April 2015

Police failed to locate sex offender

A Whitecrook sex offender who indecently assaulted a 12-year-old girl pleaded guilty to failing to tell police where he was living.

Michael McBride, 18, was found guilty after trial of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl on John Knox Street in Clydebank. McBride, who was 15 at the time of the attack, was jailed for 18 months in summer 2013.

He appeared in the dock at Dumbarton Sheriff Court last week after admitting failing to comply with legal requirements inform police of his address for the Sex Offenders’ Register.

The court heard McBride was released from jail on November 3 last year and went to Clydebank Police Station to tell officers he would be staying at Vanguard Street.

Police then visited him 17 times and returned with the council enforcement who served a notice to quit on December 7 and changed the locks two days later. McBride admitted failing to tell police of his whereabouts for the following 10 days.

He also pleaded guilty to shouting and swearing at his mother at her home on North Elgin Street, Whitecrook, on February 18 this year.

The court heard McBride’s mother gave him a letter from the Job Centre and he became aggressive calling her a “cow” and a “thief”.

He also admitted to punching two doors in the home, causing £100 worth of damage.

The court was told he was assessed as being of “significant risk” of re-offending in by a criminal justice social worker. His lawyer, Roddy Boag, said McBride has now registered with the police as staying at his mother’s home.

Sheriff Maxwell Hendry sentenced McBride to a community payback order for the offences North Elgin Street, ordering him to be supervised for 18 months and carry out 80 hours of unpaid work. He deferred sentenced on the other offence until May 14.

April 2015

Woman who groomed young girl before having sexual contact with her jailed for two years

A judge said Zoe Hickey took advantage of her schoolgirl victim.

Hickey, 26, was on bail when she carried out several of the offences, Preston Crown Court was told.

The court heard the offences had a serious psychological impact on the victim who was under 16.

Hickey, of Eskham Close, Wesham, admitted six charges of child abduction, plus six others of sexual activity with a child.

Before committing the offences, Hickey had been warned about an inappropriate relationship with a girl and was given a caution by police.

Lisa Worsley, prosecuting, said a complaint of inappropriate behaviour between the two had been made last September.

The defendant was served with a child abduction notice and put on bail until November 11 and Hickey was cautioned for sexual activity with a girl.

On October 30 Hickey met the girl after responding to a message from her on a social network, and kissed her twice.

The two met up twice more after the incident.

The girl told someone at her school about the incident and her mother was informed and the police called.

Hickey was arrested and interviewed. She admitted they had met but denied any sexual contact.

She was then on bail when further offences took place. She met the girl and kissed her once more.

The court heard she grabbed the girl by the neck to kiss her in a “passionate act”.

The girl wrote a letter to the judge in which she described feeling she had been a victim of grooming and felt exploited.

At the time she had not seen it as grooming, because she thought the defendant had genuine feelings for her.

“She feels she had fallen under her manipulative spell and that there had been emotional blackmail,” said Miss Worsley.

Daniel Harman, defending, said his client understood the serious position she was in and that only an immediate prison sentence could follow.

In a social media message to the girl’s mother, read out by Mr Harman, the first line read: “I should have respected your wishes and stayed 
away.

“The only excuse I have for being so disrespectful is my feelings.

“I am truly sorry for everything I have put you all through.”

Mr Harman added: “This is a defendant who has lived through coming out as a gay person, lived through the emotional and psychological difficulties that go with that. She is still a young woman herself.

“Clearly a bond was made between these two which turned into an inappropriate bond and one which she regrets,not only for herself , but also for the girl who she cares for.

“She is determined not to repeat this sort of offence. It would appear it was a one off with this young girl”.

In passing sentence, Judge Anthony Russell, told Hickey: “I accept you were infatuated with her. You had been warned off very very clearly.

“These offences had had a very serious psychological impact on your victim and also significant impacts on her family as well.

“She didn’t appreciate she was being groomed and she feels she was exploited by you and that her life was effectively set on a wrong course.

“I regard her as a vulnerable victim of whom you took advantage.”

Hickey was ordered to remain on the Sex Offender’s Register for the next 
10 years.

April 2015

Night watchman guilty of raping girl next to the River Exe in Exeter

A night watchman is facing a long jail sentence after being found guilty of historic rapes against two different girls

Stephen Maddock was remanded in custody by Recorder Mr David Bartlett after a jury at Exeter Crown Court convicted him of ten out of 15 counts.

The guilty verdicts included charges of rapes against both victims, one of whom was attacked during a motorcycle outing to country lanes near Barnstaple when she was just eight.

Maddock was cleared of five counts of rape, including one in which the same girl alleged he forced her to have sex next to the River Exe in Exeter after bribing playmates with sweets to leave them alone.

He was also cleared of raping the other victim in the shed of a garden of a house in Exeter

All the allegations dates back to the 1970s and 1980s, when Maddock himself was aged between 13 and 25.

The former fairground worker, farm labourer, and night watchman will be sentenced later at Exeter Crown Court.

Maddock, aged 53, of Charles Hudson Lane, Barnstaple, but formerly of Howell Road in Exeter, denied three offences of indecent assault and ten rapes against one girl and two rapes against a second.

He was found guilty of all charges apart from four rapes of the first girl and one of the second.

Maddock denied carrying out any of the assaults and said he had not had the use of a motorcycle on the day of the country lane rape.

April 2015

Repeat sex offender ‘could face life sentence’ for years of attacks on women & young girls

A repeat sex offender who committed several attacks on women and girls over a 13-year period has been warned by a judge he could face a life sentence.

Brian Mackenzie was convicted of a catalogue of sexual and physical offences against a total of six victims in “a series of evil crimes” at addresses in Edinburgh and Glenrothes, Fife.

The 40-year-old was placed on the sex offenders register after being found guilty of rape, attempted rape, under-age sex, indecency and assault.

A judge told the former security guard that because of the number and seriousness of the crimes he was convicted of by a jury, the risk criteria for making an Order for Lifelong Restriction may be met.

Lord Uist told jurors after they returned verdicts: “You have now come to the end of your duties in this really horrible case in which you have had to listen for weeks to some quite disgusting evidence.

“In some ways, it has been more of an ordeal than a trial. In view of the time which this case has taken out of your lives and the nature of the evidence which you have had to listen I am going to excuse you from further jury service for life.”

The judge called for a full risk assessment to be prepared on Mackenzie by a psychologist and deferred sentence on him until July.

Mackenzie was found guilty of a total of nine sex offences against three women and two children and physical violence towards three women after a five-week trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

He was acquitted of further charges on a string of not guilty and no proven decisions. Lord Uist told him he would refrain from making further comment “about the series of evil crimes”.

One woman told the court she had travelled north from England to meet her adult daughter at Edinburgh’s Waverley rail station after she had fallen into the hands of Mackenzie.

The woman told the court she was worried about her daughter saying: “The only thing I could put it down to was instinct. There was no obvious cries for help.

“When I got off the train I looked up and down the platform for my daughter. When she saw me she flew up the platform and threw herself into my arms, sobbing and said she wanted to go home.”

The mother also said “every alarm bell in my body rang” and her daughter revealed she had been subjected to sexual abuse by Mackenzie before adding: “I wanted to kill him”.

The pair had to stay a week at the flat in Craigmillar where Mackenzie lived. The older woman told the court: “When I got to the flat I took a knife from the kitchen drawer and put it in my pocket and it stayed there for a week.

“If he had made one move to my daughter I would have stabbed him.”

When they returned to the railway station to leave for England she said her daughter was “a wreck” and was terrified Mackenzie would follow.

She said: “While we were still sitting in Waverley station she slid from the seat onto the floor so that if he followed us he would not be able to see her in the window.”

The court heard the daughter remained like that almost until the train crossed the border, with the mother also saying: “He rang her mobile. He asked her where she was. Her answer was ‘I am across the border in England. I am going home’.”

After returning to the south of England the woman said her daughter would not leave the house for nearly three years.

Mackenzie attacked his first victim in 2000 and she was repeatedly struck on the head and hit with a vacuum attachment. He tried to strangle her and pushed her and locked her out his flat in the Edinburgh’s Craigmillar area.

Another woman was subjected to a rape bid at the flat.

Mackenzie went on to have under-age sex with a 15-year-old girl at a bed and breakfast in Leith and carried out sexual acts with her. He later attacked the same teenage girl and pinned her to the floor as well as grabbing her by the throat and striking her on the head while she was holding a baby.

The 40-year-old later raped another woman at a flat in Edinburgh, sexually assaulted her with his fist and repeatedly tried to strangle her. The woman was also raped during an attack in which she repeatedly told him to stop but Mackenzie continued, ignoring her crying. She was also subjected to a further rape bid.

Mackenzie was also convicted of molesting a girl who was aged ten and 11, and another child who was 12-years-old, at a house in Glenrothes in 2012 and 2013.

April 2015

Paedophile who ruined the lives of five children jailed for nine years

A paedophile who repeatedly abused and ruined the lives of five children was jailed for nine years.

David Hughes, 74, carried out a “deliberate campaign of abuse” against victims “of an extremely young age” including a four-year-old girl.

Hughes, of Bowring Park Road, Broadgreen, admitted 20 counts of indecent assault at Liverpool Crown Court, relating to offences between 1986 and 1999.

The court heard he was aged between 46 and 54 at the time, while the boys and girls were aged between four and 12.

Judge David Aubrey, QC, said Hughes “very regularly” abused one girl when she was aged between four and 10.

He said: “Your past has now caught up with you.

“Over a number of years you have destroyed the innocence and destroyed the childhood of these children.

“You committed many acts of sexual abuse against vulnerable children. This was a deliberate campaign of abuse of children of an extremely young age.

“All were in your charge and this in the court’s judgement was a gross breach of trust. They were extremely vulnerable.”

Hughes was allowed to remain seated during the hearing, as the court heard he had “an accident” in Walton prison this morning, which had left him feeling “light headed”.

Balding with grey hair and wearing a blue shirt, tie and jumper in the dock, the pensioner sat with his head bowed.

He had no previous convictions and was said to be a man of previous good character.

Judge Aubrey said Hughes’ victims had struggled to rebuild their lives.

He said: “You have left each one of them with devastating and psychological scars.

“You have taken away their childhood. They remain traumatised.

“Some speak of depression, they struggle with relationships and some speak of constantly having flashbacks to the occasions when you would enter their bedrooms and commit acts for your own sexual gratification.

“These are extremely serious offences committed over a lengthy period of time.”

Hughes displayed no emotion as he was told he will spend the next four and a half years behind bars, before being released on licence.

The judge also made an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), limiting Hughes’ contact with children, and told him to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

April 2015

Paedophile sent twisted online sex requests to 12-year-old boy sat just few feet away in library

A 12-year-old boy was sent sick requests by a paedophile in a public library who was sat right next to him.

Sam Roan repeatedly tried to convince the child to go outside Leith Library in Edinburgh and engage in a sex act

The twisted 21-year-old targeted the boy – who was on a computer looking at Facebook – after signing himself up as one of the youngster’s “friends”.

Roan used a nearby computer to send his victim the sick messages.

The pervert – who described himself on Facebook as a former volunteer library worker – admitted grooming the kid on February 18 when he appeared from custody at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Roan took charge of the boy’s terminal to sign himself up as his Facebook friend before starting an online chat.

Roan wrote to the victim that he had “done stuff with a guy”.

The schoolboy asked, “What stuff?” and Roan responded, “Don’t find me disgusting for this but sexual stuff.”

Roan added: “Do you want me to show you or tell you?

“Why don’t I show you?

“We can go round the back and I’ll only show you if you want me to.”

The scared youngster wrote back: “I’m not gay.

“I’m going out with someone and she’s really hot.”

Roan replied: “It’s not gay if I do it to you.

“If you don’t like it, I will stop.”

The victim repeatedly told Roan “No” and finally wrote in block capitals: “I don’t want to go outside, so stop asking.”

Roan asked the youngster not to tell anyone but the boy informed a librarian, who called police.

Sheriff Frank Crowe said Roan, a former catering and hospitality student, had admitted a “very serious charge”.

He called for reports before sentencing him next month.

Roan, described as a prisoner, was also placed him on the sex offenders’ register, banned from entering public libraries or internet facilities in the city and possessing an internet-enabled device without police approval.

April 2015

Child sex predator snared in on-line grooming sting operation

A would-be child abuser who thought he was meeting a 14-year-old schoolgirl for sex, was snared in a online sting operation.

Jafar Adeli, 32, was arrested at St Margaret’s Bus Station in Leicester after being duped on a social networking site, by “John” a member of Lets Go Hunting, who was posing as a child.

Married Adeli was jailed for 27 months after admitting attempting to meet a girl under 16 following grooming, in December.

The city’s crown court was told that he had three condoms with him and had earlier sent whom he thought was the innocent teenager an indecent photograph of himself.

Sentencing, Judge Philip Head told Adeli, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan: “It was your intention to have full sexual activity with someone you believed to be 14 and something you know to be a crime in this country.

“You were grooming this person for sexual activity.”

Alan Murphy, prosecuting, said “The man, John, acts as a self-appointed paedophile hunter carrying out covert internet investigations, trying to identify and expose those who would prey on children using the internet.

“He and colleagues used to film such confrontations and put them on the internet, but now they’ve changed their way of handling matters and contact the police when there’s been a meeting arranged.”

In this case, “John” set up the bogus profile of a female called Amy on the tagged.com website, on December 7, initially claiming to be 18, from Hinckley and interested in friendship.

Within a few days the defendant made contact with Amy and they had conversations over the next two days that rapidly turned sexual.

They ended up texting one another using the What’s App mobile phone messaging application.

Mr Murphy said that “John” posing as Amy made it clear she was 14 and not 18.

He claimed to be 28.

Amy told him: “Sorry you’re too old for me, I’m 14.”

Mr Murphy said: “The defendant’s response was ‘I know but we can be friends and talk.’

“The conversation became sexual with the defendant leading the way, asking whether she’d had sex and sexual preferences.

“He asked if she would perform sex acts upon him, suggesting it in the most explicit terms, to the person he thought was a 14-year-old female.

“They made arrangements to meet after two days.

“He said he was worried if her dad found out about them meeting and, in particular, if the police found out.”

Adeli, of Mill Hill, Belgrave, Leicester, offered to pay for her bus fare from Hinckley, for their 12.15pm rendezvous, on December 10, whilst she was to supposed to be playing truant from school.

Navinder Sekhon, mitigating, said the defendant had no previous convictions and expressed shame and “deep-seated remorse.”

He said: “It was a preparatory offence and not a completed one; no sexual offences were carried out.”

Adeli’s wife, who had written to the court, was said to suffer from ill health.

Mr Sekhon said: “Had he not performed the actions that he did, he would still be a dutiful carer for his wife and he wishes to be reunited with her.”

Adeli, who has lodged an appeal to remain in the UK, was placed on a 10 year sexual offences prevention order.

However, he is likely to be deported at the end of his sentence.

What is Letzgo Hunting?

Letzgo Hunting is an internet-based anti-paedophilia vigilante group which aims at exposing would-be child abusers.

Posing as young people online they entrap men who seek to have sex with under-aged children.

In the court case of Jafar Adeli, the prosecutor, Alan Murphy said that one of the members, called “John” creates false profiles on popular social networking platforms, usually pretending to be aged 14 or 15.

If a meeting is arranged with an adult seeking sex with a child they then tip off the police so that the alleged culprit can be arrested and prosecuted.

Mr Murphy said told Leicester Crown Court: “It’s been made clear the police don’t support this action at all.

“But the position is when they’ve been given information about an offence that is believed to have been committed they must investigate it.”

Judge Philip Head said: “However it comes about, it’s an offence of arranging to meet a child under 16 for sex.

“One may understand the attitude of the police; they prefer not to have unofficial persons conducting themselves in this manner, but it’s still exposes a potential sex offender.”

April 2015

Pervert had vile sexual images of children at his home in Leeds

A PERVERT was caught with illegal sexual images featuring children and animals after police raided his home in Leeds.

A court heard officers executed a search warrant at Karoly Haasz’s home on Haslewood Mews, Burmantofts, on January 21 last year after receiving information that an internet provider address linked to the property had been used to access illegal images.

A computer and other equipment were seized and found to contain 101 still images and movies. The computer was also fitted with specialist cleaning software.

Haasz was interviewed and told officers he had been accessing abusive images of children since 2010. Jessica Strange, prosecuting, said Haasz claimed to have initially come across the images by accident and deleted them but had returned to viewing them at a later date.

Haasz said he had accessed the images at a time when he was suffering from depression.

He pleaded guilty to seven offences of making indecent photographs of a child. Marlon Grossman, mitigating, said Haasz pleaded guilty to the offences at an early stage and was prepared to undergo treatment to prevent him from re-offending.

He was made the subject of a two-year community and supervision order, during which he must take part in a 60-day activity programme.

Judge Christopher Batty described some of the images accessed by Haasz as “beyond comprehension.”

He said “The depths that people will go to – taking youngsters and ruining their lives for the sexual pleasure of people like you – is frankly appalling. People like you who download these images are the reason that these images exist. The reason that people put children through these disgusting ordeals.”

April 2015

Man, 96, jailed for sexual assaults on two girls who were aged between 5 and 9 years old

A 96-year-old man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for historical indecent assaults.

Gaston John Pinsard had already pleaded guilty to nine offences dating back to the 1950s and 1960s.

Guernsey’s Royal Court heard the two female victims were aged between 5 and 8 years old, and 5 and 9 years old when the assaults took place.

In sentencing, Judge Russell Finch said Pinsard’s age and health were taken into account.

He was given two 18-month sentences to run concurrently.

The court heard the offences took place on a number of occasions from 1951 to 1955 and 1964 to 1969.

His defence said Pinsard claimed he felt like a “filthy devil” and “didn’t want to hurt any children” and he ceased the abuse when he resolved “to stop this filthy habit”.

Pinsard was born in Jersey in 1919 and the court learned he suffered sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the Haut de la Garenne School for boys. His family later moved to Guernsey.

Pinsard was married with four children at the time of the offences. His wife has since passed away and his son accompanied him to court.

His defence asked the court to exercise extreme caution – suggesting it would be difficult for the prison to accommodate his needs and medication.

It concluded the 96 year old was no longer a risk to the community and questioned what a custodial sentence would achieve.

Mr Finch said the facts of the case were “distressing and unpleasant” but acknowledged it was “a difficult situation”.

He said a younger man would be looking at between seven and nine years incarceration but he was accounting for the risk of him becoming ill in prison and dying in jail.

April 2015

Devious sex offender lied to get close to schoolgirls days after his release from jail

A TWICE-CONVICTED child sex fiend had been out of jail for just days when he lied about his age and past to get close to schoolgirls, a court heard.

Kai Griffiths – first in trouble as a 12-year-old for molesting a school friend – is now back behind bars, branded “devious and manipulative”.

Judge Peter Bowers yesterday told him: “What worries me is you have had sex offender treatment and you are either unwilling or unable to learn from it.”

The same judged jailed Griffiths for nine years in 2010 for preying on a virgin schoolgirl as well as a burglary and a brutal late night gang attack.

He was released on licence from that sentence in February, and within days was arranging meetings with young girls on Facebook where he claimed he was 17.

The 24-year-old pretended to be a traveller, put on a false accent and used the name Paddy whenever he met the schoolgirls near his hostel in York.

He also started a relationship with an older woman – and sexually assaulted her when she fell asleep on a sofa after an afternoon boozing session.

Judge Bowers jailed him for four-and-a-half years, and told him: “The probation report says you remain manipulative, devious and dishonest. It’s worrying.”

Griffiths, formerly from Northallerton, North Yorkshire, did not disclose his perverted past when he began the relationship with the woman.

He claimed he had served a long sentence for serious violence, and she tried to end the fledgling relationship because of the way he treated her.

Teesside Crown Court heard that he went to the victim’s flat after texting “it’s not over”, and groped her twice while she dozed on the settee.

The woman later found out who he really was, what he had done in the past and contacted all the girls he had been chatting with on social media.

However, the alarm was not raised before Griffiths had frequently met the youngsters, bought them alcohol, and been to the home of one of them.

He had kissed at least three, asked one to be his girlfriend with the promise of gifts, and taken video footage on his phone of them dancing in a bedroom.

Alexander Menary, mitigating, told Judge Bowers Griffiths had “drifted through life doing as he pleases, without really any thought of the consequences”.

Mr Menary added: “It is fairly clear, after the last sentence, he fell out of his period of incarceration into offending pretty much straight away.”

Griffiths, who lived in Valley Drive, when he got nine years, admitted charges of sexual assault and breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

Judge Bowers told him: “Having been released on licence, you were, within days, deliberately and persistently flouting that for your own sexual gratification.”

May 2010

‘Brutal’ teenager is jailed for nine years

A TEENAGE sex attacker is starting a nine-year prison sentence for preying on a virgin schoolgirl and a drunken student.

Kai Griffiths, 19, was also jailed for a “brutal” late-night gang robbery and a burglary in his home town.

He was told by a judge that if he added the sentences each offence deserved, he would be facing up to 14 years behind bars.

But Judge Peter Bowers told Griffiths: “It would be inhumane for me to sentence a young man to a term like that.”

Griffiths, of Valley Road, Northallerton, North Yorkshire, was also ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Teesside Crown Court heard that Griffiths was convicted when he was 12 of three indecent assaults against a school friend.

His most recent offending was predicted by a social worker who said Griffiths would be a danger if he lived independently.

Sarah Mallet, prosecuting, said the teenager had sex with a 13-year-old in the summer of 2008 at the home of a friend.

She told friends and the police about the incident in the following February, but when Griffiths was questioned, he denied it.

Days before he was arrested, Griffiths and two others carried out the robbery of a man staggering home from a nightclub.

He was caught weeks later after town centre closed circuit television cameras captured part of the man’s hourlong ordeal.

The reveller had his bank card stolen and was kicked to the brink of unconsciousness when he gave the gang false pin numbers.

Each time the attackers failed to get money from a cashpoint, they returned to the alleyway and continued the assault.

After the battered victim was forced to give the correct details for his card, more than £400 was taken from his account.

In March, Griffiths was one of three men who broke into a house in Bankfield Road, Northallerton, and stole a television.

The following month, he had sex with a student who he tricked into going to his flat and threatening her with blackmail.

Rod Hunt, mitigating, described Griffiths as “mentally immature and naive” and said his lies were “blatantly stupid”.

Mr Hunt urged the judge not to class the troubled teenager as a danger to the public, and lock him up indefinitely.

“Clearly there has to be a lengthy custodial sentence, but it is too early in his life to impose an indeterminate sentence,” he said.

Griffiths pleaded guilty to robbery, burglary, sexual activity with a child, false imprisonment and assault by penetration.

Judge Bowers told him he had terrified the student and introduced the schoolgirl to sex “in the most obscene way”.

He described the robbery as a brutal affair but praised Griffiths for calling an ambulance after leaving the victim in the alley.

After the case, Detective Chief Inspector Kerrin Smith, of North Yorkshire Police, said: “The victims displayed great courage in coming forward and giving evidence.

“The effects of such crimes cannot be underestimated and we hope that the outcome gives other victims of sexual crimes the confidence to come forward and report their ordeals.

“We hope that the victims can now move on with their lives knowing that Griffiths is no longer at liberty to harm anyone, and that their courage in coming forward has resulted in the successful conclusion of this case.”

June 2014

A retired accountant who hoarded indecent images of children and animals was spared jail after a judge said there was no evidence he had ever indulged in any of his fantasies.

Gerald Vaughan, 71, secretary of the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists until 1999, collected 1,248 pictures and 364 movies of extreme pornography.

Life-long bachelor Vaughan also downloaded 67 images of child abuse and distributed 13 indecent photographs.

One of the images appears to show a baby being abused while the rest of the children are aged from around seven to 16.

February 2014

The former secretary of the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists appeared in court today (Weds) charged with possessing thousands of indecent images of children and animals.

Gerald Anthony Vaughan, 70, who left the prestigious role in 1999, allegedly hoarded 2464 images showing sex acts involving animals. Vaughan, who is facing a raft of allegations, is also accused of making 65 indecent images of children and of distributing 20 indecent photographs.

‘Mr Vaughan’s address was searched by the police, said Lorna Vincent, prosecuting.

April 2015

Grinning face of pervert ‘in bloom’ gardener

WIGAN’S one-time gardening poster boy was facing jail today after admitting a string of vile child abuse images charges.

Damian Jenkinson appeared before a Liverpool Crown Court judge this week to plead guilty to no fewer than 19 charges of possessing and creating indecent images of children.

The 28-year-old, of Liverpool Road, Platt Bridge, was for years the face and co-ordinator of Wigan Council’s hugely successful Borough in Bloom crusades.

He was accused of making or possessing hundreds of disgusting child abuse images, many of which fell into the most serious category A.

The award-winning horticulturalist had already been sacked by the local authority before his latest court appearance.

He was released on conditional bail pending sentencing at Liverpool on May 8. The judge told him he must not have any unsupervised contact with a child under the age of 16 or a vulnerable adult and bailed him to the address in Platt Bridge.

Terry Dunn, Wigan Council’s director of environment, said: “Due to the serious nature of the allegation we took immediate action and this individual is no longer an employee of the council.

“We have fully supported the police investigation and will continue to do so.”

Jenkinson has been a rising star of the horticultural world.

He made his mark as part of a college team which won Best in Show at Tatton Park, was a runner-up in the BBC’s Young Gardener of the Year competition and later became an ambassador for the Royal Horticultural Society.

He is credited with the huge successes enjoyed by the borough in recent years in both the regional and national In Bloom contests, turning unlikely outsiders from an unfashionable industrial area into highly impressive contenders.

His work brought him into frequent contact with schoolchildren although no allegations of abuse have been made against him.

April 2015

Paedophile gang ‘raped baby after offering to babysit’

A gang of paedophiles raped and abused a baby and a pre-school child in attacks that were live streamed over the internet, a court heard today.

Members of the child sex ring preyed on the families of the youngsters they targeted – sometimes offering to babysit their victims, jurors were told.

Some would travel long distances to carry out the attacks together or watch a live stream using hi-tech video conferencing software if only one had access to a victim, Bristol Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Robert Davies told the jury of eight men and four women that five of the gang have pleaded guilty to a range of offences, including rape of a child and conspiracy to rape a child during 2013 and 2014.

They are Robin Hollyson, 30; Christopher Knight, 35; Adam Toms, 33; David Harsley, 51, and Matthew Lisk, 32.

Two others, John Denham, 49, and Matthew Stansfield, 34, have denied charges of conspiracy to rape a child and are on trial.

“This prosecution will take you into a world you wish did not exist,” Mr Davies said.

“The evidence exposes the shocking interest a group of men had in sexually abusing children and babies, particularly pre-school children and babies.

“A real baby was for certain abused and raped by some of those involved. Also a boy aged four or five was brought into a room while a man engaged in sexual activity for his own enjoyment as men watched live on the internet.

“Those others, particularly on the internet where part of an operation that such things would occur, even if they were not those committing the sexual acts.”

Mr Davies said members of the gang would contact each other using Skype, video conferencing software and other online chatrooms.

They would also connect to the internet using the “dark web” – a way of hiding online activity, the court was told.

“The abuse would be arranged when there was a ‘window of opportunity’ to abuse a baby,” Mr Davies said.

“Those involved in the planning of the abuse were as much a part of that abuse as those taking part in that abuse.

“The abuse was planned and was not just fantasy.”

Denham, who was previously known as Benjamin Harrop, of Wiltshire denies a charge of conspiracy to rape a child under the age of 13 and the alternative of conspiracy to sexually assault a child under the age of 13.

He has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in sexual activity in the presence of a child and child pornography offences.

Stansfield, of Hampshire, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to rape a child under 13 and one alternative charge of conspiracy to sexually assault a child under the age of 13. He has also pleaded guilty to child pornography offences.

Mr Davies said that the evidence against Stansfield and Denham centred on videos, photographs and chat logs recovered from computers and mobile phones.

“The evidence of what occurred at different times comes from various sources and despite the efforts of many of those involved to destroy evidence before they were arrested, such as wiping hard drives clean,” he said.

He said that both Stansfield and Denham admitted taking part in converations on Skype.

“They accept their involvement in the Skype chat but essentially say it was just fantasy and nothing more and the prosecution say that was plainly untrue,” he said.

“We suggest that plans to rape the boy were very real and indeed it happened. Those two knew that in encouraging it, it was likely that someone would commit this type of thing.

“If not them, then this abuse would be broadcast to others by conferencing networks or Skype.

“Part of the excitement and titillation for some of them was watching a baby being abused – that did it for them.”

In one incident in February last year, Stansfield allegedly drove from his home in Hampshire more than 100 miles to where Hollyson lived because Hollyson had a “thin window of opportunity” to spend time with a baby.

“This was an opportunity that was too good to miss,” Mr Davies said.

“It is not clear precisely what happened to the baby that day but we know there was a plan because Christopher Knight and Robin Hollyson have pleaded guilty. The question is ‘Was Matthew Stansfield part of it?’.”

The prosecutor said that Hollyson, from Bedfordshire, and Knight, from Manchester, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rape a child.

In another incident, Mr Davies said Skype chat logs allegedly showed Denham engaging in conversation with Hollyson about raping the same baby the previous month.

The court heard that Hollyson was unexpectedly detained in hospital and the incident did not happen.

“It may well be that he does not turn up. We say that he is not just a laptop masturbating fantasist and there is a real plan for the baby to be raped on January 17,” Mr Davies said.

“We say that Mr Denham is part of that plan. He pushed the idea along and trades on the fact that he will have access to a newborn and is very disappointed that Hollyson is stuck in hospital.

“We say John Denham is part of a real arrangement to rape in the weeks building up to January 17.”

Jurors also told of another incident in 2013 involving Denham, who is married, Matthew Lisk, from Sussex, and David Harsley, from Humberside, who had all met on a paedophile internet chat room.

Harsley committed a sex act in front of a child aged four or five as Denham and Lisk were together “getting turned on” watching over the internet, while also engaging in consenual sexual activity themselves.

“We suggest that Mr Denham and the other man might as well have been in the room with the boy,” Mr Davies said.

Those three had all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in sexual activity in the presence of a child. The court heard that the police began to unravel what happened when Hollyson was arrested in September last year.

Inquiries had led officers to friends of Hollyson because of online activity from their internet IP address. That in turn led to Hollyson because he had been allowed to use their internet account, the court heard.

Judge Julian Lambert adjourned the trial until Monday.

April 2015

Gateshead sexual abuse survivor opens up as stepdad is jailed for 16 years

Subjected to years of sexual abuse, Louise still bears the scars of a chilling upbringing.

She was robbed of her innocence – and her childhood – when she was abused at the hands of her stepdad aged just three years old.

But monster Albert Maughan didn’t stop at just one attack.

Instead, the paedophile continued on a campaign of abuse over the next 12 years, repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting Louise – and then lying about it.

Now, the vile abuser, 68, is preparing to spend the rest of his life behind bars after he was jailed for 16 years at Newcastle Crown Court.

Brave Louise, 43, who waived her right to anonymity as a show of strength to other sex abuse victims, said: “He caused my parents to divorce and in doing so denied me a normal family life.

“He physically and sexually abused me, robbing me of my childhood. He took away my innocence.”

Louise says Maughan met her mother while she was still with her biological father and it was after he moved into the family home in Gateshead the abuse began.

“Every so often I ask myself what my childhood would have been like had he not met my mother,” said Louise.

“Would I have been a happy child, living with my birth parents as a family, playing every day with my four brothers and sisters?

“Maybe I would have shared a room with my sister Tracey, listening to music together and sharing our teenage experiences as sisters do.”

But Louise’s early years didn’t work like that of any other.

Instead, she was raped and indecently assaulted as a child by the man she was supposed to trust.

She said: “My first sexual experience would have been a special, intimate moment with the boy of my dreams.

“The family I wanted would have been free from physical and sexual violence. This family would have been normal.

“Would it have been too much to ask to be brought up in a normal family just like my school friends?”

As she began to grow older, Louise says she began to realise what Maughan was doing was wrong and, in 1988, plucked up the courage to tell police.

But officers claimed there was insufficient evidence and the case collapsed as Maughan denied everything.

Now, she hopes her persistence will encourage other victims to come forward.

“I was 16 years old and felt alone with no family, no parents and nobody to guide me. I had nobody to turn to and felt as if society had abandoned me.

“My childhood had been brutal and horrific; I had witnessed things you should never see or feel as a child. I had been left feeling ashamed, embarrassed and dirty, stripped of my dignity.”

Although never married, Louise has two children and a long-term partner and is working to put the pain of the past 40 years behind her.

She said: “Throughout my life I have lived with these emotional scars. They have affected every relationship I have had with a man.

“The pain of what happened to me as a child hasn’t gone away. I have just learnt to cope with it, to put it in a part of my mind that I wanted to forget.”

Louise said she was used as Maughan’s “sexual puppet” and will never forgive him or his attempt to cover up his actions.

But she believes she has her dignity back while her abuser faces celebrating his 80th birthday in a prison cell.

Maughan, of Hillside in Dunston, Gateshead, was found unanimously guilty of 23 counts of historic sex offences, including indecency with a child, indecent assault, attempted rape and rape, against Louise and another child.

Jailing him, Judge John Evans said: “Your protestations of innocence in 1988 have been exposed as nothing but a pack of lies.

“You robbed them of their childhoods, mercilessly and repeatedly exploiting their decency.

“They are remarkable individuals who have survived despite your crimes, although the scars do show.”

April 2015

Redditch man who exposed himself frightened schoolgirls caught by DNA

THREE schoolgirls were frightened when they were accosted by a 26-year-old man who exposed himself and committed an indecent act in a Redditch subway.

They reported the incident to their teacher and police were able to arrest Darren Carroll through DNA evidence he had left at the scene, Worcester Crown Court was told.

Carroll, of Dagnell End road, Redditch, who pleaded guilty to an act of outraging public decency, was given a three-year community order with a condition he attends a community sex offender group work programme.

Charles Hamer, mitigating, said Carroll was sole carer for his 80-year-old grandfather, who was immobile and suffering from diabetes.

Carroll had been a cannabis user in the past but was now drug-free. He had a sense of shame about the offence.

Judge Toby Hooper QC said it was a “foul and disgusting act” carried out on December 14 and he hoped it would not have a harmful effect upon the children.

April 2015

Author told he will go to prison after being found guilty of sexually assaulting young girl

An author who lived in St Dogmaels and Poppit Sands has been told today he will go to jail after a jury convicted him of sexually assaulting a six year old girl.

Colin Richard Shearing, aged 70, was told he could have a week to put his affairs in order but that he would receive an immediate jail sentence next Friday (April 17).

Shearing, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and once an active member of Theatre Mwldan, Cardigan, twice assaulted the girl in 1980.

He denied the charges but was convicted unanimously of gross indecency with a child and inciting a child to commit gross indecency.

The woman told the jury he examined her intimately and persuaded her to touch him indecently.

She said the memories of what had happened came back to her many years later.

She was driven to complain, she said, when she discovered Shearing had become involved with a youth theatre and was afraid he would have access to children.

She added that although she did not have any proof she was sure she was not his only victim.

Shearing, who now lives at Taylors Lane, Bosham near Chichester, claimed the incidents had never taken place and said he could not understand why the woman had made the allegations against him.

He agreed that amongst his books there was a passage dealing with children having sex together.

But, he stressed, it was a work of pure fiction.

After the verdicts Judge Huw Davies refused to instruct a probation officer to prepare a pre-sentence report because it would not affect the outcome.

He would be failing in his duty, he added, if he did not send Shearing to jail.

But he understood Shearing had a young family who were unaware of the court case and he should be given the chance to explain what was about to happen to him.

Shearing was ordered to register with the police as a sex offender immediately.

April 2015

Pensioner found guilty of molesting eight-year-old girl

PENSIONER Michael Winley from Cirencester has been convicted today of molesting a young girl who visited his home to look at the dolls houses he had made.

At Gloucester Crown Court after a four day trial Winley, 74, of Kingsway, Cirencester, was unanimously found guilty by the jury of twice sexually assaulting the 8-year-old girl between April 2013 and August 2014.

Winley also faces 10 charges of indecently assaulting a girl between 35 and 40 years ago but the jury has not yet reached verdicts on those – with the exception of one on which they were instructed by the judge to find him not guilty on legal grounds.

Judge Jamie Tabor QC sent the jury home for the weekend and instructed them to return to court on Monday to resume deliberating on the nine outstanding charges concerning the alleged victim who is now 47-years-old.

In his defence evidence yesterday Winley told the jury it was true he had hugged and kissed the little girl who visited his home frequently in 2013 and 2014. But he denied there was anything indecent in what he did.

Dad-of-three Michael Winley also admitted that he had taken indecent photos of the girl and that he had told her she should have five hugs a day.

It was an old fashioned saying he had heard from his daughter-in-law and he had simply repeated to the ‘affectionate’ girl, he said.

But he told the court he never had any sexual motivation for what he did and in fact he had not had any sexual libido since suffering a stroke 12 years ago.

He told the jury the girl and another of about the same age both visited his home frequently and liked looking at the dolls houses he had made.

He took photos of the girls as part of his hobby as an artist – he painted and drew ‘action shots’ of people as well as many other subjects including military tanks, Chinese scenes and adult nudes, he said.

Once, he said, he did lie down on the bed in his spare room and got the girl to sit on his tummy so she could get a better view of the dolls houses, which stood taller than him.

“My relationship with her was almost like father and daughter,” he said. “She was very affectionate and I knew her quite well. I also had an excellent relationship with her mother.

“The little girl came into my house quite regularly.”

He said he recalled how he was taking pictures of her once when she was ‘doing gymnastics’ on a spare bed in his bungalow. She lifted up the dress as he was photographing her and he suddenly realised she was showing her underwear so he stopped, he said.

“I hugged her quite often and I kissed her three times,” he went on. “The first time it was her birthday and I kissed her on the side of the lips. It was just a peck. The second time was when she came up and hugged me for about 30 seconds and I kissed her on top of the forehead. The third time was when I gave her an old kaleidescope. She gave me a peck on the side of the cheek and said thank you.”

Winley has admitted five charges of taking indecent photographs of the girls but said he had not intended anything sexual when he took them.

Referring to the historic allegations he said had never misbehaved in any way with the woman when she was aged between eight-12 from 1975 to 1980.

“When I listened to her allegations in court I could not believe what I was hearing,” he said.

He descibed her claims as ‘complete fabrication.’

And he told the jury that some of her allegations – such as him putting his hands on her genital area while giving her piggy back rides – were impossible because he had been in bad health at that time after suffering work-related back injuries and he could not have carried her.

“It is very difficult to say why someone would fabricate so many lies, knowing that when you fabricate them that it is very, very difficult to dispute them,” he said.

Mr Winley gave the jury a detailed account of his working and family life, telling how he had worked for an engineering company for 28 years after leaving school and then spent 10 years as an insurance salesman.

For the last four years of his working life he made dolls houses which sold for around £3,000 each to customers all over the world, he said.

He also related how he had spent 28 years in the Royal Observer Corps, winning a long service medal and commendation.

He had run a youth club for many years, done magic shows for children and become a British bowls champion, he added.

April 2015

Repeat sex offender jailed for attack in Penzance that was ‘every females’s nightmare’

A REPEAT sex offender, who subjected a terrified woman to a sexual assault, described as “every woman’s nightmare”, as she walked alone on the streets of Penzance, has been jailed – nearly three decades after he committed the offence.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was walking along Mount Street at about 1am in December 1988 when William Pope approached her from behind and dragged her towards a service lane.

Pope, now aged 54, forced the woman to the floor at which point she believes she lost consciousness, Truro Crown Court heard on Thursday.

The court heard that in 2012, Pope was jailed for a brutal sexual attack on an 11-year-old girl on a lane in Penzance in 1993.

Jason Beal, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said the next thing the woman was aware of was that she was being sexually assaulted.

“She told the defendant that there was somebody with her in the hope that it would lead to him desisting,” said Mr Beal.

The ploy did not work and the court heard Pope, whose address was given as of no formal abode, continued to assault the woman until he was disturbed by a local resident who had heard the attack.

He then ran away, leaving a pair of moccasin shoes at the scene.

Mr Beal said in 2013 tapings taken from the shoes were analysed using DNA technology which had not been available in 1988.

DNA matching Pope’s was found on the tapeings and he was arrested.

Pope admitted assaulting the woman and said that he had been drinking and watching pornography before he saw her alone on the street.

He said he led her into an alleyway before touching her inappropriately while masturbating.

Mr Beal said: “This was a matter that was spurred by the defendant watching pornography [and] becoming sexually aroused that day.”

At an earlier hearing Pope pleaded guilty to one count of indecently assaulting the woman.

The court heard Pope had a number of previous convictions from the 1980s and 1990s including for indecently exposing himself.

In similar circumstances, Pope attacked the terrified victim while she was walking alone at night and was caught after DNA evidence was reviewed and pointed to him.

Kelly Scrivener, for the defence, said the offence had been committed 26 years ago.

But Pope understood the effect on his victim and that the effect was continuing. She said: “He, through me, wishes to ensure that she is told that he is sorry for what he did to her all those years ago.”

She added that Pope had led a reclusive life and that in the years before the attack he had suffered from cancer.

She said he had had two operations and had been told that the cancer had returned, which led him to be depressed and drink alcohol.

“The time that he had spent in custody makes him understand how in future if he feels depressed and ill he is to go and seek assistance,” added Ms Scrivener.

Sentencing, Judge Christopher Harvey Clark, QC said he wanted Pope to understand how serious the assault had been.

“I described it a few moments ago as every woman’s nightmare – walking along a darkened path and being attacked from behind by a man intent on a sexual offence,” he said.

“The fear created in her mind by your activity that night has lingered in her ever since.

“She suffered nightmares; she does not like to go out in the dark and she has been a very anxious woman.”

Pope was jailed for five years.

April 2015

West Kilbride man jailed for sex attacks on young girl

A 44-year-old West Kilbride man has been jailed for 16 months after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a girl during a two year period, starting from when she was 13.

At Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last Monday, Andrew Ballard of Faulds Wynd, Seamill, was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

On various occasions between 5 June 2006 and 31 July 2008 at Ballard’s former home in Seamill, he used lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards the victim.

He repeatedly kissed her, and ,molested her bare legs, buttocks, body and her breasts.

The incidents happened when the victim was aged between 13-15, at Ballard’s family home. It was acknowledged by Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane that Ballard had pled guilty to the offences at the earliest opportunity.

However, in response to pleas from Ballard’s solicitor Lena Doherty for leniency, the sheriff said that the accused had ‘to be punished’ for the distress he had caused his victim.

Addressing Ballard, Sheriff McFarlane said: “You took advantage of this young woman for a period of two years, a girl who trusted you and she came in to your house regularly, and you plied her with alcohol and then you abused her sexually on a number of occasions. You have to be punished for what you did to to her, and the impact which that has had on her.

“As you have pled guilty at the earliest opportunity, I would usually have given a two year sentence, but I have decided to reduce that to 16 months, and you have been placed on the Sex Offenders Register and have to follow its requirements for a period of ten years.”

Ms Doherty, representing Ballard, said that her client acknowledged the seriousness of his offence, and the effect it had on his victim, his family and the victim’s family.

The solicitor said social work reports stated that he was at a low risk of re-offending, and Ballard, who was a web services designer, had ‘lost his job, family and his wife’, before stating that a jail sentence would have a ‘detrimental effect’ on his family life.

Sheriff McFarlane said she felt that the seriousness of the offences over a two year spell merited a custodial sentence, and stated that she had also received a statement from the victim in relation to the impact and distress caused.

She added that at least by pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity, the victim was spared the ordeal of a trial.

After the verdict, the victim stated: “I have been robbed of the childhood that my parents had planned for me – something no young child should ever face. My adulthood is marred by memories of the abuse. Now as an adult I am forced to address all the issues his abuse has caused me. He took my teenage years away from me. It has had an emotional and psychological impact, and I suffer insomnia, flashbacks and lack self-confidence.”

The victim’s father said: “This has deeply affected my daughter’s life – the sentence can never truly remove the damage that has been done.”

April 2015

Convicted sex offender is caught out breaching his SOPO

A CONVICTED sex offender who changed where he lived while on family business was caught out by police monitoring.

Francis Chown moved his address temporarily from Stockton to Romney in Kent to help sort out his dead father’s affairs.

While the 52-year-old was down south, he became friendly with a couple who had two girls and a boy all aged under 15.

Because of a conviction last May, he was banned from having contact with children without supervision or their parents knowing about it.

When police contacted the family, they discovered that Chown had not told them he was a convicted sex offender.

He had been given a six-month suspended prison sentence and a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for possessing indecent images of children.

Prosecutor David Crook told Teesside Crown Court that there was no allegation of sexual offences involving the children in Kent.

But he added: “The orders are monitored very strictly by the public protection unit and he was regularly asked questions about whether he was having contact with children.”

Chown, of Hartington Road, pleaded guilty to breaching the SOPO and the suspended prison sentence.

Judge Peter Bowers said: “I am satisfied that these offences were committed in pretty unusual circumstances when you were clearing out your father’s house and you had contact with a family of two girls.”

Chown was given a six-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months, with supervision.