Latest Offenders

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THE family of a convicted Hampshire rapist has vowed to spend “every penny” it has to help clear his name.

Peter Watch, 26, was sentenced to 12 years in prison at Winchester Crown Court having been found guilty of rape, sexual assault, two counts of assault and putting a person in fear of violence.

Watch, of Amesbury Road, stood accused of assaulting women who he met on dating websites, and taking part in obscene sexual acts.

He denied all the charges against him, but a judge gave him 12 years and an extended sentence of four – meaning he will spend four years on licence - and ruled he must serve at least eight years before parole can be considered.

After the hearing Watch’s father, William, said: “I will spend every penny I have to help him.

“It’s all down to that Jimmy Savile, courts are now too quick to listen to these accusations and innocent people like my son are suffering.

“He’s no angel, but this isn’t fair on my boy.”

Mr Watch said the case had taken its toll on the family.

He said: “The stress on me and my wife has been huge.

“I’m so run down, I’ve not been able to work, and what people do not realise is we’ve got the sentence as well as Peter.”

Detective Constable Paul Barry, who led the case, said: “This conviction follows a protracted inquiry involving Peter Watch who has met three women over dating websites and committed serious sexual assault offences against them, which include rape.

“Hampshire Police will proactively investigate all reports of sexual and physical abuse which are initiated by offenders over the internet.”

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Two men who "laughed and boasted" about raping a girl outside a nightclub have been jailed for nine years.

Kristofer McLaren and Craig Whitelaw, both 21, attacked the 18-year-old on 10 August after meeting her at Club Amadeus, in Elder Road, Northallerton.

Teesside Crown Court heard the two men bragged about the assault to a taxi driver as they left the scene.

Police said McLaren and Whitelaw, both from Thirsk, treated their victim "like a piece of meat".

They were were found guilty of rape following a trial, but cleared of a second count of rape.

Whitelaw was also convicted of sexual assault, for which he was sentenced to four years in jail to be served concurrently.

'Sustained attack'
Det Insp Fiona Wynne, from North Yorkshire police said: "I am delighted that justice has been delivered for the victim.

"She was subjected to a sustained attack by McLaren and Whitelaw. They treated her like a piece of meat and left her bleeding and distressed.

"They laughed and joked about it afterwards, even boasting to the taxi driver about what had just happened when they left the scene."

The victims' parents paid tribute to the force, saying: "From the minute the police picked our daughter up she has been treated with the utmost respect and sympathy by everyone who has had contact with her."

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A music teacher has avoided being sent to prison after he pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children and extreme pornography involving animals.

Edmund Warbrick, of Middle Road, Sholing, Southampton, Hampshire, was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for two years at Southampton Crown Court after he admitted the 18 offences of child sex abuse images and two counts involving animals.

The 48-year-old, who has been sacked by Sholing Technology College where he worked for 20 years, was also given a sex offences prevention order which bans him from working with children for 10 years and he was ordered to sign on the sex offenders' register for 10 years.

Warbrick, known as Jim at the school, was also given a two-year supervision order, ordered to pay an £80 victim surcharge and £340 costs.

Martin Brown, headteacher at The Sholing Technology College, said: “We are aware that a former member of staff, employed by The Sholing Technology College from 1 September 1994 until 15 December 2014 - pleaded guilty to 18 counts of possession of child pornography and has been sentenced in Southampton Crown Court.

"We have been fully co-operative in the police investigation against this former member of staff.

“The safety of our students is of paramount importance to us and is therefore something we take very seriously. As a college we review our safeguarding arrangements on a continuous basis and as a result have robust procedures in place to protect our students.”

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A convicted sex fiend caught by so-called "paedophile hunters" is behind bars after he admitted travelling more than 300 miles to try to meet up with 14-year-old girl.

Roger Lee, who previously got a 12-year-old pregnant and was branded a danger to children, thought he was chatting to a teenage girl called Rebecca over the internet, but it was a pair of online vigilantes.

The pervert sent naked pictures of himself and "couldn't get to Newcastle" - 310 miles from his Basingstoke home - "fast enough" after "the girl" said she was being left home alone when her mum went away.

But Lee, 45, was filmed by the duo who call themselves Dark Justice when he turned up at the city's Millennium Bridge.

At Newcastle Crown Court, he admitted attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming through website Badoo and was jailed two years and four months.

Judge Sean Morris said: You entered into a conversation with them on the internet and they pretended the female was 14 and you went for it.

You arranged to come to Newcastle from Basingstoke to have sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old child. That is extremely serious.

There was in fact no child involved at all, which limits the category into which your offending falls.

That will be quite difficult for some people to understand and I dont blame them.

Im firmly of the view that you are a dangerous individual to young children.

The court heard Lee, using the moniker ForHire, contacted Rebecca in October on Badoo, which is meant for over 18s.

Prosecutor Tim Gittins said: "These men, who describe themselves as undercover journalists, worked together in order to set up a sting operation to identify and catch paedophiles.

"They set up a false female profile on internet website Badoo. It is meant for over 18s but once he contacted her she indicated she was only 14.

"He stated he liked young girls and had previously had a relationship with a female aged 12.

"The messages continued over several days and began to become sexually explicit, at the defendants instigation and he sent a picture of his penis.

"She then said her mum was going away on October 8 and he couldnt get up here fast enough."

Lee arranged to meet Rebecca at the Millenium Bridge at 9am on October 9.

Mr Gittins said: "He was confronted by the two men, who were recording the confrontation.

"Not surprisingly, he realised that the game was up and immediately fled the scene.

"The two men reported the matter immediately to the police."

After running off, Lee sent a text message saying he was going to kill himself before being arrested on the A1 heading south.

Lee, of Pewsey Road, Rushall, Pewsey, Wiltshire, was also given an extended licence until 2020, a sexual offences prevention order, and must sign the sex offender register indefinitely.

The court heard he was convicted of having sex with a 12-year-old girl who he got pregnant in 1998.

Andrew Walker, defending, said: "This was not entrapment but it was a set up, it was a sting operation. That means there was no child anywhere near this offence or this offender. This was a website for adults and it was not even a dating website, although it was used for those purposes.

Clearly the objective of the young men on the other side was to perpetuate the conversation and give him the opportunity to propose the activity in the way he did.

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A PRIMARY school caretaker and married father-of-three has lost his job and his family — after trying to arrange for a 12-year-old girl to be sent to him for sex.

Police raided Joseph Hart's Horwich home in May, 2012, after intercepting texts sent to a notorious paedophile arranging to pay £100 per hour for the girl.

He was immediately suspended from his job at Chorley New Road Primary School — and has now been banned from working with children.

His former employer, Bolton Council, stressed that none of the charges related to his employment or place of work.

Police found 61 indecent images of children on the 34-year-old's computer when he was arrested, Bolton Crown Court heard.

The caretaker, who has Asperger's syndrome and an obsessive compulsive personality, initially claimed he was trying to trap paedophile Darren Leggett.

But a jury rejected this and found him guilty of arranging a child sex offence.

He admitted six further counts relating to the indecent images before his trial in November.

Giving a suspended two-year jail sentence yesterday, Judge Elliot Knopf said Hart's case was "unique" and that the deal was in its "early stages".

He also said the defendant did not understand the "outcome of his actions".

Hart made contact with Leggett by text on February 6, 2012 after finding him on a website.

But Kent Police arrested Leggett on February 10, seizing a phone which was found to contain texts sent between February 6 and 9.

Hart, of Green Lane, Horwich, was arrested in May the same year and was then suspended by Bolton Council.

Hart arrived at court expecting to be jailed and had a suitcase with him in the dock.

Vanessa Thompson, defending, said Hart had been married with three children, but that he had split from his wife since the case came to light.

She said: "He is never going to work for the council again and never will he work in the capacity he was before."

Judge Knopf said: "Your case is different and complex and in many respects unique.

"You are someone who suffers from Asperger's and the result of it would appear to be an obsessive compulsive personality, and you do not understand the outcome of your actions.

"It is an explanation as to how you came to be involved in all of this.

"The arrangement with Leggett was very much in embryonic form. No venue had been agreed for what was to happen. Very little had been discussed.

"Once Leggett was out of the way there is no evidence that you tried to pursue enquiries with anyone else."

A council spokesman said: “We can confirm that Mr Hart was immediately suspended from duty as soon as he was arrested and no longer works for the council.

"None of the charges related to his employment or place of work.”

Hart was given a prison sentence of two years, suspended for the same period, for arranging a child sex offence.

He was given a concurrent nine-month sentence for the six charges of making indecent images.

The former caretaker was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years and given a five-year sexual offences prevention order.

Leggett, a convicted paedophile from Kent , was jailed indefinitely in June, 2012, for 31 counts of child sex abuse.

He will be in jail until at least 2019 and must then prove he is no longer a danger before his release can be considered.

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A TEENAGER has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for sex offences against children as young as 11.

Oliver Sturman, 19, formerly of Knighton Close, Crawley, committed offences including incitement to sexual activity and making and possession of indecent images of children.

Sturman pleaded guilty to seven offences of inciting an 11-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity and one offence of causing a child to watch a sexual act on a webcam.

He also pleaded guilty to four similar offences in relation to another girl aged 12, both of whom live outside Sussex.

A guilty plea was also entered for ten offences of taking and possessing indecent images of other girls using a webcam.

He was also sentenced after admitting sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl and causing/inciting the same victim to have sexual activity by penetration.

Detective Constable Chris Smith, of the paedophile online investigation team (POLIT) of Sussex Police, said: It became clear that he had for some time been systematically approaching teenage girls online and coercing them into performing indecent acts for his enjoyment and sexual gratification, threatening to tell their friends if they refused to co-operate.

However this behaviour came to our notice, and we moved swiftly to arrest him and put a stop to his vicious and unpleasant activities.

After his arrest and bail in May last year, Sturman moved to Newton Road in Southampton.

While living in Hampshire he also incited girls under 16 to engage in sexual activity. He pleaded guilty to the offence in court.

His victims were all contacted online and received indecent messages aimed or sent with the intention of facilitating sexual activity.

Sturman appeared at Southampton Crown Court on January 9 and was sentenced to five and a half years imprisonment, with a further four and a half years to be served on extended release licence.

He was also required to register as a sex offender for life and was given a Sexual Offence Prevention Order (SOPO) for 12 years severely restricting his access to young girls and computers.

He also admitted sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl, and causing/inciting the same victim to have sexual activity by penetration.

Both offences were committed in Nottinghamshire, while he was on bail after he had moved to Southampton.

DC Smith added: When we arrested him and seized his computer we found evidence of all the other offending.

This case serves as a further reminder to parents and teenage children that great care needs to be taken in making contacts online.

For more information on keeping young people safe online, visit sussex.police.uk and search computers and the internet.

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Lewis Daynes, 19, who lured 14-year-old he met online before murdering him, to serve minimum 25-year sentence

A teenager who groomed a 14-year-old boy over the internet before slashing his throat in a sexual and sadistic attack has been sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison.

Computer engineer Lewis Daynes, 19, admitted murdering Breck Bednar after luring him to his flat in Grays, Essex, on 17 February last year.

Breck told his parents he was sleeping at a friends house near their home in Caterham, Surrey, but secretly travelled to see Daynes after months of talking in an online gaming forum.

It was there that Daynes used duct tape to bind his young victim by his wrists and ankles before knifing him in the throat, causing him to die within seconds.

Prosecutors said there was evidence of sexual activity between the pair shortly before the killing and that afterwards Daynes sent pictures of Brecks bloodied body to two of his online friends.

Sentencing Daynes at Chelmsford crown court, the judge, Mrs Justice Cox, ordered him to serve life with a minimum of 25 years in prison, meaning he will be at least 44 by the time he is released.

Cox said: Having lured the young victim to your flat, you murdered him. You had befriended Breck and a number of other adolescent friends through an online community.

Your contact with Breck increased in a sinister way. The precise details of what happened in your flat are unclear and may never be known. Im sure that this murder was driven by sadistic or sexual motivation.

There were serious questions over the police handling of the case as it emerged that Daynes was arrested on suspicion of the rape and sexual assault of a 15-year-old alleged victim three years before he attacked Breck.

These offences were reported to Essex police in 2011 but the force decided not to take any action. They were then re-investigated when Daynes was brought in for questioning over Brecks murder.

The Guardian revealed in November that Brecks parents, Barry Bednar and Lorin LaFave, have launched a legal action against Essex and Surrey police forces over their handling of the case. The Independent Police Complaints Commission has also launched investigations into the two forces.

Daynes, who used the online monicker EagleOneSix, befriended Breck in the internet gaming group TeamSpeak in which the 19-year-old was described as the controlling ringmaster.

The pair played war games like Call of Duty and Battlefield for hours, during which Daynes claimed that he worked for the US government and promised Breck great wealth through a fictional computer business.

LaFave, 47, a teaching assistant from Michigan, grew increasingly concerned that Daynes was manipulating her son at one stage she confronted him online before contacting Surrey police in December 2013 over strong fears that he was being groomed and manipulated by the older man. Despite this report, the family believe no action was taken to prevent Daynes carrying out the killing two months later.

Prosecutor Richard Whittam QC told the court how Daynes bought condoms, duct tape and syringes online in preparation for the attack before giving Breck a false alibi in case his parents asked questions about visiting a friend.

After stabbing the 14-year-old in the neck, Daynes posted pictures of the body to at least two people and circulated news of Brecks death online.

Daynes then showered and changed his clothes before calling 999, claiming in a calm voice that he had stabbed Breck while trying to stop him from taking his life.

During the call, Daynes claimed he and the 14-year-old had got into an altercation, adding: Only one of us came out alive.

Outlining his story in a matter-of-fact manner, the controlling killer told the operator: I grabbed the knife and stabbed him in the back of the neck, I believe somewhere near the brain stem. I dont remember exactly what happened but the fight ended with me cutting his throat.

Asked by the operator if he was saying he had killed somebody, he replied simply: Yes, I am.

When officers arrived at his home, they found Brecks body laying in the bedroom. Daynes had submerged his computer equipment in water to destroy evidence.

In mitigation, Dayness counsel Simon Mayo QC said the 19-year-old had experienced deep-rooted feelings of rejection and isolation in his life and that he was taken into local authority care at a young age after his mother moved abroad. He felt more at home in the game world than the real world, Mayo said.

Outside court, crown prosecutor Jenny Hopkins said: Our case was that Lewis Daynes, even though he was only 18 when he committed Brecks murder, was a controlling and manipulative individual who carefully planned this crime.

He groomed Breck online using their shared interest in computer games and over a period of months he manipulated Breck, turning him against his family.

A month before the tragic event of Brecks death, Daynes was clearly organising and planning, buying duct tape and other items online. He gave Breck a mobile phone and also sent instructions by text on the lies Breck should tell his family so he would be able to visit Dayness home in Grays, Essex.

We have seen cases where young people have been groomed online but it is rare for it to culminate in such a dreadful and violent murder.

The degree of planning and manipulation by Daynes is shocking and when you consider the young ages of perpetrator and victim, it stands out as one of the most cruel, violent and unusual cases we have dealt with.

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A DELIVERY driver has been jailed for 16 years for raping two women.

Andrew Saggers, 41, of East Albany Road, Seaford, raped a woman in her late twenties at an address near Polegate in December 2006, and a woman in her late thirties at an address in Eastbourne in May.

Police arrested Saggers after the victim reported the May 2014 attack, and traced the 2006 victim, who had not reported the attack to police, while Saggers was on remand.

Detective Constable Lisa Wells, of the East Sussex Specialist Investigation Unit, said: With her support we were able to gather evidence that enabled us to charge him with that crime too.

"Both women were very supportive of the prosecution, and gave evidence at the trial. This sentencing sends out the clear message that we will follow up all such allegations and wherever possible bring vicious offenders like this to justice, no matter how long ago their crimes occurred."

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A "dangerous and predatory paedophile" has been jailed for 18 years for committing a series of historical sexual offences against children.

John Toms, 65, of Oldford, Frome, was sentenced at Taunton Crown Court after admitting 22 charges including rape, gross indecency and indecent assault.

He was arrested in July after a member of the public saw him trying to take photos of a girl near him on a bus.

The charges relate to incidents against four children in the 1980s and 1990s.

During a subsequent search of his house, officers found indecent images of children on his computer.

Det Con Jon Hooper said the victims were all from the east Somerset area and were around six-years-old when the abuse started.

"John Toms admitted during police interviews that he was sexually attracted to young children and was in possession of indecent images," he added.

"Toms is clearly a dangerous and predatory paedophile and we believe there may be more victims who have not yet been located.

"The judge said Toms had "an extreme and perverted interest in young girls" and said he had "caused untold damage to his victims".

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A man from Devon has been sentenced to a total of seven years imprisonment for sexual offences relating to child, that took place in Thame and High Wycombe, between 2004 and 2008.

Carl Crook, aged 45, of Pale Gate Close, Honiton, Devon, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment at Oxford Crown Court on Friday (12/12) for a number of sexual offences relating to a single child.

Following a five day trial, a jury found Cook guilty of three sexual assaults of a child under 13, five counts of sexual activity with a child, assault of a child under 13 by penetration, causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child and two charges of making indecent photographs of children.

Crook had previously pleaded guilty to four counts of taking indecent photographs of a child.

Investigating officer, Det Con Maria Morrisey of the Thames Valley Police Paedophile Online Investigation Team said: I am delighted with the sentence given to Crook, who has proved to be an extremely dangerous and predatory paedophile.

The jury saw through Crooks lies and concluded he groomed his victim before taking advantage of her for his own sexual gratification.

I praise the victim for showing the courage to give her testament first to police and then to the court. I also praise the jury who did their duty with diligence and had to listen in detail about Crooks depraved crimes. Finally, I praise all Thames Valley Police and Devon and Cornwall Police officers and staff who helped in this investigation, without them Crooks conviction would not have been possible.

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A Preston man who is a convicted sex offender is being sought by police.

Lancashire Police have released an appeal to find Biaron Cross, 25, for breaching his notification requirements and failing to notify police of his current address.

Cross has also breached the terms of his electronic tag.

He was understood to be living at an address in Preston but could be in the Blackburn area.

In 2010 he was sentenced to 32 months in prison after he was convicted of sexual activity with a girl under 16 and ordered to sign the sex offenders register.

In September this year he was arrested and charged for breaching his notification requirements.

He is 6’3″, with dark shaven hair and is usually clean shaven with a stud in his left ear.

Detective Chief Inspector Claire McEnery, of Lancashire Constabulary’s Public Protection Unit, said: “We take any breach of notification requirements very seriously and I would urge anyone with information on where he might be to contact us.

“I would also urge Cross himself, if he sees this appeal, to hand himself in to the police rather than evading the police and making the situation worse for himself.”

Anyone with information should contact police on 101 where details can be passed to the DASO (Dangerous and Sexual Offenders’) Unit.

Alternatively, they can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at Crimestoppers-uk.org. No personal details are taken, information is not traced or recorded and you will not go to court.

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Updates:

• December 2017: Has now been released
• July 2017: Now using the name ‘Nicola Cherrett’ – Currently held at HMP Foton Hall.

One teenage boy told of his three-year ordeal at the hands of a predator named Nicola Ward.

The lad, now 16, said: “She was funny and intelligent. She used all these posh words and came across as really well spoken.

“But she’d switch after she had a drink or took drugs. She became a different person.”

The school leaver said the abuse began when he was 12. Ward plied him with cocaine and then performed a sex act.

It was the start of a campaign in which she would corner the lad and coerce him into sex acts.

Ward, 34, of Worksop, Notts, was arrested last April after the lad’s father became suspicious.

She was jailed for eight years by Nottingham Crown Court after admitting sexual activity with a child and supplying drugs.

Ward, jailed in January, was sent to Peterborough Prison — making her one of an estimated 100 female child abusers behind bars.

She was moved to a low-security psychiatric unit in July.

Her victim is still having therapy to help him come to terms with the attacks.

He said: “I never thought a woman was capable of something like this.

“It’s ruined my trust in everyone. It’s made me fearful of women.

“But she’s in the gutter where she belongs and I won’t let her ruin my life.”

• Ward has a SOPO indefinitely with two restrictions
• Not to live in a family with a child under 18 No unsupervised contact with a child under 16
• Is banned from Nottinghamshire by way of a court order obtained September 2016
• Banned from Nottinghamshire by way of MAPPA

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Michael Feben, 75, pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault.

A retired Roman Catholic priest has been jailed for six years after sexually assaulting two boys in Windsor during the 1960s.

Michael Feben, former priest at St Edward's Roman Catholic Church, in Alma Road, was sentenced at Reading Crown Court on Thursday, December 4 after pleading guilty to six charges of indecent assault.

The offences took place when the victims were between 11 and 15 years old and Feben, now 75, was in his twenties.

Feben, of Medina Avenue, Newport, Isle of Wight, also pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a third boy, aged 10, when a priest at Annunciation Church in Charminster, Bournemouth, in the Seventies.

The allegations first came to light when one of Feben's victims contacted the police in 1993, and wrote to then Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth, Reverend Crispian Hollis, but no action was taken.

Feben was arrested last year and denied the offences when interviewed but was charged in March.

Speaking at the sentencing, Judge Stephen John said: "Each of these men (the victims) has lived for the rest of their childhood and much of their adult lives with the knowledge of what you did to them.

"Everyone knows that such offences have long-lasting effects on the lives of those too young to understand or complain at the time when they were abused.

"The fact that you were a priest is a significantly aggravating factor.

"For a long time, complaints against priests were routinely dismissed or not investigated and many felt there was no point in complaining. Happily, those days are gone, as this prosecution demonstrates."

Feben received a total of six years' imprisonment for six counts of indecent assault.

A further two counts of indecent assault, which Feben denied, will be left on file.

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A MANIPULATIVE 19-year-old has been jailed for four and a half years for having sex with two teenage girls in Didcot.

Dalton Joyce-Kent, of Elderberry Bank, Lychpit, Basingstoke, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a child and two counts of breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO).

Stephen Shay, prosecuting, said the defendant had been made subject to a SOPO for five years in January last year, banning him from unsupervised contact with children.

He told Judge Patrick Eccles at Oxford Crown Court the order was made after the teenager admitted one count of having sexual activity with a child. The barrister said he was also made subject to a 15-month suspended sentence order in October last year for making threats to kill.

Mr Shay said his latest offences, carried out against two 15-year-olds, who cannot be named for legal reasons, put Joyce-Kent in breach of both court orders.

He said the serial offender met up with one of the girls 13 or 14 times and they had sex in a wooded area in Didcot.

Thomas Evans, defending, said his client was immature and had had a very difficult upbringing, but had accepted his behaviour was wrong.

He said: He has talked to me about seeing violence his whole life, particularly towards his mother.

Judge Eccles said on Monday the teenager had wilfully and calculatedly breached his SOPO and in his view was a dangerous offender.

He sentenced him to 54 months in prison, of which he will spend at least two thirds in custody, with an extra three years on licence.

Joyce-Kent will also have to pay a 120 victims surcharge.

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A paediatrician who carried out examinations “purely for his own sexual gratification” and abused boys behind a curtain while their parents were in the room, has been jailed for 22 years.

Myles Bradbury, 41, from Herringswell, Suffolk, who worked as a haematologist at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge, had pleaded guilty to 25 offences against boys aged 10 to 16, including sexual assault, voyeurism and possessing more than 16,000 indecent images.

Sentencing Bradbury, Judge Gareth Hawkesworth told Cambridge crown court on Monday that the prison tariff was less severe owing to the early guilty pleas, though “some might observe” the overwhelming evidence against him meant he had little choice but to admit the offences.

“For a doctor to attack children in this way is one of the worst forms of sexual abuse imaginable,” the judge said. “These boys were all vulnerable and gravely ill. In all my years on the bench, I have never come across such a grotesque betrayal of your Hippocratic oath.”

The court heard how Bradbury encouraged several young patients to see him alone through the trust he had acquired. “It was in these circumstance under the guise of legitimate examinations he went entirely beyond the bounds,” said John Farmer, prosecuting. “He took the opportunity of fondling the boy’s genitals and encouraging them to masturbate in his presence and obtain erections for his own personal gratification. On some occasions, when he failed to exclude the parent, he simply carried on behind the curtain behind which the boy had gone to remove his clothes.”,.

His 18 victims included children with haemophilia, leukaemia and other serious illnesses. The offences took place over four and a half years, beginning within six months of his appointment in 2008 and continuing to the day he was suspended when concerns were first raised. At some point, he began using a camera pen in an attempt to take pictures of the boys when partially clothed, Farmer said. Police found 170,425 images on this pen but none of these was classed as indecent.

Bradbury was first arrested in December 2013 after police were alerted by Canadian authorities that he had bought a DVD containing indecent images of children as part of Operation Spade, an extensive sting operation. At the time, Cambridgeshire police were investigating Bradbury as concerns were raised about his conduct after a boy spoke to his parents about what had happened. Bradbury was suspended by the NHS a month earlier.

Detective superintendent Gary Ridgway, from Cambridgeshire Police, said his team is working with police forces and several agencies from other parts of the country to see if his abuse dates back further.

He added that since Bradbury’s crimes were reported a “small number” of other possible victims had come forward and these files have recently been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Encouraging victims to contact police, Ridgway said: “It would be naive to assume that we know the full scale of what he did.

Bradbury, who was also involved in church and Scout groups, was described as “a man of great charm and persuasiveness” whom everybody trusted. When one victim raised concerns with his mother, she responded: “He’s a doctor, it must be necessary.”

One victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said in a statement read to the court: “I am now anxious to go to the doctor because I don’t know who I should trust. I have haemophilia and a pain in my side so I know I should go but I feel disgusted and weird. I didn’t think it would happen to me and I feel angry every time I think about it but also relieved it wasn’t just me but we shouldn’t have to go through it.”

Dr Keith McNeil, chief executive of Cambridge University hospitals, said: “Our thoughts today are with our patients and families who were victims of Bradbury’s shocking and cynical abuse. Today’s sentencing of Bradbury cannot undo the damage he caused but he is finally behind bars and is no longer a risk to vulnerable children. The lengthy sentence shows Bradbury’s abhorrent betrayal and manipulation of his position as a doctor has been fully recognised.”

Michelle Brown, head of the Crown Prosecution Service East of England’s rape and serious sexual offences unit, said: “This paedophile doctor took advantage of his young patients battling serious illness by systematically sexually abusing them. Such cruelty is unimaginable to most of us. The extent of that abuse and the number of victims – 18 – was a gross breach of the trust placed in Myles Bradbury and one of the worst cases of this kind that we have prosecuted.”