Latest Offenders Warrington

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A SEX OFFENDER who attacked a security guard at Warrington Hospital has been jailed.

The assault took place last month after Michael Hayes attacked the worker.

And just eight days before, the 28-year-old committed another abusive offence against a man in Warrington.

This meant that Hayes, of Yardley Avenue, Dallam, had committed both offences while on post-sentence supervision.

He also breached the requirements of his post-sentence supervision after he failed to attend an appointment and failed to notify the police of his whereabouts as he was instructed to do so under the terms of his status as a registered sex offender.

Hayes appeared before Warrington Magistrates Court last month after pleading guilty to assault by beating of an emergency worker, using threatening or abusive behaviour with the intent to cause fear and failing to comply with the requirements of post-custodial supervision.

The magistrates claimed that the offence was so serious because Hayes was offending while on post-sentence supervision.

He was handed a 16-week prison sentence.

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A MAN who complained about living next door to a paedophile has been jailed - for being a paedophile.

Darren Higham previously claimed he was furious about living next door to the sex offender, but he is now behind bars for sexually abusing a child over a period of four years.

He subjected a child to horrific sexual abuse from the age of seven until she was around 11.

The abuse ranged from kissing and touching the child to forcing her to perform sex acts on him on more than one occasion.

Higham, of Chaffinch Close, Birchwood, appeared before Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to four counts of sexual assault of a child under 13 and inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity.

The 53-year-olds sick offending came to light when he was spotted with the victim, said prosecutor David Watson.

Mr Watson said how the person who saw them felt like something wasnt right so contacted social services.

The victim later told her mum that she had been sexually abused by Higham for ages.

The child told the police how Higham, a self-employed musician, used to kiss her and put his penis on her and recalled on one occasion how he had touched her.

She also told them how he asked her not to tell anyone about the abuse as it would mean he would be sent to prison.

The court heard how the victim said this made her feel scared and sometimes she would pretend to be tired and fall asleep so he would stop.

When these allegations were put towards Higham, he self-harmed and was hospitalised but was later interviewed by police and admitted to the abuse.

He told officers that something triggered inside of him but he told them he had no sexual interest in children.

Mr Watson read out a statement from the victims mother who claimed the sexual abuse committed by Higham has had a massive impact.

The statement said that the victim sometimes feels unloved and is undergoing counseling and trauma therapy as a result.

Defending, Gary Lawrenson said that prior to these offences, Higham was a man of good character.

He told the court how Higham has shown genuine remorse and is willing to engage in any work with the probation services.

Mr Lawrenson said: He does not seek to minimise his actions in any way, shape or form.

And in a letter to the court, Higham said: There are no words to say how much devastation and remorse I feel. I stand before you with acceptance of any punishment that you deem fit.

Higham was handed a four-year prison sentence, issued with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years and is subject to a restraining order for 10 years.

Detective constable Chris Orme said: This young person showed great courage coming forward to report what had been happening.

This ultimately meant that Darren Higham could be put in front of the court, where he pleaded guilty to these awful crimes.

I hope the sentence brings some closure for the victim.

Cheshire Police is committed to protecting children and bringing to justice those who seek to harm them.

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A MAN has been jailed for repeatedly sexually abusing a young boy over a four year period during the early 1990s.

Philip Boardman, of Winstanley Close in Hood Manor, committed the offences - which began when he was aged 14 - while living in the St Helens area.

The 45-year-old denied four counts of indecent assault, one of which was for multiple offending, but was found guilty following a trial and was appearing at Liverpool Crown Court for sentencing.

The court heard how Boardman repeatedly molested the boy and forced him to touch him indecently.

The court heard that two of the counts would now be classed as rape. They related to two specific instances of the oral rape of the child.

Geoffrey Lowe, prosecuting, read a victim impact statement from the boy now aged in his late 30s in which he described suffering from insomnia, anxiety and depression.

My depression causes me to have no interest in activities and I lack any motivation to do anything on most days," he wrote.

"My depression makes me feel hopeless and empty and angry a lot of the time. I also have terrible self image and have no self importance.

What happened in my youth destroyed my mental health and my mental health has been a constant obstacle to everything else in my life.

"I have no happy time to get back to. I have no future to focus on. I have never been unafraid or felt safe. Ive never been happy. I have never had a good opinion of the world or the people in it. I trust no one and never relax or let my guard down. That's what it did to me."

The court heard that Boardman, a father of two, had no previous convictions.

Passing sentence, Judge David Swinnerton, said: "You have a good work history as a healthcare assistant in hospitals, an ambulance technician and more recently for a medical company transporting confidential items including specimens.

"Your wife describes you as a caring, fun loving and devoted dad and a very caring husband. Your parents-in-law speak highly of you.

"But that happy and productive adult life hid a dark secret."

Judge Swinnerton explained that at the time of Boardman's offences, in 1994, the maximum sentence as a 17-year-old, he could have received would have been 12 months detention.

The judge said that the culpability of the repeated abuse and the severe psychological harm inflicted would not be adequately reflected by a sentence limited to 12 months.

"I agree that the passage of time does not imbue a defendant with any greater culpability or moral responsibility than he had at the time of the offence, but our understanding of harm and culpability in sexual offences has changed since 1994.

"In my judgement, this is one of those cases where it is appropriate to go beyond the maximum that could have been imposed when you were 17 and in the interests of justice to do so."

He added: "You have not accepted that you have done anything wrong and have shown no remorse."

Judge Swinnerton said if Boardman was an adult committing the offences now, then he would have jailed him for around 16 years.

He sentenced a tearful Boardman to four years in prison and added that he would have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

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A SEX offender who is banned from being drunk in Warrington Bus Interchange has been jailed after breaching the court order.

Kim Rampley was handed sexual offence prevention order in May 2006 at Manchester Crown Court for sexually assaulting a woman.

This was then replaced by an indefinite sexual harm prevention order in June 2015.

But the 69-year-old has shown little regard for these orders, having now breached them more than a dozen times.

Rampley, of no fixed address but formerly of Grange Avenue in Latchford, appeared before Warrington Magistrates Court on Monday, March 21, and admitted breaching a SHPO in relation to an incident three days previously.

On this occasion, he was caught intoxicated in the bus station which he is barred from doing under the order on the day before his birthday.

He was jailed for 20 weeks by magistrates.

One prior breach saw Rampley jailed for two years in October 2007 after harassing five females including two 13-year-old girls in their school uniforms in Warrington within an hour of being released from prison.

While serving this sentence, he sent a letter to prison magazine Inside Time complaining about the poor trainspotting opportunities at HMP Walton, also offering a guide on his favourite prisons for this hobby.

More recently, he was jailed for 30 weeks in September last year for another breach in Warrington Bus Interchange having drunkenly staggered around the station and soiled himself after being refused entry to a service.

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A PERVERT pestered eight girls aged as young as 11 for naked pictures and even attempted to meet up with two for sex.

But, unbeknown to him, shop worker Jordan Hince was actually being ensnared in a paedophile hunter sting.

The 22-year-old, from Orford, was jailed for two-and-a-half years on Friday, March 25, for his seven-day campaign of online grooming.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the defendant was involved in lewd chats with the decoy Facebook profiles, who claimed to be aged between over the space of a week in August last year.

He also sent a number of the accounts images in which he was exposing himself.

Hince, of Poplars Avenue, told them that they would become really cool if they sent him indecent images claiming that all girls do it.

The B&M shelf stacker urged a 12-year-old to open her legs and send a picture of her fu fu and pleaded with her not to tell anyone, adding that it would be a secret between them.

He said that doing so would make her the most popular and queen of every school.

Hince suggested to an 11-year-old that they meet up and walk around town before going to her grandmas house for sex.

The paedophile told her that all she had to do was get naked and he would do the rest and that he would help her learn before their meeting.

He also asked one 14-year-old if she would be his secret girlfriend, telling her: I love you babe.

Hince then made arrangements to meet up with her at Central Station so that they could have secret sex and invited her to stay the night after asking if he could undress her slowly and take pictures of her naked.

But he was instead confronted by the paedophile hunters, who made a citizens arrest before calling the police.

The defendant who has no previous convictions confessed to officers that he knew what he was doing but wasnt a bad person and admitted that he was turned on.

Hince admitted eight counts of attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child, four of attempting to cause a child to look at sexual activity and two charges of attempting to meet a child after grooming during an earlier hearing.

Defence barrister Michael Bagley told the court: Its a depressing and saddening picture.

It seems he has become a socially isolated individual.

Hes a lonely individual and he has a difficult background. Hes not academically a high-flying individual.

Over the course of seven days, hes done something of which hes deeply ashamed.

He didnt seem to understand the seriousness of it at the time. He is 22, but a good deal younger than that emotionally and intellectually too.

Because of his character, it may just be possible to suspend the sentence with a view to actively engage with him so that societys concern in the long run can be addressed.

But Hince who was supported in the public gallery by his mum and granddad was imprisoned and handed an indefinite sexual harm prevention order, as well as being told to pay a victim surcharge.

Sentencing, judge David Hale said: Over the period of about a week last summer, you engaged in contact with a number of Facebook profiles purporting to be girls aged 11 to 14 years old.

You did that quite deliberately.

As it turned out, none of them were real children but you werent to know that. You rapidly moved the conversations towards sexual matters.

Worryingly, two of them you expressed an interest in meeting.

In relation to the 14-year-old, arrangements were made and you went to see her hoping to have sex with her.

Fortunately, they were paedophile hunters who behaved very respectfully. You were arrested and nothing in the event happened, but you wanted it to.

If you found a 14-year-old girl, you wanted to have sex with her.

You have led a lonely and unhealthy life, only supported by your mother.

The number of attempts you made to contact children and the fact that you did eventually go and meet one and make plans for another make it impossible for me to release you today.

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A PERVERT who was caught out in a paedophile hunter sting has been sent back to jail.

Andrew Mayers, of Kendrick Street in Warrington town centre, was originally jailed for 16 months at Chester Crown Court in December 2018 after being found guilty of a range of sexual offences.

This came after the now 44-year-old operating with the username Daddys Girls contacted an online profile he believed was a child and sent a string of vile messages attempting to the groom the youngster.

But the account was actually a decoy being operated by the Safeguarding the Innocent paedophile hunter group.

Mayers was also told to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years and handed a sexual harm prevention order of the same length, restricting his use of the internet and contact with under 16s.

But, in January this year, he was caught in possession of a mobile phone which he refused to produce to police a violation of the court order.

And he was imprisoned for a further 16 months at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, February 21, having admitted breaching a SHPO during an earlier hearing.

Mayers was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of 156.

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A man who sexually assaulted a teenage girl was caught after she managed to call a family member who heard much of the attack.

Connor Helps attacked the girl at a flat in Warrington town centre after taking her there in September 2019.

Helps was the second man to attack the girl, despite her being just 17. Another man is currently serving a prison sentence for his crimes.

Arthur Gibson, prosecuting, said Helps had already known the girl but contact between them had stopped when he went to prison for separate offences.

After his release he got back in touch with her and invited her back to a flat in Warrington in mid-September.

Mr Gibson said that despite the girl's continued protests he tried to force his hands down her leggings and assaulted her.

He said: "What the defendant did not know was that at some point during this incident she had managed to call [a family member] and kept him on the phone.

"He had heard much of the incident."

A victim impact statement read out to the court from the girl said the attack continued to have significant effects on her.

Richard Orme, defending, said that despite a difficult upbringing Helps had showed little sign of criminality in his youth before "going off the rails" in his early 20s and committing a number of violent offences.

Mr Orme said: "On any view he has had a troubled childhood. His mother left the family when he was seven years old.

"He then went into foster care with a number of families.

"Such a background will have inevitably had a detrimental impact."

He continued: "I do not use that as an excuse. His behaviour in this case is inexcusable.

"I use it to lay out, perhaps, why at the age of 23 this defendant went off the rails."

Judge Stuart Driver, QC, said Helps' crime was particularly serious because of the trauma his victim had already been through, despite him accepting that Helps likely did not know about this.

Judge Driver said: "Your victim was vulnerable.

"She had already been the victim of a sexual offence, although you may not have known that and I sentence you on the basis that you did not know.

"She was only 17 years of age and her most recent statement shows that this crime had a significant impact on her."

Helps, of no fixed abode, was jailed for 38 months after pleading guilty to assault by penetration.

He will also have to sign on to the sex offenders register for life.

He was also sentenced to one month in prison after failing to turn up to a previous court hearing. That sentence will be served concurrently

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A rapist took a mum out on a first date just hours before "crawling like a monster" into her teenage daughter's bed and raping her.

Matthew Philbin and the woman went bowling before heading back to her home for a few drinks when he briefly met her child.

But later that night, he said he was going to the toilet but instead crept into his victim's bedroom and attacked her.

Liverpool Crown Court heard this morning that Philbin, of Dukinfield Farm, Warrington, took his victim's mum out earlier this year but later took advantage of her inviting him back to her home to carry out the booze and coke-fuelled attack.

After briefly meeting his victim, who then went to bed in the evening, Philbin continued his date with her mother at their home - but interviews with police would later state that he went upstairs numerous times "to nose around" the upper floors of the house.

At that time, after he drinking heavily and taking cocaine, he went up to the child's room at the top of the house, walked to her bed and began to crawl on top of her.

She described Philbin as looking like a monster as he attacked her, grabbing her hair and trying to pull off her clothes.

The teenager fought back, kicking him in an attempt to stop him from raping her, but Philbin continued to climb on top of her and threatened to shoot her if she screamed further.

He made her get out of bed and use her phone's torch so he could look at her as he carried out the vile attack, which left her with numerous injuries to her face and head.

When her mother, who had become suspicious of Philbin's absence, heard her screams and rushed to her room he told his victim "to pretend it was all a bad dream" and that it had not really happened.

Her mother immediately saw how distressed her daughter was and managed to get Philbin into the back garden.

Prosecuting, Lee Bonner said: "He was subsequently locked in the back garden wearing only his shorts and socks.

"He had damaged the back door trying to re-enter the house.

"In her statement after the attack the victim's mother described how she felt it was her fault for letting him in the house."

Philbin would deny the attack in interviews with police but later pleaded guilty.

Simeon Evans, defending, said there was little to mitigate the "shocking and appalling" attack - but said that Philbin's attack had been driven by the drugs and drink in his system and that he now understood the disturbing nature of his crime.

He said: "Whilst he does not seek to blame the substances for this case, it was clearly a factor.

"That is perhaps something your honour could take into account, as well as that he has no previous offences of a similar nature."

Calling Philbin a "predatory, violent and determined rapist", Judge Driver jailed him for 13 years, eight of which he will serve in prison with an extended five years on licence.

Addressing the sobbing Philbin, who appeared over video link over HMP Altcourse, the judge told him he only pleaded guilty when presented with "overwhelming evidence" and said: "I am unconvinced that your expressions of remorse are genuine."

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A paedophile working as a landscape gardener was caught with child sex abuse images for a second time.

John Andrews was previously been spared jail for having indecent images of children.

But today the 36-year-old was jailed after he was again caught with sick images of boys aged between 12 and 17.

The judge, Recorder Ian Unsworth, QC, sentencing today at Liverpool Crown Court, said the background to the case was "of significance".

In 2016 Andrews was handed a three-year community order for possession of Category C indecent images of children.

He was also ordered to comply with a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and told to complete a sex offender treatment program.

The judge said following the order, Andrews was in breach of his Sex Offenders Register requirement because "you saw fit to go on holiday to Tenerife without informing authorities".

In August last year police went to Andrews' home to ensure he was complying with court orders.

The judge said: "You provided some details about your sex life and other matters as part of the visit, in line with the conditions."

When the officer checked his mobile phone Andrews "appeared to have been looking at pornography, which contradicted what you had been saying".

The phone was sent for further analysis and officers discovered 22 child sex abuse images, 12 of which were unique and not duplicates.

The images showed boys aged between 12 and 17 and three of the images involved rape.

Two of the images were Category B and there were 17 Category C images, the court heard.

The judge said the site was accessed in June, July and August 2020.

Brian Treadwell, prosecuting, said he had searched on the site for terms such as "first time boys" and "very young friends".

Mr Treadwell said Andrews has four previous convictions for six offences including damaging property in 2014, battery in the same year, failing to comply with notification requirements in 2016 and possession of controlled drugs in the same year.

Simeon Evans, defending, said the pictures had been stored on the phone as a consequence of Andrews clicking through links on the website, and said he had not been actively looking for each image through a search engine.

Mr Evans said Andrews has his own gardening and landscaping business.

He said following his previous conviction he undertook a sex offender program which had "not had the best press" and had "led to a complete overhaul of the system".

Mr Evans said: "He is a man who has been able to stay out of trouble for quite a long time."

He said there was a "realistic prospect of rehabilitation" and said he has a medical "XXY issue" and "might suggest Mr Andrews is someone who needs a bit more help than most".

The court heard Mr Andrew's partner, who sat in the public gallery, had provided a character reference.

Mr Evans said: "I submit in this case Mr Andrews could be given one more chance to grasp the help there is."

Andrews, of Cooper Avenue, Warrington, admitted possessing 22 indecent images of children.

The judge said: "I have carefully considered this case. It does present a sentencing challenge."

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A SERIAL paedophile has been jailed again for sexually abusing young girls aged as young as six.

Allan McCurry, from Birchwood, was handed seven years behind bars at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, November 22.

The 71-year-old armed forces veteran was previously given a court martial for similar offences four years ago, and was already serving a 14-year stretch in prison.

He sexually abused two girls for more than a decade back in the 1970s and 1980s, targeting them from the age of four onwards.

The abuse continued until they were aged 14 and 16.

Years later, these victims came forward and McCurry, previously of Deanwater Close, was prosecuted by the Army as some of the offences occurred while he was serving abroad meaning he could not legally be tried before a British court.

He was convicted of 12 sexual offences in 2015, including two counts of rape, the attempted rape of a child, indecently assaulting a child and gross indecency with a child.

But the pensioner was put on trial again for sexually assaulting the daughter of one of his previous victims and two other young girls.

Some of his sick crimes were committed in Warrington, while others took place in Aldershot where the former soldier had served.

His victims were aged between six and 15 at the time of the offences, while he tried to rape one of the girls when they were aged just 13.

McCurry was found guilty by a jury of eight counts of indecent assault and one of attempted rape.

The pensioner, who maintains his innocence, was ordered to serve an additional seven years in jail by judge Stuart Driver and told to sign the sex offenders register for life.

Judge Driver also imposed an indefinite sexual harm prevention order on the rapist.

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A Catholic priest's career was in ruins after he was jailed for a serious child sexual offence at Liverpool Crown Court .

Fr Matthew Jolley, who was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Liverpool in 2015, pleaded guilty to one offence of arranging the commission of a child sex offence.

Jolley, 32, of Rhona Drive, Great Sankey, Warrington , appeared by videolink from HMP Altcourse to be sentenced this afternoon.

At the time the offence was committed last month, Jolley, who served as Catholic priest in Widnes , had just returned to the UK from Belgium and was due to travel to Rome for a two-year period of study.

The court heard Jolley came to the attention of authorities when he engaged in disgusting chat on various online platforms - including Grindr -about having sex with a two-year-old boy.

Jolley thought he was communicating with the child's father, but in fact it was an undercover law enforcement officer trained to root out such perverts.

Alaric Walmsley, prosecuting, said Jolley "created a profile as a 13-year-old bisexual male on Grindr, using the name Breed Me".

Over a series of exchanges with the undercover operator, Jolley spoke about his sexual interest in young children, both male and female, with no age limit "so long as they're cute."

When the undercover operator mentioned a two-year-old son, Jolley's response to the fictitious child was "whether I could share him".

The interaction then moved to the Kik messenger service, and continued on the Wickr encrypted platform, with Jolley asking for indecent pictures and videos.

Mr Walmsley said Jolley then arranged to go to the dad's address in Hale Village, in order to sexually abuse his son.

During the meeting Jolley again discussed how he planned to abuse the child.

When the undercover operative revealed his true identity to Jolley, the shamed priest struggled and tried to escape but was restrained and arrested on suspicion of child sex offences.

Mark Shanks, defending, said Jolley felt "utterly ashamed and appalled" by his behaviour. Mr Shanks said that if a two-year-old boy had been produced, Jolley said "he would have run a mile."

Mr Shanks added: "His job and his interests were separate and he did not join the church to engage in activity with children.

"His career is ruined and he intends to take another job on his release."

Sentencing Jolley to 40 months in prison, Recorder Jeremy Lasker said: "Your words and actions and intentions seem to me wholly inconsistent with the teachings of the Catholic church.

"You have done nothing but a great disservice to the Church."

On top of the custodial sentence Jolley was ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

Following sentencing, Detective Constable Louise Murphy, of Cheshire's On-line Child Abuse Investigation Team, said: "Jolley committed this terrible offence whilst holding a position of trust.

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POLICE hunting a convicted rapist who was on the run after escaping from prison have made an arrest.

Sex offender Daniel Thompson, from Warrington, absconded from an open prison in south Gloucester.

The 34-year-old was last seen at HMP Leyhill at 11.45am yesterday, Friday, where he was serving a sentence for raping a woman in Warrington in 2009.

However police say he was found and arrested near to Leyhill in South Gloucester by Avon and Somerset Police earlier today, Saturday.

Thompson, of Wilderspool Causeway, raped his victim twice after he forced his way into her flat in April 2009 as she returned from volunteering at her church.

He was given an indeterminate sentence by the courts after the hearing - in one of the worst attacks of recent times.

The jury, which consisted of five women and seven men, heard during the six-day trial there was a one in a billion chance that blood found on defendant Daniel Thompsons sweatshirt belonged to anyone other than the victim or one of her relations.

Judge Stephen Clarke said: These were horrific offences. In the scale of rape they were in the most serious bracket.

The evidence was extremely strong, if not overwhelming.

When she (the victim) was giving evidence on a number of occasions she was actually physically sick.

A police statement said: "If you see Daniel Thompson, who may be using the name Gavin Barry, in Warrington or elsewhere in Cheshire do not approach him.

"Instead call us on 999, quoting IML 484890.

"Alternatively you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

We also want to hear from anyone who has any information regarding his whereabouts."

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A DJ has been jailed after sexually assaulting a young woman while she slept and videoing the act on his mobile phone.

Michael Brady, from Dallam, also gained access to his victim’s phone and emailed himself explicit pictures and videos of the woman.

Today, Thursday, the 41-year-old was jailed for four years at Liverpool Crown Court.

The court heard that Brady, of Hindle Avenue, may have sexually assaulted the woman up to '10 or 11 times' over the course of a number of months in the lead up to this attack in the early hours of a Friday morning in February 2017.

His victim was present as he was sentenced and tearfully read a statement out to the court.

She said: "What has happened to me has affected me more than I ever thought it would - I used to be a confident person, but now I feel lost and broken.

"I feel like the person I once was will never come back - I cry almost on an almost daily basis and I feel nervous about leaving the house.

"Even if there is a knock at the door I feel anxious - this is not the person I used to be.

"After what happened to me , I don't want to be here anymore - it would be easier if I wasn't.

"I feel lost and I have had to deal with what has happened while he lives as though he's done nothing wrong - I don’t understand why he has done this to me, I feel like he's broken me."

Brady, who deleted the videos he had recorded in a bid to cover up his actions, kept his head bowed as his victim addressed the court.

She added that she has suffered from depression, anxiety and sleeping problems since the incident and had even attempted to take her own life.

He had admitted charges sexual assault, voyeurism and securing unauthorised access to data during an earlier hearing at Warrington Magistrates Court last month.

Barrister James Coutts, representing Brady, told the court that his client was 'ashamed and bitterly regrets' his actions.

Sentencing, his honour judge Thomas Teague said: "You have shown no insight into your offending or lamented the effects on your victim.

"You attempted to dispose of evidence by deleting the videos, and you say you were under the influence of alcohol which makes things even worse.

"In my judgement, you have no genuine remorse.

"I'm told that you regret the effects your actions have had on your victim's life - I regard that as sheer humbug."

Brady, who has two previous convictions, was subjected to a restraining order preventing him from contacting his victim indefinitely.

He was also ordered to serve a lifelong notification requirement and to pay a victim surcharge.

PC Nicola Halliwell said: "The defendant has shown no remorse for his behaviour, with the only saving grace being that he chose to plead guilty so the victim did not have to face a trial.

"She has shown patience and dignity throughout the investigation.

"I am extremely proud of her and she should be extremely proud of herself.

"The courage and strength that she has shown throughout such a traumatic experience is nothing short of inspirational and I would hope that today’s result goes some way in assisting her to gain some form of closure so she may move on with her life."

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A SEXUAL predator who encouraged young girls to send sexually explicit images is now behind bars.

Craig Stewart, of Clay Lane, Burtonwood, was sentenced to three years and four months in prison at Liverpool Crown Court on September 14 after pleading guilty to a string of sexual offences.

The court heard how suspicions were raised about the 33-year-old’s behaviour as part of an investigation by British Transport Police in July 2016 into the exploitation of a 15-year-old girl.

When detectives examined the victim’s phone, they identified a series of conversations between her and Stewart.

He was then arrested in September 2016.

Using the alias of John Edwards, the defendant sent messages to a number of young girls, and asked them to share explicit photos of themselves.

Stewart used photographs of unknown teenage boys in order to persuade his unsuspecting victims to send explicit pictures of themselves to him.

He also made efforts to try to meet with his victims, who were from around the country, although this never materialised.

Stewart pleaded guilty to five counts of causing or inciting child prostitution or pornography, eight counts of making indecent images of a child and one count of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity.

DC Olly Saunders, from British Transport Police, said: “Stewart used an alias of a young boy in order to groom the girls.

“Over a period of time he exploited a number of young girls for his own sexual gratification. The steps he took in order to lure his victims into sharing extremely personal photographs was disgraceful.

“Stewart knew full well that the girls he was speaking with were below the age of 16.

“When we examined his mobile phone and laptop we uncovered some 120 indecent images and videos of children.”

Stewart was also handed a sexual harm prevention order by Judge Anil Murray.

Description

A paedophile caught with a vile collection of 12,587 images of child abuse was jailed for 15 months.

Daniel Gunson, 45, of Hollybank, Moore, was locked up on Friday at Chester Crown Court having previously pleaded not guilty to six offences of possessing and making indecent images, possessing prohibited images and having extreme pornography involving animals.

‘Deviant’ Gunson was caught after police seized digital devices including a laptop, an external hard drive and a Samsung phone.

Officers trawling the files uncovered a hoard of imagery of sexual abuse of children from babies to older teens.

Sarah Badrawy, prosecuting, said the pictures and videos covered the range of seriousness from the worst in Category A through to Category C.

Judge Patrick Thompson detailed the imagery further, stressing that the public ‘should know the sort of material people are viewing’.

He went onto describe examples of photographs and videos, including clips of infants in visible pain and distress undergoing sexual abuse in ordeals lasting nearly two hours.

Police confirmed more than 12,500 child abuse images from 30,000 images discovered, with a further 138,524 files that were not examined.

There were 2,951 items in Category A, 3,244 in Category B and 6,392 in Category C.

In addition, his search history was littered with terms and recurrent themes relating to still and moving images of offences against children.

Gunson was arrested in 2015 but claimed innocence via a prepared statement after a series of no comment interviews.

The matter was due to go to trial this September but the defendant change his plea in April.

The court heard that a previous partner of Gunson had broken up with him in 1996 after discovering him looking at indecent images, but he claimed he had no idea how they ended up on his computer.

Gunson, in a grey suit, purple shirt and thick black-rimmed glasses, stood blank-faced for the duration of the hearing.

Elderly family members covered their mouths as His Honour Patrick Thompson listed the offences and told Gunson the only place he could go was prison.

Simon Parry, defending, said his client had no previous convictions and had received an indication he would be given a 20%-25% discount for his guilty please from another judge.

He petitioned Judge Thompson for a suspended sentence to enable Gunson so that he could undergo a sexual offenders treatment programme, which would not be available to him in prison.

He added that a probation report had assessed the defendant as being of ‘low risk’ of reconviction, a claim rubbished as ‘utterly astonishing’ by the judge.

Judge Thompson imposed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order on Gunson and ordered that he be placed on the sex offenders’ register, also for 10 years.

Sentencing him, he said: “You entered a defence statement claiming you knew nothing of this material that it somehow appeared on your computer.

“You said you had obtained your computer from someone else and it was their responsibility.

“That wasn’t the case at all.

“You were the person who had downloaded it and you were the person with a deviant interest in material of this kind, material of children being raped, from babies to teenage children.

“You seem to have an interest in all of that.”

He added: “If it wasn’t for people like you with this deviant interest, these children would not be getting raped so I’m afraid you bear responsibility.”