Latest Offenders London

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A famous singer and actress who was sexually assaulted during a Soho massage has spoken out about her “devastation”, as her attacker is jailed for four years.

The star - a famous face to millions - was groped by a masseur when she went to the Rupert Jade Thai massage parlour for a treatment in March 2023.

She was asked to strip down to just her underwear and a towel, before masseur Sundaralingam Koodalingam subjected her to a series of sexual assaults on the treatment table.

At Southwark crown court on Wednesday, Koodalingam, 36, was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of two charges of sexual assault.

The woman, whose identity is protected as a sexual offences victim, penned a powerful impact statement which was read to the court, setting out the devastating damage to her personal and professional life.

“The widespread anger this despicable human has caused is vast and so very real”, she said, telling the court she has been “fundamentally changed”.

“My job needs me to be playful, open and light”, she said. “Creativity is stifled by insecurity.

“I don’t know if I will ever get back to who I was before that day. This man has taken away my trust, my innocence, and my ability to give everyone - especially a stranger who happens to be male - the benefit of the doubt.”

She told the court she suffers panic attacks and needed her father to accompany her on walks home from work in the aftermath of the attack.

“I look over my shoulder, expecting to be a victim of further abuse for speaking out against him”, she said.

“A grown-ass woman in her 30s... feeling unsafe to walk home alone from work due to one pathetic man is unbelievable.”

She said she needed therapy for anger issues, and detailed an incident when she “felt rage” at a stranger who winked and smiled at her.

“How dare you assume I wanted this attention”, she said. “No one wants this attention, you have no idea what effect you are having on someone.”

The court heard Koodalingam, who comes from the Maldives, moved to the UK in 2021 with his visa sponsored by a company based in the Cotswolds.

The attack happened on March 29, 2023, when the victim visited the massage parlour where he worked for the first time.

“She was naked but for her underwear and a towel”, said Recorder Jeremy Brier, setting out how Koodalingam touched the woman intimately and groped her breasts and nipples.

“This was a frightening and terrifying ordeal”, he said. “It was a violation.”

At trial, Koodalingam claimed the actress had invented the sexual assaults, and even at sentence he continued to protest his innocence.

The victim said she is “angry this man has taken anything from me at all, triumphant to say it is over, devastated it happen to me”, and expressed satisfaction at “taking one more disgusting predator off the street”.

“Tens if not hundreds of women are now safe”, she said.

The star also detailed her struggles with how she initially responded to the attacks.

“I have struggled with knowing who I was”, she said. “I always saw myself as someone who would stand up to fight.

“I had conversations like that so many times. I was so sure I would stand up, call out bad behaviour, and get the hell out, but I didn’t, and I really struggled with that.”

She said she initially joked with a friend about the incident, and now recognises her response was “human, vulnerable, and honest” and she “did absolutely nothing wrong that day”.

And she added her horror at one person’s reaction to news of the attacks, saying to her: “That’s not too bad, at least he didn’t rape you”.

“Imagine the sentence ‘at least he didn’t rape you’ being a silver lining.”

Koodalingam, of Ruskin Avenue in Manor Park, east London, was convicted by a jury of sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault.

His barrister, Ben Hargreaves, told the judge that Koodalingam faces an “especially hard” time in Britain’s “decrepit” prison system, as English is not his first language and he has never been behind bars before.

He has been on bail during legal proceedings, and was told he must serve two thirds of the four-year jail term.

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Hamed Kianipanah, 36, of Brook Road, Brent, London, has today (Monday 28 July 2025) been sent to prison for nine years, plus an additional three years on licence, for raping a woman at an address in Richmondshire in 2022.

Kianipanah was found guilty on 5 June 2025 of having unconsented sex with the victim.

The jury heard evidence that Kianipanah had groomed and controlled the woman around the time of the rape.

However, she found the courage to make a report to North Yorkshire Police in 2023.

This sparked a two-year investigation led by Temporary Detective Sergeant Quita Readman from Hambleton and Richmondshire CID.

T/DS Readman said:

“When she felt ready to do so, she bravely approached the police and disclosed what had happened to her. She also got access to a range of professional support and care that is readily available to all survivors of rape and sexual assaults.

“With her support, we carried out a thorough investigation capturing the whole story of the grooming stages Kianipanah engaged in before and after the rape, maintaining a level of control over the survivor.

“The jury heard the compelling evidence, and they returned a unanimous guilty verdict against the defendant.”

T/DS Readman added:

“I have nothing but praise for the bravery of the survivor in this case. It also shows it is never too late to make a report to the police and seek support from the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) and organisations such as IDAS.

“We are here to help you - please don’t hesitate to get in touch.”

As well as the custodial sentence, Kianipanah has also been placed on the Register of Sex Offenders and been made subject of a restraining order.

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Osamah Al-Haddad, a 26-year-old Yemeni migrant, was found with disturbing child abuse material and bestiality videos on his phone after arriving at Heathrow Airport from Cairo in January 2024.

The explicit videos were discovered during a routine search as part of his asylum screening. Among them was a Category A video involving bestiality, which the judge later described as “grotesque” and “depraved.” Al-Haddad had entered the UK on a student visa and later sought asylum, claiming he faced persecution from the Houthis for refusing to join their military efforts.

Despite admitting to three counts of making indecent photos of children and one count of making a pseudo-image, Al-Haddad insisted he had no sexual interest in children and claimed the videos were sent to him via WhatsApp. However, the court questioned his credibility, noting the files had been saved on his device since 2021 and were not deleted. Judge Fiona Barrie emphasized the serious nature of the crimes and the real harm to the children depicted in the videos.

Al-Haddad was handed a 30-week suspended sentence, meaning he will not serve prison time unless he reoffends within a year. He was also placed under a ten-year sexual harm prevention order and must complete 150 hours of unpaid community work. The case has raised questions about the UK’s asylum policies, particularly in light of recent government proposals to bar foreign sex offenders from asylum protections—a policy that only applies to those sentenced to more than a year.

Despite the conviction, Al-Haddad's asylum application remains active. He currently resides in Plymouth, Devon, where he works at a restaurant and earns around £781 per month, most of which he reportedly sends to his wife and child in Yemen. His defense highlighted his desire to reunite with his family in the UK and continue supporting them financially.

After the sentencing, Al-Haddad was seen outside Isleworth Crown Court appearing indifferent, giving a thumbs up to a passerby filming him and denying knowledge of the images' source. The incident has sparked public outrage, as critics argue that individuals convicted of such offences should face harsher penalties, including deportation, especially when they are seeking refuge in the country.

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A paedophile who was snared after seven years on the loose by DNA he handed over in a bid to become a Police Community Support Officer has been jailed for nine years.

Reinaldo Goncalo Bertoni Filho, 42, sexually assaulted girls aged 10 and 15 after approaching them in public in Surrey in 2017.

Both girls were able to escape from his grasp, but the identity of their attacker was initially a mystery.

However Filho, of Askew Road in Shepherd’s Bush, west London, essentially handed himself with a bid to join the police.

He was required to give DNA samples as part of the British Transport Police application process in 2024, and his records were then flagged as matching the two sex attacks seven years earlier.

At Guildford Crown Court on Friday, Filho was sentenced to nine years in prison for sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault of a child under 13. He must also serve an extra four years on licence after release.

The first attack was on a 15-year-old girl who was riding her bike in Hogsmill Open Space in Ewell in July 2017. The second incident involved a 10-year-old girl who was walking through Claygate Common in August 2017.

Rebecca Millardship from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Reinaldo Goncalo Bertoni Filho deliberately targeted children who were both in isolated spaces, where they should have been safe to enjoy themselves.

“What happened on those days has had a huge, long-lasting impact on every aspect of the lives of these two girls. They were left with memory flashbacks, terrified of men and fearful and anxious for years that they might see their attacker again, until Goncalo Bertoni Filho was arrested.

“One of the victims talked about how the attack had stolen her confidence, joy and safety. We hope that, with this sentence, both girls can now start to rebuild their lives, knowing their attacker has been brought to justice.”

The victim of the first attack managed to escape after biting Filho on the elbow and scratching his face, causing him to run off.

The ten-year-old victim said she was grabbed by a passing jogger, who pinned her against a tree.

She escaped by kicking him in the stomach, and ran away to tell a family friend what happened.

“His audacity at applying to join the British Transport Police as a PCSO defies belief, but it was this which ultimately led to being identified”, said Detective Sergeant Adele Robertson from the Surrey and Sussex Police Major Crime Team.

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A 'psychopath' rapist has been given a rare life sentence after the judge was nearly moved to tears by a rape-survivor's heart-breaking victim impact statement.

Musaddaq Hoque, 37, will serve a minimum of 14 years and eight months after he was convicted of five counts of rape against two women after a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court last month.

Judge Ross Cohen looked visibly emotional as one of Hoque's victims bravely stood up in court to face her abuser, who appeared via video link from prison. "I was not just violated. I was broken in a way that can't be undone. The fear, the helplessness, the shame, all still live with me," she said, "I am no longer able to trust people. I am afraid of letting someone in who will destroy me again."

"It took away something from me that can never be returned. I hope the court understands this was not just a moment but a life sentence. You are a psychopath. A Jekyll and Hyde who can change your personality with the flick of a switch. Hopefully you will learn putting your hands on a woman should not cross your mind."

The other victim-survivor described Hoque's 'repeated emotional, physical, sexual, and financial abuse' which left her 'walking on eggshells' and still suffering flashbacks and panic attacks.

Calling out Hoque's targeting of a vulnerable divorced woman and her £30,000 savings, Judge Cohen said: "As a Bengali man you knew the value of her gold she had been given as a dowry."

Hoque, formerly of St Luke's Road in Notting Hill, has been in prison since 2021 when he was remanded ahead of a separate trial at Southwark Crown Court. MyLondon previously reported how the thug was given a 10 year extended sentence for terrorising a victim for 15 years, burning her with a cigarette and threatening her with acid. Two juries failed to reach a verdict on a count of oral rape.

In June this year Hoque returned to court, where two more women gave evidence against him. This time jurors saw through his lies, convicting him on the rape counts, as well as GBH, threats to kill, and controlling and coercive behaviour.

Hoque's previous offences include battering and harassing another female partner, working as a drug dealer in 2011, deliberately running over a cyclist in 2014, assaulting another female partner in 2018, and then the convictions that saw him sentenced in 2023.

This track record left Judge Cohen with little option but to engage a Section 285 life sentence, having considered the seriousness of the crimes, the nature of his previous, the level of danger, and whether there were any alternatives. The judge was particularly concerned that Hoque had raped and abused both women while serving a suspended sentence for attacking a former partner in 2018.

During the trial, jurors heard how Hoque would make threats to: stamp on the pregnant women's stomachs, throw them down the stairs, and perform coat hanger abortions. In one particularly disturbing incident, Hoque poked a kitchen knife into the victim's pregnant stomach and told her he would cut the baby out. Terrified he would do it, she grabbed the knife and sliced her hand open.

On Hoque's previous, the judge said: "Using violence. Threatening violence. Or being abusive or controlling towards women. You seek to demand control and subjugate women with such means. You threaten extreme violence with threats to women with fire, acid, and weapons," adding in relation to one former girlfriend: "You threatened to put a gun down her throat."

Judge Cohen said Hoque had been a danger to women for more than 13 years, and would continue to do so while he maintained his innocence. "All you have demonstrated towards them is callous indifference. You have no insight into your offending and repeatedly lied to the jury," he added. Judge Cohen concluded an extended sentence was not a suitable alternative to a life sentence in this case.

The sentence means Hoque will not go before the parole board until he has complete the minimum sentence. Only then will the board decide if he is ready for release, and any crime committed on license will see him immediately returned to prison for life.

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Former Met officer sentenced for rape

A former Met officer has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for the rape of a woman.

Former PC Tony Watts, attached to the North Area Command Unit, was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court on Tuesday, 12 August. He was previously found guilty and remanded in custody on Tuesday, 8 July following a trial at the same court.

The offence relates to an incident that happened between mid-January and early February in 2020 when Watts was off-duty.

The victim-survivor has been supported throughout the course of the investigation and trial by dedicated specialist officers.

Detective Chief Superintendent Caroline Haines, who leads the North Area policing team, said:

“Tony Watts has shown a complete disregard for this victim-survivor and for his duty to protect women and girls – in the vilest way.

“We are going above and beyond at the Met to rid the force of those who corrupt our integrity, and it is quite right that Watts has been held accountable for his actions.

“It would have taken a huge amount of courage and strength to speak to police, the way this victim-survivor did, and I hope this sentence provides some closure.

“My message to any other victims who may have experienced a sexual encounter they felt wasn’t right is that they can and should come forward, and we will do everything we can to support you.”

Watts was arrested following the incident being reported in May 2022.

He was bailed while further enquiries took place, before being charged with rape on Wednesday, 25 September 2024 and suspended from duty.

A misconduct hearing took place on Friday, 8 August where Watts was dismissed without notice after the Chair found he breached the Standards of Professional Behaviour in respect of Discreditable Conduct at a level of gross misconduct.

He will now be added to the Barred List held by the College of Policing. Those appearing on the list cannot be employed by police, local policing bodies, the Independent Office for Police Conduct or His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services.

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A 24-year-old man has been jailed for life following a significant Met Police investigation into an attempted rape and rape of a child.

Navroop Singh, 24, (09/10/00) of Mellow Lane East, UB4 was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 14 years for five charges, including rape, on Friday, 4 July at Isleworth Crown Court.

Singh was convicted of the attempted rape of a woman in Southall Park, Ealing on Sunday, 13 October 2024, and possession of an imitation firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence, on Thursday, 8 May at Isleworth Crown Court following a four-day trial.

Singh had previously pleaded guilty to a further three offences –

• Possession of an imitation firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence
• Rape a girl under 13
• Assault a girl under 13 by penetration

These charges relate to the rape of a child at Hayes End Park, Hillingdon on Wednesday, 23 October 2024.

An investigation was launched by police and detectives who tracked down Singh, using forensics, CCTV and witness accounts to build a file of evidence against him.

Acting Chief Superintendent Sean Lynch, who leads policing in West Area, said:

"I would like to commend the strength of the victim-survivors and their families and thank them for their unwavering bravery in reporting these awful incidents to us.

“Today’s conviction is testament to the officers’ thorough investigation, which has identified a violent sexual offender and undoubtedly prevented further harm.

“We are continuing to prioritise tackling violence against women and girls with our increased specialist teams. I hope that the community will find reassurance in our action to put this predator behind bars.”

Officers launched an investigation following reports of an attempted rape of a woman in her 20s on 13 October 2024.

Police were alerted by the victim, who, by chance, was met with two off duty officers near to the gates of the park who accompanied her to the nearest police station.

Singh had been sitting on a bench in the park during the early hours of 13 October 2024, where he waited for a potential victim to walk past. He was carrying an imitation firearm, which he had ordered and assembled, and used to threaten the victim while he attempted to rape her.

On the days following the report, officers trawled through hours of CCTV footage to try and identify an offender.

With the investigation was ongoing, a child was raped at a different park on 23 October 2024. Officers immediately made a link between the offences.

Using the increased resources which were made available, officers secured additional forensic evidence. Officers were able to trace the offender to within a few doors of his home address where they delivered leaflets to appeal for witnesses and carried out increased patrols of the area.

As a result of the officers efforts, they were able to trace the offender to within a few doors of his home address.

Singh was arrested on Sunday, 27 October.

Each of the victims have been supported by specialist officers throughout the investigation and court process.

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A Sidcup sex offender with over 200 previous convictions has been jailed for drunken comments to a woman outside Tesco.

Stephen Lumb, 66, began offending in 1976 and was placed on the sex offenders register for life in 2009 after a serious sexual assault. 

He has since been in and out of prison repeatedly for offences including masturbating at a bus stop in 2021. 

In 2022 he was given a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) banning him from having any unsupervised contact with any woman or female child  other than contact which is not reasonably avoidable in daily life. 

But on Tuesday, July 1, when Lumb was drunk outside Tesco on Station Road, Sidcup, he approached and spoke to a woman. 

At Bexley Magistrates' Court on Thursday, July 3, Lumb pleaded guilty to breaching the SHPO and being drunk and disorderly in public. 

He was sentenced to eight months in prison. 

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New police technology which makes it easier to see bruising in darker skin has snared two rapists.

Ashley Bramble, 36, sexually assaulted a 13-year-old schoolgirl after picking her up at Hackney Carnival.

The victim and a friend missed their last train home but Bramble offered to let the pair stay at his property in Portland Rise, Finsbury Park.

The sex predator carried out a string of attacks on one of the girls overnight.

She revealed details at school and Metropolitan Police detectives were able to track down Bramble in north London last September.

A game-changing device - known as Project Archway - which allow officers to better assess victims injuries by making it easier to photograph and visualise bruising was used in the case against him.

At Wood Green Crown Court, Bramble was jailed for 15 years having been convicted of two counts of rape, sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault.

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A Qatari national who travelled to the UK for heart treatment has been jailed for seven years for sexually assaulting a woman at a leading London hospital. He will be deported after completing his sentence.

Nasser Al-Gherainiq, 27, a camel herder from a conservative Bedouin tribe in Qatar, dragged the woman into a toilet cubicle at the Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea and sexually assaulted her for five minutes, a court heard.

The assault took place on 23 August 2023, just one month after Al-Gherainiq arrived in Britain for treatment for a rare heart condition.

“Immature and Inexperienced Adolescent,” Court Told

At Southwark Crown Court, Al-Gherainiq denied two counts of attempted rape, claiming his behaviour stemmed from a lack of exposure to women due to his strict cultural upbringing.

His defence barrister, Jane Bickerstaff KC, told the court:

“Until July 2023, he had never left Qatar. The only woman he would have had meaningful contact with was his mother.

His limited visits to Doha and preference for the desert meant he had no experience of urban life or modern societal norms.”

Ms Bickerstaff described him as having the emotional maturity of an adolescent, saying:

“He completely failed to understand her true feelings.”

Despite these arguments, jurors convicted Al-Gherainiq of two counts of attempted rape, in addition to charges of sexual assault and causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, which he had previously admitted.

Sentencing and Deportation

Judge Hiddleston sentenced Al-Gherainiq to seven years in prison, noting the traumatic impact on the victim. The sentence will be reduced by 415 days already served on remand. The judge also ordered that Al-Gherainiq be deported to Qatar after completing his sentence.

The Royal Brompton Hospital, world-renowned for cardiac care, declined to comment on the incident but confirmed that security procedures have been reviewed.

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The British paedophile charged in connection with organising a "mock wedding" to a child in Disneyland Paris is Jacky Jhaj, who was found guilty of sexual activity with two 15-year-olds in 2016, the BBC understands.

Jhaj, 39, has been charged in connection with organising the fake ceremony on Saturday, in which a nine-year-old Ukrainian girl was due to feature as his bride.

He was arrested when police were called on Saturday morning by an actor who said he had been hired by Jhaj to play the father of the bride.

The BBC has previously investigated how Jhaj was able to hire hundreds of children to act as his fawning fans at a fake film premiere in London's Leicester Square in 2023.

Some of the children, who had been hired from casting agencies, were as young as six.

Teenage girls told the BBC that they had been asked to scream for him and try to touch him, without being told his real identity by the agencies.

Then in June last year, Jhaj was seen giving gifts to children outside dance auditions for another production - he was recognised by a parent who had seen the BBC article.

Two months later, and following the BBC's further investigation, Jhaj was filmed posing naked in front of a mocked-up BBC News lorry in London which had been set on fire.

For the mock wedding at Disneyland Paris, which was to be filmed by Jhaj's team, around 100 French extras had been recruited to take part.

The BBC understands that he appeared in front of a judge in Meaux, north-east of Paris, on Monday and was charged with fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, and identity theft and placed in pretrial detention.

Preliminary findings also stated that he had allegedly been "made-up professionally so that his face appeared totally different from his own", according to the French prosecutor.

Jhaj has been on the sex offenders register since 2016 and has spent time in prison. He is subject to restrictions on his freedoms under the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Since he was released from prison, he has repeatedly staged productions involving children or young people.

BBC News can reveal that some videos of these productions were uploaded to a YouTube account styled as an official performer's channel.

The account received more than six million views and had over 12 million subscribers.

A video on a different channel included secretly filmed footage of one of the 15-year-old victims he was convicted of sexually exploiting.

Her family has told the BBC that Jhaj "destroyed" her life and said it's unacceptable that YouTube allowed the video to be watched for entertainment for four years.

Videos of the productions remained on YouTube for years until last September, when the BBC alerted Google, which owns the platform.

It told the BBC at the time that it takes users' safety seriously, but offered no explanation as to how an account featuring a man with almost no profile or success had 12 million subscribers, or why the videos were not removed.

Over the past two years, the BBC has spoken to videographers, production assistants and technicians who worked on some of the events before they discovered Jhaj's real identity.

Their records show that the cost of hiring casts and venues has run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The cost of hiring the area in front of the Odeon cinema in London's Leicester Square, which hosts red carpet events for major Hollywood premieres, would have run into tens of thousands of pounds.

French outlet BFMTV reported that the fake wedding at Disneyland may have cost organisers more than €130,000 (£110,000).

It remains unclear how these elaborate productions have been funded.

The French prosecutor said the Ukrainian girl arrived in France two days before the Disneyland event – but had not been a victim of either physical or sexual violence and had not been "forced to play the role" of a bride.

The prosecutor's statement also said that Disneyland Paris had been "deceived" and that the organiser had used a fake Latvian ID to hire the venue. Disneyland Paris can be rented by members of the public outside opening hours.

In a statement, the UK's Metropolitan Police said:

"A 39-year-old man is wanted by the Met Police for breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a breach of a Sex Offenders' Register notification requirement.

"We are aware the man has been arrested in France for other matters and officers are in contact with the French authorities."

Description

A 24-year-old man from Lewisham has been given a one year and four month prison sentence after sexually assaulting six women on board trains in London.

Following a British Transport Police investigation, Zevenor Gordon from Glenton Road, Lewisham pleaded guilty to six counts of Sexual Assault at Woolwich Crown Court on Thursday 5 June.

He was handed a 16 month prison sentence, a 10 year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and must sign the Sex Offenders register for the next 10 years.

The SHPO prevents him from approaching, gesturing, or making any action that can cause harassment, alarm or distress or be intimidating to a woman or girl in a public place or on public transport and cannot enter any female public toilets.  

On six separate occasions from December 2023 to March 2024 Gordon sexually assaulted six women

On Saturday 9 December 2023, a 27-year-old woman was travelling to Dalston Junction when Gordon attempted to engage her in conversation before sexually assaulting her.

Days later on Thursday 14 December Gordon followed a woman in her fifties when she got off the tube at Dalston Junction before sexually assaulting her and jumping back on the tube.

On Wednesday 7 February 2024 Gordon sexually assaulted a woman in her mid-twenties on the platform at Baker Street station.

On Monday 26 February a 32-year-old woman was walking through London Bridge station when she too was sexually assaulted by Gordon.

On Monday 11 March a young girl in her school uniform was sexually assaulted by Gordon as she boarded the tube at Cutty Sark station.

Just two days later he sexually assaulted another woman in her early twenties at Cutty Sark station while was waiting on the platform to board the tube.

Gordon was arrested at his home following positive ID checks by officers.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Gemma Lee said

away after each sexual assault thanks to our fast acting officers we were able to ID him and bring him to justice.

“It is testament to the six victims who supported this case and by reporting their crimes that helped to build the picture of Gordons predatory behaviour.

"The Sexual Harm Prevention Order should act as a warning to others that we take all reports of sexual offences and unwanted sexual behaviour seriously and will support victims throughout our investigations.”

Description

A man who subjected a child to years of horrific sexual abuse has been jailed for more than two decades.

Caetano Mauricio Vas, 54, formerly of Lady Margaret Road in Southhall, was sentenced to 25 years in prison at Swindon Crown Court today (05/06).

A jury found Vas guilty of four counts of rape of a child under 13, two counts of sexual assault by penetration, one count of inciting a girl under the age of 13 into sexual activity and one count of sexual assault. 

Vas sexually abused his victim from when she was just eight years old which massively impacted all aspects of her life and left her feeling suicidal.

He instilled fear in her by claiming he'd release inappropriate photographs of her if she told anyone about his vile abuse.

The offences took place in Swindon between 2014 and 2016 but the victim bravely broke her silence in 2021.

Vas denied the offences and the case went to trial in March. During this, the victim recalled her traumatic abuse to a jury who found the defendant guilty on March 17.

In a statement read to the court, the victim said: "It is hard to understand how one person could have such an impact.

"His actions have affected me in so many ways, which I have to cope with daily and I will probably have to cope with for the rest of my life.

"I always knew Mauricio wasn’t going to admit what he did. I was always prepared to give evidence. I was nervous but I hope that I am becoming stronger, even though at times I feel so weak.

"Mauricio ruined my childhood. Even though I am an adult now, I still feel like I want that childhood that I missed out on.

"No matter what happens to Mauricio now, I will never get all those years back that I lost because of what happened."

Detective Constable Chloe Smith, from Wiltshire Police's Child Abuse Investigation Team, supported the victim from when she first reported the abuse up to the day Vas was sentenced.

DC Smith said: "I would like to commend the victim for her immense courage and patience throughout the process of bringing Vas to justice.

"Child predators like Vas have no place in our society and we will do our utmost to deal with them robustly while supporting the victims who are left with life-long trauma as a result of their heinous actions."

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A man who groped a woman at a London Underground station has been sentenced. 

Igor Lagadin, 53, of Senior Street in Paddington, pleaded guilty to sexual assault. 

The incident happened on March 24 last year after Lagadin got off a District line train at Earl’s Court station, prosecutor Edmund Blackman said. 

“He groped a young woman’s bottom as she walked up the stairs, she was perhaps young enough to be his daughter,” Mr Blackman said. 

“She followed him and challenged him. He made an apologetic gesture and said ‘I’m sorry’. He was pointed out and subsequently arrested.” 

In a statement the victim said she avoided train stations for weeks as she was scared someone would try to touch her again. 

She said: “As a woman taking public transport is always a risk to be honest. 

“This is not the first time someone touched me on public transport but it’s the first time I took action because if people like this man feel like they can touch women and get away with it, he would definitely have done it again.” 

Lagadin, who works as a porter, claimed he touched her accidentally but after watching the CCTV Judge Freya Newbury said it was clearly intentional. 

Judge Newbury said: “It’s objectifying, weird and totally inappropriate. I’m sure the defendant understands that, he may well have a mother, sister or daughter and reflect on this.” 

Lagadin was given a one-year community order including an unpaid work requirement. 

He will also be required to sign the sex offenders register for five years. 

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A plasterer from Catford who sent sexual messages and photos to a 13-year-old girl has avoided prison. 

Mark Ginn, 41, sent the sexual messages on Facebook in October 2023. 

Within days Ginn found himself confronted by members of an online paedophile hunter group. 

Ginn later pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and two counts of attempting to incite a girl to engage in sexual activity.   

The charges state that sent an indecent photo of his penis and requested sexual photos of the young girl.   

Ginn appeared at Woolwich Crown Court for sentencing on Wednesday, May 28. 

He received a two-year sentence which was suspended for two years – meaning he left the court a free man. 

The sentence includes 100 hours of unpaid work, sex offenders treatment requirements and a 10 year sexual harm prevention order. 

He will also be required to sign the sex offenders register for the next 10 years.