Latest Offenders Yorkshire

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A CHILDRENS outdoor activities centre manager who pretended to be a woman to gain acceptance into an international paedophile ring has been jailed for four years.

Jonathan Garner-Harris, a former deputy director of the Marrick Priory centre, near Richmond, North Yorkshire, claimed to be a woman with two daughters aged 12 and 14 in order to be accepted as a member of a nudist website which encouraged child abuse.

Garner-Harris, 37, was investigated by Durham Police and pleaded guilty at Durham Crown Court to 20 offences.

His case was transferred to Portsmouth Crown Court where he was sentenced by Judge Roger Hetherington who heard a trial involving other members of the ring which abused two young children.

Garner-Harris was yesterday jailed for four years for three charges of inciting a child sex offence and four months for each of 17 counts relating to indecent photographs of children. The sentences are to run concurrently.

The court was told that Garner- Harris, who appeared by videolink, was involved in internet chat with ringleader Robert Hathaway during which he encouraged the Portsmouth-based offender to abuse the two young children.

Kerry Maylin, prosecuting, told the court that Garner-Harris used computers at his parents home in Chester-le-Street, and also at Marrick Priory, to carry out the explicit chat and to look at indecent images.

She said: Like others involved, he used the guise of being interested in nudism to keep in contact with people who had similar sexual interest in children. This quickly turned to sexually explicit conversations about children.

Garner-Harris told police he had been acting out a fantasy and had not intended to hurt anyone, added Ms Maylin.

Amanda Rippon, defending, said: He is a man who has devastated his good character.

He was extremely well thought of, not only in his community but in his church.

His family has been absolutely devastated by this and he is acutely aware of the misery he has heaped on their heads.

Sentencing Garner-Harris, Judge Hetherington said: I accept that Robert Hathaway needed no specific encouragement from you to commit these sort of offences, but your part in fuelling his offending in these chats was, along with others, an important contribution towards the abuse of these two young children.

The managment board at Marrick Priory said the manager was suspended as soon as they became aware of the allegations. He later resigned.

A spokesman added: We would like to assure schools and youth groups that Marrick continues to operate as normal with our large and dedicated staff teams which conform with best practice and national safeguarding guidelines.

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A CHILD abuser who committed a series of offences against two girls more than three decades ago has been jailed for five years.

Leeds man Robert Glendinning was jailed at Bradford Crown Court yesterday after a judge heard details of his repeated abuse of the children in the late 1970s.

Glendinning, of Dorset Terrace, Leeds, admitted charges of indecent assault and indecency with a child.

He also pleaded guilty to attempting to rape one of the girls.

The victims, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, are understood to live in the Huddersfield area.

The 52-year-old confessed to his offending during discussions with his lawyers and the court heard that in 1993 he was also jailed for six-month for an unrelated offence of indecent assault against another girl.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall, QC, said the victim impact statements provided by the two complainants emphasised the dreadful, traumatic and ever-present shadow the offences had cast over their lives.

The judge said it was to their credit that they had found the courage to go to the police.

Glendinning was arrested early this year and his barrister Neil Clark said despite not having all the evidence against him the defendant had been insistent on pleading guilty.

Mr Clark asked the judge to take account of the fact that Glendinning had not committed any further offences for 18 years and he described his client as essentially a loner who lived in rented accommodation.

Judge Durham Hall made Glendinning the subject of an indefinite sexual offences prevention order which includes a ban on having any contact with the complainants.

Glendinning will also have to register as a sex offender with the police for the rest of his life following his release from prison.

Det Con Emma Summerscales, from West Yorkshire Polices Child and Public Protection Unit, said: We welcome the sentence given to Glenddining by the court, and his conviction again demonstrates that even if an offence has taken place many years previously we will always work to bring offences to justice.

We also hope that Glendinnings conviction will bring some comfort to his victims.

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A rapist who had evaded justice for more than 25 years was finally jailed yesterday after a local newspaper reporter uncovered vital evidence to crack the case.

Financial adviser Kevin Moloney, 44, went on trial last year for the sickening rape of a 69-year-old woman in her home in 1985.

He had been arrested after new DNA evidence came to light from a ‘cold case’ review by police, but he walked free when the jury couldn’t agree on a verdict.

The victim died nine years ago and Moloney, a divorced father-of-two who was 19 at the time, claimed she consented to sex.

But Nicky Harley, a reporter with the Hull Daily Mail, investigated the case and achieved what the prosecution had failed to do by exposing the defendant’s story as a lie.

Humberside Police had lost vital crime scene photographs and when Mrs Harley tracked down the retired superintendent who originally led the inquiry she discovered he had kept copies of his own.

A photograph of the smashed back door supported the victim’s original account that he had forced his way inside. Moloney claimed the elderly widow consented to sex on the sofa after they had a drink together.

However, a picture of newspapers and rubbish piled up on the sofa indicated the reclusive victim’s version that she was raped in the hallway was more believable.
Moloney was due to have a retrial at Hull Crown Court, but faced with the additional evidence he pleaded guilty to rape and was jailed for four years.

Mrs Harley was praised by the judge and given the High Sheriff’s Award in recognition of her vital role in the case.

Judge Michael Mettyear said he was ‘quite sure’ that the journalist’s conscientious work in uncovering fresh evidence led to the defendant pleading guilty. He said :’He knew he had nowhere else to turn.’

Adding: ’I praise her without criticism of the officers investigating the offence. They were not to know the superintendent had evidence that could help the case.’

Mother-of-two Mrs Harley, 32, was in court and cried when she heard she was being honoured with an award. She said later: 'Every journalist hopes to make a difference in the work they do and I am pleased I was able to do that.’

Commenting on finding the vital photos, she said: 'I knew the jury were asking if there were any pictures of the scene and they were told that there weren't because they had been destroyed over time.'

She arranged to interview retired Detective Superintendent Barry Lilley for a background article about the case and was astonished with the results.

‘I told him about the situation with photographs and said he should have copies of his own. He told me he needed to check in his loft and then he called me back a couple of hours later to tell me he’d found them.’

Mr Lilley said he routinely kept his own copies of crime scene photos. 

He said: 'I'm pleased these photos have now formed the backbone of the prosecution evidence, which finally brought a guilty plea to this despicable, serious crime.'

After escaping justice as a teenager the rapist went on to marry and have a family. He was tracked down when DNA taken for a minor cannabis offence in 2009 was matched to scientific evidence from the rape by a ‘cold case’ review team.

Commenting on the case, the head of Humberside’s Major Incident Team, Detective Superintendent Dena Fleming, said it was a ‘tragedy’ the victim had died not knowing her attacker would be brought to justice, adding: 'Her family will hopefully take some comfort from the fact that justice has finally been done. My sympathy and that of my team goes out to them.'

DS Fleming promised to continue to investigate other unsolved sex attacks, but made no mention of the reporter’s role in cracking the case in her statement.