May 2016

Sex predator who pretended to be fashion blogger Zoella to get girls as young as eight to strip online is jailed

A sex predator who pretended to be fashion blogger Zoella Sugg to groom young children online has been jailed for eight years.

David Harmes lured young girls into performing sex acts by posing as popular celebrities he thought would appeal to them.

He claimed to be fashion icon Zoella as well as a member of boyband Bars and Melody and a modelling agent.

The 20-year-old, from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, would contact victims across the UK by Skype using the false identities and coerce them into sex acts.

He would tell besotted fans to pose in swimwear and underwear to ‘score points’ to be in with a chance of winning tickets to see or meet the stars he pretended to be.

He then claimed they had ‘missed out by a point or two’ before getting them to perform sex acts.

During other online conversations, Harmes posed as a dance school talent scout and a modelling agent – claiming he could get them contracts in glossy magazines.

Police said 294 girls, mainly from across the UK but also from abroad, were duped into ‘degrading and humiliating acts’ over a five year period – which included them stripping off in front of Harmes and posing in underwear.

He also filmed them carrying out sexual acts before distributing them online. He set up 24 separate Skype and other accounts targeting victims who had posted videos to YouTube. 

Harmes admitted 35 offences against 28 victims, aged eight to 18, and also asked for a further four offences to be taken into consideration.

The offences include causing or inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity and making and distributing indecent photographs of a child. He did not meet up with any of the victims.

Harmes was jailed for eight years at Chester Crown Court on Monday and ordered to serve five years behind bars and three years out on licence.

Judge Roger Dutton told him: ‘You had a perverted sexual desire to coerce and persuade children to do foul things. These offences had a profound impact on not only the children but also the parents of the children who should have been safe in their own home’. 

None of the famous people he pretended to be knew anything about his activities. 

DC Simon Ledger of Cheshire Police, said: ‘Harmes duped young girls into thinking they were talking to people they looked up to and in some cases posed as a modelling agency representative so that he could manipulate them for his own pleasure.

‘It is a timely reminder that while the internet is an amazing tool, it has a darker side which we need to be mindful of and shows just how imperative it is that parents are aware of the sites their children are accessing and who they are communicating with.

‘People like Harmes have no qualms with using the internet to their own perverse means.’

April 2015

Man who repeatedly sexually abused two young girls over nine-year period jailed

A man who repeatedly sexually abused two young girls over a nine-year period has been jailed.

Alexander Morgan was sentenced to 12 years in jail on Friday for subjecting the two children to years of sexual abuse.

The 67-year-old was jailed following a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh before judge Lord McEwan.

Morgan, a prisoner of HMP Low Moss, appeared in Edinburgh having been convicted at the high court last month.

Sentence had been deferred for the court to obtain reports about his character.

At earlier proceedings, the court heard how Morgan sexually abused his first victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at a house in Paisley, Renfrewshire.

The assaults against the girl began in January 1992 and continued until December 1995.

Morgan repeatedly raped his second victim at another location in Paisley between January 1999 and April 2001.

His victim was aged just 12 when he started abusing her.

On Friday, the court heard how Morgan had learning disabilities.

Passing sentence, Lord McEwan told Morgan that he was being placed on the sex offenders register.

He added: “Custody is the only sentence that I can impose in this case.”

May 2016

Taxi driver sent ‘suggestive’ One Direction picture to groom young boy

A TAXI driver sent a “suggestive” picture of boy band One Direction to groom a young boy.

John Cole, 34, set up a fake internet profile under the name ‘Nicholas Fastholme’ to speak to the boy online.

They also exchanged various text messages, which Cole deleted in an attempt to cover his tracks, Hull Crown Court heard.

The messages were later recovered by police.

Michele Stuart-Lofthouse, prosecuting, said: ” A suggestive picture of the One Direction boy band was sent to the boy during the period the two had contact.

“The defendant deleted the text messages from his phone in an attempt to hide evidence from the police.”

Hull Crown Court also heard how the boy stayed at Cole’s house and shared a bed with him on four separate occasions in November 2014.

Cole, of Bamford Avenue, east Hull, was convicted by a jury of meeting a child following sexual grooming and three counts of child abduction in November 2014, following a trial.

He was acquitted of having sexual activity with a child.

Recorder Dominic Nolan QC said although Cole was acquitted of having sexual activity with a child, his actions had an “ulterior motive”.

Jailing Cole for 18 months, Recorder Nolan said the 34-year-old had an “unhealthy sexual interest” in the boy.

Cole was given a sexual harm prevention order for five years.

He must also sign the sex offender’s register for ten years.

May 2016: Arthur Procter has now been released 

August 2015

Pensioner jailed after sexually abusing very vulnerable adult

A Blackburn man has been jailed at Preston Crown Court for 18 months after pleading guilty to a string of sexual offences against a vulnerable adult

Arthur Procter, 78, of Ferrier Close admitted three charges of sexual assault by penetration.

The court heard the 33-year-old victim suffers from severe brain damage and as a result has a mental age of just 13-years-old.

A psychologist said she would not have the capacity to consent.

The abuse took place over a 5-year period between 2009 and 2014.

May 2016

Mother jailed for life & ordered to serve ‘minimum of 24 years’ for murdering her 2 daughters

A young mum sobbed uncontrollably today as she was convicted and jailed for murdering her two daughters by stabbing them in their beds.

Samira Lupidi, 24, knifed 17-month-old Jasmine Weaver and three-year-old Evelyn Lupidi to death at a women’s refuge, a court heard.

Lupidi was jailed for life at Bradford Crown Court and ordered to serve a minimum of 24 years for murdering her two daughters.

Mr Justice Edis said the girls were ‘both as vulnerable as anyone can be’.

Sentencing Lupidi in her absence, the judge acknowledged she was suffering from a depressive disorder at the time of the ‘violent rage’ which led to the killings.

She stabbed them repeatedly in the chest as they struggled, before running out of the room, yelling that she had ‘killed the children’.

This afternoon, she was found guilty of both murders by a jury of six men and six women following just 90 minutes of deliberations.

She had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but had denied murdering the girls.

The mum, dressed in a grey jacket and a white shirt, wept into a pile of tissues as she was convicted of murdering her daughters. She was comforted by a security guard.

Meanwhile, in the packed public gallery, there were shouts of ‘yes’ as the verdicts were read out.

The week-long trial at Bradford Crown Court heard how Lupidi and the girls ended up in the refuge after she called police to her home in Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire.

She told officers that the girls’ father – her partner Carl Weaver, 31 – slapped her twice the night before and she was scared he was going to kill her, the court heard.

The jury was told that, the following day, staff at the refuge found Lupidi running out of the flat she had been allocated, shouting that she had ‘killed the children’.

Both girls were found on their beds, each with nine stab wounds to the chest.

The jury heard how the defendant had blood smeared on her hands when she ran from the room following the murders in November last year.

During the trial, the jury heard that Lupidi ran out of her room at a hostel in Bradford with her hands smeared in blood saying “I killed them, I hurt them.”

Following the stabbings, she is also said to have said: “If I can’t have them, he can’t have them either”, referring to her then partner, Carl Weaver, who she shared a home with in Church Lane, Heckmondwike.

Lupidi admitted that she killed the girls, but claimed she was suffering from diminished responsibility at the time. She said she was battling with depression and paranoia.

But the jury refuted her defence, instead accepting the prosecution’s case that she knew what she was doing when she suffocated then stabbed her daughters as they fought and struggled. 

The mum of two did not give evidence in the trial.

The judge said at the sentencing: ‘I believe you killed these children in a spasm of violence triggered by a weekend of violent arguments.’

The judge added: ‘You had formed a delusional belief that you were in danger of being killed and that you were going to be abandoned and that you would not see the children again.’

The judge said Lupidi stabbed each of her daughters nine times after arguments continued with her partner by phone.

He said that Italian Lupidi was friendless and alone in a foreign country and came to see her partner’s family as ‘the enemy’.

The judge said: ‘You reacted to this very difficult situation by saying ‘if I cannot have them, neither can he’.’

He said: ‘This is a crime that speaks of rage and I sentence you on the basis that you killed them in anger and out of a desire for revenge.

‘Even a week later you were telling the prison medical staff that the most important thing was that Carl Weaver was suffering.’

The judge said Lupidi killed Evelyn first and then her sister.

‘Jasmine, you later said, had been crying while you were killing her sister in a way she had never cried before,’ he said.

He added: ‘It does not take much imagination to know what happened in that dreadful scene and the way in which Jasmine died has traumatised their father who has only just learned of it.’

But the judge said: ‘All the evidence positively shows that these children were the centre of your life and that you loved them. You were a very good mother to them and cared for them very well.’

He said: ‘In the end, humanity requires an allowance to be made for the fact that you killed the things you loved in a temporary rage which will have everlasting and disastrous consequences for you.’

During Lupidi’s trial, the court had also heard how she had experienced a poor upbringing and suffered violence at the hands of her alcoholic mother, Marietta.

On one occasion, Marietta had even tried to kill her and her two brothers by opening a gas pipe, jurors were told.

“Her mother was violent towards all three children and she tried to kill all the children by opening a gas pipe,” Jasmine and Evelyn’s father and Lupidi’s partner, Carl Weaver, told the court.

Lupidi, who jurors heard had a ‘complete misinterpretation of reality’, had falsely accused 31-year-old Mr Weaver of domestic violence.

She feared the car valeter was plotting her death and that he wanted to take the girls away from her, the court heard.

In a statement read during her trial, Mr Weaver explained how they met via the Internet when he was working in Italy before Evelyn was born on January 27, 2012.

He described how Lupidi’s mother Marietta was an abusive alcoholic, while her father Dario treated his daughter as a ‘scivvy’ at home for him and her two siblings.

Lupidi’s father disapproved when his daughter fell pregnant, he said.

When Mr Weaver lost his job, it was decided that he and Lupidi would to return to England together and lived in Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire.

Lupidi, who spoke in ‘broken English’, was isolated having no bank account and no job, the court heard.

She gave birth to Jasmine on June 26, 2014, and the couple discovered soon after that Evelyn was autistic – she was clingy and would only say ‘mama’ and ‘pasta’.

Despite Evelyn’s problematic behaviour, Mr Weaver said Lupidi always coped and never lost her temper. “She was a wonderful mother,” he said.

But she thought people were against her and was extremely jealous if Mr Weaver returned home late from work. When he did, she would go through his Facebook account, the court heard.

Mr Weaver said he and Lupidi had heated arguments but he was never physically violent towards her.

May 2016: Now living in Rathcoole

April 2008

Rapist who took pictures of victim jailed for 12 years

A MAN who repeatedly raped a Polish woman in the grounds of a church has been jailed for 12 years.

A local priest acted as a referee for rapist Richard Finn (20), who subjected the woman to the ordeal, which lasted for more than two hours on July 22, 2007. During the attack, he used his mobile phone to photograph her. The phone was never recovered.

Finn, of Rockfield Drive, Clondalkin, Co Dublin, was soon nominated by gardai as the rapist from her description of him, as well as information arising out of two similar attacks on women around the same time.

He pleaded guilty to rape and oral rape of the victim, who he had grabbed from behind at about 7.30am on Convent Road, Clondalkin, while she walked to work. He forcibly held her in the grounds of the Church of Immaculate Conception and Scoil Mhuire until nearly 10am.

The victim said in her victim impact statement that the horrific ordeal had completely changed her life in a negative way. She has returned home to Poland and didn’t travel back for the court hearing.

At the Central Criminal Court, Mr Justice Paul Carney noted that this wasn’t the first case to come before the court in which a foreign woman had been attacked on a public highway and raped.

Mr Justice Carney said that aggravating factors included Finn’s filming of the victim’s naked body and the distress caused to her by the fact that the camera phone he used had never been recovered.

He said she found the violence being perpetrated her on consecrated grounds especially distressing in view of her Catholic upbringing. There was also the multiplicity of the assaults, including a form of sex that she found particularly offensive.

Mr Justice Carney directed that Finn’s name be added to the register of sex offenders and that he undergo five years’ post-release supervision.

He said he was required by the Supreme Court to identify the range of penalties available to the court and where on that scale to place the crime before discounting on such matters of mitigation available.

Mr Justice Carney noted that, following a judgment by the Chief Justice, drink or drugs afforded no defence and little by way of mitigation, but he took account of Finn’s early plea which, he said, meant the victim didn’t have to travel back from Poland, though she would have done so if necessary.

January 2007

Schoolgirl sex man had rape conviction

A LORRY driver who had sex with a 15-year-old schoolgirl in his cab was locked up indefinitely yesterday and branded a dangerous man.

It also emerged at Mold Crown Court that Stephen John Perrin, aged 39, had previously served a four-year jail sentence for rape imposed in 1993.

Judge David Hale said that had he been sentencing Perrin in the normal way, then after a trial he would have received six years.

But he imposed an indeterminate sentence under the dangerous offender provisions, and told Perrin that he did not know when he would be released.

He would be entitled to apply for parole after 33 months but would not be released until the parole board considered he was safe.

Perrin, of Ellis Avenue in Rhyl, had originally denied sexual penetration and sexual touching of a child but changed his pleas to guilty on the day of trial.

The judge told Perrin that he knew that the girl was in a vulnerable position, was unsettled, was sexually active and he took advantage of her.

While in the lorry he asked her to sit next to him and then committed the offences.

The judge ordered him to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, and made an order that banned him from working with children in any way.

Gareth Roberts, prosecuting, told how the offences occurred in the defendant’s lorry. Her family later got to know that she had love bites and the girl confided in her sister what had happened.

Interviewed, he denied that anything at all had happened but forensic examination clearly linked the defendant to the offences.

Defending barrister Kim Whittlestone urged the judge not to apply the dangerous provisions to her client.

She said that the previous rape conviction was in very different circumstances and stressed that there had been no violence or force used in the present offences.

The girl had not been groomed and was a willing participant.

She said that she would take issue with a suggestion that he was a predatory sex offender and said that it was not at his behest that the girl was in his lorry.

He had to accept that he had taken advantage of the situation when he had taken drink. He had acted in a totally inappropriate way.

The defendant was prepared to undergo any courses which the probation service could offer him, Miss Whittlestone said.

May 2016

Exeter computer expert created secret compartment to hide child sexual abuse movies

A computer expert created a secret section on his home built computer to hide his hoard of indecent images of children

Christopher Drew-Smith downloaded tens of thousands of items of adult pornography but also accessed a number of movies and images showing serious child abuse.

His computer had to be sent to Home Office specialists to unscramble an encrypted hard drive on which they also found 75 images of bestiality which showed adult women having sex with animals.

The images were found on a separate H drive on his computer which included sub folders with titles such as ‘Teen’ and ‘Beast’, Exeter Crown Court.

Drew-Smith told police he had no sexual interest in children and had downloaded the abuse images out of curiosity. He said he stored them in an encrypted drive because he was worried his partner would find them.

He was ordered to receive treatment from the probation service after a judge told him he had ‘yielded to his carnal desires’.

Drew-Smith, aged 56, of Thornberry Road, Exeter, admitted four counts of making indecent images of children and one of possessing extreme pornography.

He was jailed for 12 months, suspended for two years, ordered to receive two years supervision, and told to pay £440 costs by Recorder Mr Andrew Maitland.

He told him:”I am satisfied you encrypted this material because you wanted privacy from your partner rather than as a precaution against a visit by the police.

“The fact is that your relationship broke down, you became depressed, drank too much and developed an interest in pornography which accelerated.

“The number of images which were legal was over 60,000 and in your hunger for pornography you became curious about images of children aged 11 to 14.

“It seems you were more than just curious. This material was clearly retained for your gratification. In the case of the extreme images of sexual perversion, it may be that curiosity led to enjoyment and gratification.”

The Judge ordered Drew-Smith to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for ten years and made a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which bans him from having any encoded drives and allows police to check him internet use.

He said the order was necessary because of Drew-Smith’s sophisticated knowledge of computers and added:”You have fallen foul once already to your carnal desires.”

Mr Tristan Harwood, prosecuting, said Drew-Smith was identified in 2013 by an international investigation as one of a number of people worldwide who had accessed child abuse images on a peer-to-peer file sharing site.

His home was searched in 2014 and he admitted having illegal images on an encoded drive. The password he gave to the police was either one digit out or mis recorded with the result that it had to be sent to the Home Office to be unlocked.

A total of 80 images or movies of children were found, half of which were at the highest category A, which shows very serious abuse or rape of children by adults.

A further 75 images or movies showed bestiality, mostly depicting adult women having sex with animals.

Mr Harwood said:”The computer had been built by the defendant with some files in an encrypted, ring fenced, area which could not be accessed by others.

“He said this was to prevent his partner finding the material but it could be observed these were great lengths to go to and it may be he was also interested in others obtaining the data.

“The different sorts of pornographic images had been stored in sub-files. The category A child images were found in a file called Teen and the extreme images in a file called Beast.

“He also had a memory stick which contained an eraser programme which securely deleted material when plugged into the computer. The was also an application for the file sharing site e-mule.”

May 2016

Man jailed for “humiliating” sex attacks on teenage girl

A man from Broadfield has been jailed for a series of sex attacks on a teenage girl he ‘groomed’ and ‘manipulated’ in Crawley.

Verol Wynter, unemployed, was sentenced at Brighton Crown Court last Thursday (May 12) having previously been found guilty after a trial in February of three charges of sexual assault.

These were specimen counts representing multiple assaults. He was given three years for each count, to be served concurrently – meaning he will be in prison for a total of three years.

Wynter, previously of Chippendale Road, in Broadfield, and now of Brooke Road, in Hackney, East London, carried out “humiliating” sex attacks on his victim who was aged between 14 and 16 at the time.

The 56-year-old will be a registered sex offender for life and was issued with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) to last indefinitely, severely restricting his access to children.

Wynter had been found not guilty of a further count of sexual assaults on the same girl and not guilty of 10 sexual assaults on another girl between 2001 and 2009.

The victim showed great courage in coming forward and givng evidence. Wynter had gradually managed to achieve a measure of coercion and control over her, taking advantage of her natural vulnerability to carry out a series of humiliating assaults.

In sentencing the court noted that Wynter’s behaviour towards her was grooming, an abuse of position of trust, abusive, manipulative and controlling and that the repeated sexual assaults had a severe psychological effect on her.

May 2016

Man caught with child abuse pictures on his computer

POLICE who executed a search warrant at the home of a man found child abuse pictures on his computer.

Blackburn magistrates heard the investigation was part of Lancashire Police’s Operation Hercules which targeted the downloading of child porn.

Callum Phillip Graham, 40, of Pansy Street South, Accrington, pleaded guilty to making 50 indecent images of children. He was fined £345 with £85 costs and £60 victim surcharge and ordered to do 30 days’ rehabilitation.

He was made subject to sex offender notification requirements for five years.

Passing sentence the chairman said it was not a victimless crime.

“The children will have had to undergo extreme abuse for your sexual gratification,” she said. “We have taken notice of the steps you have put in place for your own rehabilitation.”

Tracey Yates, prosecuting, said the search warrant was raised after Graham’s IP address was identified as being involved in downloading indecent images of children.

May 2016

Sex abuse counsellor was caught with indecent images of children

A therapist who supported victims of sexual abuse was caught with a stash of indecent images of children.

Kieran Docherty is a registered counsellor who advertised himself as a £40 an hour therapist for cases of trauma, sexual abuse and “sexual issues”.

He was caught after his home in Fife was raided last July and high level abuse images were found, depicting young boys aged between two and 14.

Fiscal depute Saima Rasheed told Dundee Sheriff Court: “In July last year, it was discovered that someone at the address was in possession of indecent images of children.

He and his wife were told they were both being detained on suspicion of downloading the pictures – which depicted young boys aged between two and 14.

At that point Docherty said: “If there’s any pornography it will be mine.”

Docherty, 62, of Coach Road, Newburgh, pleaded guilty on indictment to taking or making indecent photographs of children at his home address on July 28 last year.

“The accused and his wife were traced there and were questioned separately. The accused was asked about computers he had and said there was a PC, a Mac and an iPad.

“A preview examination of the computer revealed indecent images on it.

“Both the accused and his wife were told they would be detained and at that point he said ‘if there’s any pornography it will be mine’.

“When asked about the possession of indecent images he made no comment. An examination of all his equipment revealed a total of 101 images, 70 of which were unique.

“That included 21 at category A – the most serious level. The children in the images ranged in ages from two to 14.”

Docherty, 62, of Coach Road, Newburgh, Fife, pleaded guilty on indictment to taking or making indecent photographs of children at his home address on July 28 last year.

Defence solicitor Gary McIlravey said: “There is quite a detailed background that will possibly be better explained in the context of a social work report.”

Sheriff Lorna Drummond QC deferred sentence until next month and released Docherty on bail meantime.

She said: “You are a first offender so given that and the nature of the charge I will call for reports.”

May 2016

Foleshill man given suspended sentence despite having over 6,000 indecent images of children

A Coventry man who created and possessed more than 6,000 indecent images of children has avoided prison.

Stanley Bettles pleaded guilty to six charges – three of possession of indecent photographs of a child and three of making indecent photographs of a child – and was handed a suspended sentence at Warwick Crown Court.

The 59-year-old, of Jenner Street, Foleshill, had admitted creating a total of 6,185 indecent images – both still and moving – between December 2013 and March 2015.

They included images in each of the three offence categories, including 861 of the worst kind; category A.

Bettles also admitted possessing 77 images – once again across all three categories – in April last year.

He was sentenced last week to 12 months in prison suspended for two years and ordered to sign sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

He was also ordered to pay a £100 victim surcharge.

May 2016

Linnvale man took indecent photos of kids

A Linnvale has been put on the sex offenders register for 30 months for taking photos of children.

Gideon Currie, 20, of Kirkwood Avenue, had previously admitted taking or permitting to be taken or making an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of two children on November 12 last year at his home.

At his sentencing on Tuesday at Dumbarton Sheriff Court, Sheriff William Gallacher sentenced Currie to a community payback order.

It will include 30 months of supervision and 100 hours of unpaid work in the community within the next six months and his listing on the register for sex offenders. 

May 2016

Coach company boss jailed for six years for child sex offences

A coach company employee is behind bars for child sex offences dating back three decades.

Leonard Garnett, from Bishop Auckland, County Durham, was found guilty after a trial.

He was jailed for six years and was also put on the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life by Judge Peter Armstrong.

May 2016

Pervert stole from wife and downloaded indecent images of children

This is the pervert who was shopped by his estranged wife for stealing from her to pay for porn and dating sites.

However police also found Bangor man Trevor Crothers had images of child sexual abuse and one of of bestiality on his computer.

Pervert Crothers, 63, appeared at Downpatrick Crown Court last week to admit five charges of possessing indecent images of children, one of possessing extreme pornography and two of fraud by misrepresentation.

May 2016

Pervert jailed for abusing young girl

A man who repeatedly abused an underage girl in Irvine has been jailed

Evil Michael Bennett carried out the sickening attacks on various dates between November 2012 and December 2013 at an address in the town.

The 42-year-old was found guilty of sexually abusing the girl when she was aged between 12 and 13 years old

Bennett was convicted of the vile attacks at Glasgow Crown Court in January this year.

At the high court in Edinburgh, Michael Bennett  was sentenced to eight years in prison

He was placed on the sex offenders register for life.

November 1997

Abuse priest ruined 30 lives

A priest was yesterday jailed for seven years after admitting indecently assaulting young girls.

Judge Harvey Kenny told Father Martin (Mattie) Greaney (56) that he had destroyed the lives of 30 girls by his dastardly conduct.

The average age of his victims was 12.

In a statement made to gardai, Fr Greaney, who is attached to the Archdiocese of Tuam, admitted he had paedophile tendencies for 30 years.

“I can’t offer any excuse for my behaviour. I found it impossible to stop myself. I’d give anything to be without these sexual urges”, he said.

Fr Greaney pleaded guilty to 13 sample charges of indecently assaulting eight girls in counties Mayo, Galway and Tipperary between 1979 and 1990.

The defendant, who was described as having a `magnetic personality’, was always surrounded by children. He had abused them in a number of houses, in his presbytery and in school.

On two occasions he indecently assaulted one of the girls in the choir gallery of a church. He gave his victims sweets and money.

Ballina Circuit Court heard yesterday that in October of last year, Fr Greaney had admitted indecently assaulting four girls in Co Mayo.

Media reports of his appearance at Castlebar Circuit Court had led to another victim in Co Galway contacting gardai and this led to statements from others who had also suffered abuse.

Many of the victims suffered psychologically and had great difficulty forming relationships afterwards. One victim blamed the abuse by Fr Greaney for the break-up of her marriage. Another said she wanted to kill him.

Some of the victims said they now distrusted priests and had turned away from the church.

Detective Garda John Clancy, who was commended for his work in the case by Judge Kenny, told the court that the abuse came to light via a psychologist in Dublin who was treating one of the victims.

The accused was a local curate and family friend who had offered the 14-year-old girl a lift home after a wedding.

He took her to his house on the pretext of checking messages. He had unbuttoned her blouse and touched her on the breast and leg.

Det Gda Clancy said the woman had now withdrawn socially and was extremely fearful of her assailant.

She disappeared from home for days without warning when she could not handle what had happened to her.

Now 24, she said in a victim impact statement: “I’m full of anger. I want to kill him. It’s like I had no childhood. I feel people around here resent me for reporting a priest.”

A friend of the victims was also sexually abused by the defendant when she called to the sacristy. He had ejaculated beside her.

The incident had happened while her mother was dying. She changed from an outgoing child to someone who was depressed and who had turned to drinking in her late teens.

“Now I can’t bear my partner kissing me I go cold and turn away. I still think of Fr Greaney putting his tongue in my mouth,” she said in a victim impact statement.

Fr Greaney had a magnetic affect on children and when he called to his local primary school in 1989, the children crowded around him in the lunch room. He put his arm around an 11-year-old girl in the group.

He put his hand inside her blouse and felt her breasts outside her bra while he talked nonchantly to the other girls.

“She was dying, wondering if the other girls noticed, but they didn’t,” Det Gda Clancy said.

He moved his hand to her genital area before stopping. The incident had a shocking affect on the girl who now felt `dirty and disgusted’ over what had happened.

Another girl aged 10, was undressed and assaulted in a neighbour’s house after Fr Greaney had said a Station Mass there. After abusing her, he went back to the after-Mass party.

A 29-yr-old woman told in a victim impact report of being abused two or three times a week by Fr Greaney in 1981. She had to bring him a newspaper at lunchtimes while in primary school.

She blamed the abuse for the break-up of her marriage.

Another victim said she was going to take an action for damages against the Catholic Church. She still had flashbacks of the abuse and did not trust priests at all.

In 1989-90, Fr Greaney assaulted an 8-year-old girl in his house. He had also taken down her clothes and assaulted her in the choir gallery of the church.

Now 17, the victim said she had changed from an outgoing girl to one with mood swings. She had a very quick temper and had a bad relationship with her father.

The court was told that Fr Greaney was a native of Tuam and had been educated locally. He had served in six parishes since he was ordained in 1967.

He had been suspended in 1995 and had not been acting as a priest since. He had been receiving counselling and therapy at a centre in Stroud, England.

He had donated a kidney to his brother in 1972 and was held in high esteem in the parishes where he worked as a curate.

In his statement to Gardai, Fr Greaney said he wanted to say sorry to the children, to the church and to the communities in which he had worked.

“I didn’t deliberately set out to cause anybody any harm,” he said.

Before sentencing, Fr John O’Boyle, a representative of the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary addressed Judge Kenny.

He expressed Dr Neary’s great concern for the victims and for the trauma and suffering they had gone through. The pastoral services of the Archdiocese would be made available to them.

He also wished to express the archbishop’s sadness for the family of Fr Greaney. Dr Neary prayed that the priests of the archdiocese and all priests would not be jeopardised by what had happened.

Judge Kenny told Fr Greaney he had violated the trust and confidence of his parishioners. He had done untold damage to the parents of his victims and they would find it very hard to forgive him.

May 2006

Man has sexual activity with child 

A 49-year-old man who had sexual intercourse with a schoolgirl in the back of his work van after picking her up from school.

Mark Duncan Harmer befriended the girl months earlier at a social event and groomed her via mobile phone and computer

They initially arranged to go to the cinema but Harmer instead took her back to his house, while his partner was out, where they had sex.

A month later, he picked her up at school and they again had sex. This time in the back of his van, which was parked on recreation ground.

Harmer of main street, Kirkby Mallory was found out after a teacher at the girls school heard about their meetings. 

He was sentenced to a community rehabilitation order with a condition to attend a sex offender programme

He admitted two counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity 

May 2016

Pervert guilty of 3 child sex offences

A predatory sex offender who travelled over 200 miles to High Wycombe and had sex with an underage girl after grooming her online was sentenced to more than five years in jail.

Pawel Kiczka, 26, from Blackpool, pleaded guilty to three child sex offences – which took place on June 2 last week – at Aylesbury Crown Court on Monday.

Kiczka admitted one count of an adult meeting a girl under 16 following sexual grooming, one count of an offender 18 or over engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged 13 to 15 and one count of an offender 18 or over engaging in non-penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged 13 to 15.

The judge ordered that upon completion his five year and four month sentence, Kiczka to be deported under the Section 32 Borders Act.

Police confirmed that Kiczka had several conversations with the victim on Facebook before arranging to meet her. This led to them engaging in sexual activity.

May 2016

Hailsham man jailed for online sex offences

A Hailsham man has been jailed for four years after admitting to a number of online sex offences.

Unemployed David Puttock, 47, of Gournay Road, Hailsham, was sentenced when he appeared in custody at Lewes Crown Court on Wednesday (May 18).

He had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to eight offences of making and distributing indecent images of children and to an offence of attempting to incite a 14-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity online.

The sentencing follows an investigation by the Sussex Police Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT), who arrested Puttock at his home address and seized his computer equipment.

Officers found a large number of indecent images and videos of children on his computer, which police say he had also distributed online.

Police say they also found evidence he had contacted someone online who he believed to be a 14-year-old girl. This person was never identified but it is believed he had been trying to get her to carry out indecent acts online.

Puttock will a registered sex offender for life and will be on a three-year extended licence supervision after his four-year sentence has expired.