Latest Offenders

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A man from Swansea has been jailed after he committed sexual assaults against a child spanning a number of years.

60-year-old Peter Brock, from Ynysforgan, sexually assaulted the victim by touching and caused them to engage in sexual activity between the ages of 9 and 11 years old.

Brock then manipulated the child to ensure they didn’t tell anyone about the sexual touching. However, years later, the victim had the courage to tell someone what happened.

After pleading not guilty, Brock was found guilty of seven counts of sexual touching and inciting a child under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity.

He has been sentenced to an extended 13 years in prison. He is subject of a restraining order against the victim, and is subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

He will be on the sex offenders register for life.

Description

A former youth theatre director has been jailed for six years after admitting non-recent sexual offences against four teenage boys.

Peter Harding, 75, of Merrieleas Drive, Chandler’s Ford, admitted three counts of sexual assault and two counts of sexual activity with a boy, at a hearing on Tuesday 11 March.

Today (Friday 16 May), at Southampton Crown Court, he was sentenced to a six-year jail term.

The offending took place between 2006 and 2012, when Harding was the director at the Centrestage Productions Youth Theatre in Chandler’s Ford.

The court was told that some of the assaults took place at the theatre when Harding was fitting costumes for boys.

Other assaults took place at Harding’s house.

The court heard that Harding was sacked from the theatre following an investigation into downloading indecent images of children, which resulted in a criminal conviction in 2015.

The sexual assaults were first reported to police in 2021, leading to an investigation by Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary’s specialist Operation Marmion team, which investigates allegations of non-recent sexual abuse perpetrated within institutions or by people of prominence.

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A sexual predator has been jailed after being found guilty of multiple sex offences in Kirklees and Cleveland.

Daniel Field (27) from Norton in Stockton on Tees was jailed for 15 years at Leeds Crown Court today (16 May) after being found guilty of 14 sexual offences against three victims in Huddersfield and a victim in Middlesbrough over a four-year period.

The 27-year-old was found guilty at a trial in February 2025 of five offences of rape, three of sexual assault, two of causing a female to engage in sexual activity and four offences of assault by penetration.

The court heard Field had been living in Huddersfield between 2018 and 2020 and had targeted three women who he knew were vulnerable, before then offending against them.

As a result of ongoing police enquiries, he was later linked to earlier undetected sexual offences, including rape, in 2016 on a female in the Middlesborough area.

Following a complex investigation, Field was charged with the offences in early 2023.

The officer in the case, Detective Constable Jan Burrill of the Homicide and Major Enquiry Team,  praised each victim’s courage after sentencing on the 16 May 2025.  

She said: “Having heard all of the evidence, the jury saw through Field and his lies and believed each of the four victim’s compelling accounts.  They not only had to re-live and describe the horrendous acts by Field but had to listen to his lies and attempts to victim blame them during the trial.  

“This was a long and protracted investigation, and I would like to express my thanks to each of the four victims for being incredibly brave in coming forward.    

“Field targeted all of his victims, when they were all in vulnerable situations, but he underestimated each victim in terms of their strength, resilience and courage.”

DC Craig Jones of Cleveland Police, said: “Despite the length of time it took to get here, justice has prevailed. Thanks to the dedication of the Operation Thiftmill team I hope all the victims get the closure they deserve.”

Detective Inspector Phil Davies of West Yorkshire Police, added: “We hope these four brave women can take some comfort from seeing Field jailed today for the awful offences he subjected them to.

“The investigation which led to his conviction was lengthy and complex and would not have been possible without their determination to assist us in building the case to bring this man to justice.    

“As a force we always encourage victims of sexual assault to come forwards and do everything we can to deliver justice for them.” 

Description

A “high-risk” Isle of Wight paedophile caught with over 700,000 child sex abuse images back in 2017 has flouted Sex Offenders' Register rules for a fourth time.

Peter Trayner, of Queens Road, Freshwater, appeared before Isle of Wight magistrates on Friday, May 16.

The 75-year-old admitted failing to comply with the notification requirements of the Sex Offenders’ Register, in Newport, on April 26.

Prosecutor, Lauren McConnell, said Trayner was a registered sex offender and deemed as a high-risk offender, convicted of possessing indecent images of children back in February 2017.

As previously reported, he was imprisoned for 29 months after 738,000 indecent images of children were found on his computer.

Ms MsConnell said he was due to register with police on April 26, failed to do so in time, and it was his fourth breach since conviction.

Ms McConnell said his last breach was back in June last year when he failed to register a bank card with police in time, and Trayner was currently subject of two crown court community orders.

Oscar Vincent, defending, said Traynor was required to register on an annual basis.

He said he was elderly and suffers from memory lapses, and he attended the police station on April 29, thinking he was a day early.

Mr Vincent said Traynor was shocked to learn he was in fact two days late.

Traynor, who assured magistrates ‘none of it was deliberate’, saw his case adjourned to June 13 at the Isle of Wight Crown Court.

He was granted unconditional bail until that date.

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A teaching assistant may have abused "well over 81" children with special educational needs and disabilities, it can now be revealed.

Daniel Clarke, of Bloxwich near Walsall, has been jailed for seven years and six months, after pleading guilty to sexual offences against six vulnerable children.

But a major investigation is under way by West Midlands Police, who believe he could be one of the most prolific sex offenders of recent times.

Clarke, 28 and of Signal Grove, can now be named after the BBC successfully challenged an order, at Wolverhampton Crown Court, withholding his identity from the public.

During the sentencing, the court heard the mother of one victim had paid Clarke £3,500 for work as a personal assistant for her child, but had been left feeling like she had been "paying him to abuse her son", who has contemplated suicide.

Her boy was one of the "particularly vulnerable" children, all of whom had additional needs and disabilities, that Clarke, "abused his position of trust" against, the court heard.

On withholding his identity, Judge Michael Chambers KC had initially sided with police, who had asked for the order because of fears publication of their wider investigation could prejudice future jurors.

But after further submissions by the BBC, he decided to lift the restriction in its entirety, agreeing future proceedings were neither pending or imminent.

'Significant psychological harm'

At a hearing in February, Clarke pleaded guilty to offences including making indecent photographs of a child, assaulting children by touching, and inciting children to engage in sexual activity with no penetration.

Prosecuting barrister Daniel Oscroft said the defendant had worked as a teaching assistant at a school in Solihull and, separately, as a personal assistant to several children.

Many of the details shared during a two-day sentencing hearing are too graphic to publish.

Sentencing Clarke, Judge Chambers said: "Those who have special educational needs are vulnerable and require protection and support.

"Both they and their close relatives are entitled to expect such protection and support from persons such as yourself, who are entrusted to look after them.

"What you did constitutes a gross breach of trust and will have caused significant psychological harm to those concerned."

The investigation into Clarke began in October last year, when police received reports he had been in an inappropriate relationship with a child, the court heard.

Inquiries revealed he had abused children by taking them back to his home, where he suggested they play "truth or dare games".

The court heard two victims were dared to take off their clothes, before being stood back to back naked and exposed to pornography.

"He told them not to talk about what had happened to anybody else," Mr Oscroft said.

The court was told that as part of his personal assistant role, Clarke would take children out for day trips and record them in public toilets using a portable camera.

Officers were later said to have discovered a large number of devices from the defendant's address, including phones, laptops, "spy cameras", internal CCTV type equipment and storage devices like hard drives and USB sticks.

He was said to have made a list of his victims, some of which dated back to 2016, the court heard.

'A friend I undoubtedly trusted'

During police interviews, Clarke was said to have denied any sexual interest in children, telling officers he was interested in the anatomy of young children and how they grow.

Mr Oscroft said the crown rejected this, and read out an impact statement from a victim's mother, who also worked at the same school.

She said her "worst nightmare as a parent has become my reality", with the offending significantly impacting her "confident Jack the Lad" child's character and wellbeing.

"I thought there was some mistake," she said. "He was a friend I undoubtedly trusted. The aftermath will haunt me every single day."

The parent who had paid £3,500 to Clarke, said her son had even asked her to "buy him a casket".

"He has ruined my son's childhood and exposed him to harmful things nobody should ever encounter," she said.

"My heart aches so badly for what he has done to my little boy."

'I can't hurt anyone further'

Defending barrister Katie Goodman said Clarke had previously been of good character and was "deeply ashamed and deeply remorseful".

"He accepts there is nothing he can do or say to fix any of the harm and there is no just or satisfactory explanation for his offending behaviour," she said.

"He had expressed that he is grateful of his remand [in custody] stating, 'I can't hurt anyone further'."

Speaking on behalf of police, Mr Oscroft said Clarke would almost certainly be charged with further offences, possibly more than 81 victims.

But, a "complex and sensitive investigation" may continue for another year before charges are brought, he said.

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Khan, aged 31, of Sommerville Road, Birmingham, was due to stand trial, but on the first day of the case he changed his pleas to guilty.

He admitted five charges, including sexual activity with the three girls and engaging in sexual communications with one of the girls when she was aged 13.

He admitted the fifth charge - perverting the course of justice – after using a phone while in prison to try to get the girls to drop their allegations against him.

Khan’s sentencing was the culmination of more than two years of work, with officers from our Public Protection Unit (PPU) working tirelessly to gather evidence and statements from the girls Khan abused, and support them through the criminal justice system.

Det Insp Joe Davenport, who oversaw the investigation, said: “It’s a credit to the bravery of the girls that Khan abused that they were willing to make their voices heard and to face him in court.

“He is a predatory sexual offender, who sought out vulnerable children, and sexually exploited them for his own gratification. He acted brazenly and believed he was above the law, and that the girls would not be believed.

"Investigations into child sexual explitation are particularly complex and difficult, and the officers involved worked tirelessly to get the best evidence. Their dedication and support of the victims through the criminal justice process ensured that these young women saw their abuser brought to justice.

"We, the Crown Prosecution Service and courts take child sexual exploitation seriously, and I hope that this encourages other people who have been abused in this way to tell us what has happened so we can break the cycle of abuse and bring other perpetrators to justice."

Khan was classed as a dangerous offender by a judge and given a 13-year prison sentence, and ordered to spend an extra five years on licence when he is released. He was also placed on the sex offenders register, given a sexual harm prevention order, and restraining orders against the three girls he physically abused.

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Sex offender had ‘paedophile manual’ describing how to abuse children

A Blackpool man was caught with a ‘paedophile manual’ that described how to abuse children, a court has heard.

Matthew Matthiason, 39, was arrested in Blackpool in April.

He is a registered sex offender, previously convicted of making indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children on multiple occasions.

Enquiries established that Matthiason had been using multiple names he had not registered with police – in breach of his sex offender notification requirements.

When arrested for this, his home address was searched where a paedophile manual made by Matthiason was located which described how to sexually abuse children. 

Matthiason, formerly of Waterloo Road, Blackpool, appeared at Preston Crown Court on Monday  (May 12) after pleading guilty to failing to comply with the notification requirements and possession of the paedophile manual.

He was jailed for 10 months.

A police spokesperson said: “Lancashire Police monitor sex offenders in the community and won't hesitate to take action against them if they breach the restrictions placed upon them by the courts.

“We will fully investigate any concerns or safeguarding issues which are raised.”

Description

A paedophile was found in possession of more than 5,000 indecent images of children as young as six-years-old as well as AI generated images of child abuse. His family blamed his offending on "fixated behaviour".

Jack Gillard, 25, was visited by police at his home after intelligence had been received about the downloading of child abuse images. A raid was carried out on July 26, 2023, and a number of devices were seized including the defendant's mobile phone.

A sentencing hearing at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on Friday heard Gillard was arrested and made no comment.

He was taken to Merthyr Tydfil police station and again made no comment.

Prosecutor Hashim Salmman said a digital forensic examination was conducted on the seized devices and more than 5,000 category A, B and C images were discovered on the defendant's phone.

There was also prohibited material generated by AI which depicted young girls being raped by adult men.

One category A video was accessible, and was described as a compilation video including children aged between nine and 15-years-old involved in various types of sexual activity with adult males.

The youngest child depicted in the images was just six-years-old.

A number of screenshots were found of websites and forums including a collage of images.

There were a total of 1,476 category A images, 370 category B images and 3,145 category C images.

Gillard, of Trealaw Road, Trealaw, Tonypandy, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children. The court heard he has no previous convictions.

In mitigation, it was said the defendant's behaviour would "never happen again". It was also said his family have concerns about "fixating behaviour, but he has been working hard on reducing his cannabis consumption.

Sentencing, the Recorder of Cardiff, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke, said the defendant was a risk to children due to his "sexual interest in pre pubescent girls".

Gillard was sentenced to one year and 10 months imprisonment.

He was also made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and sex offender notification requirements for 10 years.

Description

A MAN who downloaded indecent images of young boys has been ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register.

Martin Ballantyne, 27, entered guilty pleas to the following offences when he appeared before Workington Magistrates’ Court:

• Making 29 Category A indecent images of a child – the most serious category of child abuse images
• Making 11 Category B indecent images of a child
• Making 17 Category C indecent images of a child

Outlining the case, Pamela Fee, prosecuting, said Ballantyne was arrested at his home on March 14 last year and was in possession of a mobile phone.

Data on the phone was analysed and indecent images of children were located on the device. Among the Category A images were different images of boys aged between 10 and 12, seven and nine and five and seven. Descriptions of the images read out in court are too graphic to report.

During police interview, Ballantyne initially gave ‘no comment’. He later made ‘significant’ statements and told police he had been ‘looking at stuff’ on Twitter. He said he thought they were all over age.

He later admitted he had been ‘looking at stuff’ and had been ‘looking at young guys’. He then said he had been ‘looking at little boys’.

Ballantyne told police when he gets low, he ‘looks at Twitter’.

John Cooper, defending, said: “It’s 57 images in total. It’s quite clearly not right. Compared with a lot of cases we deal with, it’s a relatively low number.

“Some cases we have here have hundreds or thousands of images.”

Magistrates adjourned the case until June 4 to allow a pre-sentence report to be prepared by the Probation Service.

Ballantyne, of Ennerdale Road, Maryport, was ordered to register with police as a sex offender.

Description

A CONVICTED sex offender has been locked up after being caught with depraved images of children being sexually abused.

Michael Mitchell was previously handed a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) and ordered to sign the sex offender register, in a bid to limit his ability to reoffend.

However, Cheshire Police found the vile material on the 34-year-old’s devices in Runcorn, and he was hauled before the courts.

The defendant was subsequently charged with three counts of making an indecent photograph of a child and one of possessing prohibited images of children

He was also charged with two counts of failing to comply with the terms of his sex offender register notification requirements, and one of breaching a SHPO.

Mitchell admitted each offence at a previous hearing, with sentencing at Chester Crown Court adjourned until recently to allow for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.

Laura Knightly, prosecuting, explained that the authorities found 437 indecent images of children being sexually abused on Mitchell’s devices.

Of these, 49 were graded as category A – the most severe form involving child rape – while 48 were category B and 340 were category C.

A forensic examination also uncovered 671 prohibited images of children. These are not photographs and are often of an animated or cartoon nature.

Further offences uncovered included Mitchell failing to notify the police of a number of usernames and emails that he was using – in breach of the terms of his sex offender register requirements.

In addition, the defendant installed software on his computer that masked his internet search history, such as secure browsers and clean-up programmes, and had cloud-based storage – all in breach of the terms of his SHPO.

In sentencing, judge Simon Berkson concluded that appropriate punishment could only be achieved by way of immediate custody.

Mitchell, of Speakman Street in Runcorn, was sentenced to three years in prison.

He was also ordered to sign the sex offender register indefinitely, while an order to deprive him of his electronic devices seized by police was approved.

Description

A registered sex offender subject to strict measures around his access of the internet was caught using a laptop to download illegal images of children.

Explicit material including the sexual abuse of children was recovered after police made an unannounced visit in Snodland to the home of Roger Crabtree.

Officers attended the Rectory Close property on 2 November 2023. 

Crabtree had been subject to an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) - following previous convictions for making and possessing indecent images.

The SHPO meant Crabtree had to make any internet enabled devices immediately available for inspection.

Child victims abused

The inspection revealed concerning search terms linked to his web history, and this led to the seizure of a laptop and hard drives.

These were later forensically examined and found to contain 33 illegal images and videos of children, including several in the highest category showing unknown victims being subjected to abuse.

After the evidence was recovered, Crabtree was later arrested and charged with three counts of making indecent images of children.

He pleaded guilty and admitted a further charge of breaching his SHPO. This related to an incident in January 2024 when he was found to have unlawfully deleted the internet history of a Kindle device.

High risk

On 2 May 2025, Crabtree, 59, was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court. Recorder David Wood described him as being of high risk to children, adding the material he had accessed showed ‘real victims having terrible things done to them’.

Crabtree was jailed for two years and six months. The sentence included a penalty for breaching a previous suspended sentence.

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A pervert who sexually abused two young boys was jailed today for one year.

David Exley, 43, preyed on the six and nine-year-olds at his home in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, between July 2022 and January 2023.

Construction worker Exley repeatedly removed one of the boys' underwear while he was asleep.

He also pulled down the underwear of both boys and intimately touched them.

Exley denied the allegations and claimed the six-year-old victim "rehearsed" his evidence to police officers.

However, first offender Exley was found guilty by Sheriff David Taylor at Glasgow Sheriff Court of two charges of sexual assault.

The sheriff said: "The similarities in time and place and the circumstances of the sexual assaults were such that each of the boys' evidence corroborated each other."

Sheriff Taylor put Exley on the sex offenders register for 10 years at today's sentencing.

Exley previously told the court in his evidence that there was one occasion when he did pull down one of the children's underwear.

Prosecutor Darren Harty asked why he did it and Exley replied: "It was just a bit of fun between me and the children."

One of the boys told the police officers in an interview that Exley removed his underwear while he was asleep.

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A 61-year-old man has been jailed for six years after being convicted of non-recent sexual offending.

Paul Proctor was sentenced to six years, backdated to February 2025, at the High Court in Edinburgh on Wednesday, 14 May, 2025.

He carried out the offending towards a female child in Fife in 1995.

He was reported to police in October 2020 and an investigation was launched. He was arrested in May 2021 and convicted at the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday, 13 February, 2025.

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No always means no.

That’s the message from officers after a man was jailed for 14 years for raping a teenage girl he’d just met.   

Bailey Stubbs talked to the girl – who was under 16 - on Snapchat before meeting her in person in December 2021, where he supplied her with alcohol and took her back to his home in Murton.

Once there, the 22-year-old sexually assaulted the girl several times and forced her to have sex with him, despite her repeatedly telling him ‘no’.

Stubbs also strangled the girl and spat in her face.

When the terrified girl told Stubbs she wanted to go home, he told her she couldn’t leave and that he would take her home in the morning.

The brave girl managed to alert her parents who called police and Stubbs was arrested that night.

He was charged with several offences, including four counts of sexual assault, rape, assault, and false imprisonment, which he denied.

However, a jury sitting at Durham Crown Court found Stubbs guilty of the offences earlier this year and he returned to court on Friday (May 9) where he was jailed for 14 years.

He was also placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register indefinitely and handed a restraining order preventing him from contacting the girl.

Description

A child rapist has been jailed for 24 years for subjecting two young girls to years of sexual abuse in Warrington.

Anthony Wilcock, of Harvey Avenue, Newton-le-Willows, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday 9 May where he was handed the custodial sentence. He will also need to serve an extra year on extended licence.

The 44-year-old had previously denied three counts of sexual assault by penetration and eight counts of rape but was found guilty following a trial.

The court heard how Wilcock had abused the victims over many years in the Warrington area. One girl was abused when she was aged between nine and 15, and the second girl when she was aged between 12 and 14.

The offences were reported in April 2023 and the victims bravely spoke about what had happened to them. Following enquiries, Wilcock was arrested. He was then ultimately charged with multiple offences in May 2024.

On top of his 24-year sentence, Wilcock was ordered to sign the Sex Offender Register for life and is also subject to an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order, plus restraining orders to protect the victims in this case.