lesson

A high-ranking Royal Marine could be expelled from the armed forces after he was convicted of voyeurism for spying on a schoolgirl with a mirror at a public swimming pool.

Lieutenant Colonel Russell Paul, 53, watched the 11-year-old as she took off her bikini top after a swimming session last summer.

But she looked down while changing into her clothes and saw the mirror poking out from underneath the next cubicle, Plymouth Crown Court heard.

She and a friend ran to tell staff at the city’s Life Centre leisure complex and CCTV footage showed Paul emerging from the neighbouring cubicle moments after the girl had fled.

Paul told police he went swimming for 45 minutes, then showered and left, but cameras showed him in the water for just seven minutes.

Officers searched his room at his base and found a bag containing 22 pairs of women’s knickers, though Paul said they were a secret Santa present from seven years ago.

They also examined his home computer and found Google search terms which revealed ‘an interest in young girls, teen and pre-teen’, the court was told.

Llewellyn Sellick, prosecuting, said the girl spotted Paul spying on her on June 4 last year as she changed.

He said: ‘She saw an eye reflected in the mirror. She covered herself with a towel and left the cubicle.’

Adrian Chaplin, defending, said Paul had a ‘very good career’ and wanted to ‘apologise to the victims that his actions caused the upset that it did’.

Sentencing Paul, Recorder Simon Levene said the two young girls were left frightened by their ordeal and would not forget it for a long time.

The judge told Paul that ‘certain members of society’ such as ‘marines, and judges amongst them, when they do something wrong, draw the attention not only to themselves but to their profession. That’s something you’re going to have to live with.’

Paul, of Taunton, Somerset, was handed a community order with three years of supervision and ordered to pay £1,600 court costs and a £60 victim surcharge.

He now faces potential consequences from his famous regiment and could be expelled from the forces over the conviction.

A Royal Navy spokesman said afterwards: ‘The service will now consider the effect of his conviction on his career. Any administrative action is a private matter between employee and the employer.’

June 2014

Belper man, 71, jailed for grooming 14-year-old girl on-line

A PAEDOPHILE pensioner has been locked up for child abuse – 29 years after avoiding jail for a similar crime.

When the latest offences began to emerge, Barrie Doggett told his family doctor he needed to be “chemically castrated”, a court heard.

He had been sending suggestive emails to a girl aged 14, referring to her as “sexy” and saying he “wanted to see her in a bikini,” said Sarah Slater, prosecuting.

In June 2012, one of his messages read: “We both want one another so much.”

The girl had done nothing to encourage that comment, the court heard.

On one occasion, his victim replied: “I hate the way you go on at me. You creep me out.”

When 71-year-old Doggett met her, he touched her breasts over her blouse and “tried to put his tongue down her throat” while kissing her.

Eventually, he began to fear that police were investigating and visited his GP.

Miss Slater said: “He told him he should be chemically castrated because he was talking to a 14-year-old girl on the internet.”

Derby Crown Court heard that Doggett was convicted in 1985 of offences against another 14-year-old girl.

For those offences, he was given an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Now a jail sentence of three years and six months has been imposed on Doggett, of Willow Grove, Belper.

He admitted two counts of sexual abuse and one of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence in the summer of 2012.

In passing sentence, Recorder Adrienne Lucking QC told him: “You have a previous conviction of a matter of a very similar nature.

“At the time, there was a very different kind of sentencing regime in place. Prison was suspended for two years.”

She described the emails as “sinister” because they began to build the girl’s confidence before he “turned matters sexual”.

The recorder said Doggett gave the girl a computer camera in the hope that she would send photographs of herself. She did not.

The recorder said there was a wide age gap between him and the victim, telling Doggett: “A report says you have a lack of real insight into what has happened.”

Justin Wigoder, mitigating, said: “He has brought his bag because he is going to prison. He knows that – I suspect everybody in the court knows that. The issue is how long because I accept this is a remarkably unattractive scenario.”

But he said Doggett deserved full credit for admitting the offences and had gone to his doctor for help.

“He was aware what he was doing was wrong,” added Mr Wigoder.

“It would have been very helpful and nice if someone had been able to treat him.”

June 2014

Ballycastle GAA referee/coach convicted of abusing 6 young boys

A victim of a well known GAA coach has appealed has for other victims of child sex abuse to come forward and bring their abuser before the courts to get the justice they deserve.

His call came as his abuser Patrick Francis McQuillan, from Moyle Avenue, Ballycastle was convicted on Monday of a catalogue of sex abuse crimes involving six victims from the Co Antrim seaside town on differing dates stretching from December 1985 to March 2000.

McQuillan, a father of four, also a well known GAA referee and scout master, was involved with St John’s Ambulance as a first-aid worker and was employed as a local part-time fireman.

He was convicted at Antrim Crown Court of a total of 38 offences including indecent assault and gross indecency with or towards a child.

Speaking later, one of his victims, who did not want to be named, said going to the police was “absolutely the best decision I have ever made in my life” as he talked of encouraging other sex abuse victims to come forward.

The man, who was first abused when he was aged about ten, said he had started off, thinking he was a lone victim when going to the police. However, following his example, other victims came to tell their story.

He added: “You know you couldn’t make up the stuff that happened. Some of the stuff should never happen to a young child. Never.”

“I have been living with this for years, letting it go on, and while I went on with what I thought was my normal life, it wasn’t normal. It was always hanging there, over you. I thought I had buried it deep in the back of my head, but the older I got… you know when you are in a bad place and you start taking it out on others who are only trying to help you, and you know it is not right”.

However, the man said he felt sorry for the family of his abuser who had “hid it so well” over the years.

“Unfortunately his family is paying for it now as they will be living the prison sentence as well,” he added.

His trial had heard that over the years McQuillan had abused his victims either in his or their homes, and some of his victims were regularly abused over a number of years.

The abuse, it was said, followed a similar pattern, and often started with McQuillan touching his victims over their clothing.

However, it soon progressed to incidents where he touched them, and or, tried to get them to touch him.

In one case McQuillan indecently assaulted one of his victims while on the pretext of teaching him to swim.

He originally faced a total of 51 child sex abuse charges, involving seven complaints.

The jury, of seven men and five women who spent more than six hours deliberating, over two days, acquitted him of indecently assaulting one of them, a girl.

However, the jury convicted him of sexually abusing all six of his male victims from when they were youngsters until they were in their teens.

McQuillan, was convicted, either on unaminous or majority verdicts, of 38 charges.

In addition to acquitting him of indecently assaulting the girl, he was also cleared of ten other charges involving five of his male victims.

They also failed to reach verdicts in two other counts, and were discharged from having to bring in a decision on one of the charges.

The GAA man, who coached both girls and boys, will be sentenced next month.

June 2003

Life for serial sex abuser who preyed on girls

A SERIAL child molester has been jailed for life after carrying out a catalogue of depraved sexual abuse on young girls over 26 years.

Alexander Salmond began preying on children when he was aged only 13 and even raped an 11-year-old girl on Christmas Day while in his 30s.

The sexual predator was still targeting under-age girls up until late last year, the High Court in Edinburgh heard yesterday.

Judge Roderick Macdonald QC told 40-year-old Salmond: “In my opinion you are such a serious danger that you should not be released from prison until the appropriate authority is satisfied you no longer constitute a danger.

Six of Salmond’s victims gave evidence against him over four days, before he pled guilty during a trial to a catalogue of abuse including rape, indecent assault and indecency.

The judge told him: “You pled guilty to a total of nine offences most of which involved disgusting and revolting sexual practices towards young girls.

“The worst example of it was the rape of a girl, aged 11, to whose house you had gone at Christmas in 1993,” he said.

The judge added that burly, bearded, bald and bespectacled Salmond had shown “no concern” for his victims.

The court heard that Salmond’s campaign of abuse of children began in 1976 when as a teenager he targeted a six-year-old girl whom he exposed himself to and committed sex acts with.

But Salmond, a prisoner formerly of Fairykirk Road, Rosyth, went on to abuse children as young as three.

During the Christmas Day rape of the 11-year-old, he pushed her into a bedroom, seized her wrists and held her hands above her head.

He pushed the youngster to the floor and put his hand over her mouth, before forcibly removing her clothes and raping her during the attack in 1993.

He carried out offences against under-age girls in High Valleyfield and Rosyth, in Fife; Bo’ness, West Lothian; and Bannockburn, Stirlingshire.

The nine charges he pled guilty to involved a total of seven victims aged between three and 11.

The court heard that Salmond has a lengthy criminal record which includes offences of indecent exposure, committed when he was 17, and lewd behaviour in 1992 which earned him 30 days in prison. He has appeared in court on 21 previous occasions.

Mr Macdonald told him: “It is clear to me from the catalogue of offences to which you have pled guilty as well as your previous convictions for sexual offences that you are a serious danger to young girls.”

The court also heard that a social worker, who interviewed Salmond, concluded that he posed a very high risk of sexual re-offending.

The judge said: “It is the clear duty of this court to ensure young girls are protected from a serious sexual offender such as you.”

He added that he had come to the conclusion that a fixed prison sentence, even with an extended sentence, would not provide adequate protection.

Defence counsel Scott Brady QC told the court: “This is nothing but a serious case and he has been left under no illusion about the seriousness of it.”

He said Salmond had a “turbulent and often traumatic” upbringing and that a partner had two children removed to live with another relative because of child protection concerns.

Mr Macdonald said that as part of the life sentence imposed on Salmond he had to fix a punishment term for retribution and deterrence and set it at seven-and-a-half years.

The judge told him: “That is the period you must serve before you can apply to the parole board to be released on licence.”

But he warned that whether and when Salmond would be released would be up to the parole board, who would take into account the need to protect the public before reaching their decision.

November 2012

Teenager looked at indecent images of children

Curiosity about his sexuality led a teenager to look at indecent photos on his computer, a court has heard.

Emilio Bello from Burnham avoided jail at Reading Crown Court on Friday having pleaded guilty to two counts of making indecent images.

More than 1,500 photos, varying in severity and mostly of boys, were found on his two computers in 2010.

“These offences have been borne out of his suppressing feelings that he had from an early age, of 14 or thereabouts, when he was curious about his sexuality,” said Daren Samat, defending.

“He had effectively become confused.”

The court heard Bello, now 23, began searching for pictures online in 2004, and continued to do so for six years.

When the computers were seized from his Hazelhurst Road home police found 1,547 on one and 74 on the other.

Bello was arrested and initially made no comment at police interview.

But months later he volunteered himself for another interview in which he admitted he hadn’t wanted to speak before because he hadn’t been ‘out of the closet’ then.

“He felt that in some way he had let his family down by being a homosexual man,” Mr Samat added.

While none of the images were shared by Bello, some of them showed very young children or toddlers.

He denied intentionally looking for child porn, and said any he accidentally downloaded were quickly deleted.

The court was told Bello was now studying for a masters degree, and his family and partner had provided some powerful letters in which they spoke warmly of him.

He was given a community order with a three-year supervision requirement and told to pay £535 in costs.

He was also made to sign the Sex Offenders Register for five years and has to supply certain personal details to his local police station under notification requirements.

The decision not to jail Bello was met with applause from the public gallery.

May 2014

Man jailed for sexually assaulting young girl

A Cwmbran father has been jailed for three years for sexually assaulting a young girl

Unemployed Jonathan Pooley, 36 years old of West Pontnewydd, Cwmbran was convicted of three counts of Sexual Assault by touching, against a minor aged under 10 years old. (The child was not related to the offender)

Pooley had abused the eight year old girl over a two week period at the end of 2013. Pooley touched the child sexually during separate incidents and also made the child touch him sexually.

Pooley was sentenced to three years imprisonment and was given a indefinite sexual offences prevention order by the judge

He will also have to register as a sex offender for life

June 2014

Woman jailed for rubbing chilli into girl’s eyes and privates

A WOMAN who rubbed chilli into a schoolgirl’s eyes and private parts has been put behind bars.

Rahma Sultana carried out a campaign of sickening violence on two victims, who have been left scarred for life.

Newcastle Crown Court heard one girl was burned with hair straighteners, bitten on the hands, hit over the head with a glass bottle, had chilli powder rubbed in her eyes and fresh chilli rubbed into her private parts.

A second, younger girl was stabbed with a pen, bitten, burned with straighteners and punched.

Judge Simon Hickey said the brutal behaviour was “inexcusable” as he sentenced Sultana to two and a half years behind bars for child cruelty.

Sultana, 35, of Killingworth Drive, Sunderland, had denied child cruelty but was found guilty after a trial.

Her denials meant the scared victims had to relive their ordeal from the witness box and be branded liars.

The judge added: “Those children were called, effectively, liars and that they had fabricated their accounts when quite the reverse was true, it was you who was the liar.

“In my judgment you are a manipulative, devious woman. You never owned up to what you should have done, and you put those children through the second ordeal of giving evidence.”

The court heard both girls have been left with permanent scars on their bodies.

One medic said in a statement: “Unfortunately, the scars are permanent and a reminder of this ill treatment.”

Sultana was arrested when the older victim told a member of staff at her school what had been going on.

Prosecutor Katherine Dunn told the court the victim spoke about incidents of physical abuse and the fact she had chillies rubbed into her eyes.

Miss Dunn said there were incidents when the victim was slapped, had a fresh chilli held against her private parts and had her hands bitten and hair pulled.

Both girls bravely detailed their ordeals to police.

The second youngster told how during the assaults she would be stabbed with a pen.

Miss Dunn said the girl revealed Sultana would break the skin and move the pen around, leaving numerous scars across her shoulder blades.

When Sultana was confronted by officials over what she had done she “wailed and prayed”.

Tom Moran, defending, said Sultana had hoped to become a doctor.

References to the court from members of her local community, including the Sunderland Bangladeshi Centre manager, spoke of her being highly thought of and “polite and courteous”.

June 2014

Tensions run high after letter expose warns locals of pervert’s presence

A letter has been sent to families this week warning them about the presence of sex beast Michael Boyce in the area following a Sunday World exposé.

Pervert Michael Boyce (68), was previously jailed for breaking into the home of an elderly woman in the dead of night, often using a home-made ladder to get into her window, and raping her.

However, Boyce, from Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, did not just confine his sick urges to the elderly – he was also convicted of sexually assaulting a young girl.

Last week the Sunday World revealed how he was working just 300 metres from the Sonna National School near the Co. Westmeath town.

But now it has emerged that a second quiet rural community is also living in terror of sicko Boyce.

It is believed that Boyce has been spending every weekend with a female companion in Clonony, Co. Offaly, for the last few years – travelling from Mullingar after work on a Friday.

The convicted rapist was known to locals in the area as ‘Mike’ and was often seen in local pubs with his female pal.

But now the community is up in arms at Boyce’s presence in the area and letters warning families with kids to “watch out” have been sent out.

A local source said tensions were very high in the area and that a number of local men were considering taking the law “into their own hands”.

On Friday a group of locals spoke to the woman, but she insisted Boyce was welcome in her home.

One source told the Sunday World that Boyce arrived on Friday night and a meeting was held in the village a few hours later.

“He came, same as ever, on Friday evening. He parked his car outside the house and went in. But he will be gotten rid of, there is no doubt about that.”

Part-time postman Boyce, from Rathconrath, Mullingar, was jailed for eight years in March 2001 after a 22-day trial for raping pensioner Mary Hope in her home in 1989, and on charges of attempted rape and sexual assaults on specific dates.

Mr Justice Quirke said Boyce terrorised Ms Hope – who passed away in 2012 – over an 11-year period and had forced her from her home.

Each time she reported the attacks to neighbours and gardaí, but she was unable to identify the attacker who invaded her isolated farmhouse at night.

It started in 1983 when a man called at her door claiming to be from the ESB. He cut off the lights. Then he hit her, stripped off her clothes and tried to rape her.

He called 10 times between 1983 and 1994 – once he claimed to be an IRA man.

At the time he was convicted Boyce was already serving a sentence for the indecent assault of a then 10-year-old child. He was sentenced to eight years for these attacks, dating back to when he was first taken into custody in February 1999.