Latest Offenders

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A convicted sex offender was caught with internet-wiping software on his phone and an email account in a false name just months after walking out of court.

Anthony Coombes was on a suspended sentence at the time after being convicted of engaging in sexually explicit conversations with what he believed were 12 and 14 year old girls, and was also subject to a sexual harm prevention order designed to control his online activities.

Sending the 22-year-old to prison, a judge said he did not believe the defendant had any intention of abiding by court orders.

Dean Pulling, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that on the morning of February 4 this year police went to Coombes' home and asked to see his electronic devices. The defendant handed over a Huawei mobile, and the officer noticed it only had that day's internet history in the browser history. A detailed examination of the handset found the phone contained an app which had a data-erasing function, and that Coombes had an email account in the name of "Bennypern". The defendant is banned from erasing his internet history or using aliases when setting up an email account by a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).

In his subsequent interview the defendant said he didnt know he was not allowed to delete his online history, and said the cleaning app had came with the phone which he had bought secondhand. He accepted he had created the alias email address but said this was only for use on his X-Box games console.

Anthony Stephen Joshua Coombes, of Colley Court, Monkton, Pembroke, had previously pleaded guilty to breaching the conditions of a (SHPO) when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.

The court heard that in October 2021 Coombes was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court to 12 months in prison suspended for two years for attempted sexual communication with a child, possessing indecent images of a child, and failing to comply with sex offender notification requirements. These offences had seen Coombes contacting what he believed were two girls aged 12 and 14 on a site called Chat Hour, and engaging in sexual conversations with them before asking for intimate photographs.

In reality the profiles of the girls were decoy accounts being run by adult members of so-called paedophile hunter groups, and the woman running one of the decoys contacted the police after she found Coombes' Facebook page and discovered he had been befriending real young girls. When the defendant was arrested officers found two indecent images of girls ages between eight and 12 on his phone which had been downloaded from the Kik messenger app. The court heard that after pleading guilty to these offences in August last year the case was adjourned for a pre-sentence report - Coombes was released on bail but then failed to register with police as he was required to do as a sex offender.

The prosecutor said the defendant also has a conditional caution from 2017 - when he was a juvenile - for offences of attempting to incite a child to engage in a penetrative sexual activity, and sending indecent images after he admitted sending pictures and videos of his penis to girls aged 14 and 15.

Judge Paul Thomas QC said Coombes had been given a "merciful" sentence in October last year but it was clear to him that the defendant had no intention of complying with requirements of the sexual harm prevention order. The judge sentenced him to eight months in prison for breaching the order and activated 10 months of the previously imposed suspended sentence to run consecutively making an overall sentence of 18 months in prison. Coombes will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.

The sexual harm prevention order remains in place.

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A sex chat pervert who talked about doing Fifty Shades of Grey with an under-age girl has been jailed for a total of 23 months.

Mohammed Eithan Khan said he would take the teenagers virginity during online chats and asked her to send him photos of herself in her school uniform or naked.

Khan, 23, of Great Horton Road, Bradford, admitted a charge of engaging in sexual communication with a child and he also pleaded guilty to separate charges of possessing indecent images of children.

Bradford Crown Court heard today that the offending took place at a time when Khan had issues with loneliness and was isolated from reality. The court heard that he had kept out of trouble since.

But Recorder Jason Pitter QC said that only an immediate custodial sentence was appropriate.

Khan had initiated the contact with the under-age girl and had communicated with her over a period of about three months.

You must have been aware how young she was, he said.

You deliberately sexualised even simple conversations making her feel uncomfortable, telling her that you would take her virginity.

The conversations became increasingly sexualised and you made reference to the film Fifty Shades of Grey.

After his arrest Khan denied having any intention of carrying out the acts referred to in the messages sent to his victim.

The court heard that the indecent images downloaded by him involved female children aged between five and 14.

What is of particular concern to me is that there appears to be a lack of true remorse for your actions and an inability to engage with the reasons behind your offending, the recorder said.

Khan was jailed for 14 months for sexual communication with a child and an additional nine months, to run consecutively, for the possession of indecent images.

He will have to register as a sex offender with the police for the next ten years and comply with a sexual harm prevention order for the same period.

Description

A Pinchbeck man who attempted to engage in sexual conversations with three people he thought were under-age girls was today jailed for 16 months.

Jason Hildred (48) of Walpole Close in Pinchbeck, was also ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order.

Lincoln Crown Court heard Hildred began swapping messages with someone he believed was a 12-year-old girl called Dani on the Chat Avenue site in November 2020.

Noel Philo, prosecuting, said Dani was in reality a member of an organisation which seeks to protect children.

During the social media messages, which also occurred on WhatsApp, Hildred tried to instigate sexual conversations, Mr Philo told the court.

Hildred also got in contact with another social media user who he thought was an 11-year-old girl called Izzy.

Mr Philo said that person in fact belonged to the same organisation and Hildred again tried to engage in sexual conversations with them.

The court heard Hildred had previously been sentenced to a three year community order in 2013 for attempting to meet a girl aged under-16 following sexual grooming.

Hildred was arrested in June 2021 and admitted being "totally stupid" when he interviewed about the more recent offences

Mr Philo said Hildred was granted bail but was caught again later in 2021, this time by a police decoy who was pretending to be a 14-year-old girl.

Hildred was remanded into custody and pleaded guilty to three offences of attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child.

Nicholas Bleaney, mitigating, told the court all three offences were "attempts" where no physical contact took place and Hildred was entitled to maximum credit for his guilty pleas.

Mr Bleaney added: "His supervision for the previous offence ended in 2015 and it was five years before the first of this contact in November 2020.

"The genesis of this behaviour was lockdown. He was working on the railways, he has since lost his job, but found himself all alone with no distractions.

"At the same time his girlfriend was dying of cancer, she has since died. She was a lady from Thailand."

Mr Bleaney told the court Hildred also fell victim to a con artist to whom he handed over his life savings of 70,000.

Passing sentence Judge Simon Hirst told Hildred he had to take into consideration that none of his victims were real children.

But Judge Hirst said he could not pass a suspended jail sentence because of Hildred's previous conviction and his offending while on bail.

The judge told Hildred: "What you did was exactly the same thing with someone you thought was a 14-year-old girl."

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The mum of a sexually abused girl has been granted her wish for other children to be protected during her attackers lifetime.

Jailed David Brunt, 53, from Hartlepool, was given a life ban on having unsupervised contact with children and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.

The woman, who cannot be named to protect her child, said in a victim impact statement read out at Teesside Crown Court that the youngster still suffers nightmares and wets the bed years after her ordeal.

Brunt insisted on a trial and the traumatised youngster had to undergo a cross examination by his defence lawyer before he caved in and finally pleaded guilty.

Prosecutor Jane Waugh read out the statement for the mother, saying the girl confided to a relative and, addressing Brunt, it said: My whole world came crashing down.

I found out what you had done to my daughter and her life will never be the same again.

You have stolen her childhood and for that I will never forgive you.

You should never be allowed to live within human society.

I have to get up during the night when she has nightmares and cannot sleep and I have to change the bed when It is wet.

You should be locked away for the rest of your life where you cannot hurt young children.

I hope you go to prison for a very long time and you deserve everything that comes to you.

When police went to interview Brunt, they found indecent images of children on his mobile phone.

Ian Mullarkey, defending, said that it was accepted that the offences were aggravated by their repeated nature.

He added: The pre-sentence report shows a limited acceptance by him of his wrong doing which can be improved upon over time and he accepts that an immediate custodial sentence is inevitable.

Judge Howard Crowson told Brunt that he was imposing an indefinite sexual harm prevention order on him to protect members of the public from you.

Brunt, of Balcary Court, Hartlepool, was jailed for five-and-a-half years, given a lifetime restraining order banning contact with the girl and her family after he pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual assault on a girl under 13 and three offences of making indecent images of children.

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A depraved and "deviant" sex offender "manipulated" a young girl into having highly intrusive pictures taken of her after he pretended that they were going to be sent to a doctor.

Perverted and scheming Glenn Overton-Wilkinson used a tiny probing camera with a hot light on the end of it that burned the vulnerable young victim's intimate areas.

He told the girl that the images sent to the doctor would be used to help other young girls who had intimate body problems, Hull Crown Court heard.

Overton-Wilkinson, 59, of Waterside Road, Beverley, admitted assault by penetration, causing a girl to allow him to take indecent photographs of her and possessing indecent images of children between May 2016 and November 2019.

Simon Reevell, prosecuting, said that Overton-Wilkinson used a tiny camera to take intimate images of the young girl.

He pretended that taking the pictures was to help other girls with problems in that area of their body and that the images would be sent to a doctor.

The tiny camera had a light on the end that was hot and this burned an area of her private parts.

The matters were discovered when police received information that Overton-Wilkinson had been accessing child pornography.

They found that he had about 3,000 indecent images, including videos, of other children.

Overton-Wilkinson had developed an "obsession" with the girl and made threats to her about what would happen if the offences were reported.

He had a previous conviction from nearly 20 years ago for possessing indecent images of children.

"He acknowledged that he was sexually interested in children," said Mr Reevell.

Judge David Tremberg told Overton-Wilkinson that the community order that he received then was not enough to "curb your sexual interest in children".

He had an "entrenched" and long-standing "deviant sexual interest" in children.

"You could not have failed to realise that, if you committed like offences again, let alone progressed to contact offences, you would get locked up for those for a long time," said Judge Tremberg.

"Yet you proved yourself either unable or unwilling to stop yourself from doing just that."

Overton-Wilkinson "manipulated" the girl, who was "vulnerable by reason of her age, naivety, gullibility and her exposure to you", and the offences were persistent over a prolonged period.

"There really was no respite for this child," said Judge Tremberg.

"You didn't end this because you wanted to. This all ended because you were caught.

"There is a significant possibility that, had matters been permitted to progress without the engagement and involvement of the police, things could have got worse and worse.

"She has suffered significant harm." The girl would grow up and realise the "depravity" to which Overton-Wilkinson subjected her and she felt "shame and humiliation".

It could take "years or decades" for the effects of the "emotional trauma" to play out.

"You well knew what you were doing was seriously wrong," said Judge Tremberg.

"You used grooming and manipulative techniques. You persuaded the child not to tell.

"There was clearly an element of significant planning about this."

David Godfrey, mitigating, said: "He did make admissions in his interview. He has a degree of understanding as to why he commits these types of offences.

"He made some startling admissions to the police. It was deplorable, it was awful. He rightly accepts that.

"He does feel shame and regret at what he has done and he bitterly regrets his behaviour and his disgraceful loss of control. He is sorry."

Overton-Wilkinson was jailed for nine years and will be on extended licence of one year after his release from prison.

He was given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

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John Paul Bullingham was described by a court as a 'committed, if unsuccessful, paedophile'

A paedophile attempted to meet a fictitious young girl and made threats to someone he thought was an 11-year-old girl, a court has heard.

John Paul Bullingham was caught with indecent images of children by police and he was released pending further investigation.

But in the meantime Swansea Crown Court heard how Bullingham, of Bowen Street in Neath, sexually communicated online with people he thought were young girls. During the exchanges he encouraged lewd behaviour, attempted to arrange to meet another, and made threats to a third.

Judge Paul Thomas QC told the defendant: "Having heard the evidence in this case you are a committed, if unsuccessful, paedophile.

"You had an index of category A images of children and those images had children as young as five part of a collection accumulated over a year.

"Having been caught you were released under investigation by the police but that did not stop you.

"After being released under investigation you communicated sexually online with children online. One of those was who you thought was a 14-year-old girl which you encouraged to masturbate herself.

"You arranged to meet in Neath who you believed was a 13-year-old girl and if she had been real I have no doubt you would have committed sexual offences in relation to her.

"Possibly the most unsavoury and most dangerous aspect of what happened was concerning who you thought was an 11-year-old girl. You said to the fictitious girl that you would contact her friends and others online if she did not do what you wanted her to do. That is a particularly sinister aspect of this case."

Bullingham appeared for sentencing after being found guilty by a jury following a trial of five counts of possessing indecent photographs of a child, one count of possessing indecent images of a child, five counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, and a further count of attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity.

Paul Hobson, mitigating, said: "At the age of 32 this is his first significant experience of custody. He has a relatively limited antecedent history. This is a defendant with a mild intellectual disability."

Sentencing Bullingham, Judge Thomas said: "I believe you pose a high risk of causing serious harm to others in future."

He handed Bullingham an eight-year sentenced comprising five and a half years in prison and the remainder on extended licence. He has also been given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and an indefinite notification requirement.

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A computer hacker who was jailed for tormenting three young girls began a new campaign of abuse days after being released from prison.

Ryan Campbell, 22, sent intimidate photos of his newest victim to family members and doctored a newspaper article to falsely suggest she was a paedophile.

Cambell hacked into the womans account before escalating his abusive and intrusive behaviour after she decided against speaking to him.

He had previously been jailed for 20 months in September 2020 for making three young girls lives a misery, the Liverpool Echo reports.

They included a child aged 12 or 13, after she refused to send him naked pictures; a 16-year-old ex-partner, who he told to kill herself; and a 15-year-old victim, who he tormented by pretending to be her alleged rapist.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that within days of being released from prison, he sent a friend request on Snapchat to his latest victim, a young woman who LancsLive has chosen not to name. Rebecca Smith, prosecuting, said at first she had normal conversations with Campbell, in October 2021.

He was using the account Ry Antrickz, said he was 22 and from Liverpool, and would come and visit her in another part of the country.

Due to the distance between the two, she decided they wouldnt be friends and blocked him on Snapchat, only to receive numerous friend requests. In November he contacted her on Facebook Messenger making threats to hack her bank account if she did not speak with him and accused her of contacting many boys.

The woman told him she didnt want to argue but he replied big mistake and she blocked him on Facebook.

On November 17, she received an email saying action was required on her Facebook account, but discovered the password had been changed.

Friends told her a photo of her sticking her tongue out and a video of her dancing was posted on her Facebook wall, before Campbell messaged her on WhatsApp saying want me to stop? with laughing emojis.

Ms Smith said Campbell sent her texts containing the postcode of her old home and her grandads address and said he was travelling there. The messages became more sinister and abusive when he accused her of attention seeking about wanting to self-harm and kill herself.

He sent a friend of hers messages from her Facebook account, who asked who he was.

Campbell replied: Haha long story but we had a takeover because shes a slag basically.

On November 20 he text her someone put your number on Gumtree as an escort with a laughing emoji. Campbell then sent her stepmum an article from the Independent newspaper with the headline: Sinister female paedophile who abused nursery children handed suspended sentence.

It had been edited to include the womans name, photo and the area where she lived.

Ms Smith said: She found that extremely offensive and was shocked.

Family and friends later contacted her to say Campbell had sent intimate photos of her to a Facebook messenger group chat. The woman said she believed he had hacked her Snapchat account to seize these private sexual images.

She discovered Campbell had previously been jailed for similar offences and managed to change all her passwords.

But he then hacked her old Instagram account and messaged her from it, saying: Want me to remove the lock off your bank then or nah?

Days later, he placed a series of orders on Just Eat to her address, leading to irate delivery drivers ringing her demanding payment. She fled her home on November 21 to seek refuge, reported him to the police, and didnt return until December 1, after he had been arrested.

The victim, appearing via video link, today read out a statement in which she described how Campbell left her housebound and suicidal.

She told the court: This boy has destroyed my life.

Campbell, of Smith Road, Kirkdale, admitted computer hacking, harassment and disclosing private sexual photographs.

The court heard he has since been recalled to prison to serve the remainder of his 20-month sentence.

Jonathan Duffy, defending, said in a letter to the court Campbell accepted what he did was wrong and when interviewed by police, had said he deeply regretted his actions and was genuinely very sorry for the distress that he had caused.

Mr Duffy said their online friendship/relationship and the nature or depth of it was misjudged by Campbell, who then behaved in a wholly inappropriate way, which had the hallmarks of immaturity.

The lawyer asked for full one third credit for Campbells early guilty pleas.

Recorder Ian Harris said he was entitled to that, but it would be for him to judge how remorseful Campbell was, who was an accomplished hacker of computers and of other peoples personal details.

Mr Duffy said: He disclosed in that letter how problems hes experienced in his family, the deaths of people close to him, caused him to lose, or to think in a way which he now, having had time to reflect of course, deeply regrets.

Recorder Harris told Campbell: This behaviour of yours was criminal and cowardly. It paralysed your victim with fear. She became suicidal and reclusive.

He said she was courageous to read her statement, which referred to the fact that her whole way of life, friendships and work, had been disrupted by you.

The judge said: You say youre sorry for the distress that youve caused.

Ive read your letter, which sets out your reasons for committing these offences. I dont accept that the reasons that are set out in your letter are any excuse...

It is in my judgement offensive to refer to personal matters as you have done in that letter and in some way try to blame those matters for you committing those offences, when you had only just been released from prison for the same, or a similar type of offending.

Recorder Harris concluded: I dont find there is any remorse that I can take into account.

He jailed him for two years and imposed an indefinite restraining order and five-year Criminal Behaviour Order, restricting his internet use.

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A BRADFORD police officer has been jailed for ten years after being found guilty of a "disgusting sexual assault" on a woman after a night out more than five years ago.

West Yorkshire Police Sergeant Ben Lister, 36, was found to have raped the woman at a mutual friends house following a night out drinking together in a group on August Bank Holiday weekend 2016.

Lister had denied the offence, claiming his victim consented to the intercourse, but he was found guilty of rape and assault by penetration by a jury at Bradford Crown Court today.

His vile attack led to his victim becoming pregnant, but Lister denied knowing he had fathered the womans child.

Bradford Crown Court heard Lister raped his paralytically drunk victim - many years his junior - as she drifted in and out of consciousness at a friend's house.

When she asked if they'd had intercourse he lied, telling her he'd only performed oral sex.

He said the woman was later in denial that the baby had resulted from a rape, but a DNA test proved Lister was 18 million times more likely to be the dad than not.

In sentencing, Judge Jonathan Rose said: "What you did on that night was to rape a woman who was, in my view, vulnerable because of her physical condition.

"This woman was out with her friends... Your account is that you were not heavily drinking. You should have been more aware of your responsibilities.

"She returned to a house where she had stayed before and had the right to feel safe.

"She drifted between a state of unconsciousness where she was aware of - but unable to stop - what you were doing.

"You took advantage of knowing she could not physically fight you off.

"You penetrated her with your fingers, you penetrated her with penis. You did not use protection.

"The consequences of such were devastating for this victim because any act of rape is devastating to the victim, but devastating for her because you got her pregnant.

"The next day, you contacted her via text message. She asked you whether you'd had sex together and you told the first of many lies, you said you hadn't.

"You thought you had got away with it and you nearly did. But a few months later, she realised she was pregnant and she realised that she had been raped.

"You gave not for one single moment had any remorse for what you did."

After getting a taxi back to a friend's house they had both slept on separate sofas, but in the early hours of the morning, the woman woke to Lister pulling her from the sofa and drifted in and out of consciousness during the rape.

Prosecutor Richard Woolfall, read out the victim's impact statement which said she 'saw Lister' in her baby's face.

She said she used to "sort of resent" her child as her child was "a constant reminder of what he did to me".

She described her child as "caring" and said she just wanted her child to "know the truth".

Following the jurys verdict he was jailed for 10 years for rape and four years for the assault by penetration, to be served concurrently, and required to sign the sex offenders register for life.

Pauline McCullagh, head of the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit for the Crown Prosecution Service Yorkshire and Humberside, said: This woman was raped, and as a result, she became pregnant with her attackers child.

The offence of rape has profound effects on victims. Although he was not on duty when he committed this terrible crime, Lister was still a serving police officer, charged with upholding the law and protecting the public.

Our thoughts remain with the victim, as they have been throughout.

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Ryan Connor, from Longton, has been locked up for six years.

Sex beast Ryan Connor raped two women - after meeting them on a dating website.

The 30-year-old met his victims through the Plenty of Fish app and took them back to his house.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court has heard both women got into bed consensually and kissed the defendant.

But despite them making it clear they did not want full sex the defendant put his own sexual needs first and raped them.

Now Connor, of Longley Road, Longton, has been jailed for six years after being convicted of the two rapes.

The court heard there was a gap of 38 months between the two attacks.

One of the victims said the attack left her feeling 'sick, sore and disgusting'.

In a statement she said: "I felt petrified. I felt safe when I got home. I woke up in the night crying in my sleep. I felt it was my fault but I know deep down it was not.

"There still isn't a day that goes by that I do not think about it. I feel scared and lonely. I am scarred for the rest of my life."

Darron Whitehead, mitigating, said: "There are no winners in this case."

He said messages between his client and the two victims had been 'flirtatious' and 'two-way'. The defendant's current partner is standing by him.

"It was not just him coming on strong," said Mr Whitehead. "Both indicated an immediate attraction to him and him an immediate attraction to them.

"He was using Plenty of Fish to meet people for short casual relationships. He made that perfectly clear to both girls straight away. Both agreed to meet him and both got in his car. They were not threatened with violence. No violence was used."

Connor has been placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for the rest of his life.

The court heard both women had make it clear that 'did not wish to participate in any full sexual relationship' before going to the defendant's house.

Judge David Fletcher said: "The sexual touching by you started almost immediately when you entered your home. But both followed you willingly up to the bedroom and both got into bed and sexual activity of a less serious type started. There was kissing with tongues and that was reciprocal on the part of you and both of those women.

Description

A man has been jailed for child sex offences after police tracked him down to a mechanics workshop in Canada.

Mohammed Schwitters, from Birmingham, sexually abused a child over a period of seven years starting when the girl was just 10-years-old.

It happened between 2010 and 2017 and police arrested Schwitters when the offences were reported to themin 2017.

Schwitters, aged 55, skipped the country during the investigation but officers from the Public Protection Unit worked over the next three years to track him down.

Police finally caught up with him on 1 September 2020 - working together with the Canadian Authorities - they tracked the mobile phone number and bank accounts he used to a mechanics workshop in Toronto.

He was extradited back to the UK and appeared at Birmingham Crown Court on the 10 December 2021 where he pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual assault on a child, three counts of attempted rape and three counts of assault by penetration.

This week (Friday 4 March), Schwitters was jailed for 18 years; he will remain on the Sex Offender Register for life.

Detective Constable Kat Sands said: This case really highlights how we take reports of sexual abuse very seriously and will work with survivors, help get them the support they need, and work with them to bring offenders to justice.

It is never too late to report sexual abuse and we will leave no stone unturned to get justice.

While this sentence can never undo what happened, I hope the victim will find some comfort in knowing justice has been served.

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A paedophile who touched two young girls continues to deny what he did despite being convicted and sent to prison.

Martyn Foster, 41, left both victims suffering psychologically as a result of his grotesque acts.

Foster, formerly of Liskeard but most recently of Saltash, appeared at Truro Crown Court for sentence having been convicted at a trial of two sexual assaults of a girl under 13.

At the sentencing hearing, the court heard from both the victims mothers as Foster sat smartly dressed in the dock refusing to look up.

One of the mothers described how her daughter suffers from bed wetting since the sexual assault took place and has had to be prescribed medication.

One of the victims no longer wants to do dance and swimming lessons and now showers with her underwear on.

There were also allegations that Foster threatened his victims' families, making them fear for their safety.

Representing Foster, Ed Bailey said: He is now 41 and hitherto led a blameless and hard-working life.

Perhaps the biggest punishment is that he wont see his own daughter and son for a considerable time. His health is not good and he has had a kidney removed.

The court also heard how Foster continues to maintain his innocence.

Sentencing Foster, Judge Simon Carr said that one of the girls had the courage to speak out immediately, something rare in such cases.

He added that the victims and their families could take a lifetime to recover from what happened and that Foster continues to deny what he has been convicted of.

Foster was jailed for six years. He was made subject of a sexual harm prevention order and must sign the sex offenders register for life.

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Jordan Yardley is already serving a sentence after 'indulging' in a perverted obsession with children and has now been jailed for a further 17 and a half months following a police raid on his home in Livingston

A serial sexual predator who indulged his perverted fascination for pre-pubescent children through an obsession with computer games has been jailed.

Jordan Yardley, who is already serving a sentence after being recalled to prison, was sentenced to a further 17 and a half months in jail and told his name would remain on the sex offenders register for ten years.

Yardley appeared for sentence at Livingston Sheriff Court after earlier pleading guilty to possessing child pornography.

During a spot check on 25 February last year cops found the 25-year-old had deleted 94 indecent images he downloaded onto his computer after viewing them at his home in Livingston.

Eleven of the images were in category A, showing penetrative sexual activity involving an adult or another child.

A further 17 photographs showed non-penetrative sexual activity such as solo masturbation and the remaining 65 were of children in erotic poses with no sexual activity involving children aged between four and 13 years of age.

Yardley was subject to an extended prison sentence of 39 months imposed in March 2019, with a custodial term of 27 months followed by 12 months post release supervision, which he breached by committing the new offence.

Following his arrest for secretly downloading the vile images, the convicted sex offender was recalled to prison and was due to be released on 9 March next week.

Sheriff Frank Crowe described Yardley as a rather sad individual because he didnt have any hobbies except playing computer games.

He commented: It seems a very short step from computer games to pre-pubescent pornography. Thats been a recurrent theme.

He seems to focus on pre-pubescent children under the age of 13 and you cant lead a normal life with that going on at the back of your mind. I mean its just not natural.

He cant give any explanation and its just a complete vacuum. He just seems very alone and anti-social

Passing sentence, he told Yardley he was still a young man and said that, if he had been looking at the latest case in isolation, he would have imposed a community sentence.

However, he added: What I see is you have two related previous convictions and an interest in young children which goes back to at least 2015.

Its a really poor social work report. You really just shrug your shoulders all the way through and there are no 'green shoots' in this report.

You may have autistic problems but you are not a stupid man. You have some qualifications and there is still an opportunity for you.

The worrying thing is you have no other interest at all other than computer games and that seems to lead to your interest in child pornography.

My advice is to engage in prison and get another interest where you play a bit of football or darts anything other than computers.

I do fear that if you go back out into the community that same surreptitious and nasty behaviour would rear its head again.

Given the unavailability of intensive social work intervention due to the Covid pandemic, the sheriff said he had concluded that the only way to deal with Yardleys offending and protect the public was to impose a custodial sentence.

Paedophile Yardley was previously jailed in 2018 for sending sick messages to what he thought was an under-age schoolgirl offering to take a her to the woods and teach her about sex.

He was busted after sexting the 12-year-old girl and arranging to meet her for sex only to be confronted by paedophile hunters who streamed the encounter live on the internet.

At the time he committed that offence Yardley was still serving a community sentence for his previous offence in 2016 for possessing indecent images of children and was already a registered sex offender.

The remorseless sex beast messaged the decoy that "age was not an issue" and brazenly told the vigilantes that it didnt bother him that he was a paedophile.

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I have panic attacks in public as I feel like I am being followed by my abuser. I feel like he wont let me move on"

A rapist who groomed a 15-year-old girl, took her to the cinema and attacked her in a hotel has been jailed for over nine years.

Jordan Lanzon, 26, befriended the girl on social media after making numerous accounts to contact her.

He claimed he was 17 when he was actually 23.

The pair met in November 2019 in Manchester city centre where they went to the cinema.

The following month they met again and Lanzon told the teen that he had booked them a hotel room to escape the cold.

It was there that he raped her, a court previously heard.

They continued to communicate, with Lanzon repeatedly booking hotel rooms for them and inviting her to join him.

She reported feeling scared and forced into having sex with him on multiple occasions.

He also asked her to perform sexual acts over video calls and via texts, it was said.

Following a trial in January this year, Lanzon, of Whalley Range, was found guilty of offences of rape, and had earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a child, and causing/inciting a child to engage in sexual activity as well as an unrelated assault.

Today (March 4) he was jailed for nine-and-a-half years at Minshull Street Crown Court.

In an emotional victim personal statement, the girl said: I was so scared when I started to talk about what happened to me. I self harmed to release my emotions and I struggled to sleep.

I sleep with my light on and my door open. Im worried he will come and get me.

I have panic attacks in public as I feel like I am being followed by my abuser.

Since I have spoken out, he has attempted to contact me on social media. I feel like he wont let me move on.

My family has supported me throughout the trial, but I feel guilty when they feel sad or worried about me.

I should be enjoying my life, college and my friends. I want the court to know just how much life has changed for me and my family.

I dont feel safe as a direct result of the harm this man has caused me.

In a further statement she said she has nightmares, has struggled eating and sleeping and cant imagine leaving her parents' side as thats the only place she feels safe.

I have gone from a happy, normal girl to speaking to the police and going to court, she said.

Her mother said in a statement: I have never suffered from depression or anxiety, but since this my anxiety has been high, there have been sleepless nights and I have felt distressed.

I have had to watch my daughter go through the court process and have been there to support her, but it has been difficult. I hate seeing her upset.

She has changed since this happened.

The court heard Lanzon had exploited and groomed the girl, and she was vulnerable as he had taken her to a hotel room to isolate her where she was unable to call for help.

The incident was reported to police in April 2020 and Lanzon was arrested. During his police interview he denied knowing the victim.

However, further evidence from his mobile phone confirmed the pair's relationship and he later admitted to being in contact with her.

Separate offence

The court heard of a separate incident in which Lanzon had gone round to a couples home in June 2018, wherein he asked them for a cigarette.

They refused and he barged his way into their home before attacking the couple with a knife which he produced from the waistband of his jogging bottoms.

The male victim was left with a one inch cut to his eyelid with required suturing.

Lanzon was said to have four previous convictions for four offences.

He maintains his position which he had through the trial, that this was a consensual sexual relationship - albeit with a child under the age of consent, Rachel Shenton, defending, said.

He was taking prescription drugs and cannabis - he was leading a lifestyle that didnt give him any credit for his own problems.

Lanzon, of Stanley Road, Whalley Range, was jailed for nine and a half years.

"He left the victim feeling intimated and scared on multiple occasions"

Detective Constable Hannah Rudd said: "Lanzon is a sexual predator that used a vulnerable young woman to satisfy his own sexual desires.

"He left the victim feeling intimated and scared on multiple occasions and forced her into performing sexual acts over the phone and in person.

"Sadly, we can't take away the impact that Lanzon's actions will have on the victim and her family's life. However, I want to thank the victim and her family for their unwavering cooperation and I hope that today's sentence acts as some form of justice and help bring some form of closure.

"This kind of offending and abuse is horrendous and I hope today's sentence also sends a stark warning to those who feel that they can commit these offences - from in person or behind a computer screen - that we will do all in our power to seek prosecution.

"I would encourage anyone affected by this case to contact police, or our partners, to report any abuse or exploitation so that the relevant authorities can act on it."

Councillor Garry Bridges, Executive Member for Children's Services for Manchester City Council, said: "This was a sickening crime and our hearts go out to the young woman, a child at the time of the offence, who was attacked. We have supported her throughout this process and will continue to do so.

"This conviction is an illustration of how Greater Manchester Police and the Council are working closely together to identify and tackle child sexual exploitation and bring perpetrators to justice."

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A SERIAL offender has been jailed for ten years for raping a teenage girl he befriended in the street.

Glenn Trevor Williams, 62, raped and sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl before taking an indecent photo of her, at his flat in Bexhill.

Williams had been in Warrior Square, St Leonards, in July 2018, when he came across the girl and her then boyfriend, who appeared to be in some distress.

Taking advantage of their vulnerability, he invited them back to his flat on the pretext of helping them find accommodation and work.

He then plied them with drink and assaulted the girl when she tried to sleep.

The couple reported that they felt the alcohol had been spiked with a drug which quickly made them sleepy.

Detective Constable Liz Brunt of the East Sussex Safeguarding Investigations Unit said: "Williams has many previous convictions for theft and violence, including two for sexual offences involving children.

"He had been convicted of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child for which he received six months' imprisonment.

"In 2018 he was convicted of inciting a female child under 16 to engage in a sexual act.

For this he received a four-year custodial sentence.

"It is clear that Williams is a manipulative and opportunistic predator and the fact that he is now behind bars is in no small part due to the evidence the couple gave against him."

Williams, who is unemployed, has been given a 15-year sentence, with the first ten years spent in prison and the other five on extended prison licence supervision.

He will be a registered sex offender for life, and was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) severely restricting his access to children, to last indefinitely.

He had been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old man.

For information on how to report sexual offences and the support that is available, see the Sussex Police website.

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A MAN has today been jailed for eight years for raping a 30-year-old woman he tricked into walking past his home and then forcing her inside it where he attacked her.

Petru-Gabriel Dumea, 27, of Chapel Street, Petersfield has been sentenced to eight years in jail at Winchester Crown Court, after pleading guilty to rape at an earlier hearing.

The court heard that during the evening of Tuesday, August 2, 2021, a woman was out socialising at the Black Sheep pub in Petersfield when Dumea started talking to her in the smoking area.

At around 11pm, the woman left the pub to go and find her husband.

Dumea followed her and told her that her husband was in the kebab shop and offered to walk her there.

When they reached the kebab shop, instead of going inside, Dumea forced the woman into his home address that was nearby.

When inside, Dumea started to try to kiss her whilst telling her to go upstairs.

The woman refused and tried to push him away but Dumea forced her backwards onto the stairs and raped her.

A short time later, another man entered the property and confronted Dumea, enabling the woman to escape.

The following morning, the woman reported the incident to the police and later that day Dumea was arrested and subsequently charged with one count of rape.

Appearing at Winchester Crown Court, Dumea was sentenced to eight years in jail with a five year extended licence period.

He will also be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

The woman in this case, now 31, told the court how this crime had impacted her and what she had to say to the man who had done this to her: This crime has had an enormous detrimental effect on all parts of my life. On a personal level it has completely knocked my self-confidence. I doubt everything and everyone.

I feel angry about what happened.

As far as Im concerned this has ruined my life.

Rape has devastating consequences and we know the long term harm it causes to survivors and the impact it has on their rest of their life.

Detective Constable Jack Droy from Hampshire Constabularys Operation Amberstone team said: This was a premeditated attack on a woman who Dumea had befriended in order to gain her trust and carry out his callous attack.

This was understandably an extremely traumatic ordeal for the woman and I cannot commend her enough for her bravery and courage in coming forward and telling us what happened, and for her strength throughout the criminal justice process.

We know its incredibly difficult for people to report incidents of this nature but with this womans help we were able to secure a guilty plea and bring this man to justice.

Our Operation Amberstone team is made up of specially trained officers who are dedicated to providing survivors of rape and sexual offences with the best help and support throughout the investigation and court process.

Rape investigations are some of the most complex cases we work on, and we continue to work hard in partnership with CPS Wessex to identify offenders and get justice for survivors.

I hope todays sentence goes someway to giving the woman closure and reassures her, and our communities, that justice has been served.