Latest Offenders

Description

20-year-old David Shipway admitted charges of attempting sexual communication with a child and inciting a child to engage in non-penetrative sexual activity.

Swindon Magistrates’ Court were told on Wednesday (17 January) that the defendant, of Ladyfield Road, was arrested by police when paedophile hunters attended his home.

During conversations with a person posing as a 14-year-old girl online, he used sexual language and asked her to share explicit sexual photographs. He also sent her a photograph of his penis.

Kate Prince, prosecuting, said she believes the case to be in the category 1A, the most serious – and suggested that it should be sent to a crown court for sentencing.

Defence solicitor Mark Glendenning said his client has mental health issues and problems recognising the difference between appropriate and inappropriate behaviours.

A pre-sentence report was ordered and the case was sent to Swindon Crown Court for sentencing on 16 February. He was released on unconditional bail.

He was told to register as a sex offender within 72 hours. The lengthy of the registration will be determined by the sentence given next month.

Description

A retired priest who sexually abused two schoolchildren at his home in the 1980s has been jailed for 32 months.

Edward Phillips-Smith, 73, exploited his position as chaplain at St Peter's Collegiate School, Wolverhampton, to groom the young pupils.

In a statement read to Oxford Crown Court, one of his victims described his actions as "selfish, exploitative" and "perverted".

Sentencing, Judge Pringle said: "You as a teacher were in a position of absolute trust with that young boy and you abused that trust".

The court heard Phillips-Smith, who subsequently moved to Essex and had been known to the children as Father Eddie, would run after-school clubs.

Seen as "more relaxed" than other teachers, the priest would tickle children to make them laugh.

Prosecutor Fern Russell said: "He was fun to be with, the children would sit on his knee."

She described how he invited the two victims to his home in Brewood, Staffordshire in the early 1980s.

The court heard the boys went to his room during a thunderstorm and ended up in the defendant's bed.

In the middle of the night Phillips-Smith woke the boys up and encouraged them to perform a sex act on him.

Victim Will - not his real name - said in a victim statement read out in court the priest's actions were “selfish, exploitative [and] perverted”.

Speaking of the devastating impact on his life and relationships in the decades since, he said: "I fear I will never be free of the shadow he cast over me as an innocent child looking for acceptance.

"He called himself Father but he’s no man of God."

Speaking for the defence Lucy Tapper said the former priest had expressed "sincere regret" and there had been no repeat of the event, despite Phillips-Smith coming into contact with children in the course of his daily life.

Phillips-Smith, of Hadleigh Road, Frinton-on-Sea, pleaded guilty to one count of indecent assault and two counts of indecency with a child.

He was handed a sentence of 32 months for the assault, and 16 months for the counts of indecency, to run concurrently.

He was also given a lifelong sexual harm prevention order limiting his communication with either of the two victims.

On sentencing, Judge Pringle told the defendant: "You were widely loved by the pupils at that school. You were fun. You were not as strict as some of the other masters.

"The boys loved being with you because you made them laugh and you'd sit on their knee and you would tickle them."

The effect and "mental anguish" on Will was clear from his statement, the judge added.

"What is interesting, in what you did as far as [Will] is concerned – after that episode that I’ve described you ‘dropped him like a stone’. You weren’t interested in him any more because he didn’t play the game," he said.

'Red flags'

Staffordshire Police began investigating in February 2023 and arrested Phillip-Smith in May.

Det Const Gemma Grimshaw from the force's rape and sexual offences team thanked those who came forward for their "exceptional bravery".

“I hope this serves as a message to any survivors of child sexual offences that they will be listened to, supported by specialist officers and spoken to in confidence," she added.

Lichfield Diocese said it had handed the priest's file to police after identifying several "red flags" during a past cases review, external, carried out between 2019 and 2022.

A diocesan spokesperson said: "The crimes committed show serious unacceptable behaviour for any priest, from whom we expect the highest standards of personal and professional conduct especially on behalf of children and vulnerable people in their care.

"While safeguarding expectations and processes have improved very significantly over the decades, we are very aware that the hurt caused to survivors of abuse does not go away."

The spokesperson urged anyone affected to contact its safeguarding team, external.

They added Phillips-Smith had moved on to three further posts in the south of England before retiring.

A spokesperson from Three Spires Trust, which now runs St Peter's Collegiate Academy, said they were very sorry to hear about the historical case.

"Our thoughts are with all those involved," the spokesperson added.

"The safeguarding and protection of children is our key priority."

Description

A former Scout leader and housemaster at a children’s home in Nottingham has been jailed for 26 years after a jury found him guilty of historic sexual abuse.

Steven McNally, now aged 67, abused five children between 1974 and 1979 when he worked at Nazareth House Children’s Home in Lenton, and as a Scout leader for the Bishop’s Own Troop, also in Nottingham.

A trial at Nottingham Crown Court heard he sexually abused five boys who were aged between 5 and 15 at the time.

McNally was extradited from his home in Ireland to face trial and jurors found him guilty on 24 of the 29 counts listed in the indictment.

He was found guilty of:

• x11 counts of indecent assault on a child;
• x7 counts of indecent assault on a child on no fewer than five occasions;
• x3 counts of indecency with a child;
• x2 counts of indecency with a child on no fewer than five occasions;
• x1 count of buggery on a person under 16.

At his sentencing today (19 January), he was sentenced to 26 years in prison plus a one-year extended licence period. He was told he will serve a minimum 17 years before he can apply to the Parole Board to be released on licence. 

The trial heard that the majority of the offences took place while McNally worked as a housemaster at Nazareth House, which was run by the Sisters of Nazareth Catholic order.

Four of the five victims resided at the children’s home, whilst a fifth victim was sexually abused by McNally after joining a scout group also run by the serial abuser. Nottinghamshire Police launched an investigation which led to a number of victims being identified.

The crimes went undetected until 2016, when the first victim came forward after watching a child sexual abuse storyline unfold on the ITV soap Emmerdale.

Police were told the victim joined a Scout Troop and was abused by McNally on camping trips from the age of 11, including in Crich and Tollerton. The court heard McNally was aged 18 at the time and carried out the abuse after entering the victim’s tent on repeated occasions.

The second victim told officers he had been having a rough time in the care home and had been beaten by the nuns. He said McNally was aware of the beatings and told the child that he would look after him and visit him in the night to make sure he was OK.

Instead, McNally repeatedly sexually abused the child, telling him not to tell anyone about what happened because if he did, bad things would happen.

The victim was aged around nine at the time and the abuse happened on the grounds of the children’s home as well as in McNally’s car.

Two further victims told police they were sexually abused from the ages of around five or six, with one telling officers McNally saw the boys at the home as his “play things” and that he would beat children as well as sexually abuse them.

The fifth victim told police McNally “stole his childhood” and that he abused him at Nazareth House as well as at a Nottingham address that was home to McNally’s parents.

Description

A woman told police she was ‘appalled’ after intimate videos of her taken 18 years ago without her permission were found in the possession of a serial child sex offender.

The videos were found in the possession of 87-year-old Alan Barclay of Fenwick Road, Falmouth who had recently been released from prison following a conviction for the possession of hundreds of vile child rape and bestiality pictures and videos 

He appeared for trial at Truro Magistrates Court in handcuffs from Exeter Prison on Wednesday, where he’d been recalled following the discovery. He pleaded not guilty to one charge of voyeurism relating to 2006.

As previously reported by the Packet, Barclay was sentenced to 21 months in prison at the crown court in 2022, after the judge heard discs were found at his home with a large quantity of pictures and videos of children being abused, including 285 videos and 64 images of Category A - the most severe category of child abuse.

He had previously been convicted of a similar offence in 2019 but had escaped prison after he was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order, which prevented him from using a computer or devices capable of connecting to the internet.

The court heard in March last year police went to Mr Barclay’s address in Falmouth as part of a routine visit after he was released from prison for his original offence as part of his bail conditions.

They carried out a search of his home and found CDs in racks in his “office” upstairs. When police looked at them they found six intimate videos of a woman that appeared to have been taken secretly. They also found many more child sex pictures and videos.

They identified the woman who told them she’d been totally unaware they had been taken.

One of the officers involved in the prosecution told the court that when they told the woman what they’d found she was horrified and devastated.

“She had no idea she’d been filmed,” she said. “Because of the type of lady she was, she was a classy lady, I think she would have been horrified that I’d seen that video.”

In a statement given to the police the woman said she was appalled by what had happened. She said had never sent any intimate videos of herself to Barclay or anyone.

Barclay took to the stand in court, without any representation from a solicitor.

He told the magistrates: “I’d like to say that I have been totally honest right from the first time I was arrested.

“I do not tell lies. I was brought up under the influence of my grandfather, who was a sergeant major in the army. He instilled in me to allows tell the truth.”

Barclay claimed the videos had been transferred from the camera onto a disc in bulk, along with a lot of other pictures that he had taken on holiday.

He also claimed to the court that he was impotent and “had no feeling whatsoever”, so had been unable to gain sexual gratification for “probably 17 years now”.

He concluded his evidence by saying: “If I go back to prison it would be a life sentence. I’ve been in the prison hospital for a month and I’m very poorly, and I’m not getting better.”

He denied to the prosecutor that the real reason he had downloaded the images onto a disc was so they wouldn’t be found.

“I have never been a voyeur of anybody,” he added.

However, the panel of three magistrates found him guilty of the charge, saying they found Barclay “to be deceitful” and his evidence not credible.

It was agreed to transfer Barclay to the crown court for sentencing next week.

Description

David Spencer, 45, was originally jailed for 10 months in 2019 after he was convicted of trying to meet a teenage girl in a car park following grooming.

He was found with a mattress in the back of his van.

Spencer was also slapped with a 10-year sexual harm prevention order to allow police to closely monitor his movements, contact with youngsters and use of the internet.

He has now been jailed again for breaching the prevention order seven times.

It included not telling a woman, who he was seeing and who had a daughter, of his conviction.

Cainan Lonsdale, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, said: “He attended her home four or five times when her daughter was present.”

The woman found out about Spencer’s sick past after trying to Google his address and found press reports of his conviction.

When police checked his phone, they found he had deleted hundreds of text messages relating to another woman he had previously been seeing.

It was also discovered he had used alias names on a porn website and had been chatting to various women in a sexual manner on the app Kik.

Spencer, formerly of Hartlepool, and most recently of The Crescent, Middlesbrough, had also used Snapchat in breach of the harm prevention order.

Sentencing him to 43 months’ jail, Recorder Paul Reid said: “This is a series of serious breaches of the sexual harm prevention order.”

Paul Green, mitigating, said Spencer had started to show signs of progress.

Description

A paedophile branded a 'danger to children' by police sexually assaulted three young girls at a family event - months after being released early from prison. Stuart Eyles set upon the children while mingling with hundreds of locals at the event in Stockport.

The 47-year-old targeted the victims after getting drunk. When the girls complained to their parents and Eyles was pointed out as the culprit, he denied wrongdoing but admitted drinking seven pints of beer at the event last summer.

At the time, he was on licence after being locked up for 30 months in April 2021 after pleading guilty to 57 offences involving online grooming and possessing child pornography.

He was also on the Sex Offender Register; had been made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) banning him from having any contact with children under 16; and had completed a Home Office 'Horizon' programme aimed at rehabilitating sex offenders.

It is thought Eyles was freed early from jail in July 2022 under government rules allowing the automatic release of prisoners halfway through their sentences. He had three months left on his parole when he struck again.

In a statement to police, the father of one of the girls said the incident had 'rocked' his daughter's confidence.

''As for me I feel terrible too as I feel I have let my daughter down, I've hardly slept since," he added. The mum of another victim said her daughter had become 'socially withdrawn' and had undergone counselling 'to cope with the trauma'.

At Minshull Street Crown Court, Eyles, of Buckley Drive, Romiley, Stockport, was jailed for 15 months after being convicted of three charges of sexual assault. The SHPO order will be renewed for another 10 years.

Sentencing, Recorder Alexandra Simmonds told Eyles his behaviour had been 'predatory and opportunistic'. "You took advantage of the crowds to try and disguise your behaviour and it was the deliberate target of young girls on your part," she added.

''It is clear you were seeking out opportunities to touch young girls in the way you did and the impact of your offending has been significant. You have previous convictions for internet based child-related sexual offending and were on licence at the times of these offences. You completed the Horizon programme and yet have gone on to commit these offences despite that intervention.

"You have of course shown no remorse because you don't accept responsibility for these offences and are you are assessed as posing a high risk of serious harm to children."

Eyles was originally reported to Greater Manchester Police by the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit back in 2018 after he began unwittingly swapping messages with one of their undercover detectives over the KIK social media platform, which they had been using to trap online predators.

The undercover operative informed Eyles, whose username was 'Squid Thing', that the profile was that of a 14-year-old child and offered to cease the conversation, but he stated he did not want that to happen and began to sexualise the conversation and asked for indecent images to be sent.

In March 2019, a warrant was carried out at Eyles' home where various devices were seized, including a laptop, a camera, a mobile phone and a USB stick. Following this warrant, officers met Eyles outside his workplace and his mobile phone was seized.

Detectives conducted a forensic examination of all his electronic devices and discovered further criminal activity, including online sexual activity with a girl who he had sent sexually explicit pictures of himself and asked to meet for oral sex. She was the only person known to have existed as the others were police officers masquerading as young girls.

They also found various indecent images of children stored on the devices. Eyles, who also used other platforms, told police he committed the offences whilst ''bored' working nights. He claimed he was aware some of the profiles were fake and insisted his actions were 'hypothetical and fantasy to push things'.

He later admitted one count of sexual communication with a child; five counts of attempted sexual communication with a child; one count of causing a child to engage in sexual activity; one count of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity; 21 counts of making indecent images of a child; and 30 counts of distributing indecent images of a child.

Description

Despite using a fake name on his Facebook page Barnard was identified by members of the vigilante groups who then turned up at his house before calling the police. The defendant's advocate told Swansea Crown Court that his client's life had been a "lonely one" and he had spent increasing amounts of time online.

Georgia Donohue, prosecuting, said the offending took place in November 2022 when the defendant, using the name William Stanley on Facebook, contacted the profiles of what appeared to be 14-year-old girls. She said profiles were actually decoy accounts being operated by adults acting as part of online paedophile hunter groups. The court heard Barnard started messaging the first profile and asked her whether she had a boyfriend and asked her if she had ever heard odd noises coming from her parents' bedroom. The pair then exchanged phone numbers and began communicating by text.

Later that month Barnard began messaging a second Facebook profile and his conversation with what he thought was another 14-year-old girl quickly turned sexual in nature. The court heard the defendant talked about masturbation with the girl and said he would teach the child how to do it. He also told her all men would want sex with her because she was "beautiful" but they couldn't because of her age and told her to keep their conversation secret.

The prosecutor said by December 1 the two groups behind the decoy profiles identified Barnard as the person behind the William Stanley Facebook page and turned up at his home address. Police were contacted and Barnard was arrested at 7.22pm that evening. In his subsequent interview the defendant answered "no comment" to all questions asked.

Andrew Barnard, now aged 56, of Brynmill Avenue, Brynmill, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to attempted sexual communications with a child and to attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.

Dan Griffiths, for Barnard, said it was acknowledged there was only one kind of sentence the court could impose and his mitigation went only to the length of the custodial sentence. He said Barnard experienced an "extremely difficult childhood" at the hands of his abusive father and at an early age was diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. He said Barnard's life had been a "lonely one" and he had spent increasing amounts of time online. The advocate said it was still to be explored whether the defendant's "adverse childhood experiences" were correlated to his offending but he said Barnard was anxious to take advantage of any help that professionals could provide.

Judge Geraint Walters told Barnard that the public have a "huge distaste" for the kind of behaviour he had engaged in. With a one-quarter discount for his guilty pleas Barnard was sentenced to 27 months in prison. He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. The defendant will be a registered sex offender for the next 10 years and was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for the same length of time to manage his access to the internet. Sending the defendant down the judge told him if he had been talking to real girls rather than decoys his sentence would have been "a great deal longer".

Description

An offshore worker has been found guilty of molesting a 14-year-old girl as she slept in her bed.

Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard Darren Rutherford crept into the teenager’s bedroom and sexually assaulted her in the early hours of the morning.

Description

A "predator" who followed a teenage girl along a quiet country road has been described as a "dangerous man" by the victim's family.

Convicted sex offender Barrie Hill started following the girl in his camper van when he spotted her walking alone after midnight. He subjected the girl to a shocking and frightening ordeal when she realised to her horror that he was repeatedly driving up and down. She claimed that he stopped his van, got out and shone a torch into her face.

Speaking after Hill was jailed at Hull Crown Court, the girl's stepfather – who came to her rescue and confronted Hill – said: "We are all pleased that he was jailed. He's a dangerous man off the streets."

Hill, 57, of Swanland, denied breaching a sexual harm prevention order by following, harassing and intimidating a female, but he was convicted by a jury after a trial. He was branded a "true predator" by the prosecution.

The court heard how the girl had "sneaked out" of her Holderness home after an argument with family members. The first thing that they knew about it was when she telephoned them in sheer terror.

She saw a van driving up the road and it stopped in front of her and pulled into a lay-by. The converted camper van, driven by Hill, went up and down the road five times, the court was told.

The girl claimed that Hill got out of the van and followed her after she tried to escape into a field. He went into the field after her and he shone a torch in her face as tried to retreat further away.

Hill denied that he was following the girl or that he shone a torch in her face. During cross-examination, the defence asked the girl: "The driver of the van says that he did not get out of the van and shine a torch in your face. Is he telling the truth about that?" She replied: "No."

The girl's stepfather told the jury that she called at about midnight. He answered the phone and it immediately became obvious that she was in distress.

She told him: "Help me, help me. I am being followed." The man told the court: "I leapt out of bed." He asked her: "Where are you? Where are you?"

She was a mile away. "I started running downstairs," he said. "I ran out of the door and jumped in the car."

The stepfather said that he told the girl: "I am on my way. I won't be long. Stay there." He added: "I saw some headlights in the distance facing me." The girl, who was still on the phone, told him: "That's the van."

'I know what you're doing'

The stepfather told the jury: "I was very angry. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know how many people were in the van. I pulled directly across the road, so I was right next to his driver's door."

He confronted the man and said: "I know what you are doing." The man did not respond. "He looked shocked and surprised that he had been approached by me and quite shocked, I would think."

The stepfather followed the van, which had driven away, in order to get its registration number. The stepfather shouted at Hill: "I know what you are doing. I know what you are up to."

The stepfather said that Hill told him: "I'm lost. My sat-nav's not working." The next morning, the stepfather spoke to the police. Hill was later arrested.

Convicted sex offender

The court heard that Hill had previous convictions for indecent assault, breaching a sexual harm prevention order and failing to comply with his notification requirements as a convicted sex offender. The sexual harm prevention order, given at Caernarfon Crown Court in 2017, followed a series of incidents in North Wales, in which he left women upset and shaken by making crude and inappropriate sexual comments.

He had been ordered not to approach any lone women and not to offer her a lift in his vehicle, or to give or offer any woman a massage. A judge had told him: "You are more than a pest. You are potentially a predatory individual unable to stop yourself behaving inappropriately towards young females."

Hill was later jailed for 26 weeks for breaching the order. At another hearing before Caernarfon Crown Court in October 2018, he was locked up for one year for further breaches.

Following the guilty verdict at Hull Crown Court, Cathy Kioko-Gilligan, mitigating, said that Hill was the carer for his mother, who was suffering from a serious illness. He was registered disabled and would find prison difficult.

He had been on bail during the trial. No mitigation was offered for the offence because he had fought a trial. Hill was jailed for four years.

Following sentencing the girl's stepfather told Hull Live that, had Hill's motives been entirely innocent, he would have asked the girl if she was all right. Instead, he had said nothing to her during the terrifying incident.

The stepfather said he believed that the encounter could have ended up a lot worse than it did. And he questioned why, in view of Hill's history of sexual offending and breaching court orders, he had been on bail during the trial.

Description

A Brighouse man who put his two victims through a trial after sexually abusing them three decades ago has been jailed.

Bradford Crown Court heard on Thursday that Jonathan Montgomery, 44, was found guilty by a jury of one charge of rape and two allegations of indecent assault. He was jailed for six years.

The court heard that Montgomery, of Whinney Hill Park, committed the offences when he was aged between 14 and 16.

In her victim impact statement one of the two complainants, who must not be identified for legal reasons, said she was angry that the case went to trial and she had to give evidence. The other complainant said she would not forgive Montgomery for his offending against her and his failure to admit his part in it.

One of the women said in her statement that she felt angry and disgusted by what Montgomery was doing, but at the time she did not speak out because she did not think she would be believed.

Barrister Paul Canfield, for Montgomery, told the court the defendant had suffered with mental health issues, but he was now engaging with services while in custody. Mr Canfield said his client had also struggled with a drug addiction for many years, but he had now been clean for four months.

Recorder Palmer said it was plain from the victim impact statements that Montgomery’s offending against the two complainants had had a lifelong effect upon them.

The judge said he had seen and heard the rape victim give evidence during the trial and he sentenced Montgomery on the basis that she had suffered severe psychological harm as a result of his offending. He explained that the sentence for an adult after a trial would have been 10 years, but Montgomery was only 14 at the time of the rape and it was appropriate for that sentence to be reduced because of his youth.

Recorder Palmer jailed Montgomery for five years for the rape and indecent assault against one of the complainants and imposed an additional one year in jail for his indecent assault against the second victim.

Montgomery will now have to register as a sex offender with the police for an indefinite period and he will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the next 10 years.

Description

A man will now spend 4.5 years in prison after pleading guilty to the sexual assault of a teenage girl.

Andrii Melnyk, of Harvard Road, Chiswick, and born on 15/12/1993, was sentenced at Reading Crown Court today (17 January) for sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault by touching. He will also be on the sexual offenders register for life.

The assault took place on 2 April at around 6am on Short Lane in Staines and involved Melnyk following the victim after they got off the same bus, grabbing her by the arm and attempting to pull her trousers down. The victim then fell over and Melynk fell on top of her, after which he sexually assaulted her.

The victim, who was only 18-years-old at the time, managed to fight him off and shout for help, before seeking assistance from a nearby taxi driver who rang the police. Melynk then fled the scene.

Melynk was identified as the perpetrator after officers trawled through the CCTV on the bus and matched him to the suspect description. By cross-referencing the oyster card used on the bus, Melynk was successfully identified as the user.

Upon searching his home address, officers found clothing matching the ones in the CCTV, as well as a pair of distinctive jeans with mud stains on the knees. He was subsequently picked out as the perpetrator in an ID parade by the victim, before being charged with the offences and remanded in custody.

Investigating Officer DC Katherine Peters, said; “This was a complex investigation that involved many different lines of enquiries including forensics, intel, witness testimonies and CCTV.

Description

A registered sex offender who breached a court order by communicating with a girl and deleting his internet history has been jailed.

Alan Stokes, 42, was visited by officers at his home in Willonholt, Ravensthorpe, Peterborough, on 6 September last year and during the routine visit, they checked his mobile phone after he told them he had been speaking to a female on Whatsapp.

The phone was seized and the female discovered to be a child.

Stokes had sent messages to the girl, who had confirmed she was a child, between June and August last year.

He also tried to communicate with her through a webcam.

When Stokes was arrested on 30 October, he had hidden a mobile phone under a pillow and another under his mattress.

Both phones were seized and it was found he had deleted 2324 items from one phone’s internet history. 

Communicating with a girl under 18 and deleting internet history put Stokes in breach of two conditions of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), which was imposed at Peterborough Crown Court in March 2015 for previous breaches of orders.

Yesterday (17 January), at the same court, Stokes was jailed for 22 months, having pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and two breaches of his SHPO.

DC Claire Cummings, from the force’s management of sexual offenders team, said: “Stokes is a danger to children and we will always enforce SHPOs and make sure sex offenders are abiding by their conditions. 

“This sentence sends out a clear message that we will look to protect children and the vulnerable from harm.”

Description

A man has been jailed after raping and sexually assaulting a woman in Ellesmere Port.

Max Dufley, 34, of Eaton Road, West Kirby, appeared at Chester Crown Court on Tuesday 16 January where he was sentenced to six years.

He was previously found guilty of one count of rape and one count of sexual assault by penetration.

The investigation began on 18 June 2021, after a woman contacted police to report she had been raped by Dufley in May 2021. During the incident, she had awoken to find Dufley sexually assaulting her, before raping her.

After a thorough investigation, Dufley was subsequently charged with the offences in August 2022.

He originally denied the charges but was found guilty on Thursday 5 October following a four-day trial.

On top of his prison sentence, Dufley is subject to a restraining order, sexual harm prevention order, and must sign the sex offender register.

Description

A man who threatened to share intimate images of young women he met through social media has been jailed for a year.

Scott Smith, 34, messaged three women on Snapchat and struck up conversations before he convinced them to send naked photos to him.

But Smith demanded his victims, who were aged between 15 and 20, send more photos or he would share pictures he already had online.

One victim was left so distressed by his conduct she dropped out of her academic studies.

His offending came to light after police raided his home in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, as part of a separate investigation that discovered a sickening stash of 37 images and 26 videos of children being abused.

Evidence uncovered during the raid showed he had been communicating with the women and threatening them.

Smith appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and admitted possessing indecent images of children and a breach of the peace between June 2019 and January 2022.

He was blasted by Sheriff John Hamilton KC for his 'manipulative' and 'exploitative' behaviour. The sheriff jailed the first offender and placed him on the sex offenders' register for 10 years and also banned him from contacting his victims for 10 years.

Depute fiscal Scott O'Connor told the court how Smith was caught sending messages to the three women.

He said: "It became apparent he had been communicating with females on Snapchat and the investigation uncovered he had been communicating and requesting images of a sexual nature.

"The complainers thereafter sent images of themselves to the accused, he received the said images and they then received a message stating that he had their nude pictures and had their contacts and social media pages.

"If they failed to send further images of themselves of a sexual nature, he would post them to their contacts and onto their social media profiles.

"On receipt of that message the complainers thereafter contacted the police and they were blocked by the accused and there was no further contact.

"During the investigation the three complainers were identified and it was discovered that one was aged 15 at the time."

Ian Scott, defending, said: "He had a good track record up until this and his concern is that the custodial threshold has been reached but I have done my best to assure him that alternatives do exist and the court has to consider them."

Sheriff Hamilton said: "You were engaging with three separate females on social media and persuaded them, I don't know how, to send images of themselves of a sexual and compromising nature.

"You then effectively blackmailed them by threatening to release them to friends, family and the public at large. Your position is that you pled guilty because your lawyer told you to do so and you have accepted no responsibility whatsoever.

"I accept everything in your life seemed to be going well before but this exploitative and manipulative behaviour cannot be left unmarked."

Description

A dangerous and “devious” middle-aged paedophile posed as a teenage girl online to convince a 13-year-old to sexually experiment on herself.

But convicted sex offender Sukhpal Sidhu had no idea that the girl he was grooming was a decoy profile belonging to an online paedophile hunter group.

The 51-year-old, who was previously jailed for sex activity with a child, was handed an extended six-year jail term at Leeds Crown Court this week after the judge deemed him to be dangerous.

In November last year, just months after he was released from prison, Sidhu sent a friend request online to the profile who accepted it, but repeatedly told him she was just 13. He boasted that he was a businessman who was setting up a charity to help feed the homeless. He also turned to conversation sexually, saying he had women so turned on by his voice that they would say “dirty things” to him.

Having received a decoy photo from the supposed girl, he called her “beautiful”. He then bizarrely pretended to be a 14-year-old girl who had access to Sidhu’s account, and ramped up the sexual discussions, encouraging the victim to touch herself sexually, prosecutor Joel Wootten told the court.

He was eventually confronted by the paedophile group, C.O.S.T (Child Online Safety Team) after a week of swapping messages. They livestreamed the conversation over the internet in which he denied any wrongdoing. The police were called and he was arrested.

Sidhu had been jailed for eight years in 2015 for sexual activity with a teenage girl in Greater Manchester, having posed as a teenage boy to gain her trust. He denied the offences but was found guilty after a trial. It was heard that he would drive across the Pennines from West Yorkshire to meet the girl and have sexual encounters in his car.

As part of his sentence, he was given a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to limit his internet use, and put on the sex offender register for life.

For his latest offending, Sidhu, of Bradford Road, Stanningley, admitted attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, breach of his SHPO, and an attempt to breach his SHPO.

He appeared in court via video link from HMP Leeds where he has been held on remand since his arrest.

Mitigating, Amber Walker said Sidhu accepted it would be a custodial sentence, but little else was said on his behalf.

The judge, Recorder Ian Mullarkey told him: “It was a fictitious profile to engage a girl in graphic sexual conversations. That devious, manipulative and cunning.

"It relied on sophistication to commit sexual offences against children. You were quite determined to persist in these conversations. You do not express any remorse or recognition of the harm this kind of offending causes.”

He said that Sidhu had refused to take part in a sex offender programme to rehabilitate him and . He jailed him for three years, with another three years extended licence.