Latest Offenders Leeds

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A PERSISTENT paedophile has been jailed for three years for hoarding thousands upon thousands of vile indecent images of little boys being raped and sexually abused and sharing some of them with like-minded perverts.

James Pearson went on to delve deeper into the darkness to access the deplorable filth after being arrested in possession of more than 15,000 still and moving images at categories A, B and C, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Judge Jonathan Rose told him that it was dreadful, persistent and prolonged offending, and it was almost impossible to imagine the suffering the abused children went through.

Prosecutor Marte Alnaes said Pearson, 32, of Recreation Crescent, Holbeck, Leeds, was first arrested after the police searched his home in March, 2017.

He refused to co-operate with the investigation and because of the level of encryption it took a long while to break into his computer equipment to access the images.

While under police investigation, Pearson again began hoarding indecent images and was caught in December, 2019, with his new collection.

Miss Alnaes said he had distributed images from the first stash with like-minded paedophiles. More than 80, including 22 at category A had been shared.

Sean Smith, Pearsons barrister, conceded that the very young age of some of the children and the sheer volume of images were aggravating factors in the case.

Smith had experienced difficulties in his upbringing and found relationships difficult. His mother and grandmother were reliant on him and they would be impacted were he to go straight to prison.

His probation officer said he was at a low risk of reoffending and capable of rehabilitation.

But Judge Rose said Pearson had contributed to the suffering of 15,000 children who were abused because of men like him who provided a market for this deplorable filth.

Some of the images showed small boys being raped and sexually abused by adult males while they were bound.

Pearson, an educated man with responsibilities, had also distributed the utterly, utterly vile material.

While under police investigation he had gone on to collect more of it.

He pleaded guilty to making and distributing indecent images of children and possession of extreme pornographic images.

He was jailed for two years for the 2017 offences and 12 months to run consecutively for the later offences, totalling three years.

He must sign on the sex offender register for life and Judge Rose made a Sexual Harm Prevention Order without limit of time.

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A paedophile former West Yorkshire Police officer has been given a ten-year prison sentence for arranging to meet an eight-year-old girl for sex.

A judge told Michael Conlon he poses a serious danger to children as he was handed the extended jail term.

Conlon was arrested in November last year after he travelled to Liverpool from his home in Leeds to meet an undercover police officer posing a fellow paedophile.

Leeds Crown Court heard how the officer had met Conlon in an internet chatroom pretending to be a father of two children.

Former West Yorkshire Police officer Michael Conlon was given an extended ten-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to arranging or facilitating commission of a child sex offence.

Ben Campbell, prosecuting, said the officer told Conlon he had an eight-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son.

Conlon sent the officer a message saying that he was looking for "dads who share" along with sickening messages expressing his sexual interest in children.

The 46-year-old defendant then exchanged further messages on an encrypted app.

Conlon told the officer he had previously had sex with a 12-year-old girl but was no longer able to get access to children.

Michael Conlon pictured outside Leeds Crown Court in 2009 when he was jailed for for attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child.

The prosecutor said Conlon arranged to meet the officer so they could arrange for him to have sex with the 'girl'.

Conlon bought a toy unicorn and sent the officer a video of it.
  
Michael Conlon pictured outside Leeds Crown Court in 2009.

The defendant travelled to Liverpool on November 20 last year and they met in a Costa coffee shop.
The officer recorded his conversion with Conlon during the 25-minute meeting.

Conlon was arrested the next day at his home.

The arresting officers knocked on the door for five minutes and suspected that he was clearing incriminating evidence from his electronic devices.

Chat logs on the devices were later found to have been scrambled.

A toy unicorn matching the one in the video he had sent was recovered from the living room.

Conlon, of Newton Grove, Chapeltown, made no comment when interviewed by officers.

He pleaded guilty to arranging or facilitating commission of a child sex offence.

Conlon lost his career in the police when he was jailed in 2009 for attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child, attempting to meet a girl under 16 after sexual grooming and making and possessing indecent photographs of children.

A probation service report assessed him as posing a serious risk to children.

Andrew Coleman, mitigating, said Conlon pleaded guilty to his latest offence at an early stage.
Mr Coleman said his client also has mental health problems which required medication.

Conlon was told he must serve a six-year custodial term, of which two-thirds must be spent in cudosty.
He will then spend a further four-year period on licence.
 
Sentencing, Judge Tom Bayliss QC said: "The prison sentence which was imposed on the last occasion did not deter you, nor did the sexual harm prevention order.
"You were prepared to abuse an eight-year-old child for you own sexual needs.

"You were prepared to take risks. You were prepared to act upon your own sexual impulses to sexually abuse a very young child".

The YEP reported in 2009 how Conlon was jailed for two and a half years for trying to groom a teenage girl over the internet.

He was a serving policeman when he was exposed as a paedophile by a colleague masquerading as a 14-year-old girl in an internet chat room.
Conlon, then aged 33, believed he was grooming a schoolgirl for sex.

But the Killingbeck-based constable was actually sending sick messages and sexual webcam footage of himself to a female officer from the Metropolitan Police.
Conlon contacted her ‘Shelley 14’ profile on chat website FaceParty numerous times over a six-month period.

He called himself ‘Wingnut79’ and ‘Man in uniform69.’

Conlon asked if she was a virgin and said he wanted her phone number and naked pictures after she told him she was aged 14.

He also arranged to meet a genuine 15-year-old girl he wanted to have sex with.
Conlon, an officer for five years before his arrest, turned up for the meeting in Knaresborough but she did not.
 
When police raided his then home in Primrose Hill Drive, Swillington, in August 2008 they found 370 depraved pictures and videos.
The images of girls as young as five being abused had been downloaded to his computer over a three-year period.

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A gross man who raped an East Riding schoolgirl and made her conceal the truth has been jailed.

Michael Billups, who worked for a major TV company, subjected the youngster to horrific sexual abuse over a two-month period.

The 52-year-olds campaign began when he unzipped the girls onesie to abuse her before going on to brutally rape her on more than one occasion.

Claire Holmes, prosecuting, said: He would unzip her onesie to touch her. She said that it had progressed to the defendant raping her numerous times and this lasted for two or three months until she told her mum.

The abuse happened in around 2011 but was only exposed years later when she confided in her boyfriend.

An educational welfare officer reported the abuse to the authorities and when Billups was arrested in September 2018 he immediately admitted to raping the girl.

Miss Holmes said: When he was arrested he was told not to talk about the offence but he said I dont need to it was statutory rape'.

In a statement, given to police following his arrest, Billings said: I accept the offence of rape and sexual allegations against me. I am truly remorseful and sorry for what occurred.

I have been living with this for six years and want to get this matter resolved. I believe I need help for what happened and I cant say why I did it.

Im truly sorry and wish I hadnt done what I did every day.

Sickeningly, Billups even said at on the stage that the girl wanted it...and enjoyed it.

The defendant, of Lilac Oval, Leeds, had a prior history of upskirting and engaging with prostitutes before raping the youngster.

During Wednesdays sentencing at Hull Crown Court it was revealed that Billups had put a camera between a womans legs on an escalator before taking a photo of another young woman up her skirt in Pocklington.

He was subjected to an antisocial behaviour order (Asbo) which prevented Billings from having access to a mobile phone with a camera.

However, in 2009 he was found by police in Leeds Red Light District asking a prostitute to take pictures of her genitals on his phone in exchange for cash.

The girl told her friend that Billups had taken naked pictures of her but it was not until last year when she and her boyfriend were doing an online quiz that the truth about him raping the youngster was revealed.

Miss Holmes said: There was a mention of rape within that quiz and she went silent and began to cry. She confirmed she had been raped and her boyfriend was shocked by this and asked her if it was true.

She said yes but was so upset and could not give him any more information.

Her boyfriend suggested she go to see a doctor but she then revealed that years earlier Billups had told her not to seek any medical help.

Miss Holmes said: Mr Billups had objected to her going to the doctors and the Crown submits the reason for that is the fear that she may have disclosed the sexual abuse.

Billups wept in the dock at Hull Crown Court as the harrowing impact of the abuse was brought to light.

The girl suffers from anxiety and told doctors she had considered killing herself, leaving her mother heartbroken.

The victims mum said: It made me feel upset and angry and it made me overprotective and cautious. I used to dread pushing open her bedroom door and I feel remorseful towards the whole situation.

This is something my daughter will always have to deal with and its through no fault of her own.

Gordon Stables, defending Billups, said his client had spent years waiting for police to knock on his door prior to his arrest in 2018.

Mr Stables said: He has not beaten around the bush. He has admitted it and he admits that for that two or three months he committed the most awful criminal offences.

He is utterly ashamed and he is full of remorse.

Billups pleaded guilty to two counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault and another charge of assault against a child.

Judge Mark Bury condemned his crimes as gross before jailing him for ten years and handing him a five-year restraining order which prevents him from contacting the victim or her family.

He must also sign the sex offenders register for life and must serve an extra year on extended licence.

Detective Constable Becky McInnis from Humberside Police said: Investigations of this nature are always difficult and I welcome todays sentencing.

I hope that this offers reassurance that we will always work to protect vulnerable people, taking action against those that commit offences against them.

Where we have victims that are unable to be involved in the proceeding and we need to seek a prosecution without their participation - we will do so.

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A music teacher has been jailed for five years.

A music teacher has been jailed for five years for plotting to sexually abuse young girls in the Philippines.

James Alexander, 42, was caught by the National Crime Agency after he sent money to known facilitators who had live-streamed child sexual abuse from Illigan City.

He was arrested on 30 June 2018 at Manchester Airport as he flew into the UK from Thailand where he lived since 2017.

NCA investigators seized his electronic devices.

Forensic analysis showed Alexander, of Beeston, Leeds, sent at least 15 money transfers to abuse facilitators between August 2017 and Jun 2018.

It also showed that Alexander - who served as a reservist in the Parachute Regiment from 1999 to 2003 – tried to arrange with abuse facilitators over Skype and WhatsApp to travel to the Philippines to abuse little girls himself.

Alexander had a discussion with one female facilitator about a 13 year-old girl, in which he said: “If I meet anyone else I would like younger”.

He then asked the facilitator for pictures of her 12-year-old daughter.

It is believed indecent images of the 12-year-old were sent to him, as his recovered chat history shows he said: “nice baby…now take the other pictures I asked.”

On 1 February 2018 he and the woman discussed plans for him to meet the girls in a hotel and he asked: “Are you going to bring them both with you and stay also”.

He added: “You’ll show them what to do.”

TJamesAlexander teachinghe woman told Alexander she had other daughters aged nine, six and four.

Alexander, who taught in Leeds and Malaysia before moving to Thailand, asked for sick images of the girls aged nine and six posing in a certain way, and asked what the six-year-old would do with him.

He also explained how he would like to sexually abuse the four-year-old.

Alexander told another Filipino mother – who says she will make her daughters do anything for money – that he wants to have sex with her seven and 11-year-old girls. He directed them to pose for photographs.

NCA officers also discovered other WhatsApp messages where Alexander asked a 10-year-old to send him images of her posing, and asked if he could meet her.

There were no records of Alexander ever travelling to the Philippines.

In-country investigations into the facilitators continue but as a result of NCA intelligence, one suspect was arrested and several children safeguarded.

Alexander taught at Bromsgrove International School in Bangkok, Thailand, which dismissed him upon notification of the investigation. Safeguarding checks were made at the school and there was no evidence of Alexander offending there.

Alexander’s phone contained child abuse images.

He admitted one count of arranging/facilitating the commission of a child sex offence; three counts of attempting to cause/incite a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity, and one count of making an indecent image of a child.

Alexander, who also performed as a DJ in Thailand, was prosecuted under section 72 of the Sex Offences Act 2003 which allows British nationals to be prosecuted in the UK for offences committed abroad.

Today, at Leeds Crown Court, he was also given a five-year sexual harm prevention order which bans foreign travel, and he was made to sign the sex offenders register for life.

Hazel Stewart, NCA senior investigating officer, said: “Alexander clearly tried to manipulate and exploit the poverty of the vulnerable in order to gratify his sick sexual desires.

“He believed he could abuse Filipino children safely from his home and wanted to visit the Philippines to carry out the sexual abuse himself.

“The NCA has strong partnerships with law enforcement in the Philippines. We work together to combat this kind of offending.

“We and UK policing will never give up our pursuit of offenders who commit these horrendous crimes.”

Victims or anyone with information about child sexual abuse offences should contact their local police.

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A "callous" man has been jailed for 10 years after he kidnapped and raped a woman he met on a night out in Headingley.

Ross Waterhouse is said to have been 'completely predatory' and shown 'no remorse' after he took the woman back to a flat and raped her when she was extremely drunk.

The 24-year-old, of Manor Park in Scarcroft, was sentenced after he was convicted of rape and kidnapping at Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday, March 13.

The jury heard how Mr Waterhouse and another man went to The Shed Bar with the victim and her friend in November 2016, after the four of them met at a pub in Headingley.

The women started to feel 'uneasy' in the company of the two men and asked a bouncer to let them leave via a back door, but Mr Waterhouse then ran into the victim outside a McDonald's restaurant in the early hours of the morning.

When summing up the evidence, Recorder Bryan Cox said Mr Waterhouse decided to offer the victim a lift home when she was 'extremely drunk' and 'in no fit state to get herself home, let alone consent to sexual intercourse'.

Mr Waterhouse drove her to another man's flat, after ignoring her friend's attempts to get her out of his car, and proceeded to rape her.

Recorder Cox said the woman had suffered 'substantial psychological harm and some physical harm' as a result of the attack.

When sentencing the defendant, he said: "You were determined to exploit her vulnerability. You took her to your friend's flat and raped her."

"Your attitude that night was exceedingly callous. You had no regard of (the victim's) feelings at all.

"You targeted her for sex, that was clear from the evidence I have heard.

"You have shown no remorse and sought to lie your way out of this predicament, during this trial."

The judge also said there was 'significant planning' before the attack and noted that Mr Waterhouse has previous convictions for drink driving and drunk and disorderly.

He said: "While you do not have convictions for sexual offences, you do have convictions which suggest you have a tendency to drink to excess and break the law when you do so."

He was sentenced to 10 years for rape and four years for kidnapping, but the sentences will run concurrently.

During the hearing, Soheil Khan, prosecuting, read passages of a victim impact statement the woman gave to police in March 2017.

She told police that she was afraid to leave the house, unable to work and forced to take various medications for diseases such as HIV and hepatitis as she was concerned that she may have contracted a sexually transmitted infection.

She also told police she could 'not stop thinking about it and reliving it every night' and said the anxiety caused by the attack was putting a strain on her relationship with her family.

"Sometimes I feel like our once happy family is falling apart. This gets me down and it feels like a never ending cycle of stress, worrying and upset," she said, "It's a very dark feeling over my head and I hate it."

"Waterhouse’s behaviour that night was completely predatory"

The defence disputed the prosecution's claim that the victim did not have the capacity to consent because she was so drunk, adding that there was no significant planning involved and also that the defendant had already served 77 days on remand.

After the trial, detective inspector Phil Jackson said West Yorkshire Police "we hope that convictions such as this one will help to give victims (of sexual offences) the confidence to come forward.”

He added: “Waterhouse’s behaviour that night was completely predatory. He preyed on the victim when she was in a vulnerable state and abducted her and raped her for his own sexual gratification.

“The victim has been left very badly traumatised by what he did and we hope the significant prison sentence he has received will provide some reassurance to her."

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A joke shop owner who filmed himself sexually abusing children has been jailed indefinitely.

Police discovered the vile images after seizing David Slaters computers when they received a tip-off that he had been downloading indecent pictures of children from the internet.

The court was told one of his victims called him Santa Claus. Slater, 60, former owner of the Loony Bin, Armley, Leeds, abused a boy and a girl in his shop as well as at his home nearby.

After his arrest was reported in the Yorkshire Evening Post, a third victim came forward saying Slater had abused her several years earlier.

Slater, of Edinburgh Place, Armley, was yesterday jailed indefinitely after a judge heard he posed a significant risk to children in the future.

A psychiatric report said Slater was likely to prey on children again if he is ever released from prison.

After the hearing, Det Con Pam Gillings, of West Yorkshire Polices abusive images unit, said: David Slater is a dangerous committed paedophile who has used his position in the community to gain access to vulnerable children in order to abuse them for his own sexual gratification.

Richard Clews, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court police received intelligence in March last year that Slater had been downloading child porn. Computers at his business and home were seized which contained around 10,000 images.

Some included pictures and films of Slater with a boy and a girl, both under the age of 13. Officers then traced the youngsters.

The boy had been given money by Slater and on one occasion was given cider to drink which made him tipsy.

Mr Clews said: The prosecution submit that the giving of money and the giving of drink was the defendant grooming the boy for sexual activity, After his arrest Slater told officers he didnt think his behaviour had been inappropriate and that he thought it was just fun.

The third victim later came forward and told officers how Slater abused her on at least three occasions. Mr Clews added: At that stage he had a white beard and she called him Santa Claus.

Of course, he was very far indeed from the reality of Santa Claus.

Slater pleaded guilty to 18 counts relating to possession of child porn and seven relating to sex assaults on children under the age of 13.

Stephen Smithson, mitigating, said both psychiatric and pre sentence reports had recommended Slater be jailed indefinitely after judging him to pose a significant risk to the public in the future. Mr Smithson asked that Slater be given credit for pleading guilty to the offences at the earliest opportunity.

Judge Roger Ibbotson told Slater he must serve a minimum of five years in prison before he is eligible to apply to the parole board for release.

He said: You show no remorse whatsoever or any indication that you begin to understand the effect of your conduct on these children.

If you ever leave prison you will leave with absolutely nothing, having lost you assets and other possessions as a result of these proceedings.

It is clear that a very long period of imprisonment is necessary.

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A hooded rapist calling himself 'Jack The Stripper' who attacked students close to a university campus was jailed yesterday for 12 years.

For 15 months, David Martin Jackson, 28, stalked women walking home from Leeds University to their bedsits in the Hyde Park area of the city.

At Leeds Crown Court, he was found guilty of rape, three indecent assaults, two attempted indecent assaults and four charges of assault causing actual bodily harm after a 14- day trial.

The judge, Mr Justice Harrison, told Jackson: 'You lay in wait for your victims at night time, hooded by a balaclava to obscure your face. You attacked your victims from behind and dragged them into the undergrowth. You then subjected them to terrifying ordeals from which they have not yet fully recovered. You subjected them to sexual indignities. Offences such as these should be punished by a substantial period of imprisonment.' Jackson was found guilty of one indecent assault, two attempted indecent assaults and three assaults causing bodily harm, after the jury took 27 hours to reach verdicts. On Monday, the jurors found him guilty of the other charges, including the rape.

Jackson, of Osmondthorpe, Leeds, who married a month before carrying out the rape, had denied all the charges.

He told the jury that on the night of the first two attacks, in June 1991, he was staying at the house of his fiancee's parents preparing for their church's national conference in Brighton.

Jackson, a member of the New Testament Church of God in Harehills, Leeds, said he and his wife, Jennifer, and their parents always stayed together, shopped together and did everything together before a church conference.

The court was told that between June 1991 and October 1992, Jackson carried out five attacks. On each occasion he ran up to his victim, dragged her off the road and into an area of parkland known as Woodhouse Moor and threatened to kill her.

A hooded rapist calling himself 'Jack The Stripper' who attacked students close to a university campus was jailed yesterday for 12 years.

For 15 months, David Jackson, 28, stalked women walking home from Leeds University to their bedsits in the Hyde Park area of the city.

At Leeds Crown Court, he was found guilty of rape, three indecent assaults, two attempted indecent assaults and four charges of assault causing actual bodily harm after a 14- day trial.

The judge, Mr Justice Harrison, told Jackson: 'You lay in wait for your victims at night time, hooded by a balaclava to obscure your face. You attacked your victims from behind and dragged them into the undergrowth. You then subjected them to terrifying ordeals from which they have not yet fully recovered. You subjected them to sexual indignities. Offences such as these should be punished by a substantial period of imprisonment.' Jackson was found guilty of one indecent assault, two attempted indecent assaults and three assaults causing bodily harm, after the jury took 27 hours to reach verdicts. On Monday, the jurors found him guilty of the other charges, including the rape.

Jackson, of Osmondthorpe, Leeds, who married a month before carrying out the rape, had denied all the charges.

He told the jury that on the night of the first two attacks, in June 1991, he was staying at the house of his fiancee's parents preparing for their church's national conference in Brighton.

Jackson, a member of the New Testament Church of God in Harehills, Leeds, said he and his wife, Jennifer, and their parents always stayed together, shopped together and did everything together before a church conference.

The court was told that between June 1991 and October 1992, Jackson carried out five attacks. On each occasion he ran up to his victim, dragged her off the road and into an area of parkland known as Woodhouse Moor and threatened to kill her.

A hooded rapist calling himself 'Jack The Stripper' who attacked students close to a university campus was jailed yesterday for 12 years.

For 15 months, David Jackson, 28, stalked women walking home from Leeds University to their bedsits in the Hyde Park area of the city.

At Leeds Crown Court, he was found guilty of rape, three indecent assaults, two attempted indecent assaults and four charges of assault causing actual bodily harm after a 14- day trial.

The judge, Mr Justice Harrison, told Jackson: 'You lay in wait for your victims at night time, hooded by a balaclava to obscure your face. You attacked your victims from behind and dragged them into the undergrowth. You then subjected them to terrifying ordeals from which they have not yet fully recovered. You subjected them to sexual indignities. Offences such as these should be punished by a substantial period of imprisonment.' Jackson was found guilty of one indecent assault, two attempted indecent assaults and three assaults causing bodily harm, after the jury took 27 hours to reach verdicts. On Monday, the jurors found him guilty of the other charges, including the rape.

Jackson, of Osmondthorpe, Leeds, who married a month before carrying out the rape, had denied all the charges.

He told the jury that on the night of the first two attacks, in June 1991, he was staying at the house of his fiancee's parents preparing for their church's national conference in Brighton.

Jackson, a member of the New Testament Church of God in Harehills, Leeds, said he and his wife, Jennifer, and their parents always stayed together, shopped together and did everything together before a church conference.

The court was told that between June 1991 and October 1992, Jackson carried out five attacks. On each occasion he ran up to his victim, dragged her off the road and into an area of parkland known as Woodhouse Moor and threatened to kill her.