Latest Offenders

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Ronald Preddy, 73, used threats and bribes to encourage children into sexual acts

A former colliery security guard labelled a remorseless sexual predator has been jailed for 18 years for sexual offences against boys.

Ronald Preddy, 73, of Dunraven Street, Glyncorrwg, in Port Talbots Upper Afan Valley , had denied offences including rape and indecent assault going back to the 1990s against two boys.

But at a Swansea Crown Court trial he was found guilty of the offences and was sentenced by Judge Huw Davies QC on Friday.

The judge described Preddy as a remorseless sexual predator who had committed offences over a 25-year period using bribes in one case as low as 50p and in some cases using threats to encourage children into sexual acts.

The trial heard evidence relating to two sets of offences against two boys, one relating to the 1990s, the other said to have occurred more recently.

The court heard the offences took place in the South Wales area and that Preddy had been, until his retirement, a security guard at a coal mine.

In 2004, Preddy was jailed for eight years for separate sexual offences, also involving a young boy.

Judge Davies said over a 12-year period, Preddy had been before Swansea Crown Court three times for sexual offences, each time denying he had done anything wrong.

The judge told Preddy: You have shown no remorse whatsoever.

Preddy was given in total a 21-year extended prison sentence but with a custodial element of 18 years.

He was also placed on the sex offenders register for the rest of his life.

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A DISGRACED Hampshire teacher has been jailed for three years after he sexually asaulted children and filmed up young girls' skirts in a school cupboard.

Benjamin Sarfas was sent to prison having pleaded guilty to 19 counts of sexual offences against children.

The 31 year old, of Springvale Road, Kings Worthy, was a newly qualified teacher at Kempshott Junior School in Basingstoke when he began abusing children in 2011, continuing until his arrest in March last year, Winchester Crown Court heard.

Dozens of family members of the nine victims, all girls aged between eight and 11, were in the public gallery as Sarfas was sent down.

Prosecutor Kerry Maylin told the court that the offences came to light when one victim was overheard telling a friend that Sarfas had indecently assaulted her and asked her to go in a cupboard and close her eyes.

Miss Maylin explained that Sarfas was warned by other teachers about being alone with girls.

She added: "His response to any such advice when they were trying to protect him was to say 'it's just because I'm a man.'"

A charge of voyeurism related to a file found on Sarfas' computer with videos showing one of his victims repeatedly taking her clothes off and putting them on again, while Sarfas asked her to practise changing.

The court heard that Sarfas was engaged and due to be married in April last year, but his fiancée called off the wedding when Sarfas was arrested in March.

Miss Maylin said his ex-fiancee, who was also a teacher, told police that Sarfas had admitted that he thought about young girls.

Impact statements were read out from the parents of the victims.

One mother said: "She's still frightened of seeing him. She doesn't like talking about what happened and does have nightmares. She doesn't want to get comfortable with teachers in case it happens again."

Another said: "It led to her feeling disgusted with herself."

Mitigating, Dee Connolly said: "His chances of a normal life and marriage are shattered and the future is rather bleak for him."

Miss Connolly said her client had been seeing a therapist and was sorry for the pain he had caused.

Sarfas was jailed for two years for seven counts of sexual assault on a child under the age of 13, 12 months for 11 counts of taking indecent photographs of a child, to run consecutively, and four months in prison for one count of voyeurism, to run concurrently.

He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life, and banned from working with children.

Judge Keith Cutler said: "All these actions can be described as disgusting and appalling, the effects on these children has been significant, blighting what should have been a carefree youth."

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A 27-year-old from Ash has been sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of rape.

Daniel Band had been on a night out in Aldershot when he met the victim with a friend on Saturday December 14 2013.

The three ended up at Bands house in Avondale, at about 3am on Sunday December 15, where they had more to drink and the court heard they all fell asleep on the sofa.

During the trial of Band, who denied one count of anal rape, prosecutor Christopher May told the jury at Guildford Crown Court on Monday February 8 that at one point in the evening the victim woke up and went outside for a cigarette.

Mr May told the court that when she came back from having a cigarette, the two men were asleep.

So she went back and sat on the sofa and fell back asleep herself, Mr May said.

There had been, the crown say, no suggestion of sexual talk or foreplay or anything like that prior to this.

The court heard the victims friend left the house, leaving her and the defendant in the living room.

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A manipulative teacher branded arrogant by a judge has been jailed for abusing young girls.

Predatory Robert Appleby, who taught at Herne Bay High School, committed sex offences against two teenagers.

The 42-year-old, who had been investigated three times and suspended once, has now been sentenced to seven years and nine months behind bars.

Appleby, of Stablegate Mews, Canterbury, groomed one victim and persuaded another to lie to police about sex images he encouraged her to send.

Jailing him, Judge James OMahony said: You are a highly intelligent , talented artist, who is charismatic.

You are also arrogant.

A jury at Canterbury Crown Court heard how an anonymous letter to the head of the school led to Appleby being arrested.

He denied a relationship with the author of the letter but the investigation revealed he had a relationship with another girl, naked pictures of whom were found on his computer.

Appleby had denied sexually abusing a second girl but the jury rejected his accounts and found him guilty.

He had earlier admitted sex offences involving a second victim.

During the trial, prosecutor John OHiggins told how Appleby was a charming, manipulative predatory abuser who had targeted one of his victims.

But it was revealed how he had been investigated three times and suspended on one occasion but no charges were brought.

Mr OHiggins added that Appleby had even been caught by a caretaker with a young girl and reported to the authorities.

The judge told Appleby that his actions had had a devastating effect on his victims both of whom had contemplated suicide.

He told the ex-teacher: You have by your own actions destroyed your career and your vocation.

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A man who raped a 12-year-old girl he had groomed on social media has been jailed for eight years.

Oscar Fitzgerald, 26, from Lowestoft, Suffolk, arranged online to meet his victim and then drove her to his house.

The girl was reported missing by her mother soon after and police began searches. She was found after texting her mother.

Police said Fitzgerald, who was jailed at Norwich Crown Court on Friday, was a "dangerous sexual offender".

Fitzgerald, who had lived at Church Road, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to three counts of raping a girl under 13.

Fitzgerald had made contact with the girl, from west Suffolk, on the same day she went missing last September and he was aware she was just 12, police said.

'Courage of victim'

The victim told officers she had arrived at a house and was told to go upstairs, where she was then raped, despite telling him to stop.

She texted her mother as she was walking home, after being dropped off at a bus-stop.

Fitzgerald was arrested later at his home after the girl gave police his first name, the colour of his car, his phone number and described the two-bedroom house.

Det Con Stephen Clarke, of Suffolk police, said he wanted to "commend the courage of the victim" who was able to give an "immediate detailed account".

"It was this prompt action that led officers being able to identify and detain Fitzgerald.

"We have been able to remove a dangerous sexual offender from the street," he said.

Fitzgerald has been put on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.

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A vile rapist who bit his terrified victim all over her body has been caged for seven years.

Savage Dan Hardy left the woman with bruises and bite marks on her face and body during a horrifying two-hour ordeal.

The 21-year-old sex beast launched the terrifying attack on the woman, in her 20s, in 2014.

In the early hours of a November morning fiend Hardy raped the woman at a flat in Buckingham, Bucks.

A spokesman for Thames Valley police said: "On November 29 2014 between 4am and 6am Dan Hardy raped the victim, a woman in her 20s, during a two hour ordeal at a flat at an address in Buckingham.

"The victim sustained bruising and bite marks all over her body and face."

Detective Constable Michele Weston said: "This was an horrific ordeal for the victim in this case, and she has shown nothing but courage throughout this whole process."I hope now she will be able to move forward with her life now that justice has been served."

Hardy, of Freemans Way, Greens Norton, Northants., admitted the offence when appearing before Judge Justin Cole at Amersham Crown Court.

He was jailed for seven years and was placed on the Sex Offender's Register for life.

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Paedophile coaxed girl aged 13 to sneak out of her house and have sex with him.

Brett Rudkin, 20, asked the girl to send naked pictures of herself to him and encouraged her to come to his house late at night.

A man who "coaxed" a 13-year-old girl to sneak out of her house while her parents slept to have sex with him has been jailed.

Brett Rudkin, 20, had asked the 13-year-old girl to send naked pictures of herself to him and encouraged her to come to his house late at night.

However, just five minutes after they had sex, Rudkin callously brushed her aside and said he was "disgusted" with what had happened.

The incident had a "massive effect" on the youngster, who was so distressed she was forced to change schools, stopped eating and began to lose weight.

Jailing Rudkin in a young offenders' institution for two years and four months, Judge David Tremberg said he had "coaxed" his victim into having full sex with him.

He said: "She went because she trusted you. You effectively groomed her.

"You knew from first to last what you were doing was against the law.

"You used her to satisfy your sexual urges and, when you had got what you wanted, she had served her purpose.

"You told her that you did not want anything else to do with her and the complainant has been deeply emotionally affected by the fallout from this.

"You risked causing infection or pregnancy. She was only 13.

"This was a deliberate course of conduct followed by attempts by you to keep her quiet.

"You groomed her and you courted images of her."

Prosecuting, Philip Standfast told Grimbsy Crown Court Rudkin and his victim began exchanging messages on social media apps including Facebook and Snapchat.

They began "sharing each other's secrets" and Rudkin pretended his was 17, despite being 18 at the time.

He told her he liked her and sent an intimate picture of his private parts before asking for naked pictures of her breasts.

She sent three or four showing cleavage while wearing a vest.

Mr Standfast said: "The girl's parents were asleep in bed when Rudkin sent a message asking if she wanted to go to his house.

"Without her parents' knowledge, she left home, met the defendant and went to his house about midnight.

"Rudkin started taking her clothes off, kissing her and they had sex with no protection."

The girl left but just minutes later she received a message from Rudkin that said he was "disgusted" with what he had done and asked her not to tell anyone.

Mr Standfast said: "She felt she had been used."

The girl was left upset by the incident that had a "massive effect" on her life and she began to lose weight and had to change school and move out of the family home.

Speaking in mitigation, defence barrister Alison Dorrell said that Rudkin, who admitted two offences of sexual activity with a child, had avoided further damage to the young teen by not "seeking to brazen the matter out at trial".

She said: "He knew quite quickly after he did this that he had done wrong, although there was an element of self-protection.

He had no previous convictions and had lost his good character in "quite spectacular fashion."

Rudkin was also given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and must register as a sex offender indefinitely.

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A FATHER downloaded indecent images of children less than a month after admitting the same offence, a court heard.

Sukhdev Sandhu had been sentenced to attend a course for sex offenders after pleading guilty to his first offence on January 28, 2010.

But he was discovered to have accessed more images on February 20 that year.

However he has walked free from court after arguing that the second offence took place before he had been on a rehabilitation course that had stopped him re-offending since.

Siobhan Lindsey, prosecuting, told Southampton Crown Court how Sandhu was caught when offender managers visiting his Southampton home became suspicious and seized his laptop computer on July 23, 2014.

Experts found 32 indecent images of children in the computer records, two of which fell into the most serious category, as well as five extreme pornographic images depicting bestiality and violent sexual acts.

The youngest child identified was thought aged eight to 10 years old.

Investigators also found an external hard drive had been used to download and store the images but this was never recovered.

There was also a search term on the computer commonly used when searching for indecent images.

Sandhu was arrested and eight further indecent images of children were found on his mobile phone along with another three extreme pornographic images.

Miss Linsley said she had no evidence of when these were put on.

The court was told that Sandhu said the pictures were downloaded after his conviction but before he started his sex offender program and he had stopped once he completed that course.

Sandhu, 50, of Selborne Walk, Bitterne, admitted six counts of making indecent photographs of a child and one count of possessing an extreme pornographic image.

David Reid, mitigating, said such behaviour was often compulsive or addictive and Sandhu had not then yet been given strategies to help him avoid temptation. The fact that he offended so soon after was “maybe his best mitigation”, Mr Reid added.

He said there had been no offences in the four and a half years since he was sentenced for 18 charges of making indecent images.

The court heard how Sandhu had then lost his job and due to these new offences his wife had now lost hers as a school teaching assistant, making it unlikely they could fund their son’s first year at university.

But Sandhu hopes to return to Malaysia short-term to work for his brother, allowing his wife to return to work and their income to fund their son’s education.

Judge Peter Henry said the images were “appalling” and this was not a “victimless crime” as children had been abused.

He said he could not be sure that Sandhu had continued looking at these images after his treatment and that sending him to prison might undo that work.

Sandhu was sentenced to eight months in prison suspended for two years with an 18-month supervision requirement.

He was also given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order, put on the sex offender register for 10 years and his mobile phone and laptop will be destroyed.

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Aaron Langley, Imperial Road, Gillingham jailed after downloading thousands of indecent images of children

A pervert who downloaded thousands of images of children as young as two has been jailed.

Aaron Langley stockpiled more than 18,500 pictures and movie clips showing young children - one as young as two or three - in depraved acts with adults.

The 32-year-old, of Imperial Road, Gillingham, was jailed him for 16 months.

Prosecutor Ian Foinette said Langley, who was convicted of indecent assault as a juvenile, was arrested at his home on January 9 last year.

The images found covered all levels of seriousness.

“Not all could be looked at by police because of the sheer volume,” said Mr Foinette. “The charges relate to examples. He indicated he had a sexual interest in boys aged 10 to 17.

“He indicated he had been viewing them for some time. He kept them stored. He said his preference was for boys and was interested in what was being done to them.”

James Ross, defending, said Langley, who admitted 15 charges of possessing indecent images of children, only came into physical contact with a child when convicted of indecently assaulting a boy in 2001.

“He downloaded such large amounts of the images he couldn’t conceivably get around to looking at them all,” said Mr Ross. “He looked at them as and when.” Mr Ross submitted Langley needed sex offender treatment and counselling with psychiatric intervention.

“He comes from a supportive family,” said Mr Ross. “His mother is absolutely shocked by this. He does seek help and treatment. He would follow any course and change his personality.”

Judge Charles Macdonald QC told Langley: “This is quite a bad case. There are many aggravating features. You shared the images with others with a like interest.”

Langley’s name will appear on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and he will be barred from working with children or vulnerable adults.

DC Jo-anne Gordon, investigating officer for the case, said: "This case serves as a reminder that Kent Police fully investigates all reports of people using the internet to view and distribute indecent images of children.

"In this case Langley accumulated a huge amount of indecent images and videos which showed children being subjected to horrific abuse.

"I hope he spends his time in prison reflecting upon the impact the material he was viewing has on the victims who will have to deal with the psychological affects of this for the rest of their lives."

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Derby Crown Court heard on Monday, January 11, how Robert Stringer, 61, of Byron Street, Buxton, admitted possessing 650 indecent images, an indecent movie and an indecent photo of a different category and he also breached an order banning him from using mobiles with internet.

Prosecuting barrister Abi Joyce said: Stringer was convicted in March, 2009, for possession of indecent photos and he got a 12 month prison sentence and was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.

The order included banning him from the possession of any computer with a facility of displaying images.

On May 11, 2012, he was found guilty of breaching the Sexual Offender Prevention Order by being in possession of a computer and he received a community order.

The conditions of the SOPO were varied to prohibit him from using any device capable of accessing the internet unless it had the capacity to retain internet history.

Stringer was subject to checks and in January, 2013, he was found guilty of making photos of children and received a three-year community order.

Despite Stringers previous convictions, Miss Joyce explained how Stringers offender manager became aware of information that he had a mobile phone in August, 2015, and he was seen using it while driving and it was identified.

The court heard how police attended Stringers address and he failed to declare the phone but officers identified the make of phone, called it successfully and established it had an internet plan.

The defendant told police he committed the latest offences because he was annoyed at the accusations and thought he might as well do it and as he looked at adult porn sites they would piggy-back to teen sites with 14 to 18-year-olds.

He stated to police that he felt guilty because he has daughters but he denied being sexually attracted to children.

Stringer pleaded guilty to breaching a SOPO by possessing a mobile with internet between October, 2013 and September, 2015. He also pleaded guilty to possessing an indecent photo of a child and an indecent movie and 650 indecent images between June and September, 2015.

Defence barrister James Riley urged the court to consider a suspended prison sentence to allow Stringer to work with probation and police to overcome problems.

But Judge Jonathan Bennett sentenced Stringer to 12 months of custody.

He told the defendant: You demonstrated calculated defiance and your case is aggravated by previous convictions.

You have made little progress and you didnt recognise that you have a significant problem.

Custody is appropriate because of your calculated defiance and you have had two community orders and you made no progress and you have carried on offending.

The court heard how the movie and images included youngsters aged around 13 and 14 to 16.

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Alan Scollay had previously admitted a string of offences involving two primary school age girls.

The 58-year-old had been warned the case was so serious it may be referred to the High Court but appeared at Lerwick Sheriff Court for sentence yesterday.

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AN immature young farmer is starting a six-year prison sentence following his conviction for the rape and sexual assault of a woman.

Durham Crown Court was told that Karl Richard Gibson, then 19, committed the acts, despite the victims protests.

The court heard that Gibson protested his innocence on his arrest, last year, and throughout his trial, in late October.

Despite still maintaining he has been subject to a miscarriage of justice, the custodial term of five years was imposed for rape, with an added 12-months for one of two sexual assaults for which Gibson was also convicted, when he appeared back at the court, via video link from nearby Durham Prison, at todays (Wednesday December 23) sentencing hearing.

David Brooke, prosecuting, read from the victims impact statement in which she said she was left feeling, worthless, and for some time since the incidents she has suffered anxiety attacks and had flashbacks to what took place.

Mr Brooke said the woman has since self-harmed and sought psychiatric treatment.

But Paul Reid, for Gibson, said the defendant and his family, utterly reject her comments in the statement.

Mr Reid claimed that to lay the blame for her psychiatric difficulties, at the defendants door, was, completely unjustified.

He was 19 at the time, and is now 20.

Were he a couple of years younger, it would be dealt with under far different sentencing guidelines.

Although hes now 20, hes only a boy, and spends his time farming up on the fells with his cows.

This is one of the most tragic cases I have been involved with, in quarter of a century doing sex cases.

Following his conviction his family were in hysterics and couldnt understand what was happening when he was taken to the cells in shackles, being searched, documented and taken off to Durham Prison.

Mr Reid urged Recorder Tim Roberts to pass the least sentence possible, according to the guidelines.

But, Recorder Roberts said: These offences were, indeed, borne out of immaturity, lack of thought, and inability to think things through in a considered manner.

He made Gibson the subject of a ten-year restraining order, forbidding him trying to contact the woman.

Gibson, of Marshes Gill Farm, Harwood-in-Teesdale, County Durham, will also be subject to registration as a sex offender indefinitely.

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A MAN from Basingstoke has been jailed for more than seven years after being found guilty of raping a woman.

Samuel Tweddle, 23, of Kings Road, Basingstoke, received a sentence of seven years and six months in prison on Thursday, December 17 at Winchester Crown Court.

A jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts on the five counts that Tweddle had denied, which included a single count of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one of witness intimidation.

The offence took place in the early hours of Sunday, July 5 this year in a car on the Houndmills industrial estate in Basingstoke.

The victim reported the offence that day and was supported by specialised officers.

DNA evidence was taken and used to convict Tweddle.

Speaking after the sentence, Detective Constable Craig Ferguson, of Basingstoke CID, said: This was a vicious and predatory attack.

Sexual offences are treated very seriously by Hampshire Constabulary and we will investigate, charge and convict criminals responsible for such offending.

The victim has shown great courage throughout this process and I hope that she can now move on from this terrible ordeal.

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A MANIPULATIVE sexual predator raped a young girl whose mother he had met through a dating website and threatened to kill her familys dog if she told anyone.

In what a judge described as the grossest breach of trust, the man, who cannot be named to protect the identities of his victims, also sexually abused the girls two sisters.

The 47-year-old, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to raping the girl when she was 14 or 15 and a number of offences of sexual assault.

He was given an extended prison sentence of nine years in jail, of which he will have to serve at least two-thirds, after which he will be released on licence for the rest of the term and for an additional three years.

He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life and banned from entering Rugby for 15 years.

Prosecutor John Hallissey said a relationship developed after the girls mother met the man through a dating website.

But after they moved in together there were intermittent disclosures by the girl to a friend, and the matter was reported to school staff, only for her to withdraw what she said.

When she was 13 she made a further disclosure at school, asking for her abuser to be present with a view to confronting him, but withdrew her complaint when her mother turned up as well.

But eventually the police became involved and she took part in a video-recorded interview in which she described how she had been systematically abused after the defendant had moved in.

On a number of occasions he walked in on her when she was in the bath or the shower and touched her inappropriately, after which he would be apologetic.

But on one occasion when she was 13 or 14 he called her into his bedroom and pushed her down onto the bed, and when she tried to get up, he pushed her back down and put a pillow over her face, telling her to shut up or he would hurt her.

Her abuser had told her that whenever he acted in that way he tried to imagine she was his real daughter so that he would stop, but that a red mist descended over him.

But he ignored her desperate attempts to tell him she was his daughter and that he could fight the red mist, and performed a sex act on her before calming down and apologising.

Sometimes after he abused her, he would cry and she found herself in the strange situation of having to comfort him.

He also subjected her to threats when she did something wrong, telling her he would tell her mother unless she was his for a period of time.

On another occasion he followed her into the bathroom, ordered her to take off her clothes and then to perform a sex act on him, but she refused.

Then on a day when she was off school sick, she woke up with him lying next to her and touching her.

The girl told him to get off, but he told her if she did not comply he would hurt her mother or kill the dog.

She tried to get away but he pulled her back and raped her.

Mr Hallissey said that after the girl came forward, her sisters also revealed the defendant had inappropriately touched them when they were 13 or 14.

Graeme Simpson, defending, said: He has struggled with his demons, even at the time of committing these offences.

But Judge Richard Griffith-Jones said: He spotted she was a good-natured as well as a sensitive and intelligent girl, and one way of manipulating her was to make her feel sorry for him as well as by being intimidating.

And he told the defendant: You were a sexual predator, and a clever and manipulative one at that.

You set the parameters by a mixture of bribes and threats, sometimes emotional and sometimes physical, and it went on for years. It is the grossest breach of trust.

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A FORMER head of an East Yorkshire children's home is facing jail for a third time after he was found guilty of a string of historical child abuse offences.

James Carragher, 75, was found guilty of 21 counts of indecent assault and three serious sexual assaults at Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday, Humberside Police said.

A jury at Leeds Crown Court was told that Carragher was jailed for seven years in 1993 and a further 14 years in 2004 for offences he committed at St William's - an approved school for boys with behavioural problems in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire.

Carragher was principal of St William's, which was run by the Catholic De La Salle order, from 1976 to 1990.

The judge said "I've never ever in many years of doing this had a jury who had to consider so many charges, it is way beyond the norm, and they are some of the most difficult charges to deal with".

Carragher was jailed for seven years in 1993 and 14 years in 2004 for sex offences, pleaded not guilty to 50 counts of indecent assault and 12 other serious sex offences.