Search the database
clearly and quickly

Description

A registered sex offender has been jailed for a second time after looking at indecent images of children.

Steven Smith, from Sittingbourne, was convicted at Maidstone Crown Court in January 2022 for sexual communication with a child, causing or inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity and making indecent photographs of children.

He received a prison sentence of two years and seven months.

Upon his release, he was subject to strict sex offender notification requirements (SONR) along with a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).

This included conditions that allowed police to have access to any device capable of storing images and to install monitoring software on his mobile phone and computer.

Smith was arrested again on May 13, after investigators identified he had accessed seven illegal images of children on his phone.

His home was searched and several bank cards he had failed to log with the police were found.

This, along with his failure to register his use of several social media usernames with officers, were breaches of his court orders.

Smith, of Peregrine Drive, Sittingbourne, was charged and pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court to making indecent images of a child and six breaches of his SONR.

Last Tuesday (November 12), the 44-year-old was sentenced to a year in prison.

On his release, he will be subject to a further SHPO indefinitely.

Police investigator Thomas Briant said: “Smith was given the opportunity by the court to show he could reform and be trusted not to reoffend whilst living in the community.

“Once we identified he was blatantly accessing indecent images of children on a phone we were actively monitoring, he was immediately arrested.

“This led to the identification that Smith had breached his court orders multiple times.

“He is now serving another prison sentence and will be subject to ongoing checks when he is released.”

Description

A man has been jailed for more than three years after he was convicted of sexually assaulting seven different women.

Jason Larry Colbourne, 56, of High Street, Stockbridge, was found guilty in September of this year of eight counts of sexual assault by touching.

This relates to offences between March 2023 and October 2023 which happened in the Winchester and Andover areas.

Colbourne appeared at Winchester Crown Court today (15/11/24), where he was handed a three and a half year prison sentence.

He was also made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and all seven victims were given restraining orders against him.

Description

A man has been jailed for more than three years after he was convicted of sexually assaulting seven different women.

Jason Larry Colbourne, 56, of High Street, Stockbridge, was found guilty in September of this year of eight counts of sexual assault by touching.

This relates to offences between March 2023 and October 2023 which happened in the Winchester and Andover areas.

Colbourne appeared at Winchester Crown Court today (15/11/24), where he was handed a three and a half year prison sentence.

He was also made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and all seven victims were given restraining orders against him.

Description

A Leicester DPD delivery driver sexually assaulted multiple women in a village in just two days. The actions of Ionut Torodoc, who also took a photo of one of his victims, was labelled "disturbing" by the recorder who jailed him today (Thursday, November 14).

Torodoc, of Stuart Street in Leicester's Westcotes, engaged in a series of disturbing actions including touching, kissing, and grabbing five different victims. The incidents happened over a two-day period in the Nottinghamshire village of East Leake, reports Nottinghamshire Live.

Nottingham Crown Court heard how the assaults began on Tuesday, May 21 when Torodoc parked his van in front of a woman's car to deliver a parcel. Prosecutor Thomas Welshman said: "She had her nine-year-old son in the car but got out as she recognised the defendant and opened her house so she could take the parcel in. He told her she was a 'beautiful girl' and tried to kiss her but she turned away.

"She was shocked and returned to her car and he got in and sat in the front passenger seat and said 'let's go' before turning to her son in the back seat and telling him 'your mum is very beautiful'. He then got out of the car and said 'you must order more parcels'."

The second incident happened just 20 minutes later when Torodoc delivered another parcel in the village. When the female resident answered the door, he placed it on the floor and as she picked it up, he put his hand on her thigh, telling her she had a "nice tattoo".

Mr Welshman said Torodoc then pushed "his hand further up her thigh and started to grab her shorts". He said: "[Torodoc] told her 'I need to get a photo' and took a photo from above and when she saw it, it was not of the parcel but just her body. He said 'I had to get your legs in'."

The third victim was at her workplace when Torodoc arrived with a delivery, claiming to be unwell. He was given a glass of water and something to eat. While there, he kissed one of the female workers on the cheeks before "grabbing her face and kissing her on the mouth".

Mr Welshman stated: "She felt him trying to put his tongue in her mouth and clenched her teeth together to prevent this from happening."

The fourth victim was at East Leake Leisure Centre when she was approached by Torodoc a few hours later. He had just made a delivery when he "grabbed" the woman and tried to pull her close to him.

The following day (Wednesday, May 22), Torodoc targeted his fifth victim - a 17-year-old girl who was walking to work. Court heard how he pulled up alongside the teenager and asked her for a light before grabbing her hand.

Mr Welshman said: "She walked off and he followed her in the van wound down his window and said 'where do you work, I will take you, get in'. She said 'get away from me' and when she got to work she suffered a panic attack and had to be sent home."

Court was also told that prior to the East Leake offences, Torodoc had picked up a boy who was at a self-service checkout at a Leicester Tesco Express with his mother. Prosecutors said the boy's mum demanded he put him down, telling Torodoc he should not do that and he walked away.

Emma Coverley, mitigating, said Torodoc had a wife and son in Romania, and at the time of the offences, his wife had informed him she wanted to end their relationship. She explained: "He has been in custody for six months now and has not had a family visit. He was given indefinite leave to be in the UK in 2020 and was working and quite properly sending money home to his family in Romania."

Torodoc, who required a Romanian interpreter at this week's hearing, pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual assault and also to common assault. He was jailed for 17 months.

Recorder Ciaran Rankin said: "This case paints a very disturbing and troubling picture. You displayed a bizarre attitude towards others you came into contact with when working as a delivery driver. It is an extremely worrying set of offences and in your pre-sentence report you don't seem to recognise the seriousness of these offences."

As well as the prison sentence, Torodoc was also placed the sex offender register for 10 years.

Description

The devastated father of a 10-year-old girl groomed on Snapchat and WhatsApp by a paedophile posing as a teenage boy told a court he feels he has failed as a parent.

In a moving statement read out at the sentencing hearing of Chartham resident Jacob Bean, the dad described the damaging impact on his daughter of having been "exposed to one of the world's greatest evils".

He wrote: "As a father you never want anything bad to happen to your children. You do what you can to protect them and right now I feel like I have failed.

"My 10-year-old daughter has been exposed to one of the world's greatest evils. We have lost our daughter, the way we knew her to be.

"What can a parent possibly do to make this better? She has been stripped of her innocence. She is angry and has tried to stab herself.

"I cannot explain how hard that is to see and not be able to take her pain away.

"She has so much of her childhood left but it has now been tarnished by this person who thought it was OK to talk to her like this and send her such obscene things."

But he added that although the conclusion of legal proceedings would not bring the family's suffering to an end, he vowed to "do my best to be there for my daughter and help her however I can".

Canterbury Crown Court heard that Bean's twisted behaviour with the girl included sending her child abuse videos and photos of his penis, as well as encouraging her to perform sex acts on herself.

The 23-year-old also talked about rape, saying he would carry on even if told 'No' or to stop, and asked her to try to recruit her friends into watching him having sex and masturbating.

She later told police she had deleted some of their messages because she thought she would be in trouble.

At the time, Bean was already under investigation for the grooming of three other underage girls - one said to be living in Germany - on Snapchat, as well as making indecent images.

Prosecutor Paul Valder said Bean also asked a victim - one of whom was later identified by police through her school uniform - to call him "a pervert" and told another aged 13 that he wanted to make her pregnant.

Following his initial arrest in August last year, the sex offender, of Highland Road, had claimed that his accounts had been hacked and accessed by others.

He also said a friend had regular use of his phone and denied any knowledge of the 24 child abuse images found, one depicting a victim as young as 12 months old.

However, after the abuse of the 10-year-old came to light in July this year, he later pleaded guilty to four offences of sexual communication with a child, four of making indecent images, two of attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act and causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in penetrative sexual activity.

Shanda McAteer, defending, told the court Bean did not offer any excuse for his offending and had shown genuine remorse.

But telling the court the defendant "struggles" to explain why he did what he did, Ms McAteer added: "He was suffering from very low mood and social isolation, was having difficulty opening up to his family and how he was feeling, and turned to the internet to communicate with others and then these offences have occurred.

"He doesn't attempt to excuse what he did in any way at all, and has now heard the impact of his actions."

Bean, who has no previous convictions, was jailed for a total of five-and-a-half years.

Passing sentence on Tuesday, Judge Simon James told the convicted paedophile he had used the internet to "actively pursue" his sexual interest in children.

But although he accepted Bean was suffering from poor mental health at the time which may have contributed to making poor and reckless choices, he said he "struggled to comprehend" how it could be argued that there was a direct causative link between his depression and seeking to incite children to engage in sexual activity.

Speaking of the "obvious, wholly understandable, and profound" impact on the 10-year-old victim and her family, Judge James added: "Children, and indeed parents, are entitled to look to the courts for protection from adults seeking to sexually exploit, abuse and corrupt children over the internet."

He also remarked that the disparity in age between Bean and his victims, together with his pretence of being a child in order to gain their trust and response, were both significant aggravating features.

On release, Bean will be subject to indefinite sex offender notification requirements and a sexual harm prevention order.

Description

A child sex offender from Burton-on-Trent has been jailed for nine years after the survivor bravery came forward.

Liam Stephen Wood, 19, of Burton, pleaded guilty to two counts of causing/inciting a female child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and three counts of making indecent photographs of a child at an earlier court hearing.

On Thursday (7 November) at Stafford Crown Court, he was jailed for nine years, with a five-year extended license period, put on the Sex Offenders Register for life, issued with a restraining order against the victim for the next decade and subject to a 15-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

He was arrested in May 2024 after the survivor, a girl, bravely came forward and told someone about what Wood had done.

Officers from our child protection team (CPT) launched an investigation and managed to secure the charges against Wood, despite him denying his crimes on interview.

Description

A man from Dartford has been jailed after a jury unanimously found him guilty of sexually assaulting two children over more than three decades.

Steven Franklin, of Montgomery Road, was convicted at Woolwich Crown Court of 10 sexual offences, including five counts of rape.

The court heard how Kent Police launched an investigation into allegations Franklin had subjected a child to a sustained campaign of sexual abuse.

The complex investigation found there was a second victim, who had been targeted by Franklin in the 1970s.

Investigations later revealed the child had suffered at the hands of Franklin for more than a decade.

In August 2023, Franklin was charged with multiple sexual offences and ordered to appear before Woolwich Crown Court, where he pleaded not guilty to all counts.

He was found guilty following a trial.

The 71-year-old was sentenced to 26 years’ imprisonment before the same court on November 14.

He must serve at least two thirds of his sentence before he can apply for parole.

Detective Constable James McClelland said: “Franklin persistently and repeatedly assaulted his victims in the most vile manner for his own selfish gratification.

“He took advantage of two vulnerable young children, subjecting them to years abuse, with absolutely no regard for their physical, mental, emotional, or psychological well-being.

“He has subsequently demonstrated zero remorse and refused to confess his wrongdoing, instead choosing to make them suffer a lengthy legal process, during which they’ve had to relive horrific incidents.

“I would like to commend the bravery of both victims in reporting Franklin’s abhorrent behaviour and hope that his lengthy jail term offers some comfort.

“Kent Police takes all reports of this nature seriously and encourages any victims of such crimes to have confidence that we will seek to serve justice against perpetrators, no matter when the offence occurred.”

Description

A 22-year-old man from Houghton Regis has been jailed for 12 years after raping a girl in a park last year. 

William Ward, of Parkside Close, approached the victim and her friend in a park in October 2023 and engaged them in conversation.

The victim’s friend, who felt uncomfortable by Ward’s presence and was suspicious of his intentions, messaged some of their other friends to come and meet them.

Ward, on the pretence of helping the victim find something she had lost, managed to lure her away from her friends and into a wooded area where he raped her.

When her friends found her, she was distressed and disclosed that Ward had raped her.

The group challenged him, but he denied it and left shortly afterwards.

However, the victim’s friends had managed to take a video of him which was later used to help identify and arrest him.

Ward was found guilty of rape of a child under 13 and assault by penetration and was sentenced on Friday (8 November) at Luton Crown Court to 12 years. 

Detective Sergeant Joanna Tyrrell from Bedfordshire Police’s Rape and Serious Sexual Offences team, who investigated, said:

“Ward took advantage of this young girl in the worst possible way. He targeted her when she was with her friend and lured her away into woods.

“Despite her trauma, the victim showed how brave she was throughout the investigation, and I hope she feels a sense of justice now he’s behind bars and can’t do this to anyone else.

“I also want to commend her friends as they obviously realised Ward was behaving oddly and their quick thinking and actions led to his timely arrest. It’s important to remember that if something doesn’t look or feel right it usually isn’t.

“Tackling perpetrators of male violence against women and girls is a significant focus for us and we will continue to pursue these types of offenders, as well as working closely with our partners to support and improve women’s safety across the county.”

Description

A PAEDOPHILE has avoided jail after he admitted making thousands of indecent images of children.

Laurence Machin from Bewdley pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent photographs of a child, which included category A, B and C images.

The charges state that Machin made 330 Category A images, 301 Category B images, and 9720 Category C images.

The 25-year-old, of Severnside South, Bewdley, was handed an 18-month suspended sentence when he appeared at Worcester Crown Court on Thursday, November 14.

Description

An Angus paedophile collected sick child abuse images “like they were stickers for a Panini football album.”

A sheriff compared Grant Ross to a sticker or stamp collector for the way he downloaded and stored images of infants as young as two being sexually abused.

Description

An Ipswich man who was in possession of more than 1,000 "vile” indecent images and videos of children has been jailed for 20 months.

Sentencing 39-year-old Michael Banham at Ipswich Crown Court, Judge Emma Peters said it was the second time he had appeared before a court for possessing indecent images and videos of children which she described as “a real evil in society”.

“The only way such images and videos can be made is by children being subjected to actual abuse,” said the judge.

She said the “vile” images featured young children and some involved dogs and cats.

“The possession of images and videos like this fuel the trade in the abuse which literally destroys children’s lives, both physically and mentally,” said the judge.

Banham, of Kenyon Street, Ipswich, admitted three offences of possessing indecent images and videos of children and one offence of possessing extreme pornographic images.

The court was told that, in addition to the images of children, there were 18 extreme pornographic images and one video.

In addition to being jailed, Banham was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for the same period.

The court heard that in 2018 Banham was jailed for 16 months for downloading indecent images of children.

Charles Judge, prosecuting, said that in 2022 Banham was arrested for an unrelated matter and his mobile phone was seized.

When it was analysed indecent images and videos were found on it and when Banham was questioned about them he said : “I don’t know how they got there. I’m just going to say it was me and I did it."

The court heard that Banham led an isolated and lonely life and spent most of his time alone in his flat.

Description

A Wiltshire sex offender who was previously found guilty of possessing indecent images of children and images of sex with horses and dogs has now been sentenced for breaking court orders.

Anthony Munk, 36, of Trowbridge town centre appeared in Swindon Crown Court on November 6 after breaching the conditions of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

Munk became a listed sex offender when he served a six-month prison sentence in 2018 for possession of indecent images of children, and this is not the first time he has broken his SHPO.

In 2020, Munk possessed an Apple iPhone which he had failed to register with police.

When his devices were analysed, police found 15 new prohibited images of children and half a dozen extreme pornographic images showing people having sex with horses and dogs.

They had been downloaded in June, just three months after he was given the earlier court order.

His 2024 breach of condition was also for possessing an internet disabled phone which was not disclosed to Wiltshire Police, and using apps such as Snapchat which do not save messaging history.

The sex offender has now been sentenced to two months in prison, alongside a six month prison sentence which will run concurrently, suspended for 18 months.

He must also carry out 50 rehabilitation activity days and 300 hours unpaid work.

"SHPOs are put in place by the court, to protect the public from sexual harm," said detective constable Chris McLoughlin, from MOSOVO.

"Their conditions assist in managing sex offenders, and may restrict things such as erasing of search history, procurement/destruction of devices, contact with certain demographics and the type or number of devices owned.

"Munk received this order following a conviction for making indecent images of children, and the breaching of the order demonstrates a flagrant disregard for the law.”

When Munk last appeared before the court for breaching his SHPO in 2020, defence lawyer Ray Tully said his client suffered from a number of learning difficulties and mental health issues, including autism, ADHD dyslexia and dyspraxia.

The lawyer suggested Munk had potentially been “set up for something of a failure” by the court that sentenced him in 2018.

“That is because the court at the point when he, appearing before it as a first-time offender back in March 2018, sentenced him without the full knowledge this court now has as to the complexities of his background.”

Description

A 37-year-old man will spend the next 13 years in prison after he was sentenced for serious sexual offences, violence and abusive behaviour.

Anthony Gibson came to the attention of police in November 2020 when it was discovered he had abused two women.

Following initial inquiries, it was apparent Gibson had subjected other women to his abusive behaviour. His offences occurred in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Lanarkshire and Fife.

As a result of the ongoing enquiries, Gibson was arrested and charged in connection with serious sexual assaults, violence and abusive and controlling behaviour.

He was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on Monday, 11 November, 2024.

Description

A former police officer who was sacked earlier this year for sexually assaulting a child on duty has now been jailed for nine years.

Dean Dempster (aged 35), from Manchester, has also been ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for life after previously admitting to sexually assaulting a child while on duty working as a response officer in Oldham.

He was convicted and sacked by the Chief Constable at an accelerated misconduct hearing earlier this year. He has since admitted six counts of making indecent images, and two counts of misconduct in public office.

On 29 December 2023 Dempster was one of three officers responding to a domestic incident involving an adult and children. It was while taking an account from a six-year-old girl, away from colleagues, that he sexually abused her when he should have been there to protect her.

After we investigated a complaint received later that evening, Dempster was immediately confronted by his supervisor when he returned to duty the next morning. 

He was arrested that day by officers in Oldham and relentlessly pursued by our Professional Standards Directorate to explore any further evidence of offending, in an investigation directed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

A review of Dempster’s devices revealed further serious offending to include making of indecent images of children, to which he pleaded guilty to six counts of including two counts of the most serious category A.

Our investigation also found images on his mobile phone taken from his body-worn video camera at the incident in December 2023 of a second clothed child, and of another clothed child at a separate incident dating back to 2022. The victims of both families have been made aware and kept updated throughout our investigation.

Dempster pleaded guilty to two counts of Misconduct in a Public Office for abusing the permission granted to him as a police officer and for using footage, captured for a policing purpose, to possess for his own perverse gratification.

We have reviewed thousands of Dempster’s previous deployments while at the force and did not find any further evidence of criminal behaviour. However, anyone who is affected by this case is encouraged to contact police and they will be listened to.

We sacked Dempster at the earliest legal opportunity in May 2024 and he has been barred from policing. He has been ordered to serve five years on license following his prison sentence.

Description

A convicted sex offender has been jailed after he attempted to engage in sexual conversations with children online despite being under a strict court order. Terry Turner, 39, entered an online chatroom twice in August using a private browser, so his web history could not be recorded or tracked.

He initiated sexual conversations with three victims, who all identified themselves as being under the age of 16. Despite knowing the age of his victims, Turner continued initiating sexual conversations, according to Cambridgeshire police.

This put him in breach of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO), which stated he must not use any internet browser which does not retain search history or enter a chatroom without notifying his police offender manager three days beforehand. Turner was first placed on the Sex Offenders Register in 2011 after being convicted of child sex offences. He was also convicted of further offences in 2020, and then again in 2022 for breaching his SHPO.

On Friday (November 8), at Cambridge Crown Court, Turner, of Church Close, Stilton, near Peterborough, was jailed for two years after he pleaded guilty to three counts of breaching his SHPO and attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.