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A child rapist walked free from court today after his dementia diagnosis meant he could not stand trial.

A jury in a fact finding hearing at Liverpool Crown Court determined John Fisher had subjected two girls to a campaign of rape and sexual assault for years. Yet the paedophile could not be jailed as he was not formally convicted of the offences due to his health conditions.

A judge today warned Fisher still poses a risk to women and girls as he handed him a supervision order that allowed him to keep his liberty with conditions.

Michael Scholes, prosecuting, said Fisher committed rape and sexual assaults on two girls throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Liverpool Crown Court heard his victims reported the crimes years later and the 75 year old was charged.

He said in a crown court hearing last year that he would fight the charges but a number of medical assessments found he was unfit to stand trial after being diagnosed with vascular dementia. In a rare move, Fishers case was then put before a jury in what is known as a fact finding hearing. Mr Scholes said: The jury found that in fact the defendant had done the acts and that the victims were telling the truth.

While juries in these hearings make a judgement on the facts of a case in a similar way to those in a trial, they cannot convict. Instead, defendants in these cases are sentenced by a judge on the basis of the jurys findings - but the lack of a conviction means the courts power to punish is severely restricted. The only options in Fishers case were to detain him in hospital, hand him a supervision order or discharge him.

Doctors said he was unsuitable for a hospital order and, at a previous hearing, Judge Anil Murray said a discharge, which would see no further action taken, would be unsuitable because Fisher needed the supervision of support workers.

John Weate, defending, said he believed a supervision order was the only suitable option. Mr Weate said: I have come to a conclusion and my submission is that I cannot in good conscience ask the court to consider an absolute discharge.

Both victims said they continued to deal with the fallout of the abuse and said it had marked their entire lives. In a statement to the court, one said: I always wonder what person I would have been if this did not happen to me.

Judge Anil Murray sentenced Fisher to a two year suspension order, the maximum. He raised concerns about Fishers behaviour in recent years and said he still posed a risk to the public. He said: Whilst the most recent offence in this case was 20 years ago there is evidence that you have behaved in a sexually inappropriate way towards staff at the unit where you were residing as well as members of the public.

Fisher, previously of Webster Avenue in Wallasey, was handed a two year supervision order. He was also given a restraining order which prevents him from contacting his victims for ten years and a sexual harm prevention order that places restrictions on him for the same period of time. He will be subject to the notification requirements for sex offenders for five years.

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A Derbyshire pervert has lost his home, wife and job after he "used and abused" an underage girl for sex over a two-year period and threatened to kill her if she spoke out. A graphic and detailed account of Michael Scott's abuse was given to the court by prosecutors.

Scott, 48, began abusing the girl after they started speaking on social media. A friend of the victim then noticed naked pictures on her phone exchanged between the two. Videos and pictures of Scott, of no fixed abode, abusing the girl were then also found on his phone.

His actions, committed in the Derby area, were described in court as "debasing and disgusting." Scott has now been jailed for six years, his first time in prison, is barred from having any contact with females under the age of 18 and is on the sex offenders register and subject to a sexual harm prevention order indefinitely.

Henry James, prosecuting, told Derby Crown Court on Tuesday, June 7: "He showered her with gifts out of a depraved and sexual interest. She was confused. She knew it was wrong. Mr Scott systematically used her as a thing that he could maul and foul."

Mr James said that the gifts included a laptop and the victim later detailed to police a "catalogue of foul and depraved" acts committed by Scott. Scans of Scott's mobile phone also showed internet searches of whether iMessages could be used as evidence in court.

In a short victim personal statement, read out by Mr James, the victim said: "At the time of when this happened I felt scared and worried. He said he would kill me. I did not feel safe. I feel like I'm dealing well with what happened."

Scott, who had no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to two counts of having sex with an underage girl on March 23. Pleas of not guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images were accepted by the prosecution and were instead considered an aggravating feature of the offences.

James Varley, defending, said that Scott had been granted time by a different judge to get his affairs in order including putting his narrowboat home into storage and handing his notice in with his employers. Mr Varley said his wife had also left him as a consequence of his offending.

He said: "This is a man who is now 48, who stands to lose his good name. He has worked all his life. He will lose his livelihood as his plant operating licences will lapse and when he is released he will have to start from scratch again.

"He has had to spend the last few weeks explaining to his family what has happened and what the consequences will be. In a more eloquent testament to the man he is, his family have come along to support him. I am not suggesting that they have forgiven him but they have come along to show him some love. He is a man who has a lot of good about him.

"He has acted in the last few weeks with a great deal of integrity and realism. What I submit to the court is genuine remorse."

Sentencing Scott to concurrent six-year sentences on both charges, Judge Shaun Smith QC said: "You showered her with gifts and attention and over a two-year period you proceeded to develop a relationship with her and you abused her in a particularly significant and unimaginable way. To use the words of the prosecutor, you systematically used and abused her.

"You recorded some of what happened and while they no longer form any charges, they aggravate your position. Your phone had images showing you abusing her. What you did must be unimaginable to any normal human being.

"The whole thing was debasing and disgusting and it was at your hands, a 48-year-old adult. Your desires clearly got the better of you because up to then you were of good character. You had a good name which you have now lost, someone with a livelihood which you have now lost, someone with a home which you have now lost."

Scott will serve half of his sentence in custody before being released on licence. He must both sign the sex offender register and was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order indefinitely, and is barred from contact of any sort with females under the age of 18 and from contacting the victim directly or indirectly.

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A PAEDOPHILE has had his jail sentence increased to more than 13 years after a woman broke her silence of half a century. John Arthur Fairburn, now 74, abused her for years, starting when she was nine years old, Nick Adlington, prosecuting, told York Crown Court. Some years after he stopped abusing her, he sexually assaulted two other girls, starting when they were seven. He was jailed for five and a half years months for that abuse in November 2020. Only when the woman saw reports of that case did she feel able to go to police and reveal what Fairburn had done to her when she was a child. I wish I had spoken up when I was younger, she said in a personal statement. It may have saved others. No apology can make up for his depraved actions. She said the shame and embarrassment she suffered because of Fairburn at times still overwhelmed her some days. He took advantage of my innocence and naivety for a long period of my childhood. I felt so ashamed when the significance of what he had subjected me to, she said. She had managed to speak to her GP when she was a young woman and received counselling but found it so difficult to speak about what had happened to her that she had stopped the counselling early. Fairburn, formerly a farmer in Deighton south of York, pleaded guilty to eight charges of indecently assaulting the woman, starting when she was under 13 and after a gap of a couple of years, when she was aged 13 and 14. The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris said: This was wicked offending. It must be met with condign punishment. He jailed Fairburn for eight years, to be served after he finishes the sentence he received in November 2020 for the abuse of the two girls. On that occasion, he pleaded guilty to 10 charges of sexual assault and one of inciting a child to sexual activity. Fairburn is now serving a total sentence of 13 and a half years and will have an extra year on parole when he is released. He was also made subject indefinitely to a sexual harm prevention order and a restraining order banning him from contacting the three victims, and will be on the sex offender register for the rest of his life. For him, Kevin Blount said: He feels great personal shame for what he has done. There is evidence of genuine remorse. Fairburn had admitted what he had done to the police and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity before the courts in both cases. The abuse of the two girls that started when they were seven was over a period of four years, York Crown Court heard in November 2020. One of the girls had had difficulties before he began abusing her.

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A police online investigation team were alerted to the images being downloaded at Joshua Bevan's home in Swansea Indecent images of children as young as four being abused were found on the phone of a convicted sex offender, a court has heard. In June 2021, South Wales Police officers from the online investigation team based in Bridgend were alerted to a computer linked to an address in Crwys Terrace, Penlan, Swansea - Joshua Neil Bevan's home address, was being used to download indecent images of children. Detectives from the department turned up at his address at 7.10am on June 21, where they told him and his mother that they would be carrying out a search on the property. They examined electronic devices including a Samsung mobile phone found in Bevan's bedroom. Swansea Crown Court heard the phone was examined by a digital forensic officer who located a secure folder on the device. It was accessed and multiple indecent videos depicting child abuse and extreme pornography were discovered on the messenger application Kik. Bevan was arrested and taken to the police station to be interviewed. He accepted ownership of the phone, but answered no comment regarding the material found on the device. A further examination was carried out of the advice and it found 12 indecent videos within a chat group on Kik which Bevan was a member of together with eight other members. Two of the videos were category A - the most serious, one category C, and nine containing extreme pornography. The recordings were of girls as young as four. Prosecutor Dean Pulling told the court Bevan, aged 29, is a sex offender who was convicted in 2014 for making and possessing indecent photographs of children for which he was sentenced to a community order at the time and a five-year sexual offences prevention order. He appeared at Swansea Crown Court for sentencing having previously pleaded guilty to two counts of making indecent photographs of a child and possessing an extreme pornographic image portraying an act of intercourse/oral sex with a dead/alive animal. Mitigating, his solicitor John Allchurch said: "The material was found on an app called Kik, which is shared by the defendant with others. Someone other than the defendant saved the material to the group. His mistake was, particularly with his background and previous convictions, that he didn't leave the group or leave the app from his mobile phone. He is now 29, a single man and resides at his address with his mother. He is not working and has not done for the last ten years due to mental health issues." Sentencing Bevan to eight months in prison, Judge Paul Thomas said: "The physical and emotional damage that occurs to the girls (depicted in the photographs) can only be guessed at. Those things are happening to young children because people like you provide a market for it so you can masturbate to it. There were also images of people having sex with animals. I accept you have mental health issues, however, in my view, there is no prospect of rehabilitation. You had that chance and didn't take advantage of it."

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A 21-YEAR-OLD man from Abercynon has appeared before Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on Monday, June 13 to be sentenced for a series of sexual offences against children.

Krzystof Abramowicz has pleaded guilty to 25 counts of sexual offences against 25 different child victims as young as nine years old. He has been sentenced to four years and eight months in custody.

Detectives from Tarian, the regional organised crime unit for southern Wales, first identified Abramowicz was targeting children online in the Gwent and south Wales areas. Abramowicz created sophisticated fake profiles to pose as a 13 year-old girl, enticing children to commit sexual acts using popular mobile phone applications such as snapchat and Instagram.

Officers from Tarians Under-Cover On-line team established Abramowiczs identity and that he was regularly travelling between south Wales and Poland.

Detective Inspector David Bancroft of Tarian said: This case demonstrates the importance of the strong working partnership between Tarian and South Wales Police and our priority in protecting children.

Tarian passed the information to the South Wales Police Online Investigation Team (POLIT) who immediately arrested the defendant at his place of work.

A complex and thorough investigation conducted by detectives from the POLIT led to an early guilty plea and todays sentence.

Detective Inspector Bancroft added: Tackling online child sexual exploitation is a national priority for law enforcement and we are pursuing more offenders and safeguarding more children than ever before. All children identified were provided with support from specially trained officers from South Wales Police.

The police alone cannot stop the demand for child abuse images and more needs to be done to prevent abuse in the first place.

Further work is needed to reduce the availability of imagery, provide support to people with an inappropriate sexual interest in children and to raise levels of understanding around the risks of taking and distributing indecent images of children.

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A paedophiles vast stash of indecent images was discovered when he returned his laptop to a shop in August 2019. Marian Burlan, 58, had a vile child sex abuse image saved as his screensaver, alerting technicians at eFix Computers that there may be other material on the laptop. Another engineer checked the deleted images folder and saw a video of a girl he thought was roughly 10-years-old. Prosecutor Alice Aubrey-Fletcher said Burlans other devices were seized together with notepads that listed websites where indecent images could be found. Police found evidence the images had been accessed since 2008, although the former merchant sailor had only come to the UK from Romania in 2018 in search of better pay. In total, he had around 1,100 images and videos in the very worst category, including one that showed the sezual assault of a child estimated to be three to five years old. There were 46,000 images and videos in category C and 588 in category B. Ms Aubrey-Fletcher said some of the children were in obvious distress. The youngest children in the images were thought to be aged between two and four. A further 33,832 image and video files were found on the devices but not categorised by the specialist officers. Interviewed by the police, Burlan admitted what he had done and said he had looked at sexually-explicit images of adults, children and animals. Sentencing him at Oxford Crown Court on Friday, Judge Maria Lamb said: The author of this pre-sentence report says that the exploitation and abuse of children undertaken to gratify individuals individuals like you - who are often able to detach themselves from ownership of the criminal actions that are directly carried out against those children is a deeply destructive and utterly callous process. I agree wholeheartedly with what the probation officer says about that. In fairness to you, it does appear from what was said to the probation officer during the course of your interview with him that you have a realisation of the gravity of your offending. However, she said she was just persuaded there was a realistic prospect of Burlan being rehabilitated. Judge Lamb sentenced him to 16 months imprisonment suspended for two years with a requirement he complete up to 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days. He must abide by a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and sign on as a sex offender for a decade. The judge ordered he pay 425 in costs. His barrister, Gordana Austin, said her client had spent 25 years in the merchant navy before coming to the UK in 2018. He had worked in various porter roles and odd-jobs. He suffered from a number of health issues. Burlan, of Main Road, Long Hanborough, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possession of indecent images of children.

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POLICE have vowed to protect vulnerable people from "sexual exploitation" after a security guard was sentenced for sending sexual images to a "13-year-old girl". Mark Mengham, 60, of Alfred Close in Totton, was given a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years. A court heard how he had been messaging what he thought was a 13-year-old girl on the mobile app, Badoo. He was later arrested for sending sexual images and asking for naked photos of the girl, which was in fact a decoy profile. He was also ordered to complete 40 rehabilitation sessions, pay a victim surcharge and court costs and register as a sex offender for the offences committed in December 2020 and January 2021. Following the sentencing at Southampton Crown Court on Friday police have vowed to continue their work to protect vulnerable people. Detective Constable Paul Hills said: In a world where people have the ability to exchange messages through a variety of social platforms with people across the country unknown to them, and further afield, with relative ease, it is vitally important that we, as the police, are in a position to investigate if we believe that criminal offences have taken place during these exchanges. We want to continue to protect any vulnerable people, including young children, against possible sexual exploitation and I hope that this conviction shows the lengths that we will go to investigate any such claims. We hope that todays sentencing highlights the dangers that can be lurking on social media when engaging in people you do not know." Mengham was also handed a sexual harm prevention order to last for the next five years. It came after he pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause a child to watch/look at an image of sexual activity. DC Hills added: "This case serves as a reminder, and to also alert the parents of young children, that the digital world isnt it all it seems. "People may be seemingly acting innocently in exchanging messages initially, but that this can very quickly change, taking a turn to often dark, often sexualised, conversations and messages. We want to encourage any victims of child sexual abuse to come forward and speak to us, no matter when it happened. Hampshire Constabulary take allegations of this nature extremely seriously and will always seek to bring those responsible for committing these offences to justice." Anyone who has been a victim of child sexual abuse is encouraged to contact police on 101.

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A SIXTY-four-year-old Brampton man has been put on the Sex Offender Register after he admitted downloading child abuse images. Police who seized devices owned by Bruce Beveridge discovered that they contained five indecent child images which were classed as Category A, the most serious kind, Carlisles Rickergate court heard. The charge relates to images that included a video which lasted for seven minutes and 31 seconds, the contents of which prosecutor Peter Kelly said should not be aired in court. Beveridge committed the offence over a period of almost six years, the court heard. The charge states that between December 6 of 2014 and March 25 of 2020, the defendant made or downloaded five indecent Category A images of children. Mr Kelly said that the offences came to light after the police visited the defendant at his home on July 9, 2020. Given the nature of the images found on the devices, said Mr Kelly, the defendant should be sentenced by a judge at the crown court. Lauren Heasley, defendant, said Beveridge was a man of previous good character and asked background reports. These will be prepared by the Probation Service. The lawyer accepted that it would be more appropriate to have the case dealt with by the crown court. Magistrates agreed. They told the defendant that he must report to Carlisles Police HQ at Durranhill within three days and provide his personal details, as is required for those people who are on the Sex Offender Register. The defendant will be sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court on July 11. In the meantime, he was granted bail. The length of time his name will be on the Sex Offender Register will be determined by the ultimate length and nature of the sentence he is given.

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Paedophile Keith Hollinshead has been locked up for 10 years after sexually abusing a young boy. The 65-year-old carried out the offences more than three decades ago.

But his seedy offending only came to light when the victim went to Staffordshire Police in 2018 after confiding in his wife. The OAP was convicted of six serious child-sex offences following a trial at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court.

The court heard that the abuse lasted for five years.

Read: Dad-of-three hurled fearsome knife on roof in bid to avoid arrest

Sentencing Hollinshead, of Water Street, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Recorder Anthony Warner said: "What started with stroking his hair, his arms and his legs moved to touching his genitals under his clothing. He described your hand 'like a crab' moving down."

The victim realised the horrors of the offending when later attending sex education lessons at school. It has left him feeling suicidal.

Recorder Warner told Hollinshead: "I cannot say that there's no risk, or future risk, of you committing another serious offence. He said nothing to anyone for many years. He finally spoke to his wife in 2018. The police were called.

"While he was giving his evidence in court the pain he had suffered, and still suffers, was palpable. Even now there's rarely a day when he doesn't think of what you did. He said he felt worthless and it became a downward spiral. He has attempted to end his life.

"It left him feeling dirty making him want to scrub his skin clean. His wife has started to enable him to feel that he should be loved."

Police have welcomed the conviction and sentence.

Detective Constable Diane Sproston said: “I want to pay tribute to the victim and the tremendous courage and bravery he has showed in bringing this case to the courts. We will continue to do whatever is necessary to bring those responsible for these heinous crimes to justice, whilst ensuring the victims are given the support they need.”

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A ROMAN Catholic priest has been jailed for sexual offences against a teenage boy he met in church.

Father Anthony White has been convicted of two counts of indecent assault and one of buggery against the boy.

The offences happened in the early 1990s at an address where White was living in Horsham while he was an assistant priest at St John's Church.

The 64-year-old was sentenced to ten years and six months in prison for the sexual assault.

White, now of Cross-In-Hand, Heathfield, was also given five years for each offence of indecent assault, to run concurrently.

He will serve two thirds of his sentence in prison. 

 Detective Constable Yvonne Daddow said: "White got to know the boy when he and his family attended the church.

“He gradually gained their confidence and the boy started to visit the priest's address in Horsham on the pretext of doing some jobs around the house.

“However on the first occasion White plied the boy with drink and then raped him. On further occasions he also committed sexual assaults on the teenager.

"The victim kept these terrible experience to himself for nearly 30 years and they have had a very serious impact on his mental health and wellbeing all that time.

“Only when watching a TV documentary about unrelated cases of misconduct by priests did he feel able to come forward and disclose what had happened to him.”

He has been supported by specially trained officers and officers have had full co-operation from church authorities throughout the investigation, police said.

“I would like to thank the witnesses for their time in coming forward to support the police in this investigation,” Detective Constable Daddow added.

"We will always investigate such cases and provide support to victims, seeking justice wherever possible no matter how long ago the events are said to have happened."

The prosecution followed an investigation by detectives from the West Sussex Safeguarding Investigations Unit after a report was received by police for the first time in 2020. 

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A CHURCH has expressed its great shock after a member of its congregation was sentenced for downloading almost 5,000 child porn pictures.

Andrew Loring, of Hurst Road, Twyford, was spared jail after being convicted of three counts of making indecent images between 2017 and 2019.

The 45-year-old also worked with children having attained a number of leadership roles within the Hurst Scouts group.

Following his sentencing last month, St Marys Twyford released a statement.

A spokesperson said: News of Mr Lorings arrest, and the crimes he has admitted to, has come as a great shock to many in our community. He was a longstanding volunteer and member of the congregation at St Marys Twyford, a regular volunteer at Woodley Park Run, and has held a variety of leadership roles within the Scouts.

Mr Loring was immediately suspended from volunteering at St Marys Twyford on 22 November 2019.

There can be no excuse for his actions and his betrayal of trust. His is not a victimless crime, a fact the judge reminded Mr Loring of during sentencing.

Young and innocent lives are forever damaged by downloading indecent images. Many others are affected, too: the young people who looked up to him left questioning what to believe; staff and leaders left to pick up the pieces; a congregation bewildered by the actions of someone they called a friend.

In the view of the judge, Mr Loring has, since his arrest, demonstrated a willingness to address the root causes of his actions and has a realistic prospect of rehabilitation. We hope that this is indeed the case.

Today, we are shocked, saddened, and experiencing feelings that don't have words for. We offer all of this to God and pray for a world where children are safe from online abuse."

According to a court file, the 45-year-old downloaded:

- 971 Category A images (the most severe)

- 999 Category B images

- 2,623 Category C images

Appearing at Reading Crown Court on May 26, the 45-year-old was handed a 12-month prison sentence suspended for 24 months.

The Chronicle contacted Scouts for comment following news of Lorings sentence.

A spokesperson for the organisation confirmed Loring will never be allowed to work with Scouts again.

They said: We are aware of the court proceedings involving Andrew Loring.

The safety of young people in our care is our number one priority. In November 2019 Loring provided us with information that led to him being suspended from the Scouts. He has not volunteered with us since that date.

The statutory agencies have confirmed that there were no Scout victims involved in this case.

Following Lorings admission of guilt we will now take action to permanently exclude him from ever volunteering with Scouting again.

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A rapist who carried out a string of sexual assaults on a young girl has been jailed.

Luke Riley, 36, subjected the girl to more than two years of appalling sexual abuse.

The long list of offences took place in the Mansfield area at a time when the child was still of primary school age.

In total Riley, of Mansfield, had 11 separate child sex charges brought against him but always denied doing anything wrong.

Rileys lies meant that the girl was forced to relive her horrifying ordeal all over again in court as part of a week-long trial in April of this year.

In a victim impact statement read out in Nottingham Crown Court, the girl revealed how Rileys wicked actions had ruined her childhood and had caused her to self-harm in the years that followed.

Following the trial, a jury found Riley guilty of 11 child sex offences, including two counts of rape of a child under the age of 13.

Riley then appeared before Nottingham Crown Court for sentencing today (10 June), where he was jailed for 18 years.

Detective Sergeant James Primrose, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: Riley subjected a vulnerable young girl to more than two years of horrifying sexual abuse, the likes of which nobody should ever have to go through.

Put simply, his actions were completely unforgivable and just pure evil.

At no point has Riley shown any level of remorse or contrition for his horrendous behaviour and actually forced the girl to relive everything that happened to her all over again by lying about what he did in court.

I can only imagine how difficult and upsetting an ordeal this must have been for the victim but I hope that the knowledge that her abuser will now be behind bars for a very long time will serve as some form of comfort for her.

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A MAN from Middlewich who sexually assaulted a disabled woman on a train has been hauled back to court after breaching requirements of the sex offenders register. David Baden Kemp, of Manor Fields, failed to comply with notification requirements which make it necessary for him, by law, to sign the register. The 60-year-old appeared in Crewe Magistrates Court on Tuesday, June 7, to be sentenced for the offence. He was originally jailed for six months on September 7, 2016, after sexually assaulting a disabled woman on a train near Sandbach. The Guardian previously reported how Kemp and his victim boarded the same train at Sandbach Station on June 12, 2015. He then approached the victim in an empty carriage and asked her to move so he could sit next to her. When she refused, he tried to engage her in conversation. Again, she refused. Kemp then dropped to his knees in front of her and began running his hand up her leg. She immediately reported the incident to the train guard, and Kemp was met and arrested by British Transport Police at the next station. As well as the six-month prison sentence for this offence, Kemp was placed on the register for six years - expiring in September 2022. Crewe Magistrates Court has now fined him 120 for failing to sign on. He must also pay 85 in court costs and a 34 victim surcharge. His guilty plea was taken into account.