Latest Offenders oxford

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A paedophile who paid the equivalent of £100 for Filipino child sex abuse shows faces years behind bars.

Self-claimed hospital ‘research doctor’ Mukhesh Bharti, 46, sought to blame a friend turned drug-dealing blackmailer, named in court as ‘Vicky’ or ‘Vijay’, for the fact police found scores of indecent images of children and vile WhatsApp conversations on his phone.

But jurors rejected the claim that the Punjabi-speaking mystery man was responsible for arranging the sickening live shows, setting up his friend by ensuring Bharti’s face was in the screen recordings of WhatsApp video calls in which children were made to carry out obscene acts.

After deliberating for around 140 minutes, the jury returned to court on Thursday (September 21) to return unanimous guilty verdicts.

Bharti, his eyes fixed on the judge as the verdicts were read out, was convicted of six counts of making indecent images of children, six allegations of causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child, arranging travel of another person with a view to their sexual exploitation, and possession of a prohibited image of a child.

Judge Nigel Daly adjourned sentencing until October 23. He ordered a pre-sentence report from the probation service, which will look at whether Bharti is such a high-risk offender he should be given an extended sentence.

“He’s going to get a substantial custodial sentence for this,” the judge said.

Bharti, of Overmead, Abingdon, was remanded in custody.

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The victim of a sexual abuser said she wanted him to go to prison ‘so he can’t hurt me’.

Michael Hilton, 52, was jailed for six years at Oxford Crown Court on Friday (August 18) for repeatedly sexually assaulting his victim by touching her.

The Greater Leys man had used his acquaintance with the girl’s mother to sexually abuse her daughter over a number of months when she was barely of primary school age.

In a moving victim impact statement, which the victim read from behind a screen in courtroom three, she said: “I just want the whole thing to finish. I want Michael to go to prison so he can’t hurt me.”

She needed ‘all of this’ to be ‘over and done with’, she said. “I’m not happy. I’m not sad. I’m just numb.”

The girl said she wanted to do something in the future to help those who found themselves in the same position she had been in.

“I would really like to be a lawyer to help people like me,” she said in a quiet voice, muffled still further by the curtain behind which she spoke.

The girl, who is still under-16, cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Sentencing, Judge Maria Lamb said Hilton ‘exploited’ the trust the girl’s mother had placed in him.

“The situation was compounded as far as she was concerned by the fact you told her not to say anything,” she said.

“She said you said to her something bad would happen to her and you would both get into trouble and you, that is what you said to her, that she would get ‘really hurt’.

“That obviously had an effect upon her, because it was several years before she felt able to speak out even though she had an increasing awareness as she got older that what had happened to her was wrong.

“It was not until 2021 she felt able to voice to others what had occurred.

“I have heard her read out to this court this morning her victim personal statement and it makes for sad listening.”

Hilton, of Woodpecker Green, Oxford, was found guilty of seven counts of sexually assaulting a girl under-13. He had previous convictions in the 1980s and 90s for dissimilar matters.

Defending, Gareth James said his client was supported by a number of character references. In his own letter to the judge, Hilton asked her to consider not sending him to prison immediately but deal with his case in ‘alternative ways’.

Hilton’s advocate, Mr James, challenged the probation service’s assessment that his client was a medium risk of reoffending, suggesting it was in fact low.

He conceded that a prison service was inevitable, but asked the judge to keep the term as low as possible ‘commensurate with her judicial responsibilities’.

The defendant will spend half his six year sentence in jail before being eligible for release on licence. He will remain on the sex offender register for life.

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A man has been spared jail after sexually abusing a girl when he was 10-years-old by acting out his porn fantasies.

Daniel Shufflebotham-Reeve, now 25, played out sex acts on a younger girl he’d watched in online pornography, a court heard.

At the time, Shufflebotham-Reeve, of Kidlington, Oxfordshire, was not brought to justice, despite the victim's teacher being aware of the allegations.

The police only became involved in 2019 when the defendant walked into the business where his victim was working. 

After a conversation with her partner, she reported the abuse she faced back in primary school. In court, she said much of her life has been spent "crying and refusing to leave the house" because of the sexual abuse.

A jury at Oxford Crown Court last month found him guilty of four charges, including rape and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

In a victim impact statement read to Shufflebotham-Reeve’s sentencing hearing on Wednesday (September 20), the woman said: "So much of my life has been wasted crying and refusing to leave the house due to extreme anxiety, all because of him and what he did to me."

She would "never forgive" her abuser or understand why he carried out the sexual abuse, she said.

The court heard that he had played out sexual acts he had seen in pornography watched on his laptop.

He both sexually assaulted her and got the girl, who was younger than him, to carry out sex acts on him.

Shufflebotham-Reeve warned his victim that, if she did not do as he asked, he would "tell everyone and no one would love her".

Sentencing, Judge Maria Lamb told the defendant, who continues to deny that the incidents happened: "You committed upon that little girl acts which no child should have to endure. She wanted none of it."

Had he been an adult when he carried out the abuse, he could have expected years behind bars, the court heard.

However, because he was only just of an age when he could be prosecuted, it was likely he would have received a type of youth court community order – called a youth rehabilitation order – had his case been dealt with when he was 10 or 11.

By law, judges dealing with adults who committed their crimes when under-18 must take into account the sentence a defendant would have received if they were dealt with as a child.

Judge Lamb imposed a two year community order, saying: "I think, taking all these matters into consideration, the likely sentence had I been dealing with you as a 10-year-old would have been one of a youth rehabilitation order.

"The circumstance of the offending cry out, it seems to me, for the type of help that would offer.

"I can see no reason for departing from that approach to sentencing, where you have gone on to lead a life in which you have not offended further."

The judge gave an extensive set of sentencing remarks, recognising the sensitivities of the case. She noted that the defendant and his victim had been known to each other and, as children do, had ‘held hands’. 

"Sadly, that acting out of adult acts went beyond the playground and on occasions when the two of you were together in your bedroom you showed her the discovery you had made on your laptop: pornography,” Judge Lamb said.

"You wanted to do the same with her and you told her you wanted to copy it and the expressions she remembers you using to her – for example, ‘you’re making me this way’ – was you I am sure, echoing the sort of expressions you had heard spoken by adults in the footage that you had viewed."

She added of the victim: "She said that you told her if she did what you wanted, whether that was an act done to her by you […] or getting her to do acts to you […] if you complied with that it wouldn’t happen again.

"If she didn’t do it, you would tell everyone and no one would love her. She was scared to go to your house because she feared what might happen. She was more scared of the consequences if she didn’t.

"She was ashamed of what you had made her do and, of course, it goes without saying she has no cause to reproach herself for that which you did to her." 

The judge hit out at the ‘corrosive impact’ on children of watching adult pornography, quoting from a pre-sentence report written by an experienced probation officer.

"‘It,’ he says, ‘would be difficult to overstate how damaging the consumption of pornographic material could be to a child’s sexual development.’ He refers to the corrosive impact of the routine consumption of online pornography and that is as far as adults let alone children are concerned.

"With those sentiments, I agree."

Mitigating, Sumita Mahtab-Shaikh said her client had been suspended from his job as a receptionist at the Premier Inn. There were question marks over whether he would be able to continue working at the hotel.

He was supported by a number of character references that spoke of ‘highly of him now’, the barrister said.

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A man who installed a spy cam in a staff bedroom then claimed he hadn’t been ‘perving’ on female colleagues has been spared prison.

Steven Bradley’s lie that the hidden camera had not been working was unmasked when police found a series of clips, including one showing the 47-year-old installing the equipment.

The former care home worker admitted voyeurism but denied possession of a series of indecent images of children that were found on his wife’s iPad and another computer device.

He was convicted last month, with jurors rejecting his claims that he had no idea how the vile material got on his electronic equipment.

Summing up the case to the jury, Judge Michael Gledhill KC suggested there was no such thing as the ‘porn fairy’, a mystical creature claimed by teenage boys to leave filthy material in woods.

Bradley returned to Oxford Crown Court on Friday (August 11), when he was given a six month suspended prison sentence with 150 hours’ unpaid work.

Prosecuting, Brian Reece said Bradley had contacted a colleague in 2021 apologising for ‘betraying her trust’ and saying she would not see him again.

It transpired he had hidden a ‘spy camera’ in a staff bedroom at a supported living block. He claimed he had ‘seen nothing’ as it did not work, although that later proved to be a lie and the device was working.

The court heard Bradley told another of his female colleagues that he was ‘into her’, Mr Reece said. “[He] enquired if he had a chance with her. He didn’t.”

When his devices and an iPad belonging to his wife were analysed, they revealed he had more than 200 indecent images of children although only one apiece in the worst categories of A and B.

Mitigating, barrister James Hay said Bradley suffered from an ‘adjustment disorder’, a mental health condition affecting his ability to cope with stressful situations. His partner was standing by him.

Sentencing, Judge Gledhill told the defendant he should have accepted legal advice and pleaded guilty to the three counts of possession of indecent images.

“It was complete nonsense,” he said of the man’s defence. “Who else could have put them there but yourself?”

Bradley, of Haydon Road, Didcot, will remain on the sex offender register for seven years. He was given a sexual harm prevention order limiting his access to the internet.

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A man who raped a woman he met on a night out has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years.

Joseph Faulkner, 40, had claimed during his trial that any sexual activity with his victim had been consensual, but that they had not had sex as the amount of alcohol he had drunk impeded his biological functioning.

Jurors at Oxford Crown Court rejected his defence in May, convicting him of rape and two other counts of sexual assault.

In an impact statement read to his sentencing hearing by prosecutor Matthew Walsh on Thursday (July 27), the victim said she hoped the case would ensure Faulkner did not commit such a ‘horrific offence’ in the future.

She was also hopeful that she would now ‘finally be able to move forward with my life’.

Faulkner, of Park Close, North Leigh, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years by Judge Maria Lamb, who told him that he would serve two-thirds of that sentence behind bars before being eligible for release.

“That night I am satisfied your victim had made it plain to you on more than one occasion that she had no sexual interest in you whatsoever,” Judge Lamb said.

“Unfortunately, you took it upon yourself to take advantage of the situation which found you in the same quarters as [your victim] when she was ready to go to bed.

“I am quite sure, having reminded myself of the evidence, that she was either asleep or suffering the effects of alcohol and she is properly to be regarded on the [legal] authorities as particularly vulnerable due to her personal circumstances.”

The judge added: “Very significant harm has been suffered by your victim.”

The woman had been taking anti-depressant medication, there were repercussions with her then boyfriend, and it was said to have ‘spoilt her enjoyment of her pregnancies’, Judge Lamb said.

In May, jurors heard that the victim and the defendant met during a night out at the Woodman pub in North Leigh in 2019.

He returned with her to a flat, where he made advances towards her. She pretended to be asleep and even feigned snores in order to put Faulkner off, the court heard.

In mitigation, Rónán McCann told the judge on Thursday that his client and the man’s family had made a ‘number of attempts’ at writing letters to the judge.

“Words cannot express the impact upon them with regards to the circumstances we are now in today,” the barrister said. Faulkner very concerned for his mother, who suffered ill-health.

As a result of the jail term imposed, the defendant will remain on the sex offender register for life.

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A convicted sex offender was watching porn on a phone he wasn’t allowed to have and using a dating app called ‘WhatsFlirt’.

Stewart Heather, 48, was found to be living at his supposedly ex girlfriend’s house in June, despite telling police officers the previous month that the relationship was over.

There was a two-year-old living at the woman’s property. Social services were unaware that Heather, who was subject to an eight month suspended jail sentence for sending explicit messages with what he thought was a teen girl, was in the house. He had not informed the police of his change of address.

On Thursday (July 27) defence brief Bethan Chichester said her client had not fully understood the terms of the sexual harm prevention order imposed when he was given the suspended sentence last year.

At the time of the first offences the couple had split up and, in using the ‘WhatsFlirt’ app, he was ‘simply trying to lift his spirits’.

Heather subsequently moved in with the woman in order to ‘assist her’, as she was struggling with her mental health, the court heard.

Ms Chichester said Heather was not the ‘regular sort of offender’ of the type usually in front of the courts for child sex offences.

He had been candid in telling her that when he embarked on the behaviour that previously saw him hauled before the courts he was ‘bingeing on cocaine and amphetamine’ and ‘turned to chatting to people online’.

The defendant was deeply ashamed of his actions, the barrister said.

Earlier, prosecutor Nick Ferrari told the court that the police officers responsible for managing Heather in the community visited him at his caravan on May 11.

Then, he claimed to have abstained from viewing pornography, was no longer in a relationship and was ‘doing better’.

He claimed that an Alcatel mobile phone found by the officers and that had not been registered with them was a temporary replacement, his having recently broken.

Mr Ferrari said the phone had been used to look at pornography and to set up an account on ‘WhatsFlirt’.

In mid-June, the police returned to Heather’s caravan in order to conduct a formal interview about the fact he had breached his sexual harm prevention order by having the unregistered mobile and setting up a new social media account.

He was not in the mobile phone. Eventually, they tracked him down to his former partner’s property.

There, they also found a Kindle device that had been used to view pornography and registered with a new email address in Heather’s name.

On the device was a conversation between Heather and his partner in which he appeared to recognise that he would be in trouble if the police caught him living at her property.

Heather, formerly of Schofield Avenue, Witney, pleaded guilty to breaching his sexual harm prevention order and the sex offender notification requirements.

Sending him to prison for 26 months, Judge Michael Gledhill KC said: “I want to send a very clear message out from this court that anybody with your perverted desire to look at filthy pictures, sexual pictures, on the internet or to engage with children for sexual purposes will be dealt with very, very harshly by the courts to deter people like you from doing what you’ve done.”

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A man who raped a sleeping teenager in 2019 has been jailed.

Jarrett Good, aged 22, of Murcott Road, Upper Arncott, Bicester, was sentenced to three years and six months’ imprisonment following a trial at Oxford Crown Court on Wednesday (5/7).

A jury unanimously found him guilty of one count of rape at the same court after a three-day trial.

At around 8am on 29 December 2019, Good raped the victim, a girl in her teens, while she was sleeping.

He was arrested on 31 December 2019 and was charged on 28 June 2022.

Investigating officer, Detective Constable Sam Hunter of the Child Abuse and Investigation Unit, said: “I would like to commend the bravery of the victim in coming forward, as well as the investigation which was carried out. Good has has been brought to justice for his crime.

“I hope that this case demonstrates to other people who may have been the victim of such offending that it is never too late to come forward and talk to the police.

“We will listen to you, investigate and do everything that we can to ensure criminals like Good are brought to justice.”

Description

A convicted sex offender who got mixed up over how long he had to register his address with the police has been sent back to prison just days after he was last released from jail.

Oxford man Wilfred Mosira, 37, left HMP Bullingdon, near Bicester, on June 23.

As a registered sex offender, he was under a duty to tell the police of his new address within three days of moving.

But Oxford Magistrates Court heard on Thursday (June 29) that Mosira mistakenly believed that meant three working days and not three calendar days.

Having been released on a Friday, he thought he had until the following Wednesday three working days to register at the police station, his advocate Charlie Moss said. He did not.

On Tuesday (June 27), the police were called after Mosira argued with a member of staff at a Co-op in Abingdon when his bank card was declined. Prosecutor Liz Tweed said the defendant 'pushed' the store assistant.

He was found outside the shop, arrested and held in custody until he appeared before the court on Thursday afternoon.

Mosira, of Owens Way, Cowley, pleaded guilty to breach of sex offender notification requirements and common assault.

The magistrates jailed him for four weeks, with chairman of the bench Jon Kearsey noting that he had been given a months imprisonment earlier this year when he was before the court for the same offence.

He was also ordered to pay 50 in compensation.

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A takeaway and supermarket worker who sexually attacked a Little Red Riding Hood-costumed student on Cowley Road was caught in part from the DNA he left on her red cape.

Bilal Haider, 27, who worked shifts at the takeaway and Tesco while he studied for a masters degree in Oxford, was caught on CCTV running after the young woman as they both headed east towards Cowley.

The victim was on her way home, having spent the night at the Fishies club night at the O2 Academy in early November 2021.

Jurors at Oxford Crown Court this week heard she was alone, had lent her phone to a friend then lost sight of her, and although she had been drinking was not drunk.

As she walked down the Cowley Road, Lonsdale-tracksuited Haider – who it later emerged had pictures on his phone of random young women - could be seen jogging to catch up with her.

Opening the case earlier this week, prosecutor Henry James said the lone woman heard footsteps behind her then a man’s voice asking whether he could kiss her.

“She said she was fine and said he could not,” Mr James said.

Undeterred, the man offered her money.

He went on to try and kiss her, groped at her body and pushed his hand beneath her dress.

The woman was ‘terrified’, the jury was told.

She ran to a university halls on nearby Glanville Road, where she knew a security guard would be on duty, and knocked at the window to raise the alarm.

The guard made sure she was okay and, later, the woman was able to get back home, the court heard. 

She told friends about what had happened to her.

But it was not until police officers searching for a missing child found her distressed on a bridge in Oxford that she told detectives what had happened to her.

Using CCTV, the detectives were able to trace Haider’s route backwards down Cowley Road to the takeaway where he worked.

When they visited the eatery they found he was working behind the counter, the court heard.

DNA tests on woman’s Little Red Riding Hood cape showed the presence of the defendant’s saliva on the item of clothing.

From the witness box this week, he flatly denied sexually assaulting the woman.

Despite not saying so in a legal document prepared ahead of the trial and setting out his defence, he claimed to have seen the woman fall to the ground and had helped her to the feet and across the road.

On Friday, jurors returned unanimous guilty verdicts after more than six and a half hours of deliberations to charges of sexual assault.

They returned to court later in the afternoon, having found Haider guilty by a majority of 10 to two of sexually assaulting the victim by penetration.

Judge Michael Gledhill KC told the defendant: “You have been convicted on very clear evidence, in my judgment, of these three serious sexual offences.”

Haider, of Hawkins Street, Oxford, was jailed for four and a half years and will remain on the sex offender register for life.

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An Oxford college kitchen porter who molested two girls in the woods has been jailed for four years – as his victims told the Cowley man they just wanted him to accept he had done wrong.

Barry Walton, 61, who worked in the Hertford College kitchens, used a ‘thorny stick’ to sexually assault one of the girls, and sought to bribe her with sweets and money.

He later sexually assaulted the younger girl in Spindleberry Park, Blackbird Leys, telling her to sit on him.

In a victim impact statement read to Oxford Crown Court on Friday (June 16) by prosecutor Gabrielle McAvock, the older girl said: “Because of what he did we never got a normal childhood.”

The younger child said that, if she did wrong she would acknowledge it. “[The defendant] has never said sorry for what he has done,” she said.

Walton, of Saunders Road, Oxford, was found guilty in April of multiple counts of sexually assaulting girls under-13. He had no previous convictions.

Jailing him for four years, Judge Michael Gledhill KC recognised that Walton had a number of intellectual difficulties.

“That said, you knew perfectly well what you were doing over those years,” he said.

“You knew it was wrong.

“You couldn’t stop yourself doing it and you carried on time after time, knowing what you were doing was wrong.

“And the consequences have been dreadful. You have heard the victim impact statements read of both your victims this morning. They make chilling listening.”

Paul Mason, defending, asked the judge to ‘take seriously’ the concerns raised in a psychological report about his client’s intellectual difficulties.

In the report, Walton was described as an ‘extremely naïve individual who lacked the self-confidence and intellectual prowess to protect himself in a custodial setting’.

Initially dealing with the case on Friday morning, Judge Gledhill adjourned the case until after lunch in order to read the psychological report and consider whether he could impose a community order or suspended sentence, allowing Walton to receive rehabilitative help. 

Returning to court at 3pm, the judge said: “Well, in order to even consider that route [a community order], I would have to have the assistance of a pre-sentence report prepared by a probation officer to set out what programmes could be offered to you to make you understand the gravity of what you’ve done and change you.

“As [the psychologist] Dr Wilson says, there is no point because you don’t accept you’ve done anything wrong and therefore there is no basis in putting you on any programme or giving you, in my view, a community order.”

Walton was given a seven year sexual harm prevention order and will remain on the sex offender register for life.

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An RAF cadet group leader from Carterton molested one of his young charges while on a radio course with the air force.

Corporal Gary Larner, 28, who has been decorated for his service overseas, was described as having groomed two 15-year-old female cadets in 2018 and 2019.

The married airman touched both girls, tried to kiss one while they were on a cadet course with the Royal Air Force, pestered them over social media, and got both to send him explicit photographs of themselves.

One of his victims told detectives that Larner told her she owed him. She was unsure what he meant, she said, but thought that she might have got on courses through the cadets as a result of entertaining his communication.

The second girls dream of a career in the RAF as a medic had been abandoned, the court heard. The girl suffered from anxiety and nightmares following the defendants abuse of her.

Jailing him for 40 months at Oxford Crown Court on Friday (June 9), Judge Maria Lamb told the disgraced serviceman: You had a position in the RAF that gave you significant responsibilities in terms of your behaviour towards the young cadets under your leadership and that position you sorely abused.

You abused too the trust of the parents of those two girls, who must have assumed that when they were attending the meetings that they did with you that they were attending meetings with somebody who bore in mind the safeguarding of their daughters.

Because you seriously undermined the safeguarding provisions which had been put in place by the RAF, not least by persisting in contacting them over social mediadespite having been warned not to do so.

Prosecutor Gabrielle McAvock told the court that Larner, then around 23 years old, met both his victims through his voluntary work with the air cadets.

Both girls were 15 when they were touched sexually by the RAF man and sent him explicit photographs at his request.

She sent him photographs of her body at his request, the court heard. He also went to her home while her mother was at work, removing her trousers and touching the girl.

The second victim was also 15 years old when, in September and October 2019, she was targeted by the cadet leader.

In September 2019, while on an RAF radio course, he slipped his hand beneath a table and touched the girls thigh over her combat trousers. He tried to kiss her later the same day.

On other occasions, the pair were said to have kissed in a field near the girls home. Like the first victim, she sent Larner images of herself at his request.

Ms McAvock said the offending was aggravated by the fact Larner had failed to respond to previous warnings by his bosses in the RAF after it was found he was talking to the cadets on social media.

Interviewed by the police in 2020 then again the following year, Larner denied the allegations and claimed not to have met the girls outside cadets.

The defendant, of Robinson Close, Carterton, initially denied any wrongdoing but eventually pleaded guilty in April to six charges of sexual activity with a child, sparing the girls from having to give pre-recorded evidence.

Although not charged with further offences, the court heard in April that detectives had uncovered text messages between Larner and a third cadet unconnected to the two victims in which they spoke in graphic, sexual terms.

The prosecution had hoped to put the texts in front of the jury at Larners trial as evidence of the RAF mans alleged bad character, but the Crowns application was refused by the judge.

Alistair Grainger, mitigating for Larner on Friday, said his client was a decorated airman with a number of restricted honours awarded by senior RAF officers that were so secret the judge was not entitled to have sight of them. Among the character references provided in his support was one from a Squadron Leader Parry.

Larner had been commended for his involvement in humanitarian efforts, including in the wake of the 2015 terrorist attack on a beach resort in Tunisia, the court heard.

The barrister pointed to his clients remorse, quoting Larners words that he had disgraced himself.

The airman will remain on the sex offender register for life.

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Following an investigation by Thames Valley Police’s Child Abuse Investigation Unit, a man has been sentenced to prison for a number of child sex offences in Oxford.

William Swandle, aged 65, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault of a child by penetration and two further counts of sexual assault of a child in a hearing at Oxford Crown Court on 27 April.

Returning to the same court for sentencing on Friday (26/5), Swandle was jailed for a total of eight years with an additional year to serve on licence.

The offences all occurred over a two-year period in Abingdon against a single female victim aged under 13.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Sarah Tibble of the Child Abuse Investigation Unit, said: “The young victim in this case has suffered the most horrendous of crimes, which nobody should have to experience.

“She has been incredibly brave in coming forward and reporting this to the police, and I want to commend her and her family for doing so.

“Swandle has now been sentenced to a significant prison sentence, which reflects the seriousness of his crimes.

“I hope that the victim and her family feel justice has been served.

“Thames Valley Police is committed to bringing offenders such as Swandle to justice. We will always listen to and support victims of such abhorrent crimes and put offenders before the courts to face the consequences of their actions.”

Description

A judge hit out at the evil of young women being sent unsolicited ‘d*** pics’ as she dealt with a man guilty of vile sex chats with what he thought were underage girls.

William Sykes, 54, greeted the younger of the two ‘decoy’ social media accounts – allegedly belonging to a 12-year-old girl – with the words ‘hi sexy’ and sent an older ‘girl’, who was apparently 14, a picture of his appendage in late 2020.

Learning of the filthy photography prompted the judge hearing the case, Recorder Samantha Presland, to ponder out loud: “Do you think that mobile phones having cameras on them is a curse?”

She added, sarcastically, that an ‘unsolicited d*** pic’ of the type sent by the defendant was what every woman wanted to see.

Later, she said it was ‘purely luck no one was on the receiving end of this’, as the 'girls' were in fact adult 'paedophile hunters'. 

The type of material the defendant was sending and inviting ‘kills’ young women’s self-esteem and makes them feel like ‘objects’, she added.

Sentencing, Recorder Presland said: “It’s a very, very serious offence, Mr Sykes. I cannot understate that.”

Prosecutor Matthew Knight said Sykes met the older ‘girl’ on a web app before moving the conversation on to WhatsApp.

“The conversation included what certainly to an adult would appear to be references to content of a sexual nature and it culminates, in short, in Mr Sykes sending a picture of his penis to the decoy,” he said.

In the messages, Sykes described the girl as ‘very pretty’ and seemed to acknowledge that he ‘may get into trouble’ by sending and asking for explicit material.

The ‘girl’ was, in fact, a grown-up working with so-called paedophile hunter group The Ghosts.

A second group, called Elite Solo Decoys, was responsible for the second decoy account with which Sykes exchanged messages. The girl – claiming to be a 12-year-old – was called ‘sexy’ by the defendant.

Sykes, a long-term alcoholic with learning difficulties, was confronted by the ‘hunters’ in a video that was live-streamed.

Mr Knight conceded of the defendant’s behaviour in the video: “Mr Sykes presents with some difficulties in understanding what is being said.”

He was arrested and, when he appeared before the magistrates’ court in March, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted sexual communication with a child.

Mitigating, Bethan Chichester said her client had been drinking up to 24 cans of strong alcohol a day at the time of the offending. He had since managed to cut down his daily consumption to five or six cans.

He was given 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for a year and a half and must abide by a 10 year sexual harm prevention order. Sykes, of Blackbird Leys Road, Oxford, will be on the sex offender register for a decade.

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RAF chiefs have housed a child rapist on a military family estate despite his guilty pleas to a series of sickening offences.

Air chiefs claim red tape stops them instantly kicking out disgraced serviceman Glenn Poyner. 

Instead the 35-year-old paedophile has been given a property near a primary school at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire.

He was apparently moved to the estate from a block housing unattached male colleagues because of threats made against him.

Terrified parents living at the base fear for their youngsters, who had been able to play outside in safety.

Poyner admitted multiple counts of raping a 13-year-old among other child sex crimes at a court hearing earlier this month. Among his victims was the relative of a colleague.

He is not due to be sentenced until August and senior officers have not yet discharged him from the forces.

Families expected him to be kicked out on the day of his guilty pleas but the officers have only just started to fill in the paperwork.

Until all the red tape has been cleared, the plan is for Poyner to be housed at the base, the Mail has learned.

Furious Benson residents accuse RAF chiefs of prioritising the paedophile's welfare over the safety of their children.

Poyner holds the rank of air specialist – a gender-neutral title recently introduced by top brass. He will be paid by the RAF until the discharge process is completed.

One mother said: 'I am petrified that this monster will use his last months of freedom to strike again.

'Where's the protection? There are children everywhere here, playing happily outside. I can't rest for a second.

'He should be behind bars. It is a disgrace the air chiefs still haven't kicked him out of the RAF.'

At Telford Magistrates' Court on May 12 Poyner admitted four counts of rape, an indecent assault and other sexual activities with children between 2018 and 2021.

He was stationed at RAF Shawbury in Shropshire, a UK centre for pilot training. He later moved to RAF Benson.

At the hearing, prosecutor Mark Connor told the judge: 'The defendant has entered guilty pleas which adequately reflect the offending behaviour over a number of years.

'The prosecution accepts those pleas with regard to the court's overall sentencing powers.'

Judge Peter Barrie granted Poyner bail ahead of a sentencing hearing scheduled for August 11, when he is expected to be jailed.

The judge also ordered a psychiatric assessment to consider the sex offender's threat to the public.

While Poyner was given a curfew and must wear a tracking tag, service families insist they should be spared the worry of him living nearby.

His property is being monitored by RAF Police, who have stepped up patrols of the estate following complaints from parents.

RAF Benson, near Wallingford, is a support helicopter main operating base.

The failure by chiefs to manage Poyner's case – and to prioritise the concerns of service families – is the latest in a string of embarrassing failures by RAF bosses.

It follows the shocking treatment of female personnel by pilots, including multiple claims of sexual assault, in the Red Arrows display team.

The head of the RAF, Sir Mike Wigston, has also faced criticism over a chronic shortage of frontline pilots and a recruitment policy that appeared to discriminate against white male applicants.

The RAF said: 'We are aware that a service person residing at RAF Benson pleaded guilty to a number of serious sexual offences.

'The RAF is unable to comment on individual cases, not offer comment while legal proceedings are ongoing.'

Description

A child rapist brought to justice for sexually abusing a young girl in the 1980s has been jailed for 15 years.

Joseph Fay, 66, subjected his young victim to repeated sexual assaults in the 1980s  - against a background of bullying violence.

Prosecuting, Charles Ward-Jackson told Oxford Crown Court that in her interviews with the police the victim described being beaten with a belt and had her head held underwater.

“There appeared to be a suggestion some of that was being done because she was not complying with his sexual demands,” said Mr Ward-Jackson, conceding that he had not been the prosecutor during the trial and was standing in for his absent colleague on Friday (May 19).

Judge Maria Lamb, who oversaw the trial, said she would treat the violence as an aggravating feature of the offending, as it was ‘very much part of the background’ to what Fay did.

Fay, of Blay Close, Blackbird Leys, was convicted by a jury in March of rape and indecent assault. Jurors were unable to reach a verdict on a count of indecency with a child.

Although he had previous convictions, they were for dissimilar offences of violence and theft – and were relatively old.

His barrister, Jane Carpenter, asked the judge to bear in mind that the defendant suffered from poor health. Since his remand into custody 10 weeks earlier, he had struggled to get important heart medication.

On one occasion he had been left without his medication for several days, while on another he was told to take aspirin as an alternative to his prescribed drugs.

Ms Carpenter said: “I urge you not to give such a long sentence that he would have no realistic prospect of seeing life outside prison in his lifetime.”

Judge Lamb imposed 15 years’ imprisonment. Fay will also be subject to an extended year on licence as a ‘sex offender of particular concern’, having been convicted of the sexual offences against the child.

Welcoming the sentence, Thames Valley Police investigator Karen Zoldan said: “The victim in this case has had to endure many months of waiting, largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic causing a backlog of cases.

“But she wanted her voice to be heard and we were determined to bring Fay before the courts to be held accountable for his horrendous offending.

“The impact that this abuse has had on the victim has shaped her life and had a massive impact on her.”

She added: “I would like to pay tribute to her for her patience and for putting her trust in us to bring Fay to court.

“He will now serve a very lengthy prison sentence as a result of his actions, and I hope that this will help the victim to move on with her life.”