Latest Offenders

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Anthony Maina, 52, of Allen Road, Stoke Newington, was sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court on Thursday, after being found guilty of 17 offences, including seven counts of rape.

The court heard how Maina exploited a position of trust to groom the girl, buying her gifts, clothing, food and mobile phones in a bid to normalise the abuse he was carrying out.

He referred to the victim as “his girl” and his “best friend in the universe”, and would regularly accuse her of having “neglected” him if she did not maintain contact.

Maina would isolate her from all of those around her to knock away at her confidence to prevent her from questioning what he was doing.

He would ask the survivor to come to his property under false pretences, such as to receive a parcel or let some workmen in, and would then abuse her.

When she began to challenge this, he would suggest to her other family members she was being unhelpful, to in effect force her to come to his property.

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Nigel Dickens, 69, had images of children as young as four being raped and abused.

Dickens, of New Road in Camborne, appeared at Truro Crown Court for sentence having pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children and possessing extreme pornography. Prosecuting barrister Ramsay Quaife told the court how in August 2021, acting on information, police executed a search warrant at Dickens' home. They took away with them a laptop and memory stick which were both examined and indecent images found.

The collection assembled between 2017 and 2021 included, on the laptop, 20 Category A images - the most serious kind -, 12 Category B images and nearly 1,400 Category C. Also found were 52 extreme pornography images and on the memory stick a further 175 Category C images. There was also evidence of searches indicative of those seeking child abuse images.

Mr Quaife told the court the images including some featuring "very young children being raped". The youngest victim in the images was four years old. Dickens answered no comment in interview.

Representing Dickens, Robin Smith said that his client pleaded guilty from the beginning and that his arrest was more than two years ago and there was no suggestion of any further offending.

Sitting as judge, Recorder Andrew Oldland, KC, ruled that Dickens' perversions would be best treated in the community rather than in prison where he would receive no intervention during a short sentence. He said: "You are very fortunate not to have gone to prison." Dickens was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years. He must also complete a rehabilitation activity requirement and be subject of a 15 year sexual harm prevention order. Dickens must also pay £500 court costs.

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A man from Fife has been jailed after pleading guilty to possessing indecent images of children.

Officers searched Grant McAuley’s home address in Dunfermline in July 2022 and found several hundred stills and videos on devices belonging to him.

He was arrested and the 24-year-old pleaded guilty at Dunfermline Sheriff Court in August this year to offences relating to the possession and distribution of indecent images.

He was jailed for two years when he appeared for sentencing on Thursday, 21 September.

Detective Inspector Adrian Ure, of Police Scotland’s National Child Abuse Investigation Unit, said: “Grant McAuley’s offending and behaviour was appalling. He showed utter contempt for the child victims and the horrific sexual abuse they suffered, in the images and videos he was viewing and sharing.

“In committing these crimes, McAuley believed that his online offending would go undetected. However, there is no hiding place, and as a result of our investigation he will now rightly face a custodial sentence and the consequences of his actions.”

"Any form of child sexual abuse is a serious criminal offence and is a priority for Police Scotland. We encourage anyone with concerns about a child at risk of abuse, or a potential victim, to contact police immediately.”

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A man from Swindon has been found guilty of multiple counts of raping a young girl during a "horrific" and "traumatic ordeal". Matthew Vandross, 30, of Homington Avenue, was found guilty by a jury following a five-date trial at Salisbury Crown Court of raping a child under the age of 13 four times.

The offences took place between October 2020 and May 2021 and Wiltshire Police said the victim was under 10 years old when she reported the incidents to the police, accompanied by a friend who had seen what she had been through. Detective Constable Mel Neal, from the Child Abuse Investigation Team, said Vandross had abused the victim in the "worst and most horrific way".

DC Neal added a personal tribute to the two children involved for "extreme bravery and courage beyond their years", despite their ordeal. "Working within the Child Abuse Investigation Team, we come to work every day to protect people like these two girls and secure some form of justice for them," she added.

Vandross is due to be sentenced on November 15. He was found guilty of sexual assault by touching, 21 counts of digital penetration and four charges of rape of a child under 13.

DC Neal said: "Since the beginning of this investigation, we have worked closely with partner agencies to ensure the victims in this case received the appropriate support and safeguarding they required. This predatory offender took advantage of a vulnerable child and abused her in the worst and most horrific way. Not only that, but he made horrific threats towards her if she dared report his offending to police.

"I would like to personally pay tribute to the two children involved in this case – it is thanks to their bravery that we secured a successful prosecution. Both girls have shown extreme bravery and courage beyond their years, despite enduring such a traumatic ordeal. Working within the Child Abuse Investigation Team, we come to work every day to protect people like these two girls and secure some form of justice for them.

"I would urge anyone who has been a victim of sex abuse to report it to police – no matter how much time has passed since the offences took place. We are committed to targeting dangerous offenders like Vandross and will do everything we can to ensure they are put before the courts."

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A Derby man raped a woman as she slept. Derby Crown Court heard how David Smith took advantage of the victim as she lay vulnerable and that she kept the sex attack secret for a number of years.

When she told the police, the now 53-year-old, of Allenton, was arrested, questioned and charged. And in his pre-sentence report, the defendant showed what his interviewing officers described as “an entrenched attitude” in believing he had done nothing wrong.

Jailing him for seven and a half years, Recorder Adrian Reynolds said: “When a judge has to sentence in a case like this he or she has to take into account a number of things. Primarily, and I mean primarily, there is the extent to which you have ruined (the victim’s) life and the enormity of that has to be factored in.

“She has waited a long time to get justice and I hope she feels she will get justice. But on the other hand you have pleaded guilty to this and one thing that definitely does mean is that you have spared her having to give evidence and that means you will get credit because other people in the same position as you don't plead guilty and face their victims when they come to court and relive their horrors, being accused of lying, and that makes their ordeal immeasurably worse.

“You haven’t done that. But what you did do is degrade and undermine her self-esteem, undermined her self-confidence and in her own words you have shown a complete lack of empathy. The fact is that although you have pleaded guilty to this matter you have not expressed any genuine remorse. You are a man in your 50s now and you have never been to prison before.”

Smith, of Mowbray Street, pleaded guilty to rape. Lauren Fisher, mitigating, said that meant that the victim did not have to come to court and give evidence.

She said: “Of course this is an immediate custodial sentence, he has been aware of that since day one. He is well-supported by his family who have attended the vast majority of the hearings in this court.

“There are references from various members of his family and they speak of a different man to the one who appears before the court today.”

As well as the jail term, Recorder Reynolds told Smith he will be on the sex offender register for life. He will serve two thirds of that sentence - five years - before he will be released.

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A paedophile whose actions left one of his victims unable to trust men, even her own dad and grandad, has been jailed. Anthony Hemmings sexually abused two teenage girls between 2003 and 2008 on a number of occasions.

Hemmings, 69 and from Yate, denied abusing either of the girls. However, he was found guilty by a jury of: indecent assault on a girl under the age of 14, gross indecency with a girl under the age of 16, engaging in non-penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged between 13 and 15, and two counts of assaulting a girl under the age of 13 by touching.

During a sentencing hearing, Hemmings was jailed for 33 months, with a judge taking into account his current ill-health. Upon his release, he will be subject to indefinite notification requirements as a registered sex offender.

Avon and Somerset Police said both victims, now in their 20s, approached officers separately to report the abuse they received at the hands of Hemmings. During a court hearing, one of his victims read out a statement saying Hemmings' abuse had left her unable to trust other men, even those related to her.

She said: "My relationship with my own father and grandfather changed. After these things had started happening I distanced myself from them both.

"This is a huge thing for me as I wish I could go back and rebuild that relationship with my grandfather as he has now died and I can’t get it back. I just found it hard to trust male figures in my life after [the defendant] did what he did."

She also explained how her mental health deteriorated to the point where she dropped out of education. She said: "The inability to pursue further education has left me with unfulfilled potential and longing for the opportunities that should have been within reach."

'Profound and lasting impact of trauma'

The victim went onto say the trauma from the abuse has left her feeling distressed when she sees an adult hugging a child. "There is a profound and lasting impact this childhood trauma has had on my life," she said.

"The emotional and psychological wounds inflicted during those critical years echo throughout my existence, impairing relationships, eroding confidence and severing ties. I am grateful that I have been listened to, that I have been believed, and aim to heal the wounds that this traumatic experience has left behind."

Hemmings' other victim spoke of how the abuse she suffered stopped her from socialising and ended with her seeking medical help for anxiety and depression. She said: "I kept that secret with me and over the years I was finding it harder and harder to deal with.

"I spoke to numerous people on the Childline website. They told me I needed to report this crime, but I found it hard to come out and tell people what happened to me. I used to have night terrors and there were numerous times that I woke up in the middle of the night, and even throughout the day, thinking of what happened to me and knowing it wasn’t right."

While sentencing Hemmings, Judge Peter Blair KC said the personal statements clearly showed the long lasting impact the actions of adults like the defendant have when they commit offences against children. Speaking after sentencing, officer in the case Detective Sergeant Tom Williams: "I sincerely admire the strength the women have shown in coming forward. They have each spoken movingly about the impact Hemmings’ actions have had on their lives.

"Hemmings kept his real character hidden from his family. He acted for his own gratification without regard for anyone else, and did so repeatedly.

"I hope that the sentence handed down today will reassure the women that other children will be kept safe from Anthony Hemmings. I also hope that the case will give confidence to anyone else who has suffered sexual abuse to know they will be listened to and offences will be thoroughly investigated.

"If you have experienced sexual abuse, no matter when, do please seek help. Get in touch with The Bridge sexual assault referral centre. They offer counselling, medical care and practical help all day, every day, and it will still be your choice whether or not to contact the police."

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A man who posed as a teenage girl online to get dozens of young boys to send indecent pictures of themselves, before blackmailing them into sending more has been jailed for 21 years.

Jay Lang, 24, of Driftway, Basildon, Essex, set up accounts on Snapchat and Instagram under a pseudonym, claiming to be a 16-year-old girl, Basildon Crown Court was told.

Marc Brown, prosecuting, said Lang ‘would target young boys aged between 11 to 16 using these social media profiles to first of all engage those young boys in conversation’.

‘Those conversations would develop, at first flirtatious conversation, then to more sexually-explicit conversation,’ he said.

He said it would lead to Lang inciting the victims to send indecent videos and photos of themselves.

The prosecutor said that ‘unbeknown to each of the victims’ the defendant was using a screen-recording app on his phone and would save the images, and later use them to blackmail the boys.

Lang would reveal himself as a man and ask for further images or demand cash, threatening to publish the images the boys had already sent if they did not comply.

He sexually abused one of the boys in person after they felt they had no choice but to agree to his request to meet, the prosecutor said.

Lang also blackmailed another boy into filming himself performing a sex act with a male friend, the court heard.

‘He would use the threat of exposing the videos if they refused,’ Mr Brown said.

‘In the case of some victims he did indeed publish the videos.’

He said the offending spanned around three years, from 2019 to 2021.

‘The offending came to light in November 2021 when one of the victims reported what happened to him to police,’ the prosecutor said.

Police analysis of Lang’s phone identified 540 videos and 140,000 images, with 220 potential victims identified.

‘As a result of all of these inquiries, some 26 victims provided evidential accounts,’ the prosecutor said.

He detailed each of these accounts, with one victim telling how he was sent a selfie-style image of a topless teenage girl – who the boy thought he was speaking with.

Lang’s fake social media account said it was ‘only fair’ that the boy should send an image back, which the victim did with an image of his genitals, the prosecutor said.

The account requested further images and video of the boy performing a sex act.

When the boy tried to cease contact with the account, Lang got in touch via a separate account revealing himself as a man and threatened to share the images with the boy’s friends and family.

‘He felt he had no choice but to resume contact with the account,’ the prosecutor said.

The defendant asked to meet in person and the boy agreed to due to the threats of publishing the images, Mr Brown said.

He said Lang drove the boy to a secluded location in a van and sexually abused him.

The boy said in a victim impact statement read to the court that the abuse ’caused me to have suicidal thoughts on a daily basis’ and he had tried to kill himself several times.

Referring to another victim, the prosecutor said Lang ‘demanded £2,000 or the images would be posted on Facebook’.

Lang admitted at an earlier hearing to 46 offences, including causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, blackmail and causing or inciting child sexual exploitation.

He also admitted to arranging or facilitating commission of a child sex offence and to causing or inciting child prostitution of pornography.

Judge Samantha Cohen, jailing Lang for 21 years with an extended licence period of six years afterwards, told him: ‘You are a predatory, manipulative and dangerous young man.

‘You have wreaked havoc through the lives of 26 young men and their families.’

She said he was ‘aroused by the power and control’ the offending gave him and that it caused ‘anxiety, depression, sleeplessness and suicide attempts’.

The judge said it was ‘compulsive conduct over three years’ and had happened despite him being in a ‘permanent relationship’ at the time and having fathered a child.

Lang was made subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life.

The defendant mouthed ‘thank you’ to the judge as he was led from the secure dock to the cells.

Nick Bonehill, mitigating, said Lang had pleaded guilty to the offences, avoiding the need for a trial.

He added: ‘Through me, he apologises to each and every victim.’

Essex Police said it was the largest child exploitation investigation the force has ever undertaken and the judge praised their work as a ‘tour de force’.

Detective Sergeant Ben Rushmere, who leads the child sexual exploitation proactive investigation team, said: ‘Today’s sentence rightly highlights the true scale of Lang’s horrific offending.

‘He used social media to prey upon young people and exploit them either for financial gain or for his own gratification.’

He said he wanted to ‘commend each and every victim, and their families, who came forward and worked with us’.

‘It is only with their candour and support that we have been able to build a case so strong that Lang was left with no other option but to admit 46 extremely serious offences.’

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This perverted pensioner from Derbyshire tried to actively encourage someone to sexually abuse a nine-year-old girl for his own sexual gratification. Derby Crown Court heard how Robert Guy also told the person he would buy the girl a crop top as a gift and when police went to his address, officers found him looking to buy one on his iPad.

But unbeknown to the 76-year-old paedophile the person he was communicating with online was really a police officer posing as a like-minded sex offender. And these offences are not the first of a similar nature he has committed.

Jailing him for three years, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “You have been before the courts before in connection with offending relating to young children. In 2013, that involved you looking at pictures rather than being involved in offending where you were suggesting what should be done.

“You were handed a community order and there’s a suggestion that you paid lip service to that order because against that background you could not stop being involved with young children and on this occasion you got involved with a decoy you thought was a real person that you thought was prepared to sexually-abuse a nine-year-old girl.

“You actively and willingly encouraged them, for your own sexual gratification, to assault them both physically and mentally and encouraged the degradation and humiliation of what was a very young person indeed.”

Alice Aubrey-Fletcher, prosecuting, said an alert was received by the police that an internet address linked to Guy was communicating with the decoy police officer and he was arrested. She said police recovered chat logs from his devices showing how he had a username called “Lexworth” and through it encouraged the decoy to sexually abuse a nine-year-old called Taylor.

The prosecutor said: “He thought this abuse was happening at the time and he encouraged it. There was discussion about him buying the girl a gift, he suggested a crop top and asked what size she was.

“There was then a suggestion that they meet up but the day before the police went to his address and arrested him. When they did he was using his iPad and police found him searching for crop tops on the internet.

“On three of his four devices, officers found indecent images of children including naked three and four-year-old girls.” Guy, of Fairfield Road, Chesterfield, pleaded guilty to encouraging a child to participate in sexual behaviour and possession of indecent images of children.

Denney Lau, mitigating, said his client has formed a new relationship with a woman who lives in Bulgaria. He said: “The offences are from February 2022 and he has been before the court on a number of occasions.

“It is something that has been playing on his mind and he can’t move on. Every time he comes to court he has to make a phone call to his partner saying he might never see her again.”

As well as the jail term, Judge Smith handed the defendant a lifetime sexual harm prevention order and placed him on the sex offender register for life.

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A 43-year-old man has been sentenced to two years behind bars for sexual offences against a teenage girl.

Simon Watson of Keepers Meadow, Long Itchington was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault following a trial at Warwick Crown Court last month. He was sentenced at the same court last week.

The offence took place on 10 July 2021 at Watson’s house when the victim went round to see him. Watson asked her if she wanted to stay for a few minutes before taking her phone off her and using it to search for pornography. He then made leud comments towards her.

The victim said her mum was expecting her and she had to leave. Watson followed her to the door where he sexually assaulted her three times.

The victim told her mum the following day, the police were called, and Watson was arrested.

Detective Constable Rachel Creswell from Warwickshire Police CID said: “Great credit must be given to the victim who has shown bravery in supporting this investigation and this was recognised by the judge in summing up. This ensured a dangerous offender was put behind bars.”

Watson was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.

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A registered sex offender from Southampton has been sentenced for failing to comply with his Sex Offenders’ Register (SOR) notification requirements.

Michael Ide, 79, of Burgoyne Road, was ordered to sign the SOR in 1998 following his conviction for gross indecency with a child.

As part of his SOR requirements, Ide was prohibited to travel outside of the UK unless he notified police at least seven days before his departure. Earlier this year, officers received information which suggested that Ide had travelled to the Philippines in April and had remained there for a month, without notifying them.
Police attended his address arrested him on suspicion of breaching his SOR.

A search of his house was carried out under Section 32 of the Police & Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and his passport was seized, which showed an arrival date in the Philippines of April 25th and a departure date of May 23rd. It was found that not only had Ide not registered this travel, he had also not registered his new passport – another requirement of his SOR.

Additionally, analysis of Ide’s mobile phone revealed that he had also been using Facebook Messenger under an alias. The name he was using had not been registered with police, which constituted a further breach of his SOR.

Ide pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 16 months in prison when he appeared at Southampton Crown Court on Wednesday (20 September).

PC Rebecca Wilshere, from the Western Offender Management team, said: “Ide is rightly back in prison for his blatant disregard of the conditions imposed on him.

“We take the management of sex offenders incredibly seriously, and invest significant resources into doing everything we can to keep the public safe.

“Officers closely monitor sex offenders and their movements allowing us to identify offences such as this.

“We can also examine their digital devices to ensure they are sticking to the legal requirements imposed on them. These orders are put in place to protect the public, and ensure that individuals do not re-offend.

“Where sex offenders fail to comply, as can be seen in this case, they can and will be returned to jail.”

A registered sex offender from Southampton has been sentenced for failing to comply with his Sex Offenders’ Register (SOR) notification requirements.

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A member of staff at a Bishop’s Stortford restaurant who raped a customer on her work Christmas party has been jailed for eight years and four months.

Erdal Eryimaz, 40, followed the victim into a toilet cubicle at Skew, the Turkish eatery and cocktail bar in Adderley Road, where he grabbed and assaulted her.

The woman, who is in her 30s, told a 999 call handler: “I just got thrown into the toilet by guy who works in Skew and he had sex with me and I didn’t want him to.”

She told St Albans Crown Court that she was pinned against the wall in an attack that left her feeling “dirty and filthy”.

In a victim personal statement read to the court by prosecution barrister Matthew Walsh, the woman said: “I was raped by a person in a position of trust in the restaurant. A staff member assaulted me while I was intoxicated and vulnerable. I will never be the person I used to be.”

She said that the day of the Christmas party, on the evening of Saturday December 10 last year, had “rapidly turned into the worst day of my life”.

It had left her with an “overwhelming feeling of shock, disbelief and numbness”.

Referring to the examination by police medical staff, she said: “I felt disgusted by every inch of my body.”

Eryimaz, of Archers Place, South Street, in Bishop’s Stortford had denied rape but was convicted by the jury. He claimed she had consented.

Police arrested him on Station Road that evening carrying a large suitcase and two bags.

He told the officers: “I have pictures [of us] together. We like each other. We did it.”

At Stevenage police station he told officers: “She was drunk. I was drunk. She had sex with me.”

In a prepared statement he said: “We had consensual sex. We both liked one another. She flirted with me in the restaurant. When I told her she was hot she became excited. She put her arm around me.”

Defence barrister Jennifer Dannhauser said that Eryimaz, who was aided in court by a Turkish interpreter, was of previous good character.

He had worked in the catering industry in Sweden and Norway for 20 years before coming to England in 2022.

At the time of the rape he was seeking sponsorship to remain in the UK. She said that he may now face deportation.

Recorder Sean O’Sullivan KC told Eryimaz: “You either behaved like a predator or perhaps you are an egoist that the limited interaction you had with her persuaded you she wanted to have sex with you.”

He must register as a sex offender for life and abide by the terms of a sexual harm prevention order for 15 years.

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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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A sex attacker has been jailed after police swooped when they recognised his clothing through CCTV footage from one of his crimes.

Abid Khanzada, 27, had targeted lone women in Camden with a string of offences between 15 and 21 January.

A total of five woman, mostly aged in their early 20s, were sexually assaulted by Khanzada.

Khanzada, from Camden, had pushed one victim to the ground before sexually assaulting her, Wood Green Crown Court had heard.

He pinned the victim to her front door and sexually assaulted her, only stopping when he was challenged by a member of public.

Officers from the Central North Public Protection team trawled hours of CCTV footage from the crime scenes.

In the early hours of February 25 officers from the Public Protection Predatory Offender Unit were on patrol in the area of the attacks when they spotted a man wearing similar clothing to that of the suspect.

He also matched the physical description provided to police. He was arrested and in custody he gave a “no comment” interview.

Khanzada was ultimately charged with four offences of sexual assault and one of digital penetration.

He pleaded guilty on June 5 at Wood Green Crown Court to four counts of sexual assault. On July 19 at the same court he pleaded guilty to sexual assault by penetration ahead of trial.

He was jailed for three years on September 13.

DCI Steve Tod, who led the investigation, said: “We were absolutely determined to find the man responsible for such serious offences and bring him to justice.

“Khanzada posed a significant threat to women. He subjected these victims to a terrifying ordeal and I would like to praise each and every one of them for their bravery in coming forward. Reliving their experiences will have been extremely traumatic, but their actions have ensured that he won’t be able to assault further women.

“No one should live in fear of being the victim of such horrendous offences while simply going about their daily lives, and we will continue to do everything we can to make sure women feel safe on the streets of London.”

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An "evil" 65-year-old man has been jailed after he was found guilty of a string of historic sexual offences including rape, indecent assault, and indecency with a child.

Alex Daly, of High Street, Scotter, was sentenced to 22 years' imprisonment on Monday (September 18) at Grimsby Crown Court following a six-day trial, where he was found guilty of four counts of rape, seven counts of indecent assault and two counts of indecency with a child.

The offences happened over a period of around eight years during the 1990s and early 2000s, and were reported to Humberside Police in 2020.

Following the trial, investigating officer Paul Wells said: “Daly committed a string of heinous offences over a series of years, and I am reassured that he is now off our streets.

“I want to praise the victim for their bravery in coming forward and helping to put this evil man behind bars.

“I hope that today’s sentencing sends a clear message to anyone thinking about committing offences of this nature; if you do, we will do everything we can to find you and we will bring you to justice.

“We take all reports of this nature incredibly seriously, and I want to encourage anyone that is a victim of a sexual offence, no matter how long ago, to please talk to us.

“We will listen and you will be supported throughout the investigation and any consequent judicial proceedings.”

Daly was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and will be on the Sexual Offender Register for life as well as serving an additional year on licence.

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Today, Thursday 21 September, a man has been jailed for more than four years for committing child sex offences in Liverpool.

Erickson Pascual, 32 years, of Fazakerley was sentenced to four years and four months in prison at Liverpool Crown Court after pleading guilty at a previous court hearing in August.

He was also issued with a 10-year restraining order and 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and is required to sign the Sex Offender Register for life.

At a previous court hearing in August, he pleaded guilty to a number of child sexual offences including meeting a girl under 16 years of age following grooming, possession and making indecent photographs of a child, and operating equipment beneath clothing of another without consent.

Today’s sentencing is in relation to the grooming of a 13-year-old girl that he met in Liverpool city centre and stated that he was 21 years old.

Following an exchange of messages Pascual met the youngster on a number of occasions and bought alcohol and incited engaging in sexual intercourse with the child.

Detective Inspector Alan Nuttall said, “The predatory behaviour displayed by Pascual with the young victim was very disturbing, and thankfully no sexual activity took place between them both.

“The young victim and her family have showed immense courage and bravery to report this crime to us where he she believed him to be younger than what he was.

“During the investigation, detectives also found a significant number of videos of indecent up-skirting videos of both schoolgirls and women that he filmed on his phone, so today’s custodial sentence has removed him from the streets to prevent further harm to anyone else.

“I hope Pascual spends this time in prison to reflect on his wholly unacceptable behaviour and accepts that it is wrong.”