Latest Offenders Plymouth

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A sex offender who raided a pubs cellar to escape with booze worth 2,000 was caught after the landlord posted CCTV pictures on Facebook.

Alex Clough, aged 26, has been jailed for sneaking down the stairs of the Stoke Inn six times to grab spirits, cider and wine.

Clough also spat in the face of a police officer and failed to tell the authorities where he was living, Plymouth Crown Court heard.

He was locked up aged just 14 for attempted rape and robbery in 2007.

But Clough was caught after the burglary when landlord Steve Bowen posted a CCTV picture on Facebook.

Mr Bowen said today: Justice has been done.

He has used the crime to launch an appeal which has raised 200 for homelessness charity Shekinah.

Clough, recently living in Plymouth, pleaded guilty to burglary on December 15.

He also admitted assaulting a police officer in Andover on October 20.

Clough, also known as Sanders, pleaded guilty to failing to register his address with the authorities in that Hampshire town.

Jailing him for a total of seven months, Judge Paul Darlow said: You behaved in a repulsive manner. You then made all the right noises to probation and said you were going to turn your life around.

You show how much you regret your behaviour by going on to burgle the public house.

Judith Constable, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said Mr Bowen noticed the door to the stock room was unlocked following a busy Friday night.

She said he spotted that some of his shelves had been cleaned out.

Miss Constable added that an intruder had taken 21 bottles of spirits, including Smirnoff vodka, Gordons gin, and a box of wine and a box of cider.

The barrister added that CCTV showed a man going up and down the stairs six times to steal the alcohol.

Miss Constable said Mr Bowen posted the image on the pubs Facebook page and Clough was recognised by his parents.

The court heard he handed himself in to police.

Katie Churcher, for Clough, said he had mental health problems and had taken an overdose to end his life.

She added that he had stolen from the pub to try and repay a debt.

Miss Churcher said that he had just started a job doing paving and driveways.

Clough was sent into custody for five years in 2007 for robbing youths in the street. He also pushed a 14-year-old girl into an alley and tried to rape her.

Mr Bowen said after the latest case that he thought justice had been done.

The landlord posted on the pubs page that he loathed and despised Clough.

He added: He was just so brazen. It suggests he is never going to learn.

Mr Bowen said that he had to cancel the staffs Christmas party because of the burglary.

The landlord posted once Clough had been identified: You have robbed me of my Christmas.

He added: We will have a staff party but it is obviously a lot later and it wont be such a grand affair.

Mr Bowen said the pub had raised 200 for Shekinah to help people in need.

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A detective who worked in a child abuse investigation unit has been jailed for abusing a young girl and making "gruesome" indecent images.

Det Con Chris Maitland, of Widey View, Plymouth, had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of sexually touching a child under the age of 13.

He also admitted 12 charges of taking and making indecent images of a child.

The 40-year-old was jailed for five years and four months at Southwark Crown Court.

He is employed in the Met's sexual offences, exploitation and child abuse command.

Maitland was originally arrested on 22 November last year on suspicion of possession and distribution of indecent images of children.

He was re-arrested on 15 March on suspicion of sexual touching, and later charged.

Scotland Yard said he was off duty at the time of the offences and is currently suspended.

When he pleaded guilty, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith referred to the material on his computer as "pretty gruesome".

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Two paedophiles from Devon who sexuality assaulted a child and livestreamed the abuse to an American paedophile via skype have been jailed today, 26th October.

Craig Forbes, 36 from Torquay and Sarah Gotham, 34 from Plymouth were sentenced to a total of 17 years at Plymouth Crown Court.

The pair were found guilty of multiple sexual assaults against a girl under the age of 13. Gotham was jailed for nine years and Forbes for eight years.

They came to the attention of police after the FBI arrested a man in Florida for the possession of indecent images of children, in Florida. Which led them to Kori Ellis, a paedophile in San Francisco who had struck up an online friendship with Gotham and Forbes.

Gotham and Forbes streamed the live abuse; the child victim was believed to have been drugged at the time to Ellis via Skype between December 2012 and March 2013.

First arrested in 2015, Gotham was bailed, with Forbes jailed for 20 months. Devon and Cornwall police travelled to San Francisco in 2016 to obtain a witness statement from Ellis, Ellis also positively identified Gotham as the woman she saw abusing a child via webcam. Forbes and Gotham were re-arrested and later charged.

Detective Sergeant Brian Slade, from the Devon and Cornwall Paedophile Online Investigation Unit, said he was pleased with the outcome of this case:

We welcome the verdict which has led to these depraved people being put behind bars.

Gotham and Forbes carried out horrendous acts on a vulnerable child. While Forbes admitted what he had done, Gotham has acted completely without remorse and has always claimed that she had nothing to do with it. Her defence, which the jury saw through, was that the woman on the live stream was someone else calling themselves Sarah and using her Skype account.

Forbes is clearly a very dangerous sex offender. However hard we find it as a society to believe that females can enter into such actions for their own enjoyment, the fact of the matter is that there is no excusing that both Gotham and Ellis are paedophiles who acted purely for their own pleasure.

Ellis was very open from the start. She gave an extraordinary account about her behaviour and what had happened with Gotham and Forbes. It is unusual for a paedophile to be so frank; she was a compelling witness although her evidence was clearly distasteful, and at times harrowing for the jury to listen to in court.

This was an incredibly complex case, and the police would like to thank both the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and our colleagues in the American law enforcement agencies, who couldnt do enough to help us.

It was also extremely rare for FBI agents to give evidence in person in a UK court. We would also praise the judge and jury in this case who sat later into the evening on a number of days to accommodate the time difference for USA witnesses.

Todays sentence is also testament to how hard our police investigation team has worked to overcome such obstacles to bring this case to court. This sends a very strong message that we will do everything we can to ensure that the victims of such heinous crimes are safeguarded and offenders are brought to justice.

Howard Phillips, Senior Crown Prosecutor, praised the assistance given by international law enforcement which brought these offenders to UK attention.

He said: With the assistance of San Francisco Police Department and the FBI, the CPS was able to secure witness testimony from an American prisoner who later gave evidence in court; that with technical evidence found on devices seized in the USA was used to present a strong case.

This case shows that wherever online sexual abuse is uncovered, we can work with international law enforcement agencies to pursue offenders and bring them before the courts.

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In 2017, (Then aged 14-years-old) Casey cooke from Plymouth was locked up for at least four years and three months after he admitted raping a boy aged six and sexually abusing a two-year-old.

Cooke had pleaded guilty to a total of five offences four of causing or inciting a child into sexual activity and one count of rape.

The court was told that Cooke was left in the company of a two-year-old boy.

The toddlers mother returned to the room to find the younger boys privates out of his nappy and appeared sore and red.

Cooke who was 13 at the time was then discovered to have been telling people at school that he had performed an indecent act upon the toddler.

Police were called and interviewed Cooke who in turn made a full admission.

At the time, with input from a number of authorities including the NSPCC, his school, social workers and the Plymouth Youth Offending Team, police agreed that a caution was the most appropriate course of action.

However the parents of the toddler were not content with the caution being offered.

His sexual offending continued and a few months later Cooke had gone on a trip with a six-year-olds extended family and other children.

He took the younger boy to a toilet cubicle where he performed two indecent acts upon the younger boy.

Later that month, Cooke had again gone with the six-year-olds family and other children to a fast food restaurant as a treat.

As they were walking home, the adult accompanying the children realised they could not see the teen nor the six-year-old.

Retracing his steps he heard screaming and found the six-year-old pinned against a wall, being raped by the teen who had his hand over the younger boys mouth.

When the very very upset boy got home he revealed that 14-year-old Cooke had also performed an indecent act upon him prior to the rape. He also finally revealed the previous sexual assaults on when the teen had urged him not to tell anyone.

Cooke was sentenced to four years and three months. His release date is due within next few months.

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Steven Joyce preyed on four vulnerable boys when he should have been looking after them

A twisted pensioner who serially abused boys at a north Devon boarding school in the 1980s had his too soft sentence doubled by senior judges today.

Steven John Joyce, 66, preyed on four vulnerable schoolboys when he should have been guarding their welfare, London's Appeal Court heard.

He cynically groomed the youngsters by giving them sweets and chocolate eggs, and encouraged them to think of him as a father figure.

Joyce's job at the school was to act as "house-parent" with special responsibility for the pupils' pastoral care.

One victim claimed Joyce had "ruined his life", Lord Justice Davis told the court.

Another told how Joyce regularly took him out of his dormitory at night to abuse him.

Joyce, of Erme Drive in Ivybridge, faced investigations in 1991 and 2011, but it was only in May last year that he was finally brought to book.

He was handed a sentence of seven years and two months after admitting a string of sex crimes - including 11 indecent assaults and two attempts at buggery.

But his case reached the Appeal Courtas lawyers for the Solicitor General, Robert Buckland QC, called for a much tougher sentence.

Lord Justice Davis ruled that the sentence was "far, far too low" - and doubled it to 14 years and four months.

Joyce's own lawyers conceded that his sentence was "low", but insisted it was "not unduly lenient".

Lord Justice Davis, sitting with Mr Justice Stuart-Smith and Mr Justice Soole, took account of Joyce's age and poor health.

But he ruled: "With all due respect to the judge, we have no doubt at all that this sentence was unduly lenient."

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'Dangerous' fugitive Air Training Corps sergeant jailed for abusing three girl cadets

James Reading went on the run two-and-a-half years ago when he was facing serious allegations of sexual assault on three different young members of his troop

A fugitive Air Training Corps sergeant is starting a ten year jail sentence for abusing girl cadets after being caught and brought to justice.

James Reading went on the run two-and-a-half years ago when he was facing serious allegations of sexual assault on three different young members of his troop.

He was found guilty and jailed in his absence for ten years in December 2012. Police alerted Interpol and launched an international manhunt but in the end Reading was arrested in Bicester, Oxfordshire on Tuesday of this week.

He was brought to Exeter Crown Court in custody to face a charge of absconding and his case was adjourned until next month to allow him to get legal representation.

Judge Francis Gilbert, QC, ordered he appear before Judge Erik Salomonsen, who passed the original sentence, and warned him he could receive up to 12 months extra in jail.

Reading was the sergeant in charge of the ATC at Okehampton, North Devon, where he organised parties and sleepovers.

He assaulted one young victim after telling her she may be promoted if she went on night exercises with him and another on the eve of a Remembrance Day parade.

He plied his victims with alcohol at the unofficial parties at the ATC hut where he hid his activities by putting bin bags over the windows as makeshift curtains.

The sergeant invited boys to the parties but sent them on errands or into different rooms while he was carrying out his attacks.

He offered one girl 50 to touch her chest and was caught red handed when one female cadet burst into the hut's kitchen to find him with a topless, terrified and hysterical 14-year-old.

Reading, aged 37, of Knighton Road, Plymouth, denied eight offences of sexual activity with a child or inciting a child to take part in sexual activity but was found guilty in his absence by a jury at Exeter in December 2012.

The offences related to a 14-year-old and two 15-year-olds.

At the end of his trial Judge Erik Salomonsen said:"The ATC fulfils and important role in the community and parents must know they can rely on them to look after their children.

"It goes without saying this applies to their moral as well as their physical welfare and the highest standards should have been adhered to in relation to alcohol and the separation of the sexes during overnight activities.

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A PAEDOPHILE rapist who repeatedly assaulted two young girls has been jailed for 16 years.

Winchester Crown Court heard last week that one of the victims was only nine when Stewart Thomas McDevitt, 50, began abusing her.

McDevitt, from Amesbury, denied the abuse when he was arrested in March last year but was found guilty of eight counts of indecent assault and two of rape by a jury sitting at Portsmouth Crown Court following a one-week trial starting on July 2.

He was cleared of a further three counts of indecent assault.

Speaking after the sentencing, DC Darren Ambrose of Wiltshire Police said: McDevitt preyed on two innocent girls, which had a long-lasting and devastating effect on them.

They have shown great courage in coming forward and speaking to police and we hope that this case will encourage any other victims of sexual abuse to report it.

McDevitt has continued to deny any involvement but the jury found him guilty and the prison sentence imposed today reflects the vile nature of his crime.

McDevitt, now of Barne Barton, Plymouth, was also made subject to a sexual offences prevention order.

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Jason Elton John Waller, 33, was convicted in 2000 of indecent assaults against three children and sentenced to three years in prison.

But he went on the run from his home in Plymouth in March this year.

Today Waller was placed on the Most Wanted website run by the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) as Devon and Cornwall Police attempted to track him down.

Detective Superintendent John Clements, head of public protection at the force, said: “By going missing the risk that Waller poses to children is increased.

“So far we have done our level best to find him through conventional police means and now we want to extend our hunt for him and are using the power of the internet to do just that.”

Waller, who lived in Basingstoke two years ago at no fixed address, is known to live a nomadic lifestyle that has taken him to a number of towns and cities in England and Wales.

He is described as white, 5ft 8in, overweight, with short brown receding hair and speaks with a West Country accent. He has previously had a moustache and beard.

Waller is wanted for failure to comply with notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

CEOP chief executive Jim Gamble said that since the Most Wanted website was launched three years ago, 14 out of 17 offenders posted on the site have been located.

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A paedophile who boasted of beating his own "record" of sexually abusing 142 boys in a year, has been given a life sentence at Plymouth Crown Court.

William Goad, 60, of Ford Park Road, Plymouth, was described in court as a "voracious, calculating, predatory and violent" paedophile.

Goad had pleaded guilty to 14 specimen counts of serious sexual assault and two counts of indecent assault.

The first count of abuse admitted by Goad took place in 1965.

Goad also received a concurrent 12-month sentence for obtaining a passport by deception in 1998.

"It is believed there has been no single defendant with more victims that this man" Martin Meeke QC.

He had admitted obtaining a passport by deception "with a view to escaping from this country and escaping the consequences of what he had done", the court was told.

Martin Meeke QC, prosecuting, said Goad groomed his victims by offering them well-paid jobs in his shop and inviting them back to his home.

The court was told he once boasted of beating his own "record" of sexually abusing 142 boys in one year - a claim denied by the defendant.

Mr Meeke said Goad abused some of his victims three to four times a week for two to three years.

He said: "Goad has been a voracious, calculating, predatory and violent paedophile for 40 years.

"It is believed there has been no single defendant with more victims than this man."

'Life means life'

Goad claimed he had himself been sexually abused at school, but he refused to help a police investigation into the allegations.

Passing sentence, Judge William Taylor said Goad was a "dangerous paedophile".

He gave Goad credit for pleading guilty to the offences at an earlier hearing in September, but said he was in no doubt that Goad posed an ongoing serious danger to young men.

Judge Taylor said: "I make it as plain as I can that you will not be released until the authorities are perfectly satisfied that you no longer pose any threat to anyone.

"It may well mean in your case life will mean just that."

The hearing was regularly punctuated with angry shouts from the public gallery, which was packed with Goad's victims and their families.