Latest Offenders Derbyshire

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A former teacher who failed to tell his school about his colleague's inappropriate relationship with a pupil, and was later convicted in court of having sex with an underage girl himself, has been banned from teaching for life.

A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) hearing was told that Lian Laidlaw, previously known as Ian Featherstone, 44, did tell another pupil about the relationship between his colleague and a pupil but did not report it to Abbotsholme School, in East Staffordshire on the Derbyshire border, as a safeguarding concern.

In a statement of agreed facts, Mr Laidlaw admitted the allegations, which it was decided amounted to unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that could bring the profession into disrepute.

Mr Laidlaw was employed as a teacher and head of department at the Rocester school from September 2017 to July 2022. He attended a disciplinary meeting in respect of allegations that he disclosed confidential matters to a pupil related to his employment at the school on July 18, 2022, and was dismissed on July 28, 2022.

The hearing panel heard that Mr Laidlaw could have filed a safeguarding report about his suspicions about his colleague's inappropriate relationship as early June 2022, which he would be likely to know about because he had spent time with both the fellow teacher and the pupil and had a close relationship with the teacher. He also told another pupil about the relationship.

Mr Laidlaw had previously denied knowing anything about the relationship between the pair but later admitted he had lied at his disciplinary hearing in July 2022.

He himself was convicted of two counts of sexual activity with a pupil on November 2022 at Derby Crown Court. He was sentenced to a total of:

• 12 months imprisonment, suspended for two years
• rehabilitation activity for 55 days
• electronic monitoring for six months
• 200 hours of unpaid work
• 45 days on the sex offender programme
• 10 years on the sex offenders register
• A £156 surcharge

The hearing accepted the certificate of conviction as conclusive proof of the commission of these offences by Mr Laidlaw.

In banning Mr Laidlaw from teaching indefinitely, decision maker Sarah Buxcey said: "The findings of misconduct are extremely serious as they include a finding of failing to report a safeguarding concern, conduct found to be dishonest and to lack integrity and an offence involving sexual activity with a child. This was conduct that was, very clearly, at the most serious end of the spectrum, amounting to a breach of the trust placed in him as a teacher.

"Mr Lian Laidlaw is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. Furthermore, in view of the seriousness of the allegations found proved against him, I have decided that Mr Laidlaw shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach."

Mr Laidlaw has a right of appeal to the King’s Bench Division of the High Court within 28 days from the date he is given notice of this order. Derbyshire Live has approached Abbotsholme School for comment.

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A convicted Derbyshire sex offender who thought he was messaging a teenage girl online – sending her naked photos and asking for them in return – has been jailed.

Daniel Stout began messaging who he believed to be a 14-year-old girl on an online chat app, sending her naked photos and asking for her to send the naked photos back.

However, the girl was actually a decoy from an online child abuse activist group. Having arranged to meet the ‘girl’ in his home town of Buxton, Stout was arrested.

The 28-year-old, who has a previous conviction for a similar offence, was the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order at the time of the offence – which banned him from having contact with any girl under the age of 16.

Stout, of Fairfield Road, Buxton, was subsequently charged with attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

He admitted the offences and appeared at Derby Crown Court for sentence on October 22, where he was jailed for two and half years.

PC Jodie Norris, who led the investigation, said: “The fact that Stout committed this offence while under a Sexual Harm Prevention Order shows what a dangerous predator he is with no regard for the law.

“Thankfully in this case, the ‘girl’ he was messaging was an adult so a child has not been caused mental or emotional harm because of Stout’s depraved urges.

“I sincerely hope that this time behind bars will now give him the opportunity to reflect on his behaviour and realise the error of his ways.”

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A Derbyshire man who used social media to blackmail children as young as 10 into sending him indecent images of themselves has been sentenced.

National Crime Agency officers arrested Grant Derek Giblin of Willington, Derbyshire – after an investigation found he had been using social media apps to contact children between November 2021 and August 2023.

The 29-year-old would target the children, aged between ten and 16, and befriend them to gain their trust and encourage them to send him images of themselves.

Once he had received these, Giblin would blackmail his victims into performing sexual acts on themselves before again sending the content to him.

He was arrested by NCA officers in January 2024 and charged with offences including engaging in sexual communications with a child under 13 and causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Giblin pleaded guilty to all offences at Derby Crown Court in July 2024. He was sentenced to eight years in prison at the same court today (Wednesday, October 23). Giblin will have an extended licence period of a further eight years, be the subject of an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and be on the sex offenders register for life.

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A former firefighter who paid children to send him explicit images online has been jailed.

Robert Stevenson would trawl social media sites and message women online, offering them money to send naked pictures. However, many of the victims were young girls.

He even sent a photo of himself in uniform to one of his victims, claiming to be 19.

The matters came to light when one of Stevenson’s victims, a 15-year-old girl, told police that he had threatened to post an explicit picture of her online.

He had spoken to the girl via direct messages on Instagram asking her if she wanted to make £100. The conversation later moved to Snapchat with Stevenson telling her he was 17 after she told him she was 17.

Stevenson was arrested and his devices were seized. Checks on them found he had been messaging a number of girls, and had paid several of them to send him photos and videos of themselves. Analysis of his bank account found numerous payments he had made to several girls.

The 31-year-old, previously of Long Eaton, was later charged with a number of offences including cause/incite the sexual exploitation of a child aged 13 to 17; cause/incite a girl aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity and making an indecent photo/pseudo photograph of a child.

He denied the charges but was found guilty after a trial at Derby Crown Court. He appeared at the same court for sentencing on 27 September when he was jailed for seven years. He was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and was placed on the sex offenders register.

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A man who sent sexually explicit messages to children online has been jailed.

Stephen Blackwell began messaging one girl on Tiktok when she was just 10. He initially told her he was a 17-year-old boy who lived in London before admitting he had lied about his age. He repeatedly sent her photos and videos and asked her to send him images in return.

The matter came to light after the girl’s mum found the messages on her phone and contacted police.

Blackwell was arrested in connection with the incident and released on bail while investigations continued.

While on bail, he also began messaging accounts he believed belonged to 14-year-old girls. However, these accounts were all actually decoy accounts run by an online child activist group.

Blackwell sent numerous videos showing him performing sex acts on himself, and also asked the girls to carry out acts on themselves.

The 46-year-old, of Matlock, was arrested and subsequently charged with engaging in sexual communication with a child, causing a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, causing a child under 13 to watch/look at an image of sexual activity and attempting to cause a child aged 13 to 15 to watch/look at an image of sexual activity.

He denied the offences but was found guilty after a trial at Derby Crown Court.

He appeared at the same court for sentencing on 16 August when he was jailed for 11 years and three months with the judge handing him an extended sentence to recognise the danger he posed.

He was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and was placed on the sex offenders register.

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A prison officer, former soldier and rugby coach, sent vile sex messages to a 14-year-old girl including telling her to “do what you are told”. Nottingham Crown Court heard how Andrew Marriott also asked for photographs of the victim in her school uniform, told her she “looked hot” and said he would book a hotel room for them both where they could have sex.

But unbeknown to the 44-year-old, the girl was actually a decoy pretending to be an underage teen and who contacted the police. Stephen Kemp, mitigating, said: “He served his country for five years in the army and has worked in the prison service for 14 years and it is clear he is a hard-working man.

“He has also given his time freely supporting a rugby team as a coach for four years. He has a supportive family and network and all of this makes it all the more shocking and inexplicable why he should act in the way that he did.

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“He has been a prison officer and after being remanded into custody it became apparent to others with whom he has been incarcerated and that has caused him difficulties. He said to me this morning that ‘every day is terrifying’ with people who recognise him being other inmates and he fears payback.”

Thomas Welshman, prosecuting, said over four days at the end of January and beginning of February this year, Marriott, of Wessington, near Alfreton, began communicating online with the decoy. He said within a very short space of time the messages they exchanged became sexualised and included the defendant asking her to touch herself, asking what her bra size was and suggesting they meet at a hotel.

The prosecutor said: “He said to her ‘with you not yet being 16 what we are talking about is illegal’ and he asked for a photo of her in her school uniform. He described to her in graphic detail what he would like to do to her.”

Mariott, of Brackenfield View, was arrested on February 19 and answered “no comment” to the questions he was asked, Mr Welshman said. But he later pleaded guilty to attempted sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity. He has no previous convictions of any kind and his mother and step-father were in court to support him.

Jailing the defendant for two years and eight months, Judge Julie Warburton said: “The person you were speaking to made it clear she was 14 years of age and that did not deter you at all. Within a few, short, words, you told her you liked rough sex, asked her what she was wearing, told her to spread her legs and when she told you she was 14 you said to her ‘do as you are told’.

“The fact you have been a prison officer has made your life in custody more difficult because you live in fear of payback or retribution.”

As well as the jail term, the judge ordered Marriott to sign the sex offender register for life and handed him a lifetime sexual harm prevention order.

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A pair of Derbyshire brothers, who carried out a “sustained and determined” campaign of sexual abuse against young girls, have been jailed for more than two decades. Bryan and Ian Wren gave the victims cash and sweets to buy their silence as they touched them sexually multiple times, Derby Crown Court heard.

The siblings, now both in their 70s, then carried on with their normal lives leaving the now women “utterly destroyed”. At one stage, after being arrested, Bryan Wren called his brother and told him “I have been a naughty boy”. And one of the victims this week broke down as she bravely read out her impact statement saying “you may see this as historical, but it’s not historical to me”.

Jailing Bryan Wren, who less than seven years ago was sent to prison for sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl, for a total of 13 years and four months, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “Some people who know you have high regard for you. They were not subjected to the abuse you subjected your victims to.

“You destroyed (one of your) victim’s lives, completely and utterly destroyed it. You could obviously live with what you did because it did not stop you abusing another girl who was even younger in 2015 and for which you were sent to prison in 2017 and rightly so.

“You took many opportunities to abuse her in ways which satisfied your sexual desires and while you lived your life, she has had a life of complete misery. What you did to her has turned her into a wreck, mentally.”

Jailing Ian Wren for seven years for abusing a different underage victim, the judge said: “You might have put it behind you but it has stayed with her forever and will continue to do so even after your release. She stayed silent for 45 years and buried what happened to her so deep but then she gets the double whammy of finding out your brother had been doing things to the other victims at the same time.”

Richardo Childs, prosecuting, said the sexual abuse of the victims began more than four decades ago when they were under the age of 13. He said it included multiple occasions where the brothers touched the girls sexually and then gave one of them 50p and another one of them sweets.

He said it took them decades to pluck up the courage to report their ordeals to the police and an investigation began and led to multiple charges against both men.

One of them read her own victim impact statement to the court. In it she said: “I have been filled with hurt and shame for so many years and for over 45 years I have been silent and I hope they finally understand that their behaviour is unacceptable? You may see this as historical, but it’s not historical to me.”

A second victim’s statement was read by the prosecutor. In hers, she said: “The abuse I suffered left me traumatised and not feeling worthy of life. I moved out of Derby to get a clean slate.”

Bryan Wren, 76, formerly of Mundy Street, Derby and now of Wilton Street, Ilkeston, pleaded guilty to a number charges including indecency with a child and sexual abuse of a girl under the age of 13.

Lesley Pidcock, mitigating, said: “He has a similar conviction from the 1980s and went through two years of electric shock treatment at the former Pastures Hospital (in Derby). It may be felt to be trite but he offers his apologies, his regret, remorse and shame.”

Ian Wren, 73, of Pinfold Lane, Bradley, Ashbourne, also pleaded guilty to similar charges against his single victim. James Varley, his barrister, said: “He worked his life on market stalls and was both a popular and well-liked man making hanging baskets for people. He came prepared and brought a bag knowing he is going into custody.”

Both men were handed lifetime sexual harm prevention orders and were placed on the sex offender register for life.

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A convicted sex offender who knew he was not allowed any contact with girls under the age of 16 let a young child sit on his knee at a church.

Derby Crown Court heard how Richard Clarke chased a second young victim around the same place of worship and spoke to a third one in a local cafe knowing full well he was forbidden from doing so by a court order.

The 70-year-old, of Matlock, was jailed for 30 months in 2014 for possessing sick child abuse images of underage girls. Now he has two years to stay out of trouble or risk being returned back behind bars for another stint.

Handing him a 16-month prison term, suspended for two years, Judge Martin Hurst said: “When I read this case last night I thought ‘this man is going to go to prison’ because he’s had contact with three different children, two at the church and one at the cafe. I don’t accept for one minute your claim that she’s (the first victim) climbed on your knee.

“You know you are not allowed to have any contact and you knew you were not allowed to chase (the third victim) around the church to do up her shoelaces. This would have led to your head being near her groin area and you have come close to committing a touching offence which, if you had committed one, would unquestionably have led to an immediate prison sentence.

“You make sure you have nothing to do with young children and you go to that church just to worship.” Annabel Lenton, prosecuting, said all three offences happened during April and May of 2023.

She said the first one took place when he was spotted with a young girl sitting on his knee at the church and when it was noticed the girl was removed. The prosecutor said: “In interview, he said the girl had climbed onto his knee.

“The second offence happened when a 13-year-old girl was in a cafe in Matlock with some friends and as she left the defendant said hello to her. She returned home and told her parents.

“The third offence happened at the same church (as the first one) when he was seen chasing a young girl around as her shoelaces were undone. He caught up with her and tied her laces and he later said he did this as he did not want her to trip over.”

Miss Lenton said Clarke, of Dimple Road, was jailed for 30 months in 2014 for a number of counts of possessing indecent images of children. She said as part of that punishment he was handed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and was placed on the sex offender register, also for 10 years.

The defendant pleaded guilty to three counts of breaching the order. Sam Lowne, mitigating, said his client had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity when he appeared at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court.

He said: “Speaking plainly, from the conversation I had with Mr Clarke, it does appear that over the years, since the order was imposed, an element of complacency has crept in.”

Clarke’s order will remain in place and he will remain on the sex offender register.

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A teenager who sexually assaulted two children has been jailed.

Oliver Carr, who was 18 at the time of the offences, knew the ages of both victims when he targeted them.

In March this year, while working in a McDonald’s restaurant in Swadlincote, Carr took the youngest victim, a girl under 10, into a cupboard, locked the door and touched her. She told her family what had happened and they called police. Carr was arrested at the scene.

The following day, while officers were investigating the McDonald’s incident, another young girl told police that Carr had been sending her sexual messages. He met up with the girl on two occasions when he kissed and touched her, despite knowing she hadn’t yet even reached her teens.

Carr, of Swadlincote, was arrested in the early hours of 13 March and subsequently charged.

Now 19, he admitted two counts of sexual touching, engaging in sexual communication with a child and attempting to meet a girl under 16 following grooming.

He appeared at Derby Crown Court for sentence on Tuesday 28 November when he was jailed for 18 months. Carr was also handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, restraining orders preventing him from having any contact with the youngsters and was ordered to sign the sex offender’s register.

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A man who raped a woman and forced her to have sex with other men while he watched has been jailed.

Gary Shaw also sexually assaulted another woman and engaged in controlling and coercive behaviour towards her.

He forced his victims to bravely recount their ordeals after denying the offences – but a jury at Derby Crown Court saw through his lies and after a trial in September found him guilty of rape, causing a person to engage in sexual activity without their consent, controlling and coercive behaviour and sexual assault.

The 53-year-old, of Market Place, Belper, was sentenced on 15 November when he was jailed for 12 years and handed restraining orders banning him from having any contact with the women. He must also sign the sex offender’s register for life.

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An utterly depraved Derbyshire paedophile downloaded thousands of horrific images of children being raped while on bail after being arrested twice when officers were alerted to his IP address.

Robert Reeve, 48, was caught with nearly 9,000 of the awful images which showed children from the age of just a few months to eight years old being sexually abused.

Lauren Fisher, prosecuting, told the court one of the category A images showed a very young child being restrained with a gag placed in her mouth.

In another a child was photographed while being duct taped to a bed in tears.

One of the devices Reeve used had internet searches for pre-teen models and kiddie sex, the court heard.

Ms Fisher said Reeves Ripley home was first raided on November 16, 2020, when police were told his IP address was being used to upload indecent images.

While on bail for the first offence officers arrested him again at home on August 16, 2022, for the same offence and then a third time on March 8 this year.

The court heard Reeve, of Alfreton Road, Codnor, had no previous offences on his record.

Reeves barrister said her client, who had already been on remand for eight months, had accepted what he had done.

She said: There appears to have been some denial for some time but he is waking up to the gravity of what he has done.

Judge Shaun Smith KC told Reeve: What you have admitted to is utterly depraved.

"I deal with a lot of images cases and none of them in recent times have sunk to the depths of what you were looking at.

"These really were images of the worst type these are real children being abused for the satisfaction of people like you.

"You didnt stop when police were onto you you were cavalier to say the least.

You didnt appear to be bothered, you just did it again with another device. You just carried on.

Reeve admitted multiple counts of making indecent photographs of children.

He was jailed for two years and nine months.

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A Derbyshire dad-of-two filmed himself raping a woman as she slept. A trial at Derby Crown Court heard how the victim only realised what David Buckle did when she was told at a later date by the police.

Her 35-year-old attacker denied what he recorded doing was rape meaning she had to relive her ordeal giving evidence at a four-day trial. And in a victim impact statement, the woman said she now feels “worthless and empty”.

Jailing the defendant for eight and a half years, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “Two things are patently obvious in this case, one of which is that whatever you did you did not have her consent because she was asleep. She was absolutely unconscious and one only had to watch the video to see that and that is why the jury was so quick coming back (with a guilty verdict).

“It was a completely emotionless piece of dreadful and humiliating criminal activity, there is no doubt about that, and she had absolutely no idea about it. She said to the jury (giving her evidence) ‘when the police told me he had filmed me I was humiliated’.

“It was abuse and degradation of another person, a complete piece of unemotional sexual behaviour on your part. It was almost methodical. This will be your first custodial sentence and you will get no credit because there was no guilty plea.”

The trial heard how the rape took place at an address in Derbyshire a number of years ago. The jury was told that the victim went to the police and told them she believed she had been raped by the defendant as she slept and an investigation was launched.

During it, footage of the sex attack was discovered and he was arrested and charged. He denied the charge of rape but pleaded guilty to a second charge of voyeurism.

In her victim impact statement, the woman said: “The whole experience has had a devastating impact on my life and I am in a cycle of mental torture. I was taken advantage of in a vulnerable situation and this will stay with me forever. I feel worthless and empty and I don’t feel he has any remorse about what he did. I do not think my life will ever be the same again.”

Will Bennett, mitigating, said: “He has two children who will not see him (while he is behind bars) and that will be extremely difficult for him. There is an obvious sense of shame. There are four members of the family in the public gallery and he will not be able to see them (either).”

Buckle, of Weaving Avenue, Castleton, In the Peak District, will serve two thirds of his custodial sentence behind bars before being released on licence. He will also be on the sex offender register for life.

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A Deliveroo driver sex offender befriended a 15-year-old boy and drove him in his car despite being subject to a strict order forbidding him from being in the company of anyone under the age of 18. Derby Crown Court heard how Rory Mulcahy deleted messages from social media which he was also not allowed to do under the terms of an order for past offending.

Jailing the married 28-year-old for 20 months, Recorder Michelle Heeley said: “This was a deliberate and persistent breach in a number of ways but I accept you did not act in any untoward way towards this young man.”

Kevin Jones, prosecuting, said Mulcahy, of Alfreton, was handed a sexual harm prevention order at Preston Court in October 2020 as part of his punishment for a sexual offence, the details of which were not outlined in court in Derby this week. He said under its terms, the defendant is not allowed to have any unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18 and is not allowed to delete his internet history.

But in August this year police received information he had been in the company of the 15-year-old boy so they went to his address and seized a number of electronic devices.

Mr Jones said: “It was discovered he had deleted history specifically from Instagram and Snapchat, sent the 15-year-old boy Facebook messages and had then had him in his car with him. He made full admissions in interviews.”

Mulcahy, of Leabrooks, pleaded guilty to breaching his sexual harm prevention order. Will Bennett, mitigating, said his client had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

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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 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.