Latest Offenders Flint

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An "arrogant" child sex offender who went through the Mersey Tunnel up to 40 times to visit a woman failed to tell police where he was staying.

Calum Teeson, 26, had a conviction for possessing indecent images of children and had had to keep the authorities informed if he stayed away from his home in North Wales for a certain period of time.

But he breached that order in staying in Liverpool and not reporting it between August 3 and November 9, Mold Crown Court heard today.

He had already pleaded guilty to failing to comply with notification requirements. A judge today jailed him for six weeks. He will be released today due to time served.

Prosecutor Dafydd Roberts said in August Teeson had received an eight-month jail term, suspended for two years, for making indecent images of children.

But police checked with Mersey Tunnel staff and found he then visited Liverpool 30 to 40 times between August and November.

And because it was over a period of more than seven days, and he had not informed the authorities he was staying away from home, then he was in breach of the notification requirements of his conviction.

The prosecutor said Teeson told police he had a friend in Liverpool with whom he stayed. His friend did not know about the conviction and he did not want to lose that friendship.

Teeson, of Bryn Eithin, Pentre Halkyn, was not represented by a barrister in court.

But he addressed the court himself from HMP Berwyn via videolink.

He told the judge: "I accept I have made a very stupid mistake, and being in here has made me realise that more, by being deceiving to the (police) officers that were in charge of myself."

He said that if he is released he still has a job open to him.

"I would like to do everything I can to fix this."

But the judge, His Honour Judge Niclas Parry, jailed him for six weeks.

He said: "The reason I have imposed a custodial sentence is because this was a deliberate and arrogant breach."

He said police officers had texted him to remind him of his obligations.

The judge warned the defendant that he must keep to the terms of his original suspended sentence, including doing unpaid work and observing the notification requirements, or he will face custody.

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A dad who sent sexual messages and images to whom he thought were three children was in fact speaking to decoys, a court heard.

Aled Jones believed he was speaking to a 10-year-old girl when he said he wanted to have sex with her, sent an explicit image of himself, and warned her not to show it to her parents.

The 32-year-old, of Dewi Avenue, Holywell, also "pleaded" with whom he thought were two 14-year-old girls for sexual images of themselves, after telling them in explicit terms what he wanted to do with them.

However, Mold Crown Court heard Jones was talking to online undercover paedophile hunter group pretending to be young girls.

Judge Timothy Petts jailed him for 28 months after he admitted seven attempted child sex offences.

They included three counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause a child aged 14 to look at an image of sexual activity, attempting to cause a child aged 14 to engage in sexual activity, attempting to arrange or facilitate the commission of a child sex offence, and attempting to cause a child aged 10 to watch a sexual act.

The Airbus worker was made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for the same period.

Judge Petts said: "The offences you committed sexually were against people you believed were children.

"Unbeknown to you, they were all adult decoys.

In each case, you knew the age they were purporting to be and that did not deter you in turning the discussions to sexual language, sexualised requests and grooming behaviour.

Prosecuting barrister Oliver King, said the messages were sent on KIK, and the most explicit was to the fictional 10-year-old who mhe suggested having sex with.

Asked whether she liked dirty talk, he followed the conversation up asking for a picture, and by asking whether she ever wore tight jeans or a thong.

Despite making it clear she was uncomfortable with the chat and changing the subject, Mr King said Jones groomed her and tried to build her trust by talking about pets.

When he seemed to have developed her trust, he then turned the conversation back round to whether she had ever been kissed, Mr King said.

At one point, the court heard how he began messaging the decoy from work.

He even went as far as saying he had previously had sexual encounters with other girls and that he had made them feel ok.

The defendant also asked the fictional 14-year-old girl whether she wanted a boyfriend, before turning the conversation to what clothes she wore.

He asked whether she wore tight jeans or leggings, before eventually moving on to what underwear she had on.

Encouraging her to send explicit images, he sent one of his torso and asked for one in return.

Jones told the girl she was hot and that he had become sexually aroused by her.

He explained to her what that meant when she told him she did not understand, and then sent her an explicit image.

The defendant then asked whether he would let him touch her in private places.

Contacting a second decoy around the same time, who he also thought was a 14-year-old girl, Jones followed the same pattern of discussion.

He told the girl he wanted to kiss her and join her in the shower, before pleading with her to send images of her bottom.

Mr King said Jones made no secret of where he lived, where he worked and that he had a young daughter.

The chat logs gathered by the decoys were passed on and a sting was carried out where members of the vigilante group turned up at the defendant's address and confronted him.

It was live streamed on Facebook, the court heard, before being passed on to the police.

Jones was arrested on December 21 and admitted the offences.

Asked why he had engaged in sexualised chat with children, he said he did not know.

Defending barrister Andrew Green said Jones had never been in trouble with the police before and that the defendant had told him how the experience had scared him for life.

Mr Green said: Its important to recognise the seriousness of these offences and that they represent a sexual interest in children."

He added the offences had broken his family. He said Jones had also lost his reputation and employment as a result.

Many people would feel that he deserves nothing less, Mr Green added.

He argued Jones best mitigation was his early guilty plea, that he had no previous convictions and had shown remorse.

Recognising there were three potential victims and that activity was incited, he stressed the activity was never going to occur because they were not real children.

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This is the moment a man jailed for inciting children to have sex is confronted by paedophile hunters.

John Derek Sandham was snared in Denbighshire by The Hunted, a vigilante group.

Sandham, 37, tried to incite two young "girls" to send intimate photos of themselves over the internet.

The bricklayer, of Carmel, near Holywell thought he was talking to an 11-year-old girl called Sarah and a 13-year-old girl called Elle in April and May last year.

But they were adults posing as youngsters.

Calling himself David and claiming to be from Rhyl, Sandham sent intimate photographs and pornographic videos and asked the "girls" to send him images of themselves.

After collecting the evidence from online chat logs the group traced Sandham through a swingers' website and arranged to meet him last June.

They filmed their 30 minute confrontation with Sandham who was found to be wearing female underwear.

Clearly shaken Sandham he lay on the ground covering his face throughout the 30-minute video.

The police had been alerted and the video ends with officers arriving and arresting Sandham.

When interviewed Sandham insisted he believed the people he was communicating with were adults pretending to be children.

But his mobile phone was seized and forensically examined and evidence was found that Sandham had been downloading indecent images of children and distributing some of them to others.

At Mold Crown Court earlier this week he admitted charges of attempting to incite children to engage in sexual activity and sexual communication, distributing indecent images of children, possessing indecent images of children and extreme pornographic images.

He was jailed for 42 months and his details will remain on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

Judge Niclas Parry said the offences were serious because he had targeted two young girls and had been persistent in communicating with them.

Mercifully no children were harmed because there were no children, he added.

Prosecutors used evidence provided by paedophile hunters in more than 250 cases against suspected abusers in 2018

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A teenager claimed he had been bullied in school to look at indecent images of children.

But an investigation showed he continued to search for such images after he left school. It was said in court to have become an addiction.

Morgan Andrew Abbott, 18, of Lower Dee View Road in Greenfield, Holywell, was given a chance of a suspended sentence.

At Mold Crown Court, Judge Niclas Parry gave him a 16 month youth custody sentence but suspended it for two years.

He was ordered to carry out 100 hours unpaid work and he was placed on 60 days rehabilitation.

Abbott was ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for 10 years and a 10 year sexual harm prevention order was also made.

He admitted he made by downloading 115 indecent images and movies of children at the most serious category A; 99 images at category B, and 288 images and movies of children at category C.

Abbott admitted that in November last year he distributed indecent images/movies of children in all three categories using Skype.

He admitted possessing 244 prohibited images of children and possessing six extreme images, which portrayed, in an explicit and realistic way, a person performing an oral sex act on a dog.

Judge Parry told him it took a police investigation and his arrest for him to realise the seriousness of what he had been involved with.

He had searched for material which depicted the abuse of very young children.

It has taken this prosecution for you to understand that children who are abused suffer trauma which is immeasurable, he said.

His case was seriously aggravated by the fact some of the images had been shared, he said.

Judge Parry warned the distribution offences could attract sentences of up to five years.

But he was only 18, he committed the offences when he was immature, inquisitive and nave, and experimenting sexually.

He had no previous convictions and he had pleaded guilty.

If he received an immediate sentence then he would be released relatively early without any of the issues and problems he had being addressed, the judge told him. He had therefore decided to suspend the sentence.

Robin Boag, defending, said his client was a young man of good character with no convictions who had pleaded guilty at an early stage.

The distribution was limited to two individuals in November of last year.

He had initially been bullied into doing it but he accepted it had carried on from there.

There had been some encouragement and then he accepts it became an addiction, he said.

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Not on official sex offenders register.

A hardworking McDonald's staff member lived a secret double life as a burglar breaking into houses to steal womens underwear.

John Junior Sillah worked at the fast food restaurant in Mold during the day and was valued there. But once he had had a drink, he was unable to control his urges and twice broke into one womans house to steal her knickers in order to satisfy his fetish.

In between two of the break-ins, he sent the terrified woman a Facebook friend request.

He had first broken into one womans home in April last year, but went back again on Christmas Day and stole more.

On the same day, he burgled other homes in Mold . One young woman had been out when he rifled through her knicker drawer. Along the same road, at around 2.20am on Christmas morning, a man was awoken by Sillah standing at the foot of his bed. Sillah fled with the mans coat.

At Caernarfon crown court today, his defence barrister Oliver King described him as not a conventional burglar, and argued for a novel approach to sentencing him.

He said: He seems to have led a double life working at McDonalds at Mold during the day and hes valued there, yet he has this fetish. When he has a drink, it disinhibits him.

Psychiatric reports found Sillah had a mental disorder which could be controlled when he was sober.

Judge David Hale, sentencing Sillah, said it seemed that he had this compulsion to steal underwear.

Sillah pleaded guilty to four burglaries and one attempted burglary. A 2012 offence was also taken into consideration.

Judge Hale told him: These offences are far too serious for me to look to any non-custodial option.

He jailed Sillah, 20, of Mornington Crescent in Buckley, for two-and-a-half years.

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A SEXUAL predator who abused his position as a youth leader to groom teenage boys has been jailed for four years.

Former firefighter and cadet leader David Ross Gittins, 25, of Windmill, in Pentre Halkyn, Holywell, was sentenced at Chester Crown Court on Thursday (September 16).

His victims were primarily male teenage fire cadets aged between 15 and 16 from Cheshire, whom he befriended during fire cadet meetings.

He bombarded them with requests for explicit images through social networking, instant messaging and webcam sessions.

Ironically, as part of his cadet leader training, Gittins had attended a child protection course to safeguard the youngsters against sexual grooming.

He had taken part in this training during the summer of 2009, just prior to taking a role as a full-time firefighter.

Gittins first target was a female cadet, who he begged to have sex with him, despite her reminders that she was only 14.

Again, he repeatedly asked her to send him explicit photographs of herself but also confessed to her that he thought he was a closet homosexual.

After that, he struck up friendships with a number of boys aged between 15 and 16, though he later claimed that he thought the boys were all 16.

On a number of occasions, he invited the boys to his house, where he would ply them with alcohol, tell them he loved them and encourage them to engage in sexual activity, which was then photographed using a mobile phone.

These photographs were then shown to the boys peers in a bid to normalise the behaviour and recruit more victims.

Police later found 155 indecent images on his computer.

These mostly involved the male cadets, but included pictures where he had superimposed the face of a 16-year-old who he knew only from Facebook onto an explicit image.

Police also found copies of conversations with a 16-year-old boy who was not a fire cadet, but to whom he had sent images.

Prosecuting, Owen Edwards said: He is a sexual predator and these boys have been left stressed and confused as a result of his behaviour.

The pictures were used to show the next in line to encourage them to do the same.

He has abused a position of trust as their instructor for his own sexual purposes.

Mary McKeone, defending, said: It is wholly inappropriate and unacceptable as well as criminal, but his behaviour was misguided as opposed to predatory.

There was no intimidation or coertion involved, and the period of offending was short-lived.

It was inevitable that he would be discovered because of the lack of sophistication involved. It was only a matter a time before it was detected.

Judge Elgan Edwards said that Gittins conduct has been quite disgraceful.

Sentencing Gittins to four years imprisonment, he added: Your behaviour is a gross breach of trust. You were, in my view, a sexual predator, using your position in an honourable profession to further your own sexual, lustful excitement.

People like you must know that if you behave in this way towards young and vulnerable people, you must accept that an immediate custodial sentence is inevitable.

This has had a devastating effect on them and their families.

This is a sentence that you richly deserve.

As well as a custodial sentence, Gittins will be placed on the sex offenders register for life.

He is banned from using a computer or accessing the internet except for during the course of his work; using file sharing or peer to peer software; using social networking and instant messaging; inviting anyone under the age of 18 into his home without a parent or guardian present; having contact with any of the complainants.

The order also imposes a lifetime ban on working with children.