Latest Offenders Nottingham

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A teacher ended his career in disgrace after being caught with 117 child porn videos and over 20,000 photos.

James Cullen's downfall was revealed in court where he admitted taking the material off the internet over three years at his home in Lewis Crescent, Annesley.

Using a hearing loop to help follow the case, he was sent to prison for ten months after admitting downloading indecent images. City magistrates imposed a five-year sexual harm prevention order to stop a repeat.

When he initially faced court, a deputy district judge said "although he was a teacher at the time, this was not committed as part of that employment".

Daniel Pietryka, prosecuting, told Nottingham Magistrates' Court the downloads were dated between January 2014 and December 2017.

Police officers seized electrical equipment and found 12 videos in Category B, the second level of seriousness .

They then discovered 95 videos from the third level and 20,182 still photographs.

Mr Pietryka told the court: "He initially denied the matters in question, blaming the internet.

"He said he made local searches for nudists and naturalists and these images would appear. He accepted downloading images for his sexual gratification."

Sean Conway, mitigating, urged the magistrates to follow a recommendation from a probation officer, which would have seen the 55-year-old attend a course to prevent further offences.

"The offences were caused by literally 12 links, clicking 12 times and accessing a large number. That is what happened.

"I am not for a second trying to minimise it but that is the truth. He accepts he has done wrong," said Mr Conway.

He resigned from his teaching job before action was taken against him. He also accepted the General Teaching Council would "strike him from the register".

Since then, Cullen has paid for training as an HGV driver and is now doing that job.

"There is a level of remorse and a willingness to get to the root cause and find why he finds himself before the court.

"There is a massive taboo to things like this and I don't seek to minimise that taboo," said Mr Conway who pointed out Cullen had never been in trouble before.

He is currently having hospital treatment and is due to have stitches removed after surgery.

Mr Conway urged the magistrates not to impose "the ultimate sanction" of prison so Cullen can keep working.

After being jailed, an appeal was launched against the sentence and this will be heard at the crown court by a judge and two magistrates. A bail application was made for Cullen while awaiting this hearing.

But it was rejected by magistrate Peter Dexter, who sat with a colleague.

"We have considered this carefully and bail will be refused due to the seriousness of the offending," said Mr Dexter. The case was initially adjourned to await a report from a probation officer.

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A man who was jailed for trying to meet schoolgirl Kayleigh Haywood for sex in the days before she was raped and murdered will be freed after top judges reduce his sentence.

Bruce John Cordwell, of Raleigh Street in Nottingham, was locked up for 43 months at Chester Crown Court in February.

He admitted trying to arrange the commission of a child sexual act.

But his case reached London's Appeal Court today as he successfully challenged his sentence - which was cut to just 12 months.

Given automatic deductions, the court heard Cordwell has now "served his sentence" and is due for immediate release.

20-year-old Cordwell, sent 15-year-old Kayleigh a series of sexually explicit texts just days before she was raped and murdered by 29-year-old Stephen Beadman.

Her body was found dumped near a lake in Ibstock in Leicestershire.

The discovery came five days after Kayleigh, who was from Measham, was last seen getting off a bus near Ibstock Community College.

Beadman was last year handed a life sentence after he admitted the teenager's murder.

An accomplice, 28-year-old Luke Harlow who initially made contact with Kayleigh, was jailed for 12 years for grooming and falsely imprisoning her.

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Updates:

• December 2017: Has now been released
• July 2017: Now using the name ‘Nicola Cherrett’ – Currently held at HMP Foton Hall.

One teenage boy told of his three-year ordeal at the hands of a predator named Nicola Ward.

The lad, now 16, said: “She was funny and intelligent. She used all these posh words and came across as really well spoken.

“But she’d switch after she had a drink or took drugs. She became a different person.”

The school leaver said the abuse began when he was 12. Ward plied him with cocaine and then performed a sex act.

It was the start of a campaign in which she would corner the lad and coerce him into sex acts.

Ward, 34, of Worksop, Notts, was arrested last April after the lad’s father became suspicious.

She was jailed for eight years by Nottingham Crown Court after admitting sexual activity with a child and supplying drugs.

Ward, jailed in January, was sent to Peterborough Prison — making her one of an estimated 100 female child abusers behind bars.

She was moved to a low-security psychiatric unit in July.

Her victim is still having therapy to help him come to terms with the attacks.

He said: “I never thought a woman was capable of something like this.

“It’s ruined my trust in everyone. It’s made me fearful of women.

“But she’s in the gutter where she belongs and I won’t let her ruin my life.”

• Ward has a SOPO indefinitely with two restrictions
• Not to live in a family with a child under 18 No unsupervised contact with a child under 16
• Is banned from Nottinghamshire by way of a court order obtained September 2016
• Banned from Nottinghamshire by way of MAPPA

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A teenage sexual predator has been ordered to be detained indefinitely after carrying out a serious sex assault on a lone jogger at night in Worksop.

The 17-year-old, who can now be named as Jonjo Elswaino, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to a serious sexual assault charge and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

On Wednesday 23rd October, Nottingham Crown Court heard how a woman at a house where Elswaino was staying described him as a sexual predator.

There was stunned silence in the courtroom as it was also said that Elswaino would have killed his victim if he had not been disturbed.

The 52-year-old female, who cannot be named, suffered a broken jaw, which meant she had to have metal plates fitted, a fracture to her right eye socket, a broken nose and excessive bruising to her neck where Elswaino had strangled her and she also lost some teeth.

After the attack, which occurred at around 8.30pm in Eddison Park Avenue on 1st April 2014, she flagged down a passing car and said: Im alive, Im alive, thank god Im alive.

Elswaino, whose mother was in court, sat in the dock with his head bowed for most of the proceedings, wearing a white shirt and black trousers.

Prosecuting, Dawn Pritchard, said: The victim was out jogging that evening, she said that she did feel very well and went out to get some fresh air.

She was wearing her jogging clothes, including jogging bottoms and trainers and she was out just doing her usual circuits.

She heard fast footsteps behind her but didnt look behind her because she just thought it was another jogger.

Two hands came from behind and locked around her and she said she knew something was wrong.

She tried to scream for help but he punched her and dragged her down a grass verge into some trees by her ankles.

She tried to look who it was. He kept punching and kicking her. He started to strangle her and she drifted in and out of consciousness.

When she came back around, she thought it was a nightmare and he said if you start shouting I will kill you and continued to beat her up.

When she regained consciousness again, she said she thought her trouser bottoms had been pulled up and he was gone.

She then managed to scramble back up the grass bank and flag down a motorist who said she was shaking, had suffered serious facial injuries and could hardly speak.

The court heard that the woman used a key to scratch his face during the attack and she spent a number of weeks in three different hospitals.

The attack was so brutal that Elswainos laces and eyelets from his trainers were imprinted on her face.

Judge Michael Pert QC said the blows to the face were like a footballers kick.

The judge was also shown photos of the victim before and after the attack in which he said it was hard to believe it was the same person.

In mitigation, Michael Auty QC, told the court that Elswaino had had a troubled upbringing and had the reading age of a 10-year-old.

He also added it was important to take into account two factors when sentencing Elswaino - his guilty plea and his age.

He is 17. But he is functioning at a level below that, Mr Auty said. It takes a real degree of courage to plead guilty at the first arraignment.

There is nothing like this in his past where he has gone out and vented his frustrations.

He does not have a mental illness but almost certainly has a personality disorder.

On sentencing Elswaino, judge Pert said it was a truly horrific crime and said that it was premeditated and that he believed his version of events to be lies.

Elswaino was given an indeterminate sentence meaning he will only be released when he is considered not to be a threat to the general public. He will not be eligible to be considered for parole until at least 2018. He will also be on the sex offenders register for life.

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A paedophile who carried out a life-threatening sexual assault on a toddler after social services failed to conduct background checks has been jailed for seventeen and a half years.

Christopher Atkins remained impassive in the dock at Nottingham Crown Court as the city's most senior judge described the 32-year-old's offending as being "almost beyond comprehension".

Atkins, from Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire, committed the "wicked and vile" sex attack two years ago after lying to social services about his personal life.

After Atkins was found guilty of sexual assault in July, it emerged that he was already known to the authorities before the offence, having been suspected of abusing another child in the Manchester area.

Sentencing Atkins, the Recorder of Nottingham, Michael Stokes QC, told him: "The child in this case was a vulnerable, innocent little girl when you committed an offence of unspeakable cruelty and perversion, an offence which all right-minded people would regard as repellent.

"You are in my judgment a predatory and sadistic paedophile and unless whatever issues you have are addressed you will present a serious risk of causing harm to other children.

"How any human being could do this to a little girl is almost beyond comprehension, but the fact is you did.

"I have no doubt that you would have been content for the grievously injured child to go without medical attention of any kind."

Atkins, whose offences will now be the subject of a serious case review, was sentenced to 16 years for sexual assault and a consecutive 18-month term for child cruelty.

Atkins, formerly of Westway, Cotgrave, was told he must serve half his sentence before being released on licence.

The victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was treated for severe internal injuries after being taken to hospital, where medical staff also found 18 bruises on her face and scalding to her back.

Detective Inspector Yvonne Dales, of Nottinghamshire's Child Abuse Investigation Unit, said: "Christopher Atkins was a sadistic and controlling individual who put a defenceless child through untold pain and suffering.

"I hope this sentence sends out a message to people who commit offences against children - we will do everything we can to make sure they are brought to justice."