Latest Offenders Derby

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William Lai aged 67 collected vile pornography which showed children as young as nine being subjected to horrific abuse. 

He appeared at the Old Bailey and  pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing indecent images of children. 

When National Crime Agency officers raided his brother Michael’s home on Castlemaine Avenue, Croydon, in November 2019 Michael confessed that he’d been downloading indecent images.

Michael told officers that a computer tower and three hard drives in his home belonged to his brother William, prosecutor Alice Holloway said. 

An inspection of the devices revealed that they contained indecent images of children dating back to January 2015. 

11,863 images were attributed to William. 

He added: “You must understand that those are images of real children being abused, children who will have to live knowing that those images are out there for the rest of their lives.” 

Judge Medland explained that the brothers had not been charged until March 2023 and that he was obliged to take that three-year delay into consideration when sentencing them. 

He said: “In coming to that decision I want nobody to think that this court doesn’t take this offence very seriously. It is disgusting and offensive and it must stop.

Judge Medland added that he could not understand why police took over three years to charge the Lai brothers after the raid. 

William, of Pheasant Field Drive in Derby, was given a 20-month prison sentence suspended for two years, while Michael was given a two-year prison sentence also suspended for two years. 

The brothers will both be on the sex offenders register for ten years and will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order. 

William was given a £1,500 fine.

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A 35-year-old groomed who he thought was a 14-year-old girl, sending her a message which read: “Would you like to get naked and snuggle?” Derby Crown Court heard how Csaba Tokes also asked the "teenager" what her sexual fantasy was after he began chatting to her online following a split from his long-term partner.

But unbeknown to the Ilkeston man “Ava” was really an undercover police officer posing as the teen. Handing him a two-year community order, Judge Robert Egbuna said: “What is clear is that the decoy made it clear they were aged 14 (and) from the communication you had between yourself and the decoy it’s apparent there’s an element of sophistication in respect of the grooming behaviour which took place.

“You even ask ‘would you like to get naked and snuggle?’ and it’s apparent there’s some quite clever grooming. (But) it is also clear there’s an element of reticence from you when the decoy, on a number of occasions, messages you and you do not reply.

“I do not accept that a break-up from an adult leads to someone having an interest in children (but) the pre-sentence report concludes that you are at a high risk of communicating with young children.”

Sarah Allen, prosecuting, said the officer set up Ava as a decoy, who Tokes started messaging firstly on the app Kik in November last year and then their conversations moved to WhatsApp. She said Ava told him she was aged 14 and from Nottingham and he told her he was 35 and lived in Ilkeston.

The prosecutor said the early messages were not of a sexual nature and included talk about what video games they both liked to play. Miss Allen said: “On November 28 she sent him a message saying ‘I thought you liked me?’ as there had been no communication for three days and he replied ‘I do like you but you are very young’ and he asked her if she’d had any boyfriends to which she replied she’d had two.

“He then asked her what she had done sexually and asked if she was a virgin. They then spoke in person and they spoke about meeting up and maybe going to see a film, going for a walk or going for a McDonald's.”

The prosecutor said Tokes was arrested at his place of work in January of this year. He pleaded guilty to attempted sexual communication with a child between November 7 and December 3, 2022.

The defendant has no previous convictions. Benn Robinson, mitigating, said his client was born in Romania but had moved to Hungary when he was aged three and has no family here in the UK. He said: “He had a four-year relationship but unfortunately that broke down which led to some isolation and loneliness and he reached out online.”

As part of the community order, Judge Egbuna ordered that Tokes attend a 43-day sex offender treatment programme and 55 rehabilitation sessions. He also ordered him to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work, placed him on the sex offender register for five years and handed him a five-year sexual harm prevention order.

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A drunk man filmed himself raping and sexually assaulting a woman while she was passed out through a combination of medication and alcohol. Derby Crown Court heard how the victim repeatedly said no to Janis Vizulins when he tried to have sex with her before she fell asleep but, after she did, he decided to abuse her anyway.

The 33-year-old's victim only realised days later what had happened to her when she saw he had recorded it on her mobile phone. The distraught woman called a friend in tears and was persuaded to contact the police.

Jailing the defendant, of Grosvenor Street, Allenton, for four-and-a-half years, Recorder Graham Huston said: “This was humiliation, she was not aware of what was going on, she was in a particularly vulnerable state because of the effects of the medication. I am not suggesting in any way you plied her with alcohol and medication.

“There was initial consent given for some form of sexual activity between you but there came a time when you continued to assault and rape her without her consent and knowledge and that behaviour goes somewhat beyond what is acceptable.

“By your guilty pleas you rightly have shown regret and remorse and the enormity of your behaviour became clear to you when you realised what you had truly done.”

Gurdial Singh, prosecuting, said the rape took place at an address in Derby in January of this year. He said both parties had been drinking and went to the property where some consensual sexual activity happened.

The prosecutor said: “There came a time when he wanted more and she repeatedly said ‘no’ and asked him to stop requesting but she fell asleep and when in drink he ignored her.

“Days later, when she viewed the video, she contacted her friend on the telephone, she was crying, asking her friend to come round. She said (on the night in question) she had taken some medication and did not consent to that act and so they both went to the police.”

Mr Singh said Vizulins was arrested and at first denied that he had raped her. But he later pleaded guilty to rape and assault by penetration.

He has three previous convictions but nothing relating to sexual activity. Steve Gisnell, mitigating, said his client had provided him with three character references which “spoke of a very different person” to the one who carried out the sexual offences. He said: “He has taken responsibility for what he has done, alcohol had been taken by both parties and he believes that impaired his decision.

“If he had been a sober man with his wits about him this would not have happened. He knows of the dangers of becoming inebriated to such a stage that he carried out this unlawful act. He knows it was an awful offence.”

As well as the jail term, Recorder Huston handed Vizulins a 10-year restraining order not to contact the victim and placed him on the sex offender register for life.

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A serial rapist from Derby has been handed a jail sentence lasting more than three decades. Robert Parkin denied he had sexually attacked three different women meaning the victims all had to give evidence and relive their harrowing ordeals at a trial.

Following the trial, which lasted three weeks at Derby Crown Court, sitting in Chesterfield, and after deliberating for a number of days, the jury returned with guilty verdicts on three counts of rape as well as charges of stalking and assault.

Reading her own victim impact statement at Derby Crown Court at his sentencing hearing on Friday, July 7, one of the women said: "When I go to sleep I have constant nightmares of him being released from prison coming to my house and trying to get in or that he is sitting in the bushes watching me."

Recorder Adrian Reynolds handed Parkin, of Uttoxeter Road, a 32-year sentence. He said this was made up of 24 years plus an eight-year extension for dangerousness. He also placed the 35-year-old on the sex offender register for life and handed him a restraining order.

Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Constable Adam Redfern said: It is abundantly clear the devastating impact Parkins behaviour has had on these three women. I hope that the outcome of the case will offer some form of closure as they continue to rebuild their lives and leave the dark cloud Parkins actions has placed over them for too long.

I cannot praise the bravery of these three women enough, for initially reporting these traumatic incidents, and then subsequently being forced to relive that very trauma, at court. They have been resolute throughout the trial and should be proud of the strength they have found.

DC Redfern added: I hope this case highlights how seriously we take allegations and how thoroughly we will investigate them. Violence and sexual violence does not have a place in our society and we will do all we can to ensure we bring perpetrators to justice.

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A Derbyshire scout leader sexually abused two young boys for a number of years, plying one of them with alcohol before carrying out sex acts with him and which led to the victim becoming an alcoholic. A trial heard how paedophile Douglas Anthony Whitelam, a former Rolls-Royce worker, made the victims touch him sexually and he did the same to them on many occasions.

The now 70-year-old recently-divorced dad-of-two was arrested when one of the men came forward in 2016 to report what happened to him as a youngster and the second one reported his abuse two years later, but the defendant denied anything ever happened. That meant both had to relive their ordeals at a trial.

Jailing the defendant, of Hilton, for 13 years, Judge Martin Hurst said: “(The first victim) suffered significant psychological damage as a result of what you did to him. You deliberately isolated him, took him into your bedroom and you clearly groomed him.

“The psychological impact on (the second victim) has been severe, your behaviour took place over a sustained period of time and he was particularly vulnerable. It seems to me your latent homosexuality was the root cause of this and you felt unable to reveal it to either your ex-wife or your children.”

Robert Underwood, prosecuting, said Whitelam was a teenager himself when he targeted the first young victim when he was on a five-year apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce in Derby. But by the time he abused the second boy in the 1990s he was involved in the scout movement in the city.

Mr Underwood read out two victim impact statements made by the boys Whitelam abused and whose identity is protected by law. In his, the first said: “The impact this has had on my life has been devastating.

“Plying me with alcohol was the start of my alcoholism which has stopped me from holding down a job and a number of sexual relationships. The memories of what he did to me will stay with me for the rest of my life. No sentence can be long enough.”

The second victim, in his impact statement, said: “He deserves everything he gets and I have no bad feelings about him going to prison. He totally ruined my life from a young age.

“His huge facade was him being a pillar of the community and a scout leader, he’s an absolute fraud. His sexual abuse of me took away my trust and caused profound mental issues,”

Whitelam was initially on trial in 2021 but a jury failed to reach verdicts and were discharged. Then, following a five-day retrial trial, in March of this year at Derby Crown Court, Whitelam was found guilty of a number of counts of indecent assault on a boy aged under 14 and indecency with a child.

In 2003, he was an Assistant District Commission and was involved with the Derby North movement when he was handed a Medal of Merit by the Scouts.

Gregor Purcell, mitigating, said: “He is a man who is now 70 and is approaching his 71st birthday. He has his own family who have stood by him, they are present here today, they remain supportive and will remain supportive on his eventual release.

“He was given a life-saving award when he rescued a child from a swimming pool and he is someone who has provided support and remained an active member of the community.

“He is someone who, despite the offences he’s been convicted of, who throughout his later life has been a positive influence in the community.”

In a statement released after sentencing, a spokesman for the Scouts said: “We are aware of the case involving former Scout volunteer Douglas Whitelam. In 2017 the police informed us that some historical abuse allegations had been made against a former scout volunteer that had taken place in the 1970s and 1980s (and) we supported the police in their investigations.

“Whitelam has not been a member of the Scouts since 2005. Following this conviction, he will never again be able to volunteer with the Scout movement. There is no place in the movement for anyone who behaves in this way.

“Everyone at Scouts works to a strict code of practice to put young people first.”

Sergeant Mark Sharma, who was one of the officers who brought Whitelam to justice, said: “The trauma of the abuse caused by Tony Whitelam has had a lasting effect on both victims. Their bravery in coming forward and strength through this court case cannot be understated.

“At no point did Whitelam show any remorse or accept responsibility for his actions forcing his victims to give evidence twice in court further adding to their stress and anxiety. His sentence will hopefully give the victims some form of closure and encourage other victims of such abuse to come forward.

“Anybody who has suffered abuse, no matter when it has taken place, should know that we will always take those reports seriously and complete a thorough investigation to help bring those responsible to justice.”

As well as the prison sentence, Judge Hurst placed Whitelam on the sex offender register for life and handed him a lifetime sexual harm prevention order.

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A mother-of-three who had sex with a teenage schoolboy on her sofa after previously taking his virginity when she was in her 20s has been jailed for three years.

Rachel Geraghty, now 41, of Allenton, Derby, had sex with the boy on two different occasions when he was 13 or 14, Derby Crown Court was told.

Geraghty took the victim's virginity after she invited him into her bedroom under the pretence they should watch a film together.

Then, two weeks later, she asked him to come round for tea and they had sex on the sofa. On that occasion, her four-year-old son walked in on them and the underage teen had to hurriedly pull up his trousers.

After pleading guilty, she was yesterday jailed for three years and placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years, as Judge Robert Egbuna told her: 'He was a child and he was vulnerable, and you were an adult.'

The court heard how Geraghty initially invited the boy into her bedroom 'under the pretence he should watch a film' with her.

She then began running her fingers up and down his neck before beginning to massage him 'in a sexual way'.

Geraghty then asked the boy to 'get on top' of her before 'manoeuvering' him into having sex with her.

Judge Egbuna said: 'You manoeuvred him in between your legs (and had sex with him).

'He says he felt like he had to do it but he was a child and you were an adult.

'In his own words he was "not particularly clued up" and you corrupted him. During the sex you placed your breasts in his face.'

After the attack, Geraghty told the schoolboy not to tell anyone about the incident.

But two weeks later she invited him back to her house for tea, before having sex with him on her sofa.

The judge told how Geraghty's four-year-old son entered the room while she was having sex with the teenager: 'At some point your four-year-old child came into the room. Although it is not suggested he saw what was happening, it caused (the victim) to pull his trousers up.'

Sarah Phelan, prosecuting, said both incidents took place when the victim was aged 13 or 14 and Geraghty was in her 20s.

The prosecutor said the complainant eventually told his mother what had occurred, and Geraghty also told a social worker, who instructed Geraghty to tell the police.

She was subsequently arrested on May 7 last year.

But during her interview, the court was told, Geraghty suggested it was the schoolboy who 'effectively instigated the matters'.

Ms Phelan read out a victim impact statement he made ahead of sentencing, in which he told how the incident had affected his upbringing and made him begin to 'resent women'

At sentencing, the judge said the victim 'has had problems with relationships, and he also said he's had mental health problems as a consequence, including having to go for anger management.'

Jailing her for three years, Judge Robert Egbuna said: 'Children are meant to be protected, he was a child and he was vulnerable and you were an adult.'

Geraghty, who had no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a child. She had family members in court to support her while the victim had his mother and siblings in court.

Amber Walker, mitigating, said her client had pleaded guilty, meaning her victim would not have to relive his ordeal by giving evidence at a trial.

She said: 'The consequences of this case will be felt deeply by her and others. She was at a difficult stage in her life at the time having just come out of a verbally abusive relationship.'

As well as the jail term, Judge Egbuna placed Geraghty on the sex offender register for 10 years and handed her a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.

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A pensioner from Derby with a history of child sex offences has pleaded guilty to another 17 of them. Lionel Winson admitted trying to contact underage girls over the internet and possessing vile child abuse images.

The 78-year-old also failed to tell the police he was using social media as he was required to do under the terms of an order placed on him for past offending. In 2009, the Normanton paedophile was jailed for trying to contact a 13-year-old girl who was really a police officer. Now he faces an anxious month-long wait to find out his fate for his more recent offending.

Handing him bail at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court on Monday, May 15, the chair of the bench said: “We are sending your case to crown court as the offences are so serious that our powers here at magistrates are insufficient. The crown court needs a recent pre-sentence report and you must report to St Mary’s Wharf police station within three days of today.

“You are aware of the conditions (of your bail) and if you breach any of them you can be brought back to court.” In 2014 Winson, of Douglas Street, was handed a sexual harm prevention order at Derby Crown Court for carrying out similar offences to the ones he this week pleaded guilty to.

Under the terms of the order, he must tell the police who are monitoring him of any social media accounts he has set up along with the relevant passwords. But he failed to do this on accounts including WhatsApp, Kik and Snapchat.

The defendant pleaded guilty to four charges of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child in relation to four victims. He also pleaded guilty to charges of breaching a sexual harm prevention order, attempting to breach a sexual harm prevention order, failing to comply with the requirements of the sex offender register and one count of making indecent images of children.

Winson was jailed for three years and three months in 2009 for a 2007 offence of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and possession of indecent images. On that occasion, he groomed a girl he believed to be aged 13 but who turned out to be a police officer posing as a young teen and who met him at St Pancras railway station in London.

In 2011 he breached the lifetime order he was handed and he did the same in 2015 when he hid electronic devices he should have told the police about but didn’t at his then address in Sedgefield Green, Mickleover. The defendant will be sentenced at Derby Crown Court on June 19.

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A paedophile turned up at a Derbyshire railway station with a bottle of whisky and beer in a rucksack to take a 13-year-old girl he’d groomed online to some nearby woods for sex.

In a message shortly before he did, Ryan Burton told the teenager to say she was his cousin if anyone challenged them. But unbeknown to the 25-year-old, Leah, who he’d messaged continually for three weeks and badgered into meeting him, was really an undercover police officer.

Jailing him for 27 months, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “What you set about doing in January and February of this year was appalling, quite frankly. You did not know it was a police officer, you thought it was a 13-year-old girl.

“I am not going to repeat the disgusting things you said you were going to do to her but sometimes people say these things and never go out of their bedroom and the court can be content it is all talk. But that did not happen with you.

“You intended to meet up with what you thought was a 13-year-old girl in order, and I have absolutely no doubt in my mind about this, that you will have had sexual activity with her. You arrived at the station, you had a rucksack and in it booze to ply her with but thankfully it was not a 13-year-old girl.

“I take into account your age and I take into account that you were bound to be caught and that demonstrates an element of naivety. But there is concern (from the probation service) in your pre-sentence report that you pose a high risk to female children online aged 11 to 16 in order to satisfy your sexual needs.”

Stefa Fox, prosecuting, said an undercover police officer set up a profile for the decoy, named Leah, and that “almost immediately” the defendant began chatting to her online. He said very quickly their online chat turned sexual and over the next three weeks the officer gathered 188 pages of chat logs between them.

The prosecutor said: “He asked her what school she went to and told her he was a fast food manager. He sent her a picture of his (private parts) and asked her if she liked it and if she wanted to have sex with him. The conversation continued with him saying ‘you look very young, it’s going to be fun dating you,’ and ‘can I see you nude?’.

“He said she would look cute in her school uniform and then sent her a video over Snapchat of him (touching himself sexually). Throughout their conversations he persistently tried to make plans to meet her.”

Mr Fox said the pair did arrange to meet at Alfreton railway station on February 22, this year, and he sent her messages that morning saying he would take her to some woods he knew and that if anyone saw them together she should tell them she was his cousin. He said the police confronted him at the railway station and he had a rucksack in which was a bottle of whisky, beer, food, soft drinks and a towel.

Burton, of George Street, Alfreton, pleaded guilty to attempted sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act and attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming. He has no previous convictions.

Mark Knowles, mitigating, said: “I asked the defendant if there was any shame and embarrassment in terms of what he told the probation service and he told me he finds it difficult to speak to people generally."

As well as the jail term, Judge Smith placed Burton on the sex offender register for 10 years and handed him a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.

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This pensioner twice contacted who he believed were 13-year-old girls online and engaged in explicit sexual chat with them. Derby Crown Court heard how Bryan Eaglefield told the first one he would like to kiss, cuddle and shower with her.

After being arrested and while under investigation for that offence he carried out the same perverted act with a second underage teen. But on both occasions, Summer and Olivia were actually undercover police officers.

Lesley Pidock, defending the 67-year-old father-of-two, said: He has worked all of his life in factories and was made redundant. He then began working in a care home until he retired three years ago which coincided with the national lockdown in 2020.

That was set against unhappy domestic circumstances where his marriage of the last 11 years had failed and he found himself locked in struggling with loneliness, social isolation and a failed marriage. Any friends they had were joint friends and he lost them during the split from his wife.

That is the best he can do to explain what led him into this position. He has behaved appallingly and he is incredibly ashamed. He has lost contact with everyone in his life apart from his two daughters as a result of his actions.

He now lives entirely on his own. Sam Lowne, prosecuting, said the first offence took place in February 2021.

He said an identity called Derbys M linked to Eaglefield began chatting to 13-year-old Summer online and that the conversation quickly moved to sexualised chat.

The prosecutor said: Summer was really an LEO, or law enforcement officer and the defendant started telling her her pyjamas were sexy, that he wanted pictures of her and that he would like them to kiss, cuddle and shower together and asked her what was under her dressing gown.

A warrant was executed at his then address, he was there with his wife and he was arrested and his devices were seized and analysed. He told officers I have been talking to young girls and on one Nokia phone were two indecent images.

In an interview he said it was friendly banter. Mr Lowne said while under investigation for that, in November 2022, Eaglefield, of Heanor, began talking online to Olivia, another 13-year-old girl.

He said during those chats he told her how he would like to kiss and cuddle her and shared an image of himself to her. The defendant, of Cromford Close, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and two counts of making indecent images of a child.

He has no previous convictions or cautions of any kind. Handing him a 14-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: I have absolutely no doubt, in your loneliness, you moved from looking at adult sites, which is not an offence, and then got yourself involved with children, which is.

The problem here is that having been detected and spoken to by the police, you did it again and that makes it a lot more serious.

As part of the suspended sentence order, Judge Smith ordered Eaglefield to attend a 45-day sex offender treatment programme and to attend 55 rehabilitation sessions. He placed him on the sex offender register for 10 years and handed him a sexual harm prevention order, also for 10 years. The defendant was also ordered to pay 400 towards the prosecution costs.

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A double rapist repaid the kindness of a stranger who invited him back to her Derby home by carrying out what a judge called “a campaign of sexual violence” on her over the next few days. Derby Crown Court heard how, on one occasion, Nathan Cole’s terrified victim was too frightened to call out in pain as her teenage grandson was asleep at the property.

At the time he was on bail for raping a previous victim just two months earlier, after she had let him stay on her sofa. In heartbreaking victim impact statements read to the court, both women told how they have attempted to take their own lives as a result of the horrific ordeals the 32-year-old subjected them to. And Cole stormed out of the video-link room at HMP Nottingham before finding out his fate. Shockingly, he still denies his brutal inhuman crimes.

Handing him a 20-year prison sentence in his absence, Recorder Simon King said: “He abused (the first victim) in possibly the most fundamental way in that he raped her and continues to deny that he did so. But the jury had no difficulty in convicting him and in my view he was very well aware of what he had done.

“(The second victim) took pity on him, believing he was homeless, invited him back to her home where she lived alone and she now regrets that extremely because what happened was he carried out a campaign of sexual violence and rape. She had invited a stranger into her own home and he abused her kindness.”

Stephen Kemp, prosecuting, said the first rape took place at the victim’s flat in Spondon in January last year. He said she had invited the defendant to stay over on the sofa but he entered her room, got into her bad and raped her.

The prosecutor said: “She describes how afterwards he was saying ‘what have I done?’ before asking her not to tell anyone. She called the police and he was arrested. When he was arrested he was heard to say ‘I am disgusting, I deserve to die’.”

In a victim impact statement she said: “I was screaming and begging for (him) to stop but (he) carried on. I don’t feel like the same person anymore, every time I shower I scrub and scrub myself because I feel dirty.”

Mr Kemp said two months later, while on bail, Cole and the second victim started talking in the smoking area outside accident and emergency at the Royal Derby Hospital and he told her he was homeless. He said she felt sorry for him and so invited him to stay overnight at her home.

The prosecutor said that night he raped her in her bed and then raped her twice more over the next two days. Mr Kemp said: “She told the defendant ‘no’ but she did not want to scream or shout as she did not want to wake her grandson and for him to find out what was happening to her. One one occasion he also bit her breasts and neck.”

In her victim impact statement, that woman, a mother and grandmother from Derby, told how she has tried to take her own life as a result of what happened to her. She said: “I was just trying to help him but this is what he did to me. I now feel like I live in a black hole. I have started drinking more to take away the memory of what happened to me. I cannot cope any more.”

Cole, of Stenson Road, denied any of the sexual activity happened and took his case to trial meaning both victims had to relive their ordeals giving evidence. A jury found him guilty of a number of counts of rape.

Roger Wilson, mitigating, said his client had never been in trouble for sexual offences before and had partly grown up in care.

Cole’s 20-year sentence is made up of 15 years custody plus a five-year extended sentence for dangerousness. It means he will not be eligible to apply for parole until two-thirds of the way through the custodial element, a period of 10 years.

Recorder King also handed the defendant a restraining order not to contact the first victim until further order and placed him on the sex offender register for life.

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A church volunteer messaged a teenage girl on social media about the size of her breasts.

Raymond Bown, 66, from Mickleover, Derbyshire, also made comments about slapping the 15-year-old on the backside.

Sentencing him at Derby Crown Court, Judge Jonathan Bennett told Bown that a man of his age "should have known far, far, better" and that his contact with her was "very unwise", reports DerbyshireLive.

"Particularly for someone who does volunteer work at the church and for your involvement with a football team," he said.

"What you did was quite lewd and quite disgraceful."

Mark Achurch, prosecuting, said the offence took place in September 2021 when Bown made contact with the teenager.

Police were then informed about the messages and an investigation began.

Bown pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual communication with a child.

Regarding the specific sentence, the judge said: "This is a relatively new offence and there are guidelines for it going from a community order to one year’s custody, but your hitherto previous good character allows me to step outside the guidelines so it will be a financial penalty.

"As a result of the offence you will be subjected to notification requirements (to sign on the sex offender register) for five years."

He added: "The offence may well bar you from working with children but that will be down to the DBS where you will have the opportunity to make representations.

"You will also be the subject of a restraining order not to contact the victim directly or indirectly which includes social media which is the means you used to contact this young woman."

Judge Bennett fined Bown £500, ordered him to pay £1,500 prosecution costs and a £50 victim surcharge.

He offered to pay the full amount in four months through his barrister, Catherine Picardo. If he does not pay the £500 fine within that time he could be sent to prison for 28 days.

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A former bus driver has been jailed for six years for sexually abusing a teenage boy. Mark Gadsby, who worked around the South Derbyshire and East Staffordshire areas, committed the heinous acts when he was in his 20s, but his sickening crimes went unpunished for years.

The 41-year-old lived a normal life and was even featured in a national newspaper for weight loss before the victim, who was 13 when the abuse started, came forward to tell his story. He had been targeted by Gadsby after being driven to school by him on the bus.

It begun with text messages asking the boy to meet up, before Gadsby began to give the boy lifts in his Ford Fiesta and eventually began to physically abuse the victim on a country lane in Staffordshire. That abuse then progressed to taking place in public toilets and in Gadsby's mother's house when she was out at work, Derbyshire Live has reported.

As well as the physical acts, Gadsby also groomed the victim and threatened to tell others about the abuse, which "ruined his teenage years".

The victim, who is granted automatic anonymity under the Sexual Offences Act, released a statement, saying: I do get upset about it still and I just think why did he need to do that?

Its just the way of how controlling and overpowering and how frightened he made me feel but why would someone want to do that to someone whos 13-14 years old? He was just a big fat sweaty person, no one else would look at him, at 21 years old he shouldve been going out Friday and Saturday nights, not targeting a 13-year-old.

Gadsby, of Cross Side, Ashbourne, was sentenced at Derby Crown Court on April 3. He pleaded guilty to one charge of buggery and six of gross indecency with a child under 16.

Separately he also admitted to two indecent images offences after a number of indecent images of children were found on his phone. As well as his six-year jail term, Gadsby was also given a sexual harm prevention order will have to sign the Sex Offender's register for the rest of his life.

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A teaching assistant sent teenagers at the school where he worked a ‘sex questionnaire’ asking their bra sizes and whether they were virgins.

Kevin Doxey, who worked at Anthony Gell School in Wirksworth, Derbyshire, admitted four counts of engaging in sexual communication with a child at Derby Crown Court.

The 27-year-old had sent a picture of his genitals to one of the victims, alongside a winking emoji and message saying ‘I wish you were here’.

One of his victims told her parents about what he had sent her and they contacted the police, which led them to seize his phone and found more messages to other young girls.

Laura Blackband, prosecuting, said: ‘He obtained the Snapchat details of four girls who were all students at the school and sent a series of sexually charged messages to each of them.

‘The communication included a “sex questionnaire” which had a huge number of questions on them which we say could have led to possible sexual activity.

‘[Victim one] was 15 and she was very distressed by the questions. He would ask her to pick a number and would get her to answer the questions.

‘She initially said no but when she was on a sleepover he texted her a [sexually explicit] photograph of himself with a winking emoji and three kisses.

‘She showed it to one of her friends and she said, “You need to tell someone about it.”‘

Three more victims were identified by police and said they were sent Doxey’s ‘sex questionnaire’.

Ms Blackband said a second victim told of how Doxey asked her ‘weird stuff’ over Snapchat, like asking if he could come and pick her up in his car and whether she was a virgin.

Another girl said she had been sent ‘inappropriate’ Instagram messages by Doxey.

Ms Blackband added: ‘In the questionnaire, he asked questions such as her bra size and “what do you wear in bed?”

‘She said she didn’t want to answer any of the questions but he replied, “You have to.”‘

The final victim ignored the questionnaire but the defendant was said to have ‘badgered’ her, asking: ‘Are you going to answer them?’

Doxey was initially suspended from the school and then left, and was said to have gone to work in a supermarket.

Two of his four victims, supported by their families, bravely read their victim impact statements to the court.

One said: ‘I was at school, a place where I felt safe and confident and all of that was taken away from me by a person in authority. I was a child, he was an adult, a teacher.’

Another victim revealed she tried to take her own life, adding: ‘Kevin was one of the main causes of this.

‘I recently saw him in Morrisons in Belper, I did not know he was working there and it brought back memories and I had to leave the store.’

One of the remaining two statements, which Ms Blackband read out, said: ‘I was only a child at the time, when I look back now it was shocking.’

The other said: ‘School was meant to be a safe place but Kevin took that away from me.’

Doxey told the police the explicit photograph was sent to his girlfriend, but ‘the police looked at thousands of messages between them and not one was of a sexual nature’.

Mitigating, Dan Scothern said Doxey now works for a company called Clear Group.

He said: ‘In his words, “I understand what I have done and the huge amount of damage I have caused not just to the victims but to their families and my family.”

‘He says, “If I could go back and change everything I would.”‘

Jailing Doxey for two years on Friday, Recorder Graham Huston said: ‘I have to deal with you as a persistent sexual predator who used his position of trust to exploit their vulnerabilities.

‘You have messed with the minds of these young women and you knew what you were doing was unlawful because you had undergone full safeguarding training.

‘I consider the witness statements and the victim personal statements of each complainant very carefully. You caused real harm to each one of them.’

Doxey, of Cromford Road in Wirksworth, will also be on the sex offender register for 10 years and was given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.

Metro has contacted Anthony Gell school for comment.

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A teenager has told how his childhood was ruined after he suffered years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of a predatory Derbyshire sex offender.

Michael Sutton hit the teenager with a belt as well as sexually assaulting him on repeated occasions over an eight-year period from 2012 to 2020.

The abuse came to light when the 32-year-old was arrested for an offence of taking a child without lawful authority after an incident involving another teenager in Nottinghamshire in February 2021.

In a victim personal statement, explaining the effect Sutton’s abuse had on him, the teenager said: “I don’t feel like I can trust anyone and I have felt like this since he started doing what he did to me. I am always wary around new people and I know that is because of him.

“At first I thought what he was doing to me was normal because I was so young. It was only when I got older that I started to realise it was wrong. Even then, I didn’t feel like I could tell anyone because I felt like no-one would believe me.

“I will never be able to forgive him for what he did to me, he ruined my childhood. I’ll never be able to forget what he did to me and this really upsets me.”

Sutton, of Killamarsh, admitted assault, sexual assault, child cruelty and taking a child without lawful authority. He appeared at Nottingham Crown Court for sentencing on January 25, where he was jailed for a total of four and a half years.

He was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a restraining order for ten years, preventing him from having any contact with the victim.

Detective Constable Naomi Davies, of the child investigation team, said: “The survivor in this case suffered years of abuse at the hands of Sutton, a predatory sex offender.

“At a time when they should have been carefree and enjoying spending time with their friends and all the usual childhood fun, they were instead left feeling traumatised and hurt by Sutton’s evil actions.

“The physical and sexual abuse may have stopped but the nightmare never ends for the survivor, who will have to deal with the psychological effects of what happened to them for years to come.

“I’m pleased Sutton is now behind bars for his crimes where he belongs.

“The bravery this young person showed in coming forward and telling police about the abuse they suffered is incredible and I’d like to commend them for that, as well as their dignity throughout the legal process.

“If anyone out there is suffering or has suffered sexual abuse of any kind, please don’t suffer in silence. We will listen and support you throughout the whole process without any judgement. Our specially trained officers are on hand to help you, no matter when the abuse took place.”

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Hugo De Sousa of Havelock Road pleaded guilty to the rape and sexual assault of a child, and making and distributing indecent images of children.

The 46-year-old must also serve an additional five years on an extended licence, meaning he won't be eligible to apply for parole until two thirds of the way through his sentence.

The case was brought to court following an investigation after one of his victims reported how De Sousa had raped and sexually abused her as a child.

Having heard that he had been convicted of an uploading indecent images of children to the internet in 2021, the woman decided to set up a fake profile online to try and get him to admit what he had done to her.

Using the fake profile and name, she befriended him on a forum, and he eventually admitted how he had raped a child in the past without realising that person was actually the victim.

At this point she felt she had the strength and confidence to report how he had forced her to have sex with him, and sexually assaulted her.

In her statement to police, the victim told officers how it had affected her schooling, that she still suffers from nightmares and has difficulty sleeping, as well as recurrent thoughts about what happened.

De Sousa was sentenced at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday 1 March, and as well as the jail term he will be on the sex offender register for life and subject to a lifetime sexual harm prevention order.

He will be liable to deportation on his release from prison.

Detective Constable Hayley Beautyman, who was one of the officers involved in the investigation, said: “Hugo De Sousa subjected a child sexual abuse, and he has quite rightly been jailed for his despicable actions.

“In 2021 De Sousa was convicted of various offences in relation to indecent images of children and from that date through proactive investigation and policing, it was found that he had continued to fuel his obsession with such material.  It was because of these investigations that the victim found she had enough courage to come forward and report her ordeal.”

DC Beautyman added: “I would especially like to thank the victim in being brave enough to come forward and report this and to urge other victims of abuse to come forward.

“We have specialist officers committed to targeting serious sexual offences and abuse. We will treat any reports or information you have very seriously, sensitively and with support through the process.”