Latest Offenders

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Anthony Insall, aged 49 from Yarm, has pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children, both Category A images and Category C images, at Teesside Magistrates’ Court today, Friday 15th September 2023 and will be sentenced on 11th October 2023.

Investigating Officer, Detective Constable Barnes from the Paedophile Online Investigation Team said: “Anthony Insall searched for indecent images and content on the internet. He was found to have accessed the child abuse material over, at least, a 15-month period.

“The behaviour committed by Insall, and those who commit crime of a similar nature, is entirely abhorrent and causes significant harm to vulnerable children.

“Whilst this is an online offence, there are real victims out there living with the scars of abuse in this cycle of suffering. People who commit crimes of this nature are not invisible and we will ensure we do everything possible to bring them to justice.”

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A man has been jailed after he urinated on a train seat, chucked the seat cushion in a man’s face and sexually assaulted a woman. 

Harry Burgess, 25, was travelling on a train to New Eltham with friends on April 4 when he started acting up. 

At one point in the journey he exposed his genitals in full view of other passengers and urinated on a seat. 

He then threw the cushion at a male passenger, hitting him in the face. 

Then at New Eltham station he sexually assaulted a woman as she boarded the service. 

Detective Constable Matt Smart said "Burgess’ loutish and crude behaviour was humiliating and intimidating for the woman he singled out. 

“He is now serving time behind bars for his pathetic attempts to impress the friends he was travelling with. Sexual assault and violence of any kind is no joke as Burgess can now testify.” 

Burgess, of Brodrick Grove in Greenwich, pleaded guilty to sexual assault and assault by beating at Bromley Magistrates’ Court. 

On Monday (September 18) he was jailed for 24 weeks and handed a five-year sexual harm prevention order. 

He was also ordered to pay a £154 surcharge. 

DC Smart said: “We take all reports of sexual harassment and unwanted sexual behaviour seriously and will support victims throughout our investigations. 

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A former school child protection officer who sexually abused his pupils has been jailed.

Alexander Charles Ralls, 47, was found guilty of over 40 non-recent sexual offences at Bradford Crown Court.

The court heard he had carried out the offences while working at York public school Queen Ethelburga's.

Ralls, of Hazel Mead in Bedfordshire, was jailed for 16 years on Monday, and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order.

During a six-week trial at Bradford Crown Court, it was heard how, over a four-year period, Ralls used his position of trust to exploit his victims in the UK and on school trips abroad.

He was suspended from teaching and subsequently dismissed in 2015 following a disclosure made by a former student, according to the school.

'Sickening actions'

North Yorkshire Police said Ralls posed as a person with medical knowledge who told his victims to remove their clothes to examine them and then molested them.

Ralls was found guilty of 31 charges of sexual assault, 10 charges of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent and two charges of assault by penetration.

Investigating officer Det Con Suzanne Hall said Ralls had used his position of trust to "coerce and influence".

Det Con Hall added: "The extent of his offending was staggering and the fact that he continued to use the same excuse of providing medical care to carry out his sickening actions, shows his utter arrogance towards and contempt of his victims."

A spokesperson for Queen Ethelburga's said "significant improvements in safeguarding practices" had been made since then.

The spokesperson said the school wanted to express their "heartfelt sorrow and regret" to the victims.

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A senior project manager at power firm SSE has been caught with a cache of obscene child abuse images.

Police raided David Dickie’s Perth city centre home after learning illicit files were being downloaded to devices connected to the property.

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William Felton, 38, of Bryn Avenue in Kinmel Bay, appeared before Caernarfon Court for sentencing on Wednesday, October 11.

He had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and three counts of failing to comply with notification requirements.

The SHPO in question had been made last year in relation to Felton's attempts to engage a child in sexual activity and was ordered to last until November 2030.

Laura Knightly, prosecuting, told the court that the breaches had all taken place between August 2 and 24 of this year.

They began when Felton was using aliases - 'Jamie' and 'OpenMindOpenPervert' - to take part in online chatrooms, as well as and a new email address - all of which the police should have been notified about.

It continued with the defendant talking to what he believed to be a seven-year-old girl on a site called 'Chat Avenue' and attempting to set up a 'play date' (i.e. engage in sexual activity) with her.

 He had also been speaking to the 'mother' of the child, who was in fact an undercover police officer, the court was told.

Several explicit sexual messages were sent to the 'child'.

Police attended Felton's address in August and seized a mobile phone and a laptop.

However, he also admitted to having another similar laptop which he had not notified the police about and had been hidden out of view - and this was the third notification breach the court heard.

Anna Price, defending, said that Felton had - before committing these offences - sought counselling in an attempt to 'seek help'.

Judge Nicola Saffman said that Felton had been 'relentless' in breaching the orders against him.

The judge added: "You cannot help yourself in the sexual pursuit of young female children. You will do whatever it takes in order to gain access to children, female children, in order to abuse them sexually.

"It's clear that you're offending behaviour has escalated."

Judge Saffman described the breaches as 'very serious' and sentenced Felton to three years and four months in jail.

An order was also made for the forfeiture and destruction of the devices used by Felton. 

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A convicted rapist has admitted an evil and wicked assault on a man who was winding him up about his past convictions.

Darren Butler, 42, previously admitted punching Ernest Boundy on the head and kicking him on the body outside The Beath Inn, Cowdenbeath, in December last year.

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A paedophile dad sent sexual messages and pictures of himself to what he thought were girls as young as 13 - and asked them to send stuff back. Stephen Burden, 61, later found out that four were undercover police officers - but two others were likely real children.

Postal worker Burden, of Bethan Drive in Wadebridge, appeared at Truro Crown Court for sentence having pleaded guilty to 13 total counts including attempted sexual communications with a child, attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, making indecent photographs of children and possessing extreme pornographic images.

The court heard how police decoys were posing as underage girls throughout the duration of time when the offences were committed in 2020. Burden, who asked an officer he thought was 12 to perform sex acts on herself, cited the pandemic as having led him to the internet and extreme websites.

In his late 50s at the time, Burden, who has children of his own, was caught communicating with four police officers who he believed were girls as young as 13. It later transpired he had been talking to two others not part of the sting. Who they were is still unknown.

"The conversations were described as "highly sexualised", "graphic in nature" and Judge Simon Carr said had there been real children at the end of the conversations, it would have been "extraordinarily damaging" for them.

Burden also asked for explicit photos and sent indecent photographs of himself to the 'children'. He also had in his possession category A, B and C indecent images of children. They included extreme pornography.

The court heard in mitigation that Burden was previously a man of good character and Judge Carr accepted that the offences had a "devastating affect" on Burden's life and his personal relationships including with his own children.

"Your relationships have been irreparably damaged," he said. "I've seen the other side to you, a side of more than 50-odd years of good character."

The court also heard that Burden's mother is extremely ill and he is the sole responsible person for her care. "The courts take careful regard for the effects upon others," Judge Carr continued, but said the seriousness of the offences take the sentence outside of any suspended range.

Burden was sentenced to four years imprisonment. He is also subject of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) for ten years and will be a member of the sex offenders register (SOR) for life.

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A 65-year-old Dundee man has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register after he admitted molesting a woman at a Perth pub.

Alan Drysdale gave his victim an unwanted hug, grabbed her buttocks and stroked her thighs without her consent.

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A “sly, manipulative” child abuser from Fife, who asked a schoolgirl to change into his Rangers top before grabbing her wrists and raping her, has been jailed.

Steven Banks went on to rape, sexually assault and attempt to rape another girl over a period of more than two years, beginning when he was 30 and she was only 10.

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A paedophile who got his schoolgirl victim pregnant has been jailed for eight years.

Police discovered the harrowing case while they were investigating Stephen John for child-abuse images offences.

The 29-year-old pervert first met his victim online when she was 12, and by the time she was 15 had persuaded her to meet him in Manchester .

He then abused her at his family home, causing her to become pregnant. Then, while she was pregnant, John boasted to her of having committed a sex crime against a very young child.

Sentencing at Manchester Crown Court, Judge Tony Cross QC said that in those conversations with the victim he had displayed his ‘true intent’.

The judge added of the victim: “That child suffered a miscarriage at a home, as a result of your unprotected sex.”

John, of Marshfield Street, Longsight , was jailed after admitting a string of sex crimes including distributing and making indecent images of children. He first came to the attention of police in August 2014, after sharing indecent videos of very young children with other perverts online.

Officers learnt that as well as posting the videos using Skype, John was discussing child abuse with other perpetrators. Questioned by police, John claimed he had left his laptop open at home and that others could have downloaded and distributed the images.

But, while he was on bail for those offences, John carried on downloading images of child abuse. In June last year, police found scores more images on another of his computers. And, while investigating those offences, police uncovered his offences against the schoolgirl.

Judge Cross told him: “The most serious images, some of which you distributed to other like-minded individuals, were of extremely young children, and in the estimation of the police some of these children were little more than babies.

“On June 19 you were arrested again, this time you were in possession of a different device, that demonstrates that you set out, deliberately set out, to accumulate images of the sort which were then found, at a time when were on trust, when you full well, despite your learning difficulties, that the possession of these images was considered to be a serious matter.

“Your offending does not end there, because police discovered by interrogating your computer that you had been in an unlawful liaison with a 15-year-old girl. You knew what her age was because the first tine you met her in a car park she was wearing her school uniform.”

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A SCOUT leader has been jailed for four years after committing sex offences involving two schoolgirls, in one case at a Scout camp.

Sentencing Peter Gavin at Leeds Crown Court yesterday, Judge James Spencer QC said he had undergone the relevant safeguarding training to be in his position of trust with the Scout group concerned and therefore knew it was wrong to take advantage of their naivety.

“You knew as well as anybody else it was illegal to do what you did and I am quite sure you only did it for your own sexual gratification.”

Mark McKone, prosecuting, said in early 2015 the girls began to have online contact with Gavin, and there came a point when he realised who he was in contact with and continued to speak to them privately.

An “online relationship” then developed between him and one of the girls, although she was only 14 at the time. He told police later he realised she had a “crush” on him.

During the course of this contact they discussed sex and the defendant sent her an indecent picture of himself and she sent him some pictures of her naked breasts, said Mr McKone.

She described a break-up between them prior to a Scout camp in May last year where Gavin, 24, committed offences involving the second girl.

The second girl was also only 14 and he persuaded her to meet him late one night at a toilet block that he knew could be locked from the inside.

Once he had locked them in he kissed her, undressed her, touched her sexually and persuaded her to perform a sex act on him before they returned to their respective tents.

Mr McKone said it was clear from what Gavin later said in police interview that he knew that girl was upset by what had happened in their sexual encounter because he accepted he had apologised to her.

John Ozyer, representing Gavin, said texts between him and the second girl showed he had apologised more than once for what had happened that night.

“He accepts he was in a position of trust and clearly abused that trust.”

Since then he had voluntarily attended the Safer Lives programme.

Gavin, of Chats Wood Fold, Oakenshaw, Bradford, admitted one offence of causing a child to engage in sexual activity and two of sexual activity with a child and was ordered to register as a sex offender for life.

Judge Spencer said there had to be a jail sentence since he had encouraged the first girl to secretly have an “online” relationship with him rather than steer her away from such contact, then when that was petering out he had groomed the second girl and taken advantage of her.

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A postgraduate theology student carried out sexual assaults on fellow students at St Andrews University after claiming he was conducting radiation testing for the Ministry of Defence following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

John Beaumont subjected two male students and a female student to fake medical examinations and got one victim to sign the “Official Secrets Act” before inserting a needle into his genital area.

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A WREXHAM man said there could be 'no excuse' for his 'abhorrent behaviour' as he was jailed for committing a string of sexual offences against a teenager.

Andrew Bell, 60, whose registered addresses are both the Blue Bell Inn and Plas Issa in Penycae, appeared before Mold Crown Court for sentencing on Monday, October 16, via videolink from HMP Berwyn.

He previously, when re-arraigned on the day a trial date was set, pleaded guilty to two out of nine counts of sexual assault on a male, having initially pleaded not guilty.

Simon Rogers, prosecuting, told the court that offences took place between 2013 and 2015, when Bell had befriended a then teenage boy.

Offences took place in both the UK and abroad, the court heard.

Bell and the complainant had been travelling in a van and had pulled over 'in the middle of nowhere' to sleep for the night.

Bell opened a bottle of wine which they both drank together.

Later on that night, the complainant fell asleep in his sleeping bag but was awoken when he 'felt a hand down his pants' and Bell carried out what was his first assault.

Mr Rogers said the complainant said he 'froze' during the incident and said he felt 'isolated' and 'scared'.

The court heard there were 'many incidents' carried out in this way by Bell in 'various vehicles and locations' during the course of two years of offending.

It happened 'almost every time they had a drink', Mr Rogers added, with the complainant adding that Bell was the 'nicest man in the world' otherwise when sober.

On another occasion, the complainant went to sleep on a sofa. Later that night, Bell went into the room and knelt down by the complainant, before 'touching' him under the covers.

Bell was arrested and gave a 'no comment' interview in June 2020.

The court heard that he had previously been sentenced to 14 years in prison for the sexual abuse of children, aged between 9 and 16 years old, in 2002.

The complainant was in court to read out a victim personal statement as Bell was sentenced.

He told the court that the incidents had left him feeling 'ashamed and embarrassed' and had 'hugely affected' his parents.

The statement added: "Someone I thought I could trust betrayed me in the worst possible way."

Bell was also given the opportunity to read out a letter via the videolink in court.

He said: "There can be no excuse for my abhorrent behaviour. "

Bell added that the complainant 'never encouraged' his behaviour and apologised for the 'damage', 'anguish' and 'emotional turmoil' he had caused.

Jane Greenhalgh defending said: "The other side to him is the kind man that is liked by many people."

Recorder Simon Mills said Bell was 'clearly capable of changing in a predatory way' when his 'inhibitions had been lowered by drink'.

Bell was sentenced to eight years in jail and was also made subject to an indefinite restraining order and Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

Recorder Mills stated that, should Bell offend again in future, then a life sentence could be imposed.

Following sentencing, Detective Inspector Chris Hargrave of the North Wales Amethyst Team said: “The victim in this case has been incredibly brave in reporting these matters to us.

“His determination to ensure that the offender was correctly brought to justice was motivated by a desire to ensure others are not placed at further risk of abuse.

“No sentence can ever undo the harm caused, but I hope this sentence today brings some measure of justice and healing to the victim.

“We continue to be committed to bringing perpetrators of sexual crimes to justice and I would encourage anyone who wishes to report a sexual crime to come forward and speak to us”.

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A 29-year-old man has been jailed for eight years after being found guilty of a number of serious sexual offences.

Ruaraidh McCartney was guilty of a number of serious sexual offences. on Wednesday, 5 July at the High Court in Glasgow.

The offences were committed in Stirlingshire and Perthshire between 2011 and 2021.

He was sentenced today (Tuesday, 1 August) at the High Court in Lanark.

Detective Inspector Forbes Wilson said: McCartney is a dangerous and predatory individual who has committed serious sexual offences against a number of women over an extended period of time.

His conduct has been appalling and I hope his conviction will allow the women involved to move forward with their lives.

I would urge anyone who has been the victim of sexual violence to come forward and report it to us, regardless of the passage of time.

We, working with partner agencies, will support you through the process, investigate thoroughly and bring those responsible to justice.

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A man who raped a 15-year-old girl, leaving her with long term mental health issues, has been sentenced for his wicked crimes.

Andrew Orrell, 59, had pleaded not guilty to rape but was found guilty by a jury of the historic sex offence.

Preston Crown Court heard he raped the teenager in the summer of 2005, when he was then 41.

Orrell, who still maintains his innocence, raped the girl at his flat after he stopped his car to buy alcohol at a nearby shop, just weeks before her 16th birthday.

The victim said she was asleep in a bed when Orrell, who had said he would sleep on the sofa, got into bed with her and raped her.

After the incident, the victim moved from the area and never heard from Orrell again, until a year later when he sent her a message via Facebook which read, "You're hot".

Prosecutor Sharon Johnson told the court the victim did not report the rape until she went to therapy in 2020.

She said: "The victim felt it lasted forever, but it was only 15 minutes.

"She pretended to be asleep whilst he was on top of her, and when she woke up she had a shower, but still felt dirty and horrible."

An impact statement from the victim said: "Since this incident, I have felt my life has been frozen and stopped me from maturing.

"I have moved away from the North and I still struggle around older men and relationships.

"I have anxiety and depression. He took me at the most vulnerable time of my life and I struggle with showers even now."

Mitigating, Cathy McCluck told the court Orrell had no intention of contacting or visiting the victim ever again.

Orrell, who has refused to admit his crimes even after conviction, also claimed the victim accused him of rape in order to receive money.

Ms McCluck said: "This is an extremely difficult case for a defence to come into. The defendant still believes she consented."

Sentencing Orrell, of Bacup, Judge Heather Lloyd said: "During the trial you and your counsel were keen to emphasise your plea of innocence.

"You caused much distress. You claim you have mental health problems but I am yet to see evidence of it.

"You are not at risk of re-offending, but you have delayed justice with your not guilty plea."

Orrell received a nine year sentence for rape, and four months for breaking bail.

He will not be able to apply for bail until he has spent six years in prison.