Latest Offenders Basingstoke

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A FATHER who followed his victim for more than 15 minutes before attacking her has been sentenced to seven and a half years in jail.

Gary Carlisle, 50, of South Ham Road, South Ham, admitted to attempting to rape a woman at a previous hearing and was jailed today (Friday 18 May) at Winchester Crown Court.

The court heard that Carlisle attempted to rape the 38-year-old woman in the car park of The Rising Sun, in Chapel Hill, in the early hours of Sunday, 19 November 2017.

The woman was on a night out with friends when she went to walk home alone.

CCTV footage showed to the court saw that Carlisle followed her through the town centre before attacking her.

Detectives identified Carlisle through forensic and CCTV enquiries and he was then arrested and charged.

After sentencing detective inspector Penny Murray, from Hampshire Constabularys Amberstone team, said: This was a disturbing case and I would like to thank the survivor for the bravery and courage she has shown in getting this to court.

Carlisle followed her through the town centre after she had enjoyed a night out with friends.

She was alone and vulnerable as she walked home and Carlisle followed her before attempting to rape her.

Offences like these are rare in Basingstoke, but I hope that the sentence given today will give people confidence to report these crimes to us when they do occur.

We know how hard it is to come forward and report these offences, whether they have taken place recently or in the past, and we are committed to getting justice for victims and have specially trained officers to support them through the process.

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A BASINGSTOKE man has been jailed for 20 years after being found guilty of sexual offences against three children.

Steven Mark Beddoes, of St Peter's Road, South Ham, was sentenced at Winchester Crown Court on Friday November 18, after a jury found the 46-year-old guilty in August at the end of his trial.

He was found guilty of 23 of the 24 offences he had denied.

The offences included rape, attempted rape, indecent assault and indecency with a children.

The court heard that Beddoes sexually assaulted three children - two girls and a boy - in the Basingstoke area during a period between 1999 and 2014.

On Friday, Judge Susan Evans sentenced Beddoes to 20 years imprisonment, with an extended licence period of six years.

He was also ordered to be placed on the sexual offenders register for life.

A joint investigation was carried out into Beddoes offending by Hampshire Constabularys Child Abuse Investigation Team (CAIT) and Basingstoke CID.

Detective Constable Timothy McSpadden, of CAIT, and Detective Constable Alex Hall, of Basingstoke CID, said: The sentence handed down reflects the gravity of the offences committed by Steven Beddoes and how seriously the court takes these matters.

The victims in this case have been very courageous in both speaking to the police and giving evidence in court.

By doing this they have allowed justice to be served and have prevented Beddoes from causing any more harm to the most vulnerable people in our society.

The police and the CPS would not be able to prosecute Steven Beddoes if it had not been for the bravery of the victims coming forward. We would like to thank them for speaking to us and trusting us to help them."

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A rapist who filmed himself attacking unconscious women has had his "unduly lenient" prison sentence extended.

Romeo Cummins, 44, of Basingstoke, Hampshire, was originally jailed for 13 and a half years - and would have been eligible for parole after serving half his sentence.

He admitted 16 counts of rape, sexual assault and five drugs offences.

The Court of Appeal increased his term to life with a minimum of nine years - with no automatic right of release.

Police said Cummins had more than 100 videos of him attacking unconscious victims on his phone.

'Pleased with the sentence'

He was arrested in possession of crack cocaine, heroin and sleeping tablets in Aldershot in February.

When officers examined his phone, they found videos which contained footage of the sexual offences. The attacks took place over the last three years.

Solicitor General Robert Buckland QC MP referred Cummins' sentence to the Court of Appeal, arguing that it was unduly lenient.

He said: "The original sentence failed to reflect the number of victims; the number of rapes and the period of time over which the offending occurred.

"These were particularly vulnerable women who now have to live with the lasting psychological consequences of his actions."

A Hampshire Constabulary spokesman said: "It was clear from the footage that the women might not have known they had been sexually assaulted."

Det Sgt Lisa Cronin said: "We are very pleased with the sentence delivered today.

"It is an accurate reflection of the nature of Cummins' offending and the impact it has had on his victims."

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A WARPED paedophile who downloaded footage of a woman having sex with a horse and begged a 13-year-old girl to drink her own urine has been jailed.

Ian Cant, 28, persuaded the young girl to take part in "sick experiments" during an online chat in which he told her to strip, spread her legs and show herself.

The sick software engineer, from Basingstoke, Hants., admitted 16 counts of possessing indecent images of children, intending to incite or engage a child in sexual activity and owning extreme porn.

A court heard Cant had hundreds of "foul" videos on his computer, including some showing kids as young as two being sexually abused by twisted sex offenders.

Judge Peter Lodder QC jailed vile Cant for two years on Friday (Aug 12) at Kingston Crown Court.

He said: "In one of the images a three to five-year-old girl is bound at her wrists and ankles.

"She has a plastic bag over her head and sex toys around her.

"It doesn't bare thinking about the distress that girl must have been going through.

"If there was not a market for it children of this age would be far less likely to go through this revolting abuse."

Hamish Reid, prosecuting, told the court how perverted Cant demanded his victim to strip naked during the creepy web chat in July 2015.

Martin Ingle, defending, said Cant had recently got engaged and his mum was an "alcoholic who died in a house fire" and was "incapable of looking after Cant and herself".

The paedophile was also told to sign the sex offenders' register for 10 years.

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A PAEDOPHILE from Basingstoke who watched "grotesque" live footage of children being sexually abused and tortured in the Philippines has been jailed for 11 years.

Thomas Sloman was found guilty by a jury of 19 counts at Winchester Crown Court relating to making thousands of indecent images of children, and attempting to commission sexual offences against children.

The court heard that the 43-year-old, of Cairngorm Close, Buckskin, asked the people running the commercial operation to "punish" and "torture" the children for his own sexual gratification.

Chat logs showed he actively solicited for images online and arranged to view abuse over the internet.

He asked what ages the children were and requested to see girls as young as four or five, and also tried to arrange contact with the young victims.

Sloman, whose wife is Filipino, had visited the Philippines on a number of occasions, and chat room records showed he referred to repeatedly raping a young girl.

Defending Sloman, Nick Tucker said: "He does claim to have had young girls before in the Philippines and says he has had sex with them."

He added: "One way which he's seeking gratification is to boast about what he may or may not have already done in the past."

Mr Tucker described the offences as "monstrous" adding: "I don't shy away from that."

Referring to Sloman's two young sons, he said: "There's no suggestion that he's been anything but a good and loving father to them. It's mystifying how someone can compartmentalise their life in such a way to be a devoted father and then commit these offences to other people's children."

Officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) raided Sloman's home in January 2015, seizing a number of computers and electronic devices.

Forensic analysis showed they contained around 12,000 indecent images, including more than 2,000 classed as category A, indicating the worst forms of abuse.

Many of the images were screen-grabs taken from live webcam streams.

There were also records or more than 110,000 online chats, many of which were encrypted.

Sloman was charged with 10 counts of making indecent images of children and nine counts of commissioning or attempting to commission sexual offences against children, between 2008 and 2014.

In court he denied the charges, claiming that his computer had been hacked, but on May 26 at Winchester Crown Count a jury found him guilty of all charges following a four day trial.

He was sentenced on Friday, September 9 to 11 years in prison, with a further two-and-a-half years supervision order.

He will also stay on the sex offenders' register for life.

Judge Nigel Lickley QC said: "The exploitation of children for sexual gratification is not only rightly regarded by all right thinking people as extremely serious in terms of criminal offending it's also repellent."

He added: "I have been reminded today that I described your criminal activity as grotesque and that's an apt word to use."

The judge said the offences were "evil" and reflected the "depths the poor members of the worldwide society will go to make a few dollars".

He said the victims were probably being subjected to abuse by their own relatives.

Referring to the victims, he said: "Their young lives and bodies are irreparably damaged. They have done nothing wrong but live in a world where people like you have access to the internet and you can prey on their vulnerability for a few minutes of sexual gratification."

He added: "You have no regard or care for the children, their lives and how they are affected. You have a callous disregard for their welfare and wellbeing."

Judge Lickley said Sloman posed a "significant risk to members of the public", adding: "In my view, young female children worldwide are at risk of you from serious harm in relation to your devious interest in children for sexual gratification. You are in denial which in itself is a concerning matter. My conclusion is that you are a dangerous offender."

Referring to Sloman's own children, he said: "They will have to grow up with the realisation of the other life their father lived under the same roof."

Following the sentencing, Jason Booth, from NCA, said: Thomas Sloman is a dangerous child sex offender who arranged the abuse of vulnerable children.

The fact he was thousands of miles away makes no difference to his guilt it was all done for his personal gratification.

The NCA is actively targeting offenders who pay for live streaming of abuse, because our priority is protecting children, whether they are in the UK or abroad.

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A PAEDOPHILE who was found with nearly a quarter of a million indecent images on his laptop, some of which showed very young children being tortured, was said to be addicted to viewing them.

Ross McNaughton was sent to prison for four years after pleading guilty at Winchester Crown Court to six counts relating to making, distributing and possessing the images, some of which showed children as young as one-years-old being abused.

The 47-year-old, of Silvester Close, South View, was arrested by police in August last year, and tried to shut down a file sharing programme on his laptop when officers found him in his room.

A forensic examiner found McNaughton had searched the internet for child abuse of young children and had made and distributed thousands of the images, some of which were the most serious category A.

Prosecutor Sadie Rizzo said: The age of the children are extremely young and there are images showing distress to these children.

She told the court that the images were of female children, and that McNaughton viewed them every day between June 2014 and August 2015.

The court heard that McNaughton has a history of similar offences and had spent three months in prison for possessing indecent images in August 1997.

He last appeared in court in July 2006 for making and possessing indecent images of children, and was given a community rehabilitation order for three years.

Defending McNaughton, Adam Norris said: If he is not supervised thats when temptation creeps in.

He added: One might say this is something of a compulsion or addiction. Its almost like an addiction to a drug and Mr McNaughton knows that he will never be cured, if cured is the right word. But he must learn to manage it as others do.

Mr Norris described McNaughton as having an obsessive personality and said he was addicted to collecting, arranging, filing and storing the indecent images.

He told the court: Mr McNaughton is a solitary figure who doesnt interact within the real world. He leads a life that is online. He urged the judge to give credit for the fact McNaughton had been candid about his crimes and suggested he would be vulnerable in prison, asking for a sentence that would allow him to come out of custody and build some sort of life in the community.

Mr Norris told the court that McNaughtons 85-year-old mother was in remission from cancer, adding: It would be a tragedy if he served a sentence of such a length that his mother died whilst he was inside.

Judge Michael Vere Hodge said he had taken this into consideration but concluded: It simply cant affect the way in which I have to sentence you.

He described the number of images as staggeringly high showing child pornography of the worst kind. He added: To watch images of children in distress, being tortured in some, must put this in the worst possible category.

The judge sentenced McNaughton to three years in prison for count one making 7,621 category A images; two years for count two possessing 17,944 category B images; one year for count three possessing 227,633 category C images; four years for count four distributing 28,011 category A, B and C images; two years for count five being in possession of 4,223 indecent images with a view to distributing them; and one year for count six being in possession of extreme pornographic images, to run concurrently.

He was also issued with a sexual harm prevention order and will remain on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

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A MAN from Basingstoke has been jailed for more than seven years after being found guilty of raping a woman.

Samuel Tweddle, 23, of Kings Road, Basingstoke, received a sentence of seven years and six months in prison on Thursday, December 17 at Winchester Crown Court.

A jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts on the five counts that Tweddle had denied, which included a single count of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one of witness intimidation.

The offence took place in the early hours of Sunday, July 5 this year in a car on the Houndmills industrial estate in Basingstoke.

The victim reported the offence that day and was supported by specialised officers.

DNA evidence was taken and used to convict Tweddle.

Speaking after the sentence, Detective Constable Craig Ferguson, of Basingstoke CID, said: This was a vicious and predatory attack.

Sexual offences are treated very seriously by Hampshire Constabulary and we will investigate, charge and convict criminals responsible for such offending.

The victim has shown great courage throughout this process and I hope that she can now move on from this terrible ordeal.

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A MANIPULATIVE 19-year-old has been jailed for four and a half years for having sex with two teenage girls in Didcot.

Dalton Joyce-Kent, of Elderberry Bank, Lychpit, Basingstoke, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a child and two counts of breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO).

Stephen Shay, prosecuting, said the defendant had been made subject to a SOPO for five years in January last year, banning him from unsupervised contact with children.

He told Judge Patrick Eccles at Oxford Crown Court the order was made after the teenager admitted one count of having sexual activity with a child. The barrister said he was also made subject to a 15-month suspended sentence order in October last year for making threats to kill.

Mr Shay said his latest offences, carried out against two 15-year-olds, who cannot be named for legal reasons, put Joyce-Kent in breach of both court orders.

He said the serial offender met up with one of the girls 13 or 14 times and they had sex in a wooded area in Didcot.

Thomas Evans, defending, said his client was immature and had had a very difficult upbringing, but had accepted his behaviour was wrong.

He said: He has talked to me about seeing violence his whole life, particularly towards his mother.

Judge Eccles said on Monday the teenager had wilfully and calculatedly breached his SOPO and in his view was a dangerous offender.

He sentenced him to 54 months in prison, of which he will spend at least two thirds in custody, with an extra three years on licence.

Joyce-Kent will also have to pay a 120 victims surcharge.

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SOME of them had waited years for justice so it was no surprise that there were tears of relief from victims and their family and friends as serial rapist Paul Kent was jailed for 19 years.

Kent, who is now 39, raped four different women in Basingstoke over a period of eight years, forcing them into depraved sexual acts, some during the course of relationships. Two other victims were subjected to crimes including sexual assault, blackmail and intimidation.

Kent was found guilty of 20 crimes, including sexual activity with a child, and acquitted of 10 others, following a trial in the summer.

Last Friday, some of the victims and their friends and family wept in the public gallery as Kent was jailed for nearly 20 years by Judge Guy Boney.

Sex beast Kent showed little emotion in the dock throughout the sentencing hearing, although he was seen to smirk as he was led away to the cells.

Meting out the punishment, Judge Boney told Kent: You have no moral compass at all its an instrument that does not appear on your dashboard.

Not once did you express a smidgen of remorse, sorrow, sympathy or compassion about the appalling acts you put these women through.

He said there were two reasons for Kents lack of remorse a dislike of women and an aura of armour-plated sexual arrogance that led him, at one point in the trial, to portray himself as the victim.

Judge Boney told Kent: Its all utter nonsense. You have a turbo-charged sex drive, and you are utterly ruthless in the ways you go about it.

Kents address during the trial was given as Maybrook, Chineham, but the sentencing hearing was told it was now listed as Belle Vue Road, Old Basing.

During the trial, he had either denied having sex with the women or said that the sexual acts some of which Judge Boney said were amongst the most depraved the court had ever heard about were consensual.

During the sentencing hearing, Stephen Parish, prosecuting, read out the victim impact statements from the seven women who had made allegations against Kent.

The court heard that most of them suffered from recurring nightmares that Kent was going to come back and harm them, and many of them described how difficult it was to be questioned about the allegations in court.

One woman told how she turned to self-harming after making her allegations. Another said: Paul has left me feeling I cannot trust anyone, and I feel that I have lost confidence in myself.

Mr Parish said that while the allegations made by the seventh woman did not result in convictions, her bravery in coming forward to the police gave confidence to some of the others to tell their stories.

Iain Lawrie, defending, said Kents mitigation was meagre but added that his client hoped to be moved to a prison on the Isle of Wight to take part in a sexual rehabilitation course.

Judge Boney ruled that Kent poses such a risk to the public that a parole board will only be able to decide whether he is fit for release after he has served two-thirds of his sentence.

If he is paroled, he will serve any remainder of his sentence on licence, and that licence period will be extended by four years, the judge said. Kent was also ordered to remain on the sexual offenders register for life.

After the hearing, Detective Constable Louise Trigg, who was praised for her work by the judge, welcomed the sentence, which she said marked the end of a long and complex investigation.

She said: Paul Kent is a dangerous man who spent many years manipulating, controlling, and abusing women in the Basingstoke area.

His behaviour towards women and girls was vile and degrading and has had lasting effects on all of their lives.

The victims in the case may never be able to forget what happened to them at the hands of this man.

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Serial offender Aaron Bremner raped a stranger in a sustained and terrifying attack – and now he has been jailed for 16 years.

Bremner subjected his victim to a horrifying ordeal in her own car after she kindly offered him a lift.

Southampton Crown Court heard Bremner threatened to stab his terrified victim, and said he would set the car on fire with her locked in the boot if she screamed.

Bremner, who has 31 previous convictions for 101 offences, was described by Judge Derwen Hope as “extremely dangerous”.

Bremner had pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, four counts of assault by penetration, one count of sexual assault and one count of common assault but was found guilty of all eight counts by a jury.

The 29-year-old swore, shouted and punched the walls as he was sentenced, before being removed from the dock by security staff.

The court heard how Bremner met his victim, who said she had never spoken to him before, by chance in March this year on the steps of a Basingstoke town centre gym after he had been out to dinner with friends.

Bremner, of Glamis Close, Oakley, asked her for a lift to the South Ham area of Basingstoke, and she agreed – but the court heard from David Richards, prosecuting, that once he was in her car, Bremner “quickly dropped the charming act”.

When the woman told Bremner to get out of the car, he became aggressive and forced her to drive to a remote country lane in Wootton St Lawrence, where he subjected her to a sustained and terrifying assault, sexually assaulting her several times and raping her twice.

Bremner made violent threats towards his victim and her family if she screamed or raised the alarm.

When the shocked victim got home, she called the police, and Bremner handed himself in soon after as enquiries were being made by officers.

The assault lasted more than an hour, and Mr Richards said the impact on the victim had been devastating.

He said: “She finds it hard to do any normal things any more. She is always thinking about the incident and she finds it hard to sleep.”

Richard Onslow, defending Bremner, said he had no previous convictions for sexual offences, adding: “He has never done anything like this before.”

Sentencing Bremner to 16 years in custody, with an extended licence period of eight years for the two counts of rape, Judge Hope described the victim’s ordeal as “horrendous”, and said: “She was terrified.”

Detective Constable Sol Koranteng of Basingstoke police, said: “Aaron Bremner is a dangerous man, and I welcome the sentence he has received for this horrendous crime.

“The victim was left extremely distressed by this violent attack and has then had to endure giving evidence at the trial.

“The sentence Mr Bremner has received reflects the seriousness of this crime and should send a message to people that anyone found guilty of committing a serious sexual offence should expect to face a lengthy prison sentence.”

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RAPIST Robert Gordon is a man with a violent past who has committed more than 50 other offences.

As well as carrying out the July 1981 rape in Basingstoke’s War Memorial Park, Gordon has previously served four years for the rape of a 14-year-old schoolgirl in 1982, just three years after he married his wife Michele, who is standing by him.

Gordon, of Gainsborough Road, Black Dam, Basingstoke, was convicted by a jury of rape, indecent assault and making threats to kill, relating to the July 1981 attack, following a trial in December.

During the six-day trial at Winchester Crown Court, jurors heard that a partial DNA profile, pieced together from samples collected from the victim at the time, produced only one match on the national DNA database – Gordon, who often walked in the park where the attack took place.

Jailing Gordon, below, for nine years, judge Mr Justice Hamblen described the attack as “terrifying” for the victim and said the traumatic ordeal has had a “lasting effect” on her life.

The victim, then in her 30s, had been walking her two dogs through the park when she was approached by Gordon, who asked her for directions before kicking her legs from under her, forcing her to the ground, punching her and banging her head on the ground.

He raped her at knifepoint, ignoring her pleas and cries for help and telling her he would kill her if she did not keep quiet.

Gordon pressed the knife to his victim’s chest so hard that she still bears a scar from the attack.

A jury took four hours over two days to find Gordon guilty. After delivering their verdicts, they heard that Gordon has a long list of previous offences – 13 convictions for 55 offences, including burglary, theft, assault and actual bodily harm prior to 1981.

He was convicted of harassment in 2008 against his wife’s best friend and was sentenced to six months imprisonment. He was convicted of harassment against the same woman in 2010 and was handed a suspended sentence.

Defending Gordon, Nick Wayne said that aside from these offences, his client had “turned his life around” since the rape, and told the judge a significant sentence would have a devastating effect on Gordon’s wife and children.

Judge Hamblen sentenced Gordon to nine years for the rape, with a 12-month sentence for the indecent assault and three years for the threats to kill, to run concurrently with the nine-year sentence.

Gordon showed no emotion as he was sentenced.

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THE most evil of offenders thats how a detective described Basingstoke paedophile Paul Thomas, who was this week convicted of 25 counts of various sexual offences against four young girls committed over several years.

Sick Thomas crimes included rape and indecent assault, and one of his victims was just eight when she was first abused.

A jury found 50-year-old Thomas, of Western Way, South Ham, guilty of 25 of the 31 charges he faced during a two-month trial at Winchester Crown Court.

A second man, Jerry Lee Howe, 40, of Dunnyshop Avenue, Accrington, Lancashire, was found guilty of three charges, including rape, invoving one girl. Both men had denied all charges.

The trial heard the crimes spanned some 15 years, from the mid-1990s to 2010, when the first victim came forward to Hampshire Constabulary. The victims were abused separately at different times and locations.

Kerry Maylin, prosecuting, said: The victims were, the Crown say, sexually abused. They were children and some of them very young.

A victim told the court how Thomas gave her cash and cigarettes after sexually abusing her at the age of 14.

The woman appeared in court behind a screen in the witness box, although her evidence was taken from a series of filmed police interviews.

She said she only realised that she was being abused when she started to have a relationship with someone her own age, and told him about what happened.

A jury of seven men and four women found Thomas, pictured, guilty of two multiple counts of rape against one girl that took place when she was aged 13 and 14.

He was also convicted of two other counts of rape, 11 indecent assaults, seven counts of sexual activity with a child and three counts of inde-cency with a child.

Judge Andrew Barnett, adjourning the sentencing hearing until January 29, told Thomas: Be under no illusion when the matter comes back, you must prepare yourself for a prison sentence of some considerable length.

Detective Inspector Scott Clarke, from Hampshire Constabularys Major Investigation Team, led the two-year investigation which brought Thomas and Howe to justice and he praised the courage of the victims.

Speaking after the convictions, Det Insp Clarke said: These men systematically abused and degraded children to the point where their victims felt their ordeal was just a part of growing up.

It is down to the courage of the victims that these most evil of offenders have been brought to justice.

I only hope that with the ordeal that ruined their childhoods finally over, these people can start to rebuild their lives and enjoy their first Christmas free from fear.

He added the offending has now been referred to the Hampshire Safeguarding Children Board.

Clare Chamberlain, independent chair of the board, said: Even though the majority of these crimes appear to have taken place many years ago, we are keen to establish the facts about this case and ensure that frontline practice and management across all agencies is able to learn from and deal effectively with these complex abuse cases.

Thomas, who has been remanded in custody, was found not guilty of six further counts, including an indecent assault on a boy, and Howe was found not guilty of three offences involving two girls.

Two other men, Timothy Pittway, 49, and Paul Flynn, 30, both of Bath Road, Reading, were found not guilty of all child abuse charges that they faced.

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A judge jailed a sex molester for 27 years after telling him he wanted to protect Britain's children, including those not yet born. The sentence is one of the longest imposed for offences which do not carry a life term.

A charity worker, Raymond Hodgson, 43, carried out a catalogue of sex abuse on nine young girls. Police caught him after he had abused four children but he escaped by locking officers in his house.

He went on to sexually abuse another five children, after winning the trust of their parents as he travelled around Britain. He was caught when his photograph was shown on the BBC television programme Crimewatch and the station was inundated with calls.

Winchester Crown Court was shown a pornographic video Hodgson made in which he forced a six-year-old girl to perform sexual acts. Judge Martin Tucker QC told him: "Having seen in the video of the sort of things you were doing, it must be realised what a revolting series of offences these were.

"When you are eventually at liberty the overwhelming probability is you will try to do it again. I have got to protect children and unborn children.

"I am passing a sentence that will keep you inside until your sexual life is on the wane."

The court heard Hodgson re-offended when he was released from prison after a conviction for raping a 12-year-old girl.

The girls he targeted on his release were aged 6 to 13.

The court heard Hodgson began working for a charity and befriended one of his employees who had young children. Once he won the family's trust he began abusing the girl. After befriending this girl he met other youngsters by "wheedling himself into the affections and trust of their parents".

One girl told police Hodgson pulled her into his bed, stripped and removed her pants.

While visiting friends in Gosport, Hampshire, Hodgson abused an eight- year-old girl after giving her shandy. The girl woke in the middle of the night to find Hodgson touching her. She began crying and later told her sister. Police were alerted.

But when police went to arrest Hodgson he conned them into letting him say goodbye to his landlady, locking them in the house while he escaped. He then moved north to Morecombe under an assumed name where he again used his work with a charity to abuse another set of children.

Hodgson said he did not know why he had abused the children. "Ninety per cent of the time I am like any other in the street and then situations crop up and I lose control," he said.

Hodgson, of Basingstoke, Hampshire, admitted six counts of indecent assault, four of indecency with a child and five counts of taking indecent photographs, and one of unlawful escape.