Latest Offenders

Description

A paedophile had still not told his boss about his conviction for indecent images more than two months after admitting the offences in court.

Simon Lancaster, from Cardiff, was told by a judge that "anybody with any sense whatsoever" would come clean before police turn up at his workplace.

The 44-year-old pleaded guilty on June 11 to two charges of possessing indecent photographs. None of the images were in category A — the most serious type — but one was in category B and three were in category C. Lancaster, of Hillrise in Pentwyn, committed the offences between January 2019 and November 2022.

Wearing a smart suit, Lancaster appeared at Cardiff Magistrates' Court to be sentenced on Wednesday. District Judge Stephen Harmes asked when he planned to tell his employer about his offences, to which Lancaster said: "When it's necessary." The judge replied: "Okay. Well it will be necessary when police knock on the door to put software in your computer in work because there's a sexual harm prevention order. So anybody with any sense whatsoever would get ahead of that and tell their employer. You don't want police turning up to your workplace and saying you're a sex offender. They could have clients there."

The court heard that Lancaster has no previous convictions and works in Treforest. After reading the probation service's pre-sentence report Judge Harmes said: "I agree with the recommendation of the report. I'm not going to send you to prison. I think there are things in the report I'm concerned about, so I'm going to impose 25 days of rehabilitation activity and a 24-month community order."

The judge added that it would be "absolutely right" for Lancaster to do unpaid work, but he feared this would disrupt his rehabilitation activity and his work, so he instead imposed a fine of £1,000. Lancaster was also ordered to pay a £114 victim services surcharge and £85 in prosecution costs at a rate of £200 per month. "You will have to have your employer put some software on any computer in work," said Judge Harmes. "I can't leave that door ajar a little bit because the temptation will be there.

"It seems you have been let off too easily. What you have done is very serious and what you cannot do now is do it again. You will not have this sort of leniency and be able to rebuild your life and continue in work twice. If it happens again you will be going to prison. Do you understand?" Lancaster nodded and said he did.

Lancaster's devices which were seized by police will be destroyed. He will be subject to police notification requirements for five years.

Description

A paedophile who was snared by chat logs that showed him asking a teenage boy to send him sexual images has avoided a prison sentence.

Andrew Easton, 39, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted downloading and distributing disturbing indecent images of children to others on the internet.

Description

Sex pest Ross Madeley attacked a woman at a Covid lockdown party. The defendant was drunk and out of work when he carried out the attack.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard the victim had tried to scream. But no noise came out of her mouth, the ordeal eventually came to an end, and she called in Staffordshire Police the following day.

Now Madeley - who is 25 years old - has dodged jail and been placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years. He had admitted two charges of sexual assault as well as three other sexual offences connected to the same incident.

Brian Williams, mitigating, said: "He behaved in the most appalling way. He accepts that. He said to me what he did was unforgivable. He is remorseful. There is a huge difference in many people between a 21-year-old and a 25-year-old. In the intervening period he has matured considerably. He can look back at what happened four years ago with a sense of shame. It was during Covid and he was not working. It led him to drink more than he should have done."

Recorder Sunil Khanna sentenced Madeley, of Guy Street, Bucknall, to two years in prison, suspended for two years. The sentence includes a 35-day rehabilitation activity requirement and 150 hours unpaid work.

Recorder Khanna said: "These events occurred at the time of lockdown. You were feeling low and drank too much and described yourself as very drunk that evening. You behaved in an appalling way. I have no doubt she suffered psychological and personal harm as a consequence of your actions. There is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation."

Description

A former offshore worker who was jailed over the attempted rape of a 12-year-old girl has been fined after he sexually assaulted an NHS nurse.

Thomas Donald, who suffers from poor mobility, pleaded guilty to slapping the female nurse by slapping her on the backside as she tried to assist him in getting into a shower at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

Description

A dangerous rapist has been jailed as part of the Metropolitan Police Service’s ongoing commitment to protect women and girls from harm.

Victor Adegbesan, 34 (15.10.1989) of Inverness Street, Camden was sentenced to 6 years 7 months’ imprisonment at Wood Green Crown Court on Friday, 26 July. He was previously found guilty of two counts of rape after a trial at the same court on Friday, 3 May.

On Thursday, 22 July 2021 Adegbesan subjected the victim-survivor to a frightening and horrific ordeal when he raped her. An investigation began after Met officers quickly responded to a 999 call by the victim. The team worked around-the-clock to gather evidence and secured a charge the next day, keeping Adegbesan in custody and off the streets.

Description

A SEX offender from Barry has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. 

Daniel Breadmore, 50, of Barry Road, refused to handover a phone over to police officers.

The Sexual Harm Prevention Order prevents Breadmore from accessing any devices with access to the internet.  

In May 2022, he was sentenced to 18 months for four counts of possessing indecent images of a child.

In the same hearing he was sentenced for the offence of engaging in sexual communication with a child.  

On June 5, when police entered the address of the defendant, it appeared he had a phone in the pocket of his trousers.  

He handed over one phone, but when officers asked him to hand over a second phone, officers said he went ‘ballistic’, it was heard in court.  

The phone was found to have software that stopped the defendant from being seen through an IP address.  

There was no evidence there were videos on there but there was concerning content referring to incest, said the prosecutor.  

This was in breach of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order made by Cardiff Crown Court on May 30, 2022.  

Breadmore pleaded guilty to breach of the order on Friday June 7, 2024, and was sentenced in court on August 8.  

The judge sentenced him to 12 months in prison and said the Sexual Harm Prevention Order will carry on for another eight years or so. 

Description

A MAN has been locked up for more than nine years after admitting multiple serious sexual assaults against a child.

Christopher Holdsworth, 38, appeared at Bradford Crown Court by video link from HMP Leeds to hear a powerful statement read by his victim.

The statement said the victim’s life had been “ruined”.

After being confronted about his behaviour Holdsworth denied any wrongdoing and threatened to beat people up for “spitting out lies”.

Holdsworth was jailed for nine years and six months by His Honour Judge Colin Burn, put on the sex offender’s register for life, and made the subject of an indefinite restraining order banning contact with the victim.

A sexual harm prevention order will be set at a later date.

Description

A man who used computer technology and real photographs of children to create sexual abuse images and encouraged the rape of children via the internet has been convicted.

Hugh Nelson, 27, has pleaded guilty to a total of 16 charges relating to child sexual abuse offences.

The CPS authorised five charges against Nelson after he was first arrested in June 2023 by Greater Manchester Police, and a number of his digital devices were seized and examined.

It was found that Nelson, of Egerton, Bolton, frequented internet chatrooms where he would exchange and sell computer-generated ‘artwork’ and discuss child sexual abuse with others.

Through these online chatrooms Nelson accepted requests from individuals who wanted him to create explicit images depicting children being harmed both sexually and physically, which he either sold in exchange for money or shared to others for free. Some of this computer-generated artwork requested used images of real children.

Over an 18-month period, Nelson admits he made around £5,000 from selling these images.

Following further examination of his devices by Greater Manchester Police, the CPS charged Nelson with 11 additional offences on 27 February 2024.

New evidence from these searches found that on three separate occasions, to three separate individuals, Nelson exchanged messages on chatrooms capable of encouraging the rape of children under 13

Description

A child sex offender could face another spell behind bars after breaching a court order.

Chrissena Lamar failed to comply with conditions imposed in 2017 after being jailed for a year following a conviction for sexual activity with a child under 14.

The 69-year-old, who was listed as male on court lists but identifies as a woman, had been placed on the sex offenders’ register and told to sign in at a police station once a year.

But the pensioner failed to check in with officers in Dover on March 28 – in breach of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

It was not the first time Lamar had failed to comply with the strict conditions of the SHPO, having previously been found with a mobile phone police had not been informed about.

Referring to his client as “she” throughout the hearing, Lamar’s solicitor, James Langridge, told the court his client had mental health issues and had previously been in hospital for some time.

He conceded Lamar had not completed the annual registration in March, but argued the matter could be dealt with via a fine.

Deputy District Judge Claire Luxford decided against sentencing Lamar during a hearing at Folkestone Magistrates on July 31.

She instead asked probation to carry out a pre-sentence report, telling officers and Lamar that all punishments would be considered.

She told the defendant: “This offence is aggravated by your previous convictions and I order an all-options report on you, which will include the option of being sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court.”

Lamar, of Park Street, Dover, was granted bail and will next appear at the same court on the morning of October 3.

Description

A vile paedophile instructed women to sexually abuse their own children in ‘disturbing’ online chats. Persistent offender Kevin Watson has been locked up again for another series of disgusting crimes.

Police discovered the ‘extremely graphic’ chats on devices which he’d tried to hide when they checked up on him. After they made the grim discovery, Watson, 61, from Stretford, was hauled back before the courts and is now serving another jail sentence.

The sex offender realises he has ‘come to the end of the road’ and is ‘determined to make long lasting change’, according to his lawyer.

Minshull Street Crown Court heard Watson had previously been handed a sexual harm prevention order when he was locked up and in 2020. He thought he was chatting to who he believed to be a 13-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, but in fact they were undercover police officers posing as children to snare paedophiles.

Last year, Watson was jailed for two years for breaching the order. Officers from GMP’s sex offender management unit attended his home and asked him to hand over electronic devices for inspection.

Watson handed over some of them, but after searching on his wireless router the officers realised there were a further two devices which he hadn’t disclosed. Two further devices were found hidden behind a gas meter and under some drawers in his bedroom.

By the time he was sentenced to two years, the devices had not been fully examined. But they eventually were and officers discovered further incriminating material.

“On these devices the police discovered text message threads between the defendant and four females,” prosecutor Joshua Bowker said. “All of the chat threads were extremely graphic and disturbing.

“They included the defendant instructing these women to commit sexual offences against their own children.” He added: “These four females are unknown, the police cannot identify who they are. They appear to be from other countries.”

Police checked up on Watson again in April this year, and he handed over a phone and laptop to officers. They discovered that he had been accessing ‘teen chat rooms’ on five separate dates, which he was banned from doing as part of the sexual harm prevention order.

Watson pleaded guilty to four counts of publishing obscene articles, and breaching a sexual harm prevention order. Defending, James Hudson said of the defendant: “He knows full well, if he continues on this path, sentences will just get longer and longer.”

Mr Hudson said Watson lives a ‘fairly lonely and solitary life’, and said his ‘daily consumption’ of alcohol affected his ‘judgement and control’. Watson is ‘determined to make long lasting change’ and ‘knows he can’t continue in this way’, Mr Hudson added.

Recorder Geoffrey Lowe sentenced Watson to a further two-and-a-half years in prison. “You are acquiring a very unenviable record for sexual offences,” the judge told him.

Description

Police discovered over 2,000 disturbing images or videos of children on a man's mobile phone following a tip-off from the National Crime Agency.

The collection included 1,638 pictures and 404 videos totalling 2,042 with 653 of them falling into the most severe category, Hull Crown Court was informed.

Jay Fleming, 26, from Bridlington, pleaded guilty to three charges of creating indecent images of children between April 2021 and March of the previous year. Prosecutor Michael Masson revealed Fleming was apprehended in Bridlington due to information provided by the National Crime Agency.

It was suspected that indecent images of children had been shared via Snapchat. Images were located on a mobile phone, including 382 picture files and 271 videos in the gravest Category A, as well as 614 images and 99 videos in Category B, and 642 images and 34 videos in Category C.

However, Snapchat had not been installed on the phone. Fleming made complete and candid admissions during his police interview, reports Hull Live. Emily Hassell, defending, stated there was no evidence to suggest that Fleming had tried to contact or had contacted children directly. He had no prior convictions and was assessed as having a low risk of reoffending.

Judge Tahir Khan KC admonished Fleming in court, declaring: "You accessed from the internet indecent images of children. Found on your device were a large number of Category A images and also Category A videos. Category B and Category C images were also found on your device as well.

"If you had not pleaded guilty to these offences, I would have sent you to prison for 18 months but you had the good sense to admit what you did.

"That makes a difference to a sentence of custody that I can suspend and a sentence of custody that would require you to go down those steps. I have a duty to protect the public, and children in particular, given the nature of the offending."

Subsequently, Fleming was handed down a one-year suspended prison term, coupled with a rehabilitation requirement lasting 30 days. Additionally, he is subject to a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and will be listed as a sex offender for a decade.

Description

A convicted rapist will be almost 90 years old before he can be considered for release from prison after a he was put behind bars for 27 years.

Skipton man Charles David Pratt, now 71, was convicted by a jury at Bradford Crown Court of a catalogue of serious sexual offences against three female complainants who must not be identified for legal reasons.

Judge Ahmed Nadim highlighted the courage shown by Pratt’s victims in reporting his historical sexual abuse of them. The judge told Pratt: “They are deserving of the gratitude of this court and society as a whole for the courage they showed in reporting you to the authorities and bringing you to justice and in the process reliving the most painful of memories."

The court heard that Pratt, of Keighley Road, Skipton, committed offences of rape against the two women and a girl often when he was under the influence of alcohol. Judge Nadim said Pratt had also used violence to overcome any resistance his victims may have offered to his sexual demands.

He said: “In short Charles Pratt you are a violent and callous man. In order to meet your perverted sexual needs you do not recognise or respect any societal or moral boundaries. As a result of your conduct three lives have been blighted. The damage you have inflicted upon each of your victims is immeasurable."

Pratt, who had no previous convictions, was found guilty by the jury of several rape offences and other sexual allegations. Judge Nadim explained that Pratt would have to serve at least two-thirds of his 27-year jail sentence behind bars before his case could be considered by the Parole Board.

He explained: “This means you will serve at least 18 years imprisonment before that reference to the Parole Board can take place."

Pratt was also classed as “an offender of particular concern” which means he had an extra 12-month licence period added onto his sentence. He will also have to register as a sex offender with the police for the rest of his life.

Description

A dangerous rapist has been handed an extended jail sentence following a raft of offences.

Connor Tabner, presently residing at HMP Berwyn but formerly of Prestatyn, appeared at Mold Crown Court on Friday for sentence.

The 23-year-old had been convicted previously of a number of offences - three of a sexual nature including rape, assault by penetration and sexual assault.

Myles Wilson, prosecuting, told the court that Tabner had a number of violent offences against women on his criminal record.

The court heard that when Tabner as found guilty by a Jury of the sexual offences, he subjected jurors to a tirade of foul abuse from the dock.

It took two prison officers to get him out of the courtroom.

Judge Simon Mills said it had been the worst outburst from a defendant in the dock he'd heard, short of actual violence.

Philip Clemo, defending, told the court: "He wishes to express remorse for those actions. What he did was highly inappropriate.

"He apologises profusely for the outburst at the end of the trial."

Mr Clemo said it was conceded his client would be facing a lengthy period of time behind bars for his crimes.

"The fact remains," he continued, "one day he will be out of prison and he ill still be - relatively speaking - a young man.

"What will neither help him nor others is for any hope for a productive life to be snuffed out.

"Prior to the events leading up to his arrest, he had everything set up so he could set up a business and run it.

"He does have realistic ambitions to be a decent member of society.

"The issue here is if Your Honour concludes he is a dangerous offender.

"I say he is perhaps more a 'damaged' young man than truly dangerous.

"But that doesn't mean punishment isn't richly deserved for that which the Jury found him guilty of.

"There's some measure of hope in his recognition that he needs to address his behaviour."

Judge Mills told the court he had concluded Tabner is indeed "a dangerous offender," and that a standard determinate sentence would not provide sufficient protection to the public.

As such, taking rape as the lead offence, the Judge handed down an extended sentence of 15 years - 12 of which are custodial in nature, with three years extended licence.

Tabner must serve at least two-thirds (eight years) of the custodial term before he can be considered for release on licence by the parole board.

But should the parole board disagree, he may have to serve the full 12 years behind bars.

Tabner's sentence also incorporated concurrent prison terms for a number of other offences, including: assault occasioning actual bodily harm, strangulation and controlling/coercive behaviour.

He will be subject to the notification provisions as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Description

A man who threatened to kill a member of the public and exposed his genitals has been jailed for two years and three months and put on the Sex Offender Register for seven years.

Angelo Fichele, 44, of Welland Road in Dogsthorpe, Peterborough, was reported to be topless brandishing what was thought to be a knife and frightening people, said police.

He also damaged four cars, indecently exposed himself to members of the public and threatened to kill a woman who was nearby.

He admitted making threats to kill, indecent exposure, five counts of criminal damage and assault causing grievous bodily harm in Cambridge Crown Court on 2 August.

'Erratic behaviour'

Police said officers received calls about Fichele's "erratic behaviour" on 19 January. He was then arrested and taken into custody, where police said he engaged in a dirty protest.

He was charged and remanded to appear in court the following day where he was granted bail.

On 17 March Fichele was arrested again after he attacked a man in Peveril Road, Dogsthorpe, with what was believed to be a " sharpened spoon", which caused slash wounds to the man’s face.

Det Con Jenny Hargreaves said: “These were really frightening incidents for members of the public who witnessed Fichele’s erratic behaviour.

“I would like to thank those who provided statements in support of our investigation, as a result of this evidence we have been able to put Fichele before the courts and he will now be spending time in prison.”

Description

A primary school headteacher has been caught with category A images of child sex abuse and extreme animal porn on his mobile phone.

Ian McDonald, who has since quit as head of Bishop Martin School in Skelmersdale, was given a community punishment and put on the sex offenders register by a Preston Crown Court judge after admitting to downloading seven films that fall into the most serious class of abuse.

The father of one also pleaded guilty to making 14 category B images and three category C images plus possessing 10 extreme porn films involving humans having intercourse with animals.

The hearing was told they had been downloaded from the popular messaging app Kik.

Former colleagues today expressed disgust, shock and anger that someone in such a position of responsibility with children should be involved in such crimes. They also questioned whether he might be guilty of other child sex offences that have not so far emerged.

McDonald, 46, formerly of Skelmersdale and now living in St Helens after the breakdown of his marriage, had appeared at Preston Magistrates Court in June to admit to the offences and was subsequently sentenced at the citys Crown Court last month to a three-year community order, which included completing 30 days of rehabilitation activities and the forfeiture and destruction of his mobile.

He was also made the subject of a five-year sexual harm prevention order and must sign onto the sex offenders register for the same amount of time.

A one-time colleague, who asked not to be identified, said that the first suggestion that anything was amiss at the school came in March last year when McDonald was in work as usual but then suddenly left at an uncharacteristically early hour.

Thereafter all the schools locks were changed to prevent him, as the keyholder, from getting back in.

His school computer was seized, although this was later returned with the message that there was no evidence of its having been used for improper purposes.

McDonald was suspended by the board of governors and in September 2023 it was announced, without explanation, that he was no longer the headteacher of Bishop Martin and any references to him on the school website or literature were expunged.

The school has since become an academy and has a new headteacher.

The ex-colleague said: When it all came to light in June this year everyone was absolutely gobsmacked.

"No-one thought of him as the type of person who would do this the worst possible child abuse images and animal porn. He was very dedicated to his job and prided himself on Christian values which made this all the more shocking and sickening to learn.

"Here was this man in such a position of power over children doing this. Since we found out about it, we cant help asking was it just images? and racking our brains as to whether there were any opportunities for him when he was alone with children. Have we missed something? Will something else come out?

Bishop Martin School, on Birkrig, Skelmersdale, has been contacted for a comment but has so far not responded.