Latest Offenders

Description

A ‘sexual predator’ who persistently abused a nine-year-old girl in her own bed has been jailed.

David Howie, 52, has been handed a six and a half year sentence today after he was found guilty at a trial of sexual assault on a child under 13, and causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity.

The court heard how the girl, who was aged between nine and 13 at the time, was ‘relieved’ when she could finally report the ’persistent’ abuse to her grandmother.

The incidents took place between the Blackburn and Scarborough areas, with some incidents taking place in the girl's bed.

Prosecutor Kristian Cavanagh said: “She felt relief at being able to tell her Grandma.

“She knew what was happening wasn’t right but she was scared and the years were tough.

“She has struggled to concentrate in school. The court proceedings were hard but she is glad she was believed by the jury.

“She is hopeful for the future.”

Mr Kavanagh said between 2016 and 2020, Howie slept in the girl's bed a number of times when he would touch her legs, bottom and vagina.

She once stayed at his home where he also touched her inappropriately.

Between 2018 and 2020, Howie and the girl would have video calls where he asked her to show him her pubic hair and asked her to perform provocative dances.

Howie also told her ‘not to tell her mum she had seen his willy’.

The girl's mother told police about how she could not believe the allegations her daughter was making and is upset Howie had 'stolen her daughter's innocence'.

Mitigating, Matthew Moore-Taylor said Howie had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and he would struggle to access the necessary treatment in hospital.

Mr Moore-Taylor added Howie also struggles with mental health issues and he has already lost a lot since the prosecution.

Mr Moore-Taylor said: “He has reached a terminus in his life.

“He is already suffering the consequences. He has lost what gave his life value. He had a family, a child.

“He lost his work, he lost his home and will lose his liberty.”

Judge Heather Lloyd said she did not believe Howie felt any remorse or insight into what he did.

She said: “You were well loved. You stayed in the girl's family home and in same bed as the girl.

“Unbeknownst to the risk of the family, you were a man who became a sexual predator.

“You took advantage of the opportunity you had to sexually abuse a girl in her own home.”

Howie, now of Bridlington, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, was jailed for six years and six months in a hearing at Preston Crown Court.

DC Jo Billington, of Lancashire Police's East Rape and Serious Sexual Offences team (RASSO), said: “David Howie has taken advantage of this young girl to satisfy his own perverted sexual desires and by doing so has effectively stolen her innocence.

"I would like to commend her for having the courage to both come forward and disclose what happened to her and for going through the court process which has meant reliving her abuse.

“I hope this conviction and sentence will give others who may have suffered similar abuse the courage to speak up in the knowledge that we will believe them, we will investigate professionally and sensitively, and we will do all we can to bring offenders to justice.”

Description

A 'sleazy' Solihull man who sexually assaulted a teenager on a train has been jailed. Ben Pountney, 30, targeted the 17-year-old victim on a quiet train.

Pountney, of Swallows Meadow, Solihull, boarded a quiet train from Stratford-Upon-Avon and sat opposite the victim, Warwick Crown Court heard. He proceeded to persistently ask the teen about her shoes and went on to sexually assault her, before leaving the train.

Labelled "vile" by investigating officers, Pountney pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault at a trial on December 5 2022. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison at trial on Thursday, January 26.

Officers say Pountney was identified and arrested following help from the public and a media appeal.

The court heard how on Tuesday, October 13, 2020, the 17-year-old victim was travelling on a quiet train from Stratford-upon-Avon when a man boarded a few stops later and sat opposite her. She noticed the man looking at her and after a short while, he began speaking to her. He persistently asked about the shoes she was wearing and her shoe size.

He stated that he wanted to buy a similar pair for his niece while getting closer to the girl and leaning in towards her. He then sexually assaulted her and got off the train.

Following a number of enquiries and a media appeal to the public, Pountney was later identified and arrested. Investigating officers at the British Transport Police said actions like Pountney's will not be tolerated on the transport network.

'Vile' offender

Investigating officer Police sergeant Daniel Hart said: “Pountney is a vile offender who targeted a lone teenager and subjected her to a distressing sexual assault.

"His sleazy behaviour is a prime example of the harassment and intimidation of women and girls which we are dedicated to tackling on the network. It simply won’t be tolerated, and we will bring offenders to justice.

"If you are a victim of, or a witness to, a sexual offence on the railway - I urge you to report it to BTP by texting 61016 or via the Railway Guardian app. We will always take you seriously."

Pountney was sentenced to 20 months in prison, handed a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years at his sentencing last month.

Description

Thomas Lock, 32, carried out the disgusting act with the aid of a cuddly toy in front of a child

A County Durham pervert who carried out a sex act involving a "cuddly toy" in front of a child has been put behind bars.

Thomas Lock carried out the disgusting act with the aid of a cuddly toy in front of a child. The 32-year-old told the child he was carrying out a "naughty game" and denied everything when arrested.

Lock was sentenced at Durham Crown Court on Thursday for engaging in a sexual act in the presence of a child. He continues to deny the offence but was found guilty by a jury after a trial.

Nick Adlington, prosecuting, said Lock - who appeared at the court via link from HMP Durham - carried out the sex act and involved a "cuddly toy" whilst in the presence of a child.

Mark Styles, defending, said Lock had no previous convictions and still does not accept the verdict of the jury. He said: "This is a difficult time for the defendant as he's never lost his liberty before. It came at a time in the wake of the death of his father, which had been anticipated. It was very difficult for him."

Mr Styles added: "He's got a good work record and was only unemployed for a limited period of time whilst awaiting trial in this matter. He's attempting to use his time in custody wisely and understands the significant impact this has had."

Sentencing Lock, Judge Jo Kidd said: "You were convicted by a jury and maintain you are not guilty. This was a deeply troubling incident, potentially foreshadowing further sexual offences, and was used in a manipulative way by using a toy to normalise your sexual activity. You called it a naughty game."

Lock, of High Etherley, near Bishop Auckland, was jailed for 30 months and will be on the sex offender's register indefinitely. An indefinite sexual harm prevention order was also imposed.

Description

A man has been jailed after he groomed a vulnerable young girl and committed multiple sexual offences against her. Dennis Davies, aged 64, carried out the string of abuse over the course of around a year after “significant planning and grooming”.

Davies, previously of Pen y Bryn in Skewen, near Neath, was found guilty of two counts of assaulting a girl under 13 by penetration and five counts of sexual assault on a girl under 13 following a trial last month. At a sentencing hearing held at Swansea Crown Court on Monday, prosecution barrister Ian Wright outlined the severity of Davies’ crimes, and the fact that he knew of his victim’s vulnerability and implored her not to tell anyone of the sexual offences he was inflicting upon her.

In a victim impact statement read in court, the victim said that what she endured left her so distraught that she tried to take her own life, while her mother also had a statement read out in court in which she explained the “massive change” she has seen in her daughter since the abuse started. In mitigation, defence barrister Ieuan Rees said Davies had no previous convictions and had been a “productive member of society” who had “never been in trouble of any sort before”.

As Judge Geraint Walters summed up the case, two people in the public gallery got up and left the courtroom, such was the severity of the “multiple offences” he was describing. He said: “Over a period of about a year you routinely and persistently sexually abused her. You recognised her vulnerabilities. You carried out a variety of sexual offences against her.” The Judge concluded his remarks by saying that the victim has been “left with life-long consequences” because of what Davies did.

Davies was sentenced to a total of 16 years in prison, made up of 15 years plus an extension of a year due to being “an offender of extreme concern”. He was told that he will not be considered for early release for at least two-thirds of that sentence, and that he will have to remain on the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life. A life-long restraining order was also made, prohibiting him from contacting his victim ever again.

Description

An “immature” teenager, who groomed two girls before committing sexual offences on both, has received an eight-year prison sentence.

Ellis Henderson was sentenced today (Monday February 6) after being convicted last month of two charges of rape of a child under 13, one count of sexual assault of a child under 13 and two counts of sexual activity with a child.

The now 20-year-old defendant, of Paxton Close, Newton Aycliffe, denied the charges but was found guilty following a trial which spanned the Christmas/New Year break, at Durham Crown Court.

The sentence was adjourned to allow for preparation of a Probation Service background report on Henderson, who is said to remain in denial.

The court heard he made initial contact with both of his victims by parking his vehicle in a car park where children frequented.

Having engaged them in conversation, he would later encourage them to get into the vehicle before driving them to secluded areas and forcing them to engage in sexual activity.

Prosecution counsel, Shaun Dodds, told today’s sentencing hearing one of the girls opted against giving a victim statement, but had said in her original evidential statement to police that she felt so upset at what took place that she sought counselling sessions.

She also felt as if it was her fault for meeting him and she wished she had known better, but also spoke of her hatred of the defendant.

The other girl spoke of “feeling in a dark place” and she, also, wishes she had never met him.

She said she was accused of being a liar after the allegations were made and has also been attacked for reporting it to the police.

The girl said she has since self-harmed, while she has also deliberately cut herself off from her friends.

She said she feels as if Henderson “manipulated” her and it has affected her general trust in people.

Chris Baker, for Henderson, said at the time of the offences he was just short of his 18th birthday and was referred to, in the probation pre-sentence report, as being, “an immature, naïve and vulnerable young man”, despite now having turned 20.

Mr Baker said the defendant has no previous convictions and is particularly “vulnerable” in a custodial environment, having been assaulted twice while on remand.

But he added that he has remained in denial of the offences.

Judge James Adkin told Henderson, however: “You must now be sentenced for a number of serious sexual offences of which the jury found you guilty.”

The judge said there was some planning, taking the girls to isolated areas to commit the offences following, “an element of grooming.”

Imposing the eight-year sentence, Judge Adkin told Henderson he will have to serve two-thirds before he will be released on licence.

He told him the sentence would have been 13 years had he been older when the offences were committed.

Henderson will be subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a restraining order, prohibiting him from contacting either victim, both for 12 years.

He will also be liable to registration as a sex offender for life.

Speaking after today’s sentencing hearing, Jonathan Hanratty, of the Crown Prosecution Service North East’s Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Uv6nit, said: “Ellis Henderson acted in a predatory manner to carry out these offences against girls he knew to be well under the age of consent.

“He actively engaged both girls in conversation, slowly building their trust in him before exploiting them for his own selfish gratification.

“The Crown Prosecution Service has used the credible accounts bravely provided by both young victims to build a robust case against Ellis Henderson.”

He added: “I sincerely hope that today’s sentence against him provides them both with some measure of comfort.”

Description

Ryan Scott – who was born female – lured the schoolgirl back to their home after meeting up on Valentine’s Day last year.

A transgender paedophile carried out a sex attack on a teenage girl while living as a man. Ryan Scott – who was born female – lured the schoolgirl back to their home after meeting up on Valentine’s Day last year.

The 20-year-old, who uses the name Coral Scott, pounced on the girl, who was just 14 at the time, and tried to engage her in sexual activity. After being caught, Scott set up fake social media accounts to abuse and threaten the victim.

The sex attacker has been on remand on Polmont Young Offenders’ Institution and is in the female wing of the prison – despite identifying as male since childhood. Scott appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court on Friday under the birth name Coral and admitted to a series of charges.

Last night, the mum of the victim, who is now 15, said: “After it happened my child changed, she became withdrawn, even violent and wouldn’t speak to us. We knew something had happened. We didn’t know she had gone to meet someone.

“Then a friend got in touch and said this person had told others they were going to be meeting our daughter. They also said the person was called Coral Scott. We kept asking our daughter, ‘Who is Coral?’ She said he was called Ryan. We didn’t understand.”

The 33-year-old parent from Dundee, who cannot be named for legal reasons, added: “It was weeks later when she finally told us this person had forced her to do things she didn’t want to do. She said she was traumatised and paralysed with fear when it was happening.

“It broke our hearts to see what this monster had done to our little girl. It destroyed our beautiful daughter. She was a child and whether he was a man or a woman, this is an were adult preying on a child.”

Scott – designated on court papers as “Coral Scott, also known as Ryan Scott” – admitted “engaging in sexual activity with or towards” the 14-year-old girl. In court, the paedophile was referred to as Coral and is understood to be identifying as female in prison.

During a hearing, prosecutor Joanne Ritchie told the court the pair had developed a friendship on Snapchat through a mutual friend’s group. Describing the attack, she said: “She and the girl met at the McManus Galleries in Dundee. She and the accused then travelled to the accused’s address by bus.

“They were initially alone and sat in the living room watching movies. A short time later the accused’s friend arrived. The accused’s behaviour changed and she began to show off by kissing and sucking the girl’s neck, leaving bruising.”

Scott then tried to pervert the course of justice by sending the schoolgirl death threats. The sex attacker used fake social media accounts to target her. Scott was reported to police and then traced and charged on May 1 last year.

Nine days later, when already subject to six bail orders, Scott sent threatening messages to the girl. She received two voice messages from Scott, who said: “So see if I get the jail mate, you’re f***ed mate. You’re dead. You’re just a pure f***ing horrible c***.”

On April 29, the complainer was in her bedroom when she received a Snapchat voice message from someone called 'Bob', who was not known to her. When she opened the message, she immediately recognised her attacker’s voice. Scott said: “See the next time I see you, you better not be in my scheme or I’ll f***ing do you.”

The sex attacker is housed in the female wing of HMP Polmont in Falkirk, which houses remand and convicted youngsters of both sexes aged between 16 and 21. Scott, who turns 21 in June, could be moved to an adult prison if handed a jail term when she is sentenced on March 2.

A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said: “We do not comment on individuals.” First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is still facing questions over why male-born double rapist Isla Bryson was sent to a female prison.

Description

A dangerous sex offender is back behind bars after committing further offences just two weeks after being released from prison.

Craig Gilbert was previously locked up for inciting and attempting to incite four different children and was released from a 66 month extended prison sentence on licence in July last year. However within two weeks he was found to have offended again.

Police officers monitoring him went to the hostel in Elswick, Newcastle, where he was living to check he was complying with his sex offender registration requirements and his sexual harm prevention order and asked to see his mobile phone. On it, they found a sexual exchange with a girl who appeared to have been 16 in which he asked if she was still at school and offered to be her "sugar daddy".

A further examination of his phone showed he had deleted his browsing history, which he was forbidden from doing under the terms of the sexual harm prevention order. And he had also downloaded 11 indecent images of children, which were saved in a folder on his phone - with one showing a girl aged between three and five being raped.

Now Gilbert, 32, of no fixed address, has been given given a two year prison sentence, extended by an extra three years on licence, by a judge at Newcastle Crown Court after he admitted possessing indecent images of children, breaching his sexual harm prevention order and attempting to breach it.

Locking him up, Judge Edward Legard said: "This is a worrying case because it appears your period of incarceration and probation work has taught you little, if anything. You are clearly a persistent sex offender with entrenched sexual interests.

"It's clear you demonstrate an implacable refusal to address your offending and you are deemed unmanageable in the community. You have shown no remorse and you deliberately and wilfully offend without any regard to court orders, without any thought for the children you seek out to harm and with no insight and no awareness.

"It's quite clear you pose a significant risk of serious harm to members of the public, especially children."

Referring to the indecent images, the judge added: "Sadly, having read the pre-sentence report I suspect this might fall on deaf ears but I will try my best. These crimes are not victimless, far from it.

"Those who appear in these images are often young, highly vulnerable children, sometimes recruited from impoverished backgrounds, often forced to perform degrading sexual acts or exploited and abused by others purely to feed the sexual gratification of people like you.

"It's you and many others like you who are ultimately responsible for creating a market for this highly offensive and damaging material."

As well as the prison sentence, Gilbert's indefinite sex offender registration and sexual harm prevention order continue.

Jonathan Walker, defending, said: "There's a level of acceptance of responsibility on his part."

Description

A secret stash of covertly recorded indecent images of children and footage of a woman taken without her knowledge were found by a pervert's horrified ex.

Paul Baird's sickening actions came to light when his now-ex wife noticed explicit material on an iPad a child was using, which was linked to a Google account on the phone Baird was using. A court heard there were a number of videos, many showing children.

Rachel Glover, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court: "The videos show filming of them, focusing on their bare legs, their bottoms in swimwear and up their skirts...He focuses the camera on their private parts and under their skirts.

Baird's disgusted ex was left distressed and found discovering what he had been doing "traumatic and overwhelming", the court heard.

There were also 35 videos of a woman, including filming or attempting to film under her clothing. After finding out, the woman was left "devastated" and has suffered mental health issues and struggles to go out in public because when she does and sees people on their phone she feels an impulse to check they are not filming her.

Baird, 38, of Garth 24, Killingworth, North Tyneside, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to five offences of taking indecent images of children and one of voyeurism. He was jailed for 20 months and must sign the sex offenders register and be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for ten years.

Judge Edward Legard told him: "Filming young female children purely in order to feed your sexual gratification is simply unconscionable. The lives of these young children can and often are permanently scarred. You and others like you must bear responsibility for it.

"What your ex wife has had to endure can only be guessed at. For her to discover, in the way she did, that the man to whom she was married was taking indecent photographs of children must have been profoundly shocking and distressing."

Mark Harrison, defending, said: "The defendant acknowledges, as he rightly must, that this behaviour, over a relatively short period in 2021, was absolutely disgraceful and amounted to a gross invasion of privacy.

"He has written a letter saying how sorry he is for the pain and upset. He was at a low ebb, drinking and misusing drugs when his mental health was in a poor state."

Description

A paedophile groomed vulnerable young girls into having sex with him in return for gifts of money and vapes. Even after being arrested and released on bail Benjamin Rodgers continued to prey on girls, persuading a third victim to sneak out of the her house in the middle of the night and go to a beach for sex. A probation report has concluded that Rodgers is a dangerous sexual predator.

Swansea Crown Court heard the father-of-two is an active member of his church and has gone overseas on missionary work. His barrister described his offending as "inexplicable".

The court heard the defendant, using the name Danny Thomas, communicated with his teenage victims on the messaging service Snapchat. After chatting with them he arranged to meet them both in the same house on the same day. After getting an Uber vehicle to deliver food to the address he had sex with the children before giving them £90 and vapes in return.

The offending came to light when the dad of one of the girls questioned her about cash she had. The matter was reported to the police and Rodgers was traced. The court heard Rodgers was subsequently positively identified by the girls in an ID parade. The defendant was arrested and questioned but denied the allegations and was released on bail on condition that he not contact any female under 18.

However Rodgers went on to engage another girl in conversation on Snapchat and got her to send him naked photographs. He then arranged to met the girl and persuaded her to leave her house in the middle of night and get into his waiting car. The pair drove to Three Cliffs Bay on Gower where they had sex. The court heard the girl's parents realised she had vanished and reported her missing to police. Rodgers returned the girl to her home just before 5am but his car was seen in the area by officers who were looking for the missing girl. He sped off but the details of his vehicle were noted.

In victim statements which were read to the court the three girls described the impact of the offending on their lives including flashbacks, panic attacks, feelings of anxiety and insecurity, missed schooling, and self-harm. One said Rodgers had made her hate her body.

Benjamin Richard Rodgers, aged 31, of Farm Road, Nantyglo, Brynmawr, admitted three counts of sexual activity with a child . He has previous convictions for theft matters. James Hartson, for Rodgers, said the defendant was an intelligent, articulate, and educated man who had gone to Cape Verde as a missionary as part of his work with the church. The barrister said the references before the court spoke of a loyal, honest, and hardworking husband and father to two children, and he described the offending before the court has an "not just out of character but an aberration of character" and as "inexplicable".

Judge Geraint Walters told Rodgers that what he had done to his victims would live with them for the rest of their lives and be a "recurring nightmare". He said he had read a letter written by the defendant in which he said he was sorry he had caused so much harm to the girls and said he wished he had "followed the standards his parents had set him". The judge said an experienced probation officer had identified the predatory and planned nature of the defendant's offending and had come to the conclusion he should be considered a dangerous offender in the meaning of the relevant legislation.

With a discount for his guilty pleas Rodgers was given a 16-year extended sentence comprising 12 years in custody followed by a four-year extended licence period. He must serve two-thirds of the custodial element of the sentence before he can apply for release but it will be for the Parole Board to determine if he is safe to be released. Rodgers will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life and was made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order to control his access to girls.

Description

A PERVERTED west Cumbrian man is facing a jail sentence after he admitted a catalogue of sickening online child sex offences.

The crimes committed by 32-year-old Cleator Moor man Martin Cole included him 'plying' a girl aged 11 or 12 with gifts and money and asking her to perform sex acts on herself and also to send him a video of her doing a striptease.

A prosecuting barrister at Carlisle Crown Court said the behaviour was part of an attempt by Cole to sexually groom his victim.

When he appeared in the dock, the defendant, of Greystone Place, Cleator Moor, entered guilty pleas to eight allegations relating to his behaviour in 2020. Those offences were:

• Downloading 1,809 indecent child images class as Category A, the most serious. He did this between January of 2020 and November of that year.
• A similar offence, involving 1,493 Category B indecent child images.
• A similar offence involving 2,489 Category C indecent child images.
• Possessing three extreme and grossly offensive pornographic images involving bestiality.
• Inciting a child – aged 11 or 12 - to engage in sexual activity, which he did between dates in March 2020 and December of that year.
• A like offence, when he asked the same female child to video herself doing a striptease.
• A like offence, when he asked the child to take sexualised pictures of herself.
• And causing a child to watch images of sexual activity.

Prosecutor Peter Barr told the court that police initially began investigating Cole for the indecent images offences but as they examined his online activity the investigation took on a more serious aspect because of what was found.

Defence lawyer Sean Harkin requested that pre-sentence background reports are prepared before sentence is passed and he asked the judge to grant Cole bail so that he can put his financial affairs in order before the inevitable jail term.

Judge Guy Mathieson told the defendant: “You have pleaded guilty to a series of offences, which attract an immediate custodial sentence. Having a relationship with an 11 or 12-year-old girl in which you plied her with gifts and money – whether in exchange for or in order to acquire – sexual images of her quite appalling behaviour.

“You will serve a custodial sentence.”

The judge went on to direct that the Crown Prosecution Service provide an explanation of why the case has taken two years to get before the court.

The judge agreed to grant Cole bail but told the defendant, who has no previous convictions: “I take the view that this is extremely serious offending.”

He put Cole on the Sex Offender Register, saying the period he will be on it will be determined by the length of his sentence. 

The defendant will be sentenced on March 3. On that day, the court will hear victim impact statements from the child involved and her mother.

Description

A sick paedophile who escaped justice for more than 40 years is finally behind bars.

Peter Suscenko, 72, was first reported for rape to social services in 1982 and although the crime was fully investigated it remained undetected at the time.

The case was reviewed by West Yorkshire Police's Major Investigation Review Team in 2018 and thanks to forensic advances in technology they were able to continue. These advances led to Suscenko, of Seldon Street in Bradford, being charged with a number of sexual offences and following a trial at Leeds Crown Court he was found guilty of rape and four counts of indecent assault.

West Yorkshire Police said the offences were committed against a young girl in Leeds in the early 1980s. Suscenko has now been jailed for 13 years.

Following the sentencing, Detective Sergeant Richard Ord, from the Major Investigation Review Team, said: "We would like to thank the victim for the great bravery and courage she has shown throughout the investigation and subsequent proceedings. We hope today’s outcome will give her some form of closure and allow her to move forward with her life, knowing that her attacker is finally behind bars.

“Suscenko probably thought he would never go to jail for what he had done, but advances in forensic technology meant we were able to fully review the evidence and charge him with these offences. Cases of such seriousness are never closed and the Major Investigation Review Team will continue to do all in its power to achieve justice for victims.”

Description

A Swindon man has been jailed after being found with more than 500 indecent images of children. Alun Eric Topp, 48, will spend just under three years behind bars after pleading guilty to multiple offences.

Topp, of Bexley Walk, Park South, was sentenced at Swindon Crown Court on February 3 to 32 months imprisonment. He pleaded guilty to making and distributing indecent images of children and possession of extreme pornographic images.

Wiltshire Police first received information to suggest that a Twitter account associated to a telephone number believed to belong to Topp had uploaded indecent images online. Officers attended Topp’s address shortly after and he was arrested.

Detective Constable Justine Parsons, from Wiltshire Police’s Child Internet Exploitation Team, said: “When Topp was arrested, a search was conducted of his home address and officers located 11 media devices which were seized for further analysis. One of these was found to contain illegal material.

"Following further extensive enquiries, a total of 542 category A images were found – this refers to images depicting the most serious child abuse.

“This case further highlights the ongoing work carried out by our team to identify offenders who not only access these images online, but also distribute them. I am pleased our extensive enquiries have resulted in a prison sentence for this offender.”

Description

A former soldier from Okehampton has been jailed for 14 and a half years for multiple historic sex offences against children. Stuart Hood, from Okehampton, sexually abused a boy and two teenage girls.

His offending started when he was a teenager himself in the 1970s and continued when he was a young adult. The prosecution in his trial described Hood as a bully capable of 'deviant sexual behaviour' who enjoyed assaulting his physically weaker victims. He chased one with a horse whip and stripped another naked.

Hood, aged 59, was found guilty of 11 offences of indecent assault and indecency with a child during a trial in January. He returned to Exeter Crown Court on Friday to be sentenced.

The trial heard how all three victims had, at one point or another over the years, told different people what had happened to them when children. The offences finally came to light until 2018 when the male victim went to police.

One victim said in a statement that his childhood had been made a misery by Hood's behaviour. "He is a sick, perverse and a sadistic liar,' he said. "I trust the sentence reflects the immeasurable harm he's caused me."

A second victim said she hoped that by coming forward people who have suffered abuse in their own lives will have the courage to go to police and not carry the shame of what happened with them.

The defendant told his trial the victims were lying. A number of character references were read to the court saying he was a hard-working married man.

Joss Ticehurst, defending, said Hood had committed the offences many years ago and since them had become a valued member of the community and devoted family man. He was a teenager himself when committing most of the crimes.

Judge Anna Richardson said: "People are not necessarily one thing or another. I accept you have been a good family man and a valued member of the local community. That does not change the fact to your victims you were a dangerous and violent abuser."

Hood will serve at least two thirds of his sentence in jail before he is considered for release.

Description

A MAN who committed a “significant” number of child sexual offences against a girl has been jailed for nine years.

Robert Taylor, aged 61, groomed and manipulated the 15-year-old and carried out the criminal behaviour over a three-month period.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard when the girl disclosed what had taken place to police, officers found more than 2,600 indecent images of her on the defendant’s phone.

Taylor, of Surrey Road, Poole, was found guilty of three counts of engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a child and one count of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child aged 13 to 15 following a trial last month.

He admitted one count of causing or inciting a girl aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity, two counts of engaging in non-penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged 13 to 15, seven counts of taking an indecent photograph of a child and two counts of making an indecent photograph of a child.

The 61-year-old defendant was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment by Judge William Mousley KC at a Bournemouth Crown Court hearing on Thursday, February 2.

Judge Mousley KC said Taylor had kept “souvenirs” of his sexual abuse as well as a raft of other indecent images of the girl.

“I’m sure you groomed her to comply with your demands,” Judge Mousley KC said.

He added: “You manipulated her emotionally.”

The judge said the defendant, who had no previous convictions, made the girl frightened of him.

Prosecutor Tim Moores read a statement from the child which detailed the significant psychological impact the abuse had on her.

She described having “horrific memories” more than a year after the offending.

The court heard Taylor refused to answer questions when confronted with the allegations. He later denied the penetration offence and the allegation he fondled himself in front of the child.

Mitigating, Nick Robinson said the defendant had written a letter to the court in which he said he was “deeply sorry for all he has done”.

Mr Robinson described the offending as an “aberration”.

Judge Mousley KC said the defendant tried to cast blame on the complainant, but he told Taylor: “There is only one person to blame and it is you.”

It was accepted by the judge that the crimes were out of character and took place during a difficult period in the offender’s life.

“You were convicted of the most serious offences because of the great courage and sustained determination of the complainant,” Judge Mousley KC said.

The defendant was handed an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and he was placed on the sex offenders register for life.

Description

A retired bus driver convicted of sexually abusing four teenage boys over a period of nearly 30 years, including arranging for them to have sex with his wife while he watched, faces a long prison sentence.

John Foster, 78, asked some of the young boys to have sex with his wife on numerous occasions while he encouraged them to do so and eagerly looked on. He was lying next to them in the same bed at the time.

Foster got to know the boys while he was working as a bus driver. He repeatedly abused them in his car, including on football or train spotting trips, and while one of them was on holiday in London and the Isle of Wight with him, Hull Crown Court heard.

Foster, of Main Street, Wawne, near Beverley, denied 28 sex offences, involving four boys, but he was convicted by a jury of 27 of them after a trial. The charges included indecent assault, indecency with a child, rape and attempted rape, between July 1973 and February 2002. He was cleared of one charge of indecent assault on the direction of the judge.

Tom Storey, prosecuting, said that the offences happened over a period of nearly 30 years. They took place after Foster got to know them and befriended them while he was working as a bus driver in East Yorkshire. He had previously lived in the Burton Agnes and Harpham areas, near Driffield.

The boys were usually aged 12 or 13 when Foster began talking to them and befriending them before taking them out in his car for trips. He had also given them free bus trips. The abuse began by touching the boys and then progressing to sexual activity.

Some of the boys were taken to watch football matches, including in Manchester and Hull, or to watch trains, something that Foster had an interest in, during trips to Crewe and London. The abuse took place during the journeys or while they were staying overnight away from home. Some of the incidents took place at Foster's home.

He allowed some of the boys to steer the car, either from the passenger seat or while sitting on his lap. "He would buy them cigarettes or give them money to do so," said Mr Storey. Foster would also, in some cases, buy them alcohol.

Foster, in one case, bought the gas aerosol Damp Start, usually used to help start a car engine, for a boy to inhale to "produce a high like glue sniffing". These were all used as rewards or payments in return for the sexual abuse that Foster was "inflicting on these boys", said Mr Storey.

It no doubt "increased their dependency" on Foster and the likelihood that they would spend time with him. "By virtue of their age, these boys were all vulnerable at the time they were abused," said Mr Storey.

As a bus driver, Foster was in a position of trust in relation to the boys. "At the time, they were, in law, incapable of consenting to what took place," said Mr Storey. "In short, they could not do so."

Foster was married at the time to Dorothy Ann Foster, known as Ann, and it was claimed that he persuaded two of the boys to have sex with her. This was allegedly while he, his wife and one of the boys were in bed together and he watched. He tried to persuade the other boys to do the same with her but either they or she declined to do so, claimed Mr Storey.

Foster took one boy to London for his 16th birthday and abused him, said Mr Storey. The boy said that he had suffered "three years of hell" because of sexual abuse. "He described John Foster as having destroyed him," said Mr Storey. "Eventually, he ended up cracking up and then going to the police." The incidents in relation to this boy were "harrowing" because they were "horrible" and had left physical scars.

Foster did not claim that there was any consent from the boys for sexual activity. "He says that the entire thing has been fabricated and this sexual activity never took place with anybody," said Mr Storey.

The matters came to light in 2019 when police went to speak to one of the boys on a completely separate, unrelated allegation and he told them that he had been sexually abused by Foster when he was aged 13.

Checks of records from 2015 revealed that a health worker had contacted police to report that one of her clients had allegedly been abused by Foster. That boy was contacted and he and his brother made allegations. Police also found that, in 2010, a fourth boy had reported to the police that he had been sexually abused by Foster when he was 13 but the police "inexplicably" did nothing about this.

Mr Storey told the jury that Foster had been convicted of similar offences before and after the period of the current charges. Foster had been convicted in 1961 of two offences of indecently assaulting a boy under 16, with seven offences of gross indecency taken into consideration.

In 2007, Foster was convicted of three offences of sexual activity with a boy under 16. The significance of these convictions was that they showed that Foster had a "propensity or tendency" to commit precisely this sort of offence against young teenage boys, said Mr Storey.

Foster was arrested in February 2020 and police found, at his home, an envelope with old photo booth pictures showing him as a much younger man with the two brothers. He denied all the sexual offences during police interviews or that his wife had been involved. He confirmed that he had been a bus driver between 1962 and 2006, had two children and that he used to be known as "Big John". He claimed that, if he took the boys out for free bus trips or car outings, it was because they were "all lonely lads" and he was doing them a favour by taking them out for the day.

He denied buying solvents for one of the boys to sniff and denied using sex toys. "He denied ever having a liking for young boys," said Mr Storey.

Foster had been on bail during the trial but he was remanded in custody after the jury verdicts to await sentence.