Latest Offenders Cambridge

Description

A former primary school teacher and scout leader has been jailed after having a sexual conversation with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl.  

Samuel Robinson, 27, made contact with the person, who turned out to be a decoy from an online child activist group, through social media chat platforms between April 7 and April 11, 2023. 

The decoy repeatedly told Robinson they were 13 but he continued with the sexual conversation. 

Robinson was arrested after the activist group visited his home on the evening of April 11. 

His electronic devices were seized, and examination of his Snapchat account found he had also communicated with a 15-year-old girl between May 2021 and June 2022. 

The conversation was sexual, and Robinson offered to send inappropriate pictures of himself. 

Robinson, of Butt Lane, Milton, appeared at Cambridge Crown Court on Wednesday (October 2) and was sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison.  

He entered guilty pleas to engaging in sexual communication with a child, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause a girl to engage in sexual activity. 

DC Caroline Murphy from Cambridgeshire Police has clarified the offences had no connection with Robinson’s teaching or his role as a scout leader. 

She said: “Robinson was well aware of the obligation we all have to protecting young people so to contact what he believed were children in this way and engage them in grossly inappropriate conversation was appalling. 

“This case shows the seriousness with which we take protecting children from harm.” 

Description

Nigel Reeson, 58, began sexually assaulting the young girl in 1994, with the abuse taking place on regular occasions until the early 2000s.

Cambs police said Reeson sexually touched the girl on multiple occasions, including one instance when he got into a bath with her.

In 2010, Reeson sexually assaulted another girl at her home.

A force spokesperson explained: “Last year the victims reported what had happened and Reeson was arrested at his home in Abbots Drive, Crowland, near Peterborough.

“He admitted six counts of indecently assaulting a girl under the age of 14, inciting a girl under 16 years of age to commit an act of gross indecency and assaulting a girl by touching.”

On Friday, July 26, at Cambridge Crown Court he was jailed for three years and eight months.

DC Anna-Mae Dawson commented: “Reeson subjected the first victim to a prolonged period of awful abuse, before assaulting another girl.

“I’d like to commend the victims for the strength they showed in reporting what had happened. Once again, this case shows that time is not a barrier to bringing perpetrators of abuse to justice. If you’ve been a victim of abuse, I’d encourage you to report what happened.”

Description

A paedophile who had a mobile phone containing 140 indecent images of children has begun a 16-month jail term.

Police said Lee Courtney, 33, of North Brink, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, had thought he could "hide" the phone from them.

Courtney was jailed by a judge at Cambridge Crown Court on Thursday after admitting a number of offences, a court official said.

He will remain on the sex offenders register until January 2031, police say.

Cambridgeshire Police said Courtney had been given a suspended prison sentence in January 2021, and placed on the sex offenders register, after being convicted of "making indecent images" of children.

They said officers suspected Courtney had not notified them of two email accounts and was in breach of sex offender register notification requirements.

Officers had travelled to arrest him in on 18 March - and found the mobile.

'Lesson'

Courtney had been sentenced at Cambridge Crown Court on 20 June after admitting breaching a sexual harm prevention order, failing to comply with sex offender register notification requirements, and making indecent photographs of a child, the court officials said.

He would stay on the sex offenders register until January 2031 and be the subject of a sexual harm prevention order until January 2036, the official added.

“Despite having a suspended sentence and being aware of his sexual harm prevention order and notification requirements, Courtney reoffended and tried to lie about a mobile phone he thought he could hide from us," said PC Natasha Alwin.

“He clearly has not learnt his lesson."

Description

A man has been jailed after he was convicted of a number of offences including sexual assault by strangulation and possession of indecent images.

Mark Wilson, aged 32, of Gaul Road, March, Cambridgeshire was jailed for three years following a hearing at Norwich Crown Court on Friday 10 May 2024.

He was also made subject to restraining orders against his two victims and issued with a sexual harm prevention order.

Wilson had previously admitted to two counts of sexual assault by strangulation, one count of sexual assault, one count of possessing an extreme pornographic image, and three counts of making an indecent photograph of a child.

Between September 2016 and the end of 2017 in Thetford Wilson twice strangled a teenage girl, on one occasion to the point where she lost consciousness and kept passing out.

He also attempted to indecently touch another girl.

An investigation was launched and his devices, a mobile phone and a laptop, were seized.

Analysis revealed they contained category A, B, and C videos and still images which were indecent. 

In a statement read to the court one of Wilson’s victims described how she was still feeling the effects of the trauma she had experienced.

She detailed how she could not sleep, had become depressed, and continue to struggle with the emotional aftermath.

In her statement she described his “seemingly blasé attitude to when it came to committing sexual offences against young women”, adding: “The nightmare of what you did remains fresh in my mind.”

Description

A paedophile who groomed a teenage boy to take part in sexual acts with his own brother has been jailed.

Leon Richardson, of Mill Road, Cambridge, began speaking to the schoolboy through social media on 10 October.

The teenager replied to Richardson and the messages started off innocent, but after a few days became sexual.

Richardson, 22, sent sexually explicit images and videos of himself to the boy and asked him to do the same, to which the boy obliged.

He also persuaded the boy to take part in sexual acts with his own brother, who was younger than him. These acts were recorded and sent to Richardson.

Richardson went on to request to meet the teenager under the guise of teaching him to play the guitar.

The sexual messages continued for a few months, until 29 December, but were found after the boy’s parents checked his phone after he had become withdrawn and secretive with the device.

After realising the conversations had been discovered Richardson visited Parkside Police Station, in Cambridge, and admitted the offences.

In police interview Richardson again admitted the crimes and said he wanted help.

At Cambridge Crown Court on 29 January, Richardson admitted charges including:

• Engaging in sexual communication with a child
• Causing a child aged 13 to 15 to watch or look at an image of sexual activity
• Causing or inciting a boy under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity
• Causing a boy aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity 

He was sentenced at the same court today (4 April) where he was handed five years and four months in prison, with an extra three years on licence

Richardson was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), to monitor future offending, which was ordered to run indefinitely. He must sign the Sex Offenders Register for life.

Description

A man who repeatedly exposed himself to girls in South Cambridgeshire has been jailed.

Patrick Connors, 22, approached five different girls aged between 13 and 17 June last year, in Sawston, Arbury and Great Shelford.

He drove next to them and asked for directions before indecently exposing himself.

Connors was arrested on 19 June and made no comment in interview but has since pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent exposure and one count of outraging public decency.

Yesterday (11 March) at Cambridge Crown Court, Connors, of Carshalton Road, Banstead, Surrey, was jailed for three and a half years.

He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.

Description

A paedophile who abused two young girls and paid almost 5,000 for adults to abuse other children around the world has been jailed.

Nathan Lovell, 33, has been locked up for 15 years at Cambridge Crown Court

When officers arrested him, indecent images of children were discovered on his phone, including 1226 category C images or videos, 18 category B images or videos and 14 category A the most severe.

Officers also discovered screen recordings where Lovell was taking part in online conversations directing and paying for children to be abused by other adults.

In one of the recordings Lovell could be seen on the front-facing camera. In another of the conversations, he promised a puppy as payment to an adult about to abuse a young girl.

Officers carried out further enquiries with social media companies, which revealed further instances of Lovell paying for child sex abuse online. In total, he spent about 4,800 in this way.

Lovell, of Opportune Road, Wisbech, was charged with 18 counts in total, including:

• Four counts of sexually assaulting a child under 13 by touching
• Three counts of making indecent images or videos of children
• 11 counts of arranging or facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child under 13

He pleaded guilty to the three indecent image charges at his first court hearing but denied the others.

However, after an eight-day trial at Cambridge Crown Court in December, jurors found him guilty by unanimous verdict on all 15 other charges.

Lovell was sentenced at the same court on Monday (19 February) where he was handed a total of 15 years in prison, with an extended four years on licence.

Passing sentence, Judge Mark Bishop said Lovell posed a significant risk to children and there was an unpredictability to his future behaviour.

A restraining order prohibiting Lovell from contacting the two sexual assault victims was also put in place for 25 years, together with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) for the same timeframe to monitor any future offending. He must sign the Sex Offenders Register for life.

DC Ollie Plant, from the forces Child Abuse Investigation and Safeguarding Unit (CAISU), said: Our thoughts are with the two young girls targeted by Lovell in the most horrific of ways, and his other victims who were targeted online.

We are pleased he has now been brought to justice and hope the sentence gives his victims and their families some closure from this traumatic period in their lives.

What Lovell did in paying other adults to abuse children across the world will no doubt be shocking to many. A child is victimised when an indecent image is taken and every time it is viewed or shared.

Protecting young people from harm is one of our top priorities and we have specially trained officers who are there to support victims and bring offenders to justice.

Description

A man who sexually assaulted a young girl in Wisbech has been jailed.

Arturas Opulskis, 41, assaulted the girl in the town between 2016 and 2018.

The sexual assault came to light in 2021 after the girl told a friend and then confided in a trusted adult.

Police were contacted and Opulskis was arrested.

He denied any sexual assault.

In September, Opulskis, of no fixed abode, was unanimously found guilty of assaulting a girl under 13 by penetration following a trial at Peterborough Crown Court.

On Friday (9 February) at the same court he was jailed for eight years.

Description

A man who sent pictures of his dog to someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl in a bid to groom her has been jailed.

Scott Burke, 37, of Leverington in Cambridgeshire, contacted the "teenager" on social media in November 2021. She was in fact a police officer.

Cambridgeshire Police said he quickly sexualised the conversations and sent a photograph of his penis, along with one of him with his dog.

Burke pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to arrange, facilitate or commission sexual activity with a child and was jailed for two years and six months.

Burke, of Leverington Common in the village near Wisbech, repeatedly discussed sex and a desire to meet up with the girl during a fortnight of online conversations, Cambridgeshire Police said.

He claimed he had booked them a hotel room and suggested taking the girl to a sex toy and lingerie retailer.

On arrest, he told officers he had been hacked.

Burke also pleaded guilty to one count of being an adult attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and one count of attempting to cause or incite a girl aged 13-15 into sexual activity.

Description

A man has been jailed after attempting to sexually assault two children. 

Alfred Dempster, 57, tried to lure two people he believed were children into sexual activity.

He began talking to someone he believed to be an 11-year-old girl on KIK Messenger - a popular messaging platform with youngsters -  before moving to Whatsapp on New Year’s Day 2020.

Dempster, who was actually speaking with a member of an online child activist group, asked them to send an explicit photo, touch themselves and call him "daddy". 

The contact ended on January 9, 2020. 

Dempster also began speaking to another decoy pretending to be a 14-year-old girl in November of the same year.  

He asked for photos, said he wanted to have sex and also encouraged them to touch themselves.

Dempster was arrested at his home in Nene Quay, Wisbech, on January 11, 2021, and his electronic devices were seized.

He was jailed for two years and six months on February 2 at Peterborough Crown Court after pleading guilty to two counts of attempting to incite a girl to engage in sexual activity. 

Two counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, which Dempster denied, were ordered to lie on file. 

DC Zip Lloyd said: “This was a disgusting case where Dempster showed intent to potentially sexually assault two children.”

Description

A Wisbech man has been sentenced for more than 75 cases of sexual offences against a child dating back to the early 2000s.

David Graham, 49, of Walpole St Peter, appeared at King's Lynn Crown Court on Monday after pleading guilty to rape of an underage girl on 75 occasions.

He was also found guilty to a separate count of rape of an underage vulnerable child and three additional sexual offences all against the same victim.

The female survivor reported to police in September 2021 after being sexually abused for a period of eight years between the early to mid-2000s in the King’s Lynn area.

Graham was arrested in November 2021 and subsequently charged with sexual offences against a child.

The judge found the offences to be a ‘clear campaign of rape’ involving grooming, degradation, and humiliation of a vulnerable child.

He told the court that the survivor had been robbed of her childhood and that Graham was a dangerous offender.  

At court, the survivor’s statement was read out detailing the impact the sexual abuse had on all aspects of her life, relationships, friendships, mental health and work life which culminated to attempts on her own life.

The statement read: “The impacts of sexual abuse have cost me profoundly in many ways, will continue to affect me on a daily basis and has without a doubt set me on a different path from the one I would have taken had I not been abused for many years.

"For so long I have wanted to say goodbye to this chapter in my life and even though a part of it will always be with me I refuse to let it limit the life I want to live anymore.”

DC Loli Ward said: “We hope the sentence will help to provide some justice for the turmoil the victim has gone through during her life.

"We would like to thank her for her bravery in coming forward and reporting these historic sex offences, which have had a profound impact on her life in every way.

“We would also ask that anyone else who has been a victim of such offences seeks help, either through the police or from one of our support organisations, such as the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC).”

David Graham was sentenced to a total of 21 years to serve an additional eight years on licence.

Description

A "predator" who pretended to be asleep while sexually assaulting lone women on trains has been jailed. 

Adriano Repetti, 46, is known to have sexually assaulted four women on trains between Cambridge and Kings Cross but police believe there could be more victims. 

Each time he would choose a seat near a lone woman, trapping them by the window. 

He would then pretend to fall asleep, then with his eyes closed he would reach out and touch his victims. 

Repetti was caught when at around 7.30pm on August bank holiday Monday (August 28) he started to touch a woman. 

He ignored her when she asked to leave the seat but the woman bravely texted British Transport Police on 61016 while he was sat next to her. 

She wrote: “I have no idea where to report this to but some guy is touching me on the train.” 

Officers met the train at Kings Cross station and Repetti was arrested. 

By a stroke of luck, another woman who saw Repetti being arrested came forward to tell officers he had also assaulted her the previous weekend (Saturday, August 19). 

An investigation revealed two more women who Repetti had sexually assaulted between July and August. 

On July 22, a 25-year-old woman had taken a photo of him as she left a train where he had targeted her. 

And on August 23 he sexually assaulted an 18-year-old woman who reported the incident to officers at Kings Cross. 

Detectives believe Repetti is likely to have committed more offences and have urged victims to come forward. 

When interviewed, Repetti admitted his actions but showed no remorse, saying he did not think he had targeted women. 

Repetti, of Manor Way in Fulbourn, pleaded guilty to sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault by touching. 

At Inner London Crown court on Tuesday November 21, a judge sentenced him to four years and 10 months in prison. 

Detective Constable Mark Luker, investigating, said: “Repetti’s predatory actions have traumatised his victims and they have all been deeply affected. 

"Despite this, they were brave enough to come forward to police and, thanks to their testimony, a dangerous sex offender is now behind bars. 

"Anyone using the rail network to offend in this way should know that British Transport Police have officers looking for you day and night. You will not get away with it.” 

Detective Inspector Paul Attwell, senior investigating officer in the case, said: “British Transport Police go after sex offenders with everything at our disposal, including teams of dedicated plain clothes officers, 150,000 CCTV cameras and over 100,000 texts sent to 61016 every year. 

“The importance of reports from victims and witnesses can’t be understated. Men like Repetti are the reason that text 61016 and the Railway Guardian app exist. We know how important it is that victims can silently contact police while an offender may be sitting next to them. 

“Everyone should save 61016 or download Railway Guardian before you travel so you can discreetly text us if you need us.”

Description

A sex offender jailed for assaulting a woman at a gym has been sent back to prison after asking teenage girls to perform sex acts.

Hernando Ferraro-Cordoba, 61, of Thorleye Road, Cambridge, was jailed in January for the assault and banned from loitering at gyms or sport events.

He was sentenced at Peterborough Crown Court for breaching the ban and not registering a new bank card.

Ferraro-Cordoba was handed a 14-month jail term.

A Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) - banning him from attending or loitering near any exercise groups, sports facilities, swimming pools and sports events - will also continue until 2030.

Spotted near gym

Following his prison release in March, police were called in July after a man was spotted speaking to teenage girls near Cambridge's YMCA, which has a gym.

Investigations revealed Ferraro-Cordoba had been asking girls to perform sexual acts on him in his car in return for alcohol and a drive.

He was arrested at home the next morning.

CCTV showed him dropping off three teenage girls at the YMCA, and he was also found to have brought flowers for one girl and asked two others to go to a hotel with him, which they refused.

In a police interview, Ferraro-Cordoba denied all the offences, including loitering outside a gym, and claimed one teenager had lied about her age and wanted a relationship.

He denied charges of breaching a SHPO as well as the requirements for the Sex Offenders' Register, by ordering, and not registering, a new bank card.

However, he was found guilty after a trial at Cambridge Magistrates' Court.

Det Con Andrew McKeane said: "Ferraro-Cordoba's behaviour was very worrying, particularly towards teenage girls, with an element of attempted sexual exploitation.

"We would encourage parents or guardians to know the signs of exploitation - which can include going missing, misuse of drugs or alcohol, involvement in offending, emotional distance from family members, receiving gifts from unknown sources and many more.

"This case also highlights the consequences of breaching a SHPO and how seriously it is treated by us and the courts."

Description

A man sent sexually explicit videos of himself to recipients he thought were children. Michael Denman, 34, sent a friend request and a video of himself engaged in a sex act to a Snapchat account on February 8.

The two began a conversation, with the victim stating she was 14 and Denman claiming he was an 18-year-old man called Sam. Denman, a registered sex offender from Cambridge, was not deterred by the victim's age and sent her 14 videos in two days, of which 13 were of him engaged in sex acts.

He repeatedly asked the victim, who was actually an adult, sexualised questions, requested sexually explicit content from her and requested a photo of her wearing her school uniform. Denman previously lived in Cambridge, but last year informed police of an additional address in Watling Street, Little Brickhill, near Milton Keynes.

This address was identified following investigations into the IP address linked to Denman's account. He was arrested on April 26 and his mobile phone seized.

When officers searched the property, it was clear Denman was living there. They were able to match the backdrops in some of the videos with the interior of the home, as well as discovering a bedspread pictured in some of the content.

While the casefile was being assessed by the Crown Prosecution Service, officers from Cambridgeshire Constabulary received information about a similar investigation being conducted by another force. In February, Denman had used the same Snapchat account to contact two other adults, one posing as a 12-year-old boy and the other a girl of the same age.

Although they were clear about their age, he sent them multiple videos of himself engaged in sex acts. He also asked the 12-year-old girl sexually explicit questions and discussed travelling to meet her for sex.

Denman admitted inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity, three counts of causing a girl under 13 to look at sexual imagery, three of sexual communication with a child, and breaching requirements under the Sex Offenders Register. He was jailed for five years and given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order at Peterborough Crown Court on Friday (October 20).

DC Andrew McKeane said: "Denman genuinely believed these three accounts were being used by children. Once knowing they were children Denman was not perturbed and continued to prey on them and bombarded them with sexually explicit content.

"He is clearly a danger to children, and I'm pleased he has been brought to justice for his actions. I would urge parents to take an interest in their children's online interactions and speak openly and honestly with them about any concerns they or the child may have. The NSPCC provide a wealth of knowledge to enable parents to protect their children from such predators."

Description

A man was warned he faces a sentence of "many years" after admitting a string of child sex offences.

Andrew Bonner, 56, pleaded guilty to 15 sexual offences when he appeared at Lincoln Crown Court on Thursday.

They included raping a child aged under 13 and causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

All the offences were committed in the Lincoln area, against the same victim. Bonner, of Chatteris in Cambridgeshire, will be sentenced on 9 October.

Judge Catarina Sjolin Knight told him: "You have pleaded guilty to what I know you know are extremely serious matters.

"I will remand you into custody. It will be a sentence of many years."