Latest Offenders

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Children's entertainer "Bobby Bubbles" is behind bars after being convicted of having sex with a child who thought "she was in love" with him.

Robert Jamieson, 49, repeatedly abused his female victim who was under 13 at the time.

The professional clown, who is a well known face at kids parties across Hull and East Yorkshire, was branded "dangerous" by a judge after being convicted of ten historic child sex offences.

Jamieson, of Beech Grove, west Hull, denied any wrongdoing but was convicted by a jury of ten sex offences against the same girl after a trial at Sheffield Crown Court.

Judge Roger Thomas QC sentenced Jamieson under the dangerous offender provisions, with a custodial term of 14 years and an extended licence period of one year.

Despite her young age at the time of the offences, the girl "thought she was in love" with Jamieson and refused to co-operate with an initial police investigation, the court heard.

She then reported the abuse after becoming a mother and having a daughter of her own.

Opening the case to a jury of seven men and five women, prosecutor Gurdial Singh said: "It's the fact that she could then relate to her daughter and bring that back to what happened to her and made her think about what had occurred - that's what caused her to come forward.

"She thought 'I don't want this to happen to my daughter'."

Jamieson had "befriended" and groomed the girl before sexually abusing her.

When Jamieson was arrested and interviewed, he "denied all the allegations from first to last" and called them "lies".

The paedophile came into daily contact with children, attending parties and visiting schools across the region.

He once spoke out over the "killer clown" craze that swept the nation in 2016.

Jamieson said at the time: "True clowns dont wear masks."

The entertainer described his performances at the time as "gentle, jolly and physical comedy".

He said: I have been doing this for years and years and it is still as popular as ever. Kids love it and they have such fun."

Jamieson was convicted of ten offences in total, including four of indecency with a child and two of sexual intercourse with a girl under 13.

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A rape trial was delayed for more than six months after Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) lawyers demanded access to the victim's school and social service records.

Merseyside Police had asked the CPS to approve charges against ocean sciences student Luke Hudson, 21, who was later convicted of raping the unconscious woman at a drunken house party in December 2017.

The analysis of the victim's records proved irrelevant to the case.

Hudson, of Alderson Avenue, Wavertree, was caught out when concerned friends placed a mobile phone under the door of his locked bedroom and saw him appearing to have sex with the woman while she was motionless.

When they tried to force the door Hudson, naked from the waist down, opened it and they saw the victim covered in vomit and seemingly asleep on the bed.

Hudson denied the two had penetrative sex but traces of her DNA were found on his body.

During his trial, Judge Louise Brandon expressed concerned about the length of time between the attack and charges being laid, and asked for a chronology of the case to be compiled.

After Hudson was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison, prosecuting counsel Ben Jones indicated a timeline had been prepared.

He said: "After medical reports had been completed Merseyside Police indicated that charges were ready in June 2018.

"However there was then a dispute between the police and CPS over access to the complainant's school and social service information."

Mr Jones said the police suggested the CPS request was "speculative," but the wrangle lasted for around six months.

Judge Brandon said the parties should "reflect" on the process.

Hudson was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register indefinitely.

The CPS said they received the file from police in September 2018, and said the case was charged in March 2019.

The service highlighted that the evidence collected in the complex investigation secured a conviction.

Deputy chief crown prosecutor for CPS Mersey-Cheshire Aksha Shahid said: "The CPS received this case from Merseyside Police in September 2018.

"A review of the material that had been collated during the investigation was carried out and further lines of enquiry were identified.

"The Police did not decline to pursue these lines of enquiry and they were carried out. The case was then further reviewed and charge was authorised in March 2019.

"This was an extremely complex and sensitive case in which the defendant exploited the vulnerability of the victim at a time and a place when she was entitled to feel safe.

"Justice was secured for this victim and a rapist was convicted because of the effective teamwork of the CPS, the Police, Counsel  and the forensic expert.

"The defendant was convicted of rape on December 2, 2019, and sentenced to four years six months imprisonment and he has been entered onto the sex offenders register."

In September, the annual Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) report from (CPS) showed the number of rape prosecutions in the region fell from 202 in 2017-18 to 119 in 2018-19.

Across England and Wales, there were just 1,925 convictions for rape or an alternative lesser offence during the financial year 2018-19, down from 2,635 in the previous 12 months - a drop of 26.9%.

This is despite the number of rape claims dealt with annually by police forces in England and Wales rising from 35,847 to 57,882 during the last four years.

The drop in prosecutions led campaigners to argue that rape is becoming "effectively decriminalised."

A coalition of women's organisations, represented by the Centre for Women's Justice (CWJ), is preparing to launch a judicial review case against the CPS over claims cases are being "dropped" without good reason.

But the CPS said the drop in rape charges was due to "a number of factors", including a reduction in the number of referrals from the police to the CPS, and an increase in the volume of time-consuming digital data.

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A SEX offender once found guilty of offences relating to an international paedophile ring linked to Hampshire has been hauled back before the courts.

Jasmine Melissa Hope, previously known as Melissa Noon, pleaded guilty to breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order by deleting the internet history on her mobile phone.

Appearing at Southampton Crown Court, the 38-year-old, of Howard Road, Southampton, was sentenced to a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

The order was imposed on Hope by Portsmouth Crown Court in 2011 after she was found guilty for her part in an international paedophile ring based in Hampshire.

As previously reported in the Echo, the group committed “horrific” crimes against two young children in the UK and one in Australia.

Hope was found guilty of 11 charges including causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

Following a six week trial, ringleader Robert Hathaway, 37, then of Tyseley Road, Portsmouth, was given an indeterminate sentence of 12 years.

That was later quashed and replaced with a life sentence with a minimum term of 10 years.

Hope, who was Hathaway’s partner, received four years.

This was later doubled to eight years on appeal through the unduly lenient sentence scheme.

Three other defendants became involved by meeting the couple over the internet to carry out the abuse and were jailed for a total of 15 years.

As previously Hampshire police launched their investigation into the ring after being tipped off by the authorities in Australia, who had uncovered a "mirror image’’ ring in Brisbane and Sydney which also abused at least one young child.

Hathaway had been in contact with this ring and shared images with them and one of the charges faced by Noon was for encouraging the Australian child to engage in sexual activity.

A total of 2,000 pages of chat logs were uncovered by police, as well as 14,000 indecent images of children and 300 videos of children being abused.

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Garry Byrne lay in bed in the room he lodged in at a married couple’s home swapping images with more than 400 people across the 32 groups - copying his favourites from his Samsung phone to two laptops.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard the 55-year-old loner confessed having a sickening sexual interest in children aged between six and 15 but had videos of a toddler boy of 18 months being abused.

When he was arrested at home Byrne, co-founder of GDC Waste Limited in Portsmouth, immediately admitted officers would find indecent images on his two laptops, phone and USB stick.

In all, he had 4,211 child abuse images - including 755 videos and 614 still images rated as category A, the most serious classification.

Prosecutor Sally Mertens said: ‘On the phone there were 27,329 images which were ungraded but they have been flash reviewed (by police). The majority appear to have been of children and would fit into categories A, B and C.’

Ms Mertens revealed Byrne, who has since moved from his home in Langley Road, Fratton, has two convictions for attempting to incite gross indecency with a six-year-old boy in 2004.

Byrne sent 56 images on WhatsApp groups but the court heard they were received by multiple people meaning they were distributed more than 15,000 times.

Judge William Ashworth said: ‘Each of these images represent a moment, a memory, for those children when they would have been in an environment with abusive adults - likely to be either away from the care of their parents or abused at the hands of their parents, and subjected to horrifying ordeals which will no doubt scar them forever.

‘It’s the trade in those images that perpetuates the need or perceived need for people to continue to abuse those children in this terrible manner behind closed doors.’

He added Byrne shared the abuse images to ‘thousands and thousands’ of people via WhatsApp groups. The charges showed he distributed 104,000 images.

Ms Mertens said: ‘He admitted to having a sexual interest in young boys. He said that, despite his previous conviction of attempting to incite gross indecency with a child, he had never approached a child.’

Byrne claimed his watching abuse images was ‘his release and that prevents him from offending against children,’ Ms Mertens said.

Byrne, a chronic alcoholic who had drunk the equivalent of two bottles of vodka a day until recently, admitted three charges each of distributing and making indecent images of children between May 2017 and February 2018.

Daniel Reilly, mitigating, said Byrne was thrown out of his home at the age of 13 after telling his Irish Catholic father he was gay - leaving him staying with friends – and entered into prostitution once at 14 in London.

Byrne had halved his alcohol intake, sought counselling, seen a psychiatrist and was set to be welcomed to a counselling programme if he had not been jailed.

The defendant had searched ‘why am I a paedophile?’ on his phone, the court heard.

Byrne was jailed for three years and put on the sex offenders' register for life. A sexual harm prevention order was imposed for life.

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A man has been jailed for three years and six months after pleading guilty to 14 sexual offence charges.

Thomas Inglis, 23, from Portland Road in Hucknall was sentenced on Wednesday, December 4 at Nottingham Crown Court.

He has been ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for life and was given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years.

He was arrested on October 10 by officers from the public protection department.

Officers from the neighbourhood search unit seized a number of items including a written note, an iPhone and a laptop.

The charges were:

• Attempting to arrange / facilitate the commission of a child sex offence (1 count)
• Distributing an indecent photograph of a child (3 counts)
• Attempting to cause / incite a boy to engage in sexual activity (1 count)
• Attempting to cause / incite a girl to engage in sexual activity (1 count)
• Attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity (3 counts)
• Making indecent images (3 counts)
• Possession of prohibited images (1 count)
• Possession of extreme images (1 count)

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A convicted paedophile who dressed up as Santa and offered to pose for pictures with children in exchange for money has been sent back to jail.

Stephen Brown, 40, stood near the popular Fenwick’s festive window display in Newcastle city centre, where he offered to have his picture taken with youngsters while dressed in a red Father Christmas suit and fake white beard.

Police believe two people posed for a picture with Brown, who had a sign saying “get ya picture taken and leave Santa Claus a donation”, without realising he was a convicted sex offender.

Security staff at the department store raised the alarm with police after becoming concerned by the stranger hanging around outside.

It was then that police discovered he had been handed a lifetime sexual offences protection order in 2012 after he was jailed for five years for possession of indecent images and inciting a child to engage in a sex act.

Brown was immediately arrested by police on a packed Northumberland Street on Saturday.

He was later charged with breaching the order for the second time since being released from prison in January 2017.

Brown will now be spending Christmas behind bars after being jailed for six weeks at Bedlington Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

Brown, of Fawdon, Newcastle, was jailed for five years in July 2012 after admitting a string of child sex offences.

A court was told how a teenage girl contacted police after an anonymous social media account befriended her and sent a string of sexual messages.

The user, later identified as Brown, encouraged her to perform sex acts and even threatened the schoolgirl when she refused to carry out his demands.

Brown was arrested at his home, where police discovered a number of indecent images of children during a search.

He was arrested and convicted of 14 offences including possession of indecent images, making an indecent image and inciting a child to perform a sex act.

Chief Inspector Steve Wykes, of Northumbria Police, praised the teamwork of Fenwick’s security staff and officers on patrol in the city at the weekend.

He said: “Stephen Brown would not have looked out of place on Northumberland Street this weekend dressed as Santa Claus.

“There has been a fantastic atmosphere in the city in the lead up to Christmas and thousands of people were in the area doing their shopping.

“Many people would have walked by Brown and thought that it was perfectly normal for him to be offering people the chance to pose for a picture.

“But security staff at Fenwick knew something wasn’t quite right and have contacted our officers who have checked his details and taken decisive action.

“Brown’s SOPO stated that he was not allowed any contact with children unless he had the consent of a parent or guardian who was aware of his convictions.”

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Jack Quinn was a member of online groups which used a secure, encrypted app to "trade" images of children being sexually abused.

A chef was running an online group for fellow paedophiles where they shared and commented on pictures of child abuse, a court has heard.

Some of the photos and videos Jack Quinn downloaded from the internet showed babies being sexually abused.

The defendant was a member of several groups where people exchanged vile photos and videos, and was an administrator in charge of one of them.

Swansea Crown Court heard that shortly before 9am on the morning of November 20 last year police executed a search warrant at the defendant's house in Pembrokeshire - present at the property was Quinn, his partner, and his young child.

James Hartson, prosecuting, said officers seized an Acer laptop computer and a Samsung mobile phone, and a quick check of the devices showed the presence of indecent images. The defendant was arrested and taken to Aberystwyth police station where he admitted accessing adult pornography but said any indecent images could have been downloaded accidentally.

The court heard that when Quinn's phone and laptop were forensically examined hundreds of pictures and videos showing the sexual abuse of babies and children were found of Categories A - the most extreme kind - B and C. Another 59,000 images were not categorised by officers.

Mr Hartson said the police also found large numbers of online conversations in an encrypted messenger app - an app which detectives asked not be named in open court due to an on-going investigation - which allowed users to exchange messages and photos "in total anonymity". Quinn had two accounts on the app, and in one of them had adopted the identity of a 17-year-old girl. The court heard the 29-year-old defendant was an administrator and an "active member" of one online groups, and had initiated many of the exchanges or "trades" of images of child sexual abuse with fellow members.

Jack William Quinn, now of Priory Street, Cardigan, Ceredigion, had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of indecent images - Categories A, B and C - and three counts of distribution of indecent images - again of Categories A, B and C - when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.

Ian Ibrahim, for Quinn, said following his arrest the defendant had referred himself to an alcohol charity, and had cut his consumption from 15 pints of beer a day to six or eight. He said his client was deeply ashamed of his behaviour and its impact on his family, had lost his career as a chef, and was now "a broken man".

With discounts for his guilty pleas recorder Christopher Clee QC sentenced Quinn to a total of 32 months in prison. He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. The defendant will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life, and was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order designed to control his use of the internet.

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A GARDENER claimed his trouser zip was broken or he had been stung by an insect before exposing himself to women he was carrying out work for in Dorset.

Darren Salmon, of Salisbury Green, Southampton, was admitted eight counts of indecent exposure and was sentenced at Bournemouth Crown Court on Monday, November 11.

The 41-year-old, formerly of Bridport, was sentenced to a three-year community order, with a requirement to attend a 35-day accredited programme and a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement. Salmon was also placed on the sex offenders register for five years.

The defendant was working as a gardener in the Bridport area when he exposed himself to a number of people he was carrying out work for at various addresses.

The offences occurred between Wednesday, August 1, and Thursday, September 6, 2018, and his victims were women aged between 19 and 92.

After claiming his trouser zip was broken or an insect had stung him, Salmon asked for assistance and at this point the victims realised he was exposing himself.

The incidents were reported to police and Salmon was arrested on Sunday 9 September 2018.

PCKerry Cordier, of Dorset Police’s Volume Crime Team, said: “These incidents were distressing for the victims involved and I would like to thank all of them who came forward and assisted our investigation.

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After being tracked across Hampshire by number plate recognition and arrested, Paintin denied engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child.

Paintin instructed lawyers to defend him on the basis he was ‘holding a bird that had got free in his car’ after braking hard on the motorway - but could not even bring himself to repeat his ludicrous lies in front of a jury.

Jurors just took 26 minutes to convict him having heard he had a conviction in 2008 for following a school bus performing a sex act in his car, and another in 2011 for offering a 16-year-old girl ‘a tenner’ if she would perform a lewd act.

Jailing him for two and a half years on Wednesday, judge Roger Hetherington said: ‘This isn’t just exhibitionism it’s more like an assault in a way.’

He added: ‘It was quite a disgraceful thing to have done.’

Jurors were shocked as it was revealed the defendant goes by eight aliases and has 47 convictions for 29 offences.

Bravely giving evidence at the trial, the young boy rejected Paintin’s claim he was holding a bird - pointing out he knew what a bird looked like.

In a police video the victim, who suffers from nightmares since the incident, said: ‘He wiggled it at me side to side. Then I looked up and he was trying to do it again when I was looking at him and then he left.’

Answering police questions, the boy said he told his mum: ‘That man who just left is a bad man because he showed me (himself).’

The boy told officers he had waved - in a style he picked from the TV children’s character Justin, who plays Mr Tumble - before Paintin embarked on his vile act.

Praising her son for going through the court process bravely, his mother said: ‘I’m immensely proud of him. I feel angry that he had to go through this and I feel angry that a guilty plea was not made.’

The boy’s dad added: ‘Abuse is endemic and children need emotional support and they need for a system to work for them - to believe them, to listen to them - and we are grateful in this case that has happened.’

Both praised DC Mark Reynolds for investigating and urged child abuse victims to come forward.

In court, prosecutor Martyn Booth said Paintin had a ‘troubling and concerning attraction towards children’.

Addressing the judge before the jury trial started, prosecutor Martyn Booth said: ‘The crown's case is that he was exposing and playing with (himself).

‘The defence case is that he was holding a bird that had got free in his car and that must've been what the boy had seen.’

Sam Barker, defending, had urged the judge to sentence him another day as Paintin had ‘200 birds and he has not set in place any care for those’.

He added: ‘In the circumstances he would either wish to free them or sell them so that they don’t suffer unnecessary suffering’.

Judge Hetherington gave the defendant bail to sort out the birds at around 1pm ordering him to be back by 2pm for sentencing. Paintin fled court with his key in hand - but returned in time to be jailed.

Paintin must sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and a sexual harm prevention order bans him from being with children.

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A SERIAL paedophile has been jailed again for sexually abusing young girls aged as young as six.

Allan McCurry, from Birchwood, was handed seven years behind bars at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, November 22.

The 71-year-old armed forces veteran was previously given a court martial for similar offences four years ago, and was already serving a 14-year stretch in prison.

He sexually abused two girls for more than a decade back in the 1970s and 1980s, targeting them from the age of four onwards.

The abuse continued until they were aged 14 and 16.

Years later, these victims came forward and McCurry, previously of Deanwater Close, was prosecuted by the Army as some of the offences occurred while he was serving abroad meaning he could not legally be tried before a British court.

He was convicted of 12 sexual offences in 2015, including two counts of rape, the attempted rape of a child, indecently assaulting a child and gross indecency with a child.

But the pensioner was put on trial again for sexually assaulting the daughter of one of his previous victims and two other young girls.

Some of his sick crimes were committed in Warrington, while others took place in Aldershot where the former soldier had served.

His victims were aged between six and 15 at the time of the offences, while he tried to rape one of the girls when they were aged just 13.

McCurry was found guilty by a jury of eight counts of indecent assault and one of attempted rape.

The pensioner, who maintains his innocence, was ordered to serve an additional seven years in jail by judge Stuart Driver and told to sign the sex offenders register for life.

Judge Driver also imposed an indefinite sexual harm prevention order on the rapist.