June 2014
Child abuser from Corby jailed for eight years
A former Corby man who exposed himself to young girls and photographed his abuse of a six-month-old child has been sent to prison for eight years.
Richard Faulds, 30, formerly of Norse Walk, appeared at Northampton Crown Court on Friday after having pleaded guilty to a string of charges.
They included sexual assault on a child under 13, inciting children to engage in sexual activity and also to charges of possessing indecent images and videos involving children on his mobile phone.
The court heard that police arrested Faulds, who gave an address in Tamworth to the court, after a complaint that he had exposed himself to a seven-year-old girl and offered her £1 to not tell anyone what had happened.
The girl told her father about the incident two weeks later.
Following that complaint, a second victim also made allegations that Faulds had also exposed himself to her, as well as showing her videos of pornographic movies.
That complainant said Faulds had told her that she would go to prison if she told anyone what had happened.
After seizing his mobile telephone, officers found a number of photographs and videos on the phone.
They varied in seriousness and included one of him abusing a young child which Faulds appeared to have taken himself.
Child abuse images are ranked on a five level scale in order of seriousness.
Some of the images and videos found on Faulds’ phone were level four.
When Faulds was interviewed by police he initially declined to answer any questions to him by officers.
He later pleaded guilty to charges put to him.
Jailing Faulds, Judge Timothy Smith said: “You regarded your victims as easy targets and this leads me to conclude that there is a serious risk of you causing harm to the public.
“You have agreed with that analysis yourself in your interviews with the probation service and there is a particular risk to children from you.”
Faulds was also told his details would be added to the sex offenders’ register.
The court heard Faulds had one previous conviction for a sexual offence as well as a string of convictions for dishonesty and one for robbery.
