Record details
This is the face of a paedophile pensioner every parent should know as he is now a free man. Brian Topliss has been released from prison after serving half of his decade-long sentence.
The now 81-year-old was jailed for ten years in November 2019 after a series of sickening child sex offences. The sex offender befriended his victims, luring them into his Alum Rock home to play computer games.
Topliss, who was sentenced when he was 76, also offered to take the children to 'parks or swimming'. Instead, he repeatedly abused one boy and regularly invited others into his home.
In November last year, he was released from prison having served five of the ten years. Now it's thought he's living in Walsall following his release. The Ministry of Justice stressed he - as well as any prisoner released on license - would be subject to strict conditions. This would range from curfews to exclusion zones and include the threat of being returned to prison if breached.
"Anyone released from prison faces strict conditions while on licence, such as curfews and exclusion zones, and can be returned to custody if they breach them," a Prison Service spokesperson said.
Topliss was freed on November 18 last year, five years on from his sentence at Birmingham Crown Court - where his offending was branded a "gross abuse and a breach of trust." Judge Sarah Buckingham said at the time: "You are a man who, for many years, has had and acted upon a sexual interest in children."
The pensioner groomed boys and filmed them performing sexual acts at his home. His offending only ended when one victim told a social worker and nurse of their abuse and police became involved.
As police raided his home, officers found Topliss had also stored and catalogued around 15,000 indecent images for his own sexual gratification. One of his victims, a man now in his 30's, was "befriended" by Topliss when he gave him swimming and diving lessons.
"He groomed him and treated him as his favourite," prosecutor Steven Bailey had told Birmingham Crown Court. He then went on to abuse the boy repeatedly and "went further" when he realised he could get away with it.
The sex offender also invited a number of other boys to his home on a regular basis. There. he would show them pornography, give them drugs, sweets and get them to perform sexual acts, the court heard. Topliss recorded what went on and police later recovered 173 still images and three videos.
Mr Bailey went on: "Over a period of about 13 years he took, made and consumed images. He only stopped when the police became involved. They show a household where there were no sexual boundaries. 'It is my house and my rules' seem to have been his thought process."
He said Topliss had also tried to conceal what he had done by "burying" indecent images in a video which was ostensibly holiday footage. Included in the images that Topliss had downloaded were four extreme pictures of extreme pornography involving animals.
Topliss, who lived in Maitland Road before his prison term, had admitted four charges of gross indecency with a child, seven of taking indecent images of a child, three counts of possessing indecent photographs of a child and one count of possessing extreme pornography.
"Topliss befriended his victims by offering his home as a place to play computer games, or by taking them to parks or swimming. But he had a hidden agenda and abused those who trusted him in the most deviant way," Det Con Julia Griffin, from the West Midlands Police public protection unit, said after the case.
"No one can underestimate the effect sexual abuse can have on a child as they grow into adulthood and I can only praise the bravery of those who relived their experiences by coming forward. I am pleased that Topliss pleaded guilty and spared his victims the ordeal of a trial. I hope the sentence gives them some comfort."
