Latest Offenders

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A man who sexually assaulted a five-year-old girl and left her suffering from nightmares has been locked up for two years.

Roger Laughton, who smirked in his police mugshot after being arrested, sexually abused the youngster but then, after being charged, denied he had done anything wrong.

The 33-year-old of Chestnut Grove in Grantham left his victim shocked and confused, a court was told.

Despite pleading not guilty to a charge of sexual assault as a result of what happened in January 2017, he was found guilty by a jury following a trial in which the girl gave evidence against him at Lincoln Crown Court .

Laughton was also given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

Judge Andrew Easteal, passing sentence, told Laughton: "It is plain she was shocked, confused and distressed at what you were doing to her.

"It is quite clear that this has had an enormous effect on her.

"There is no knowing how long and how deeply it will affect her but it was an awful thing that you did to her. It was deplorable.

"You continue to dispute the verdict in the face of overwhelming evidence. You have not expressed any remorse towards her."

Dawn Pritchard, prosecuting, said: "A statement from the victim's mother explains the effect she has seen on her daughter.

"Before this she was happy go lucky and confident. She would speak to anyone.

"That disappeared after the incident. She changed overnight and stopped talking to people.

"She has begun to fall behind on her school work and she has nightmares."

Michael Cranmer-Brown, for Laughton, said: "The jury found him guilty of what was alleged. He still denies that.

"There is very little more that I can say at the end of a trial when he has denied the matter and continues to do so."

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Sex offender Ashleigh Weller has been jailed for ignoring a court order - after asking children if he wanted to take a dog for a walk.

The 25-year-old, of Marsh Street, Hanley, was made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order after he was convicted of sexual activity with a child.

He pleaded guilty at North Staffordshire Justice Centre to breaching the order on June 9.

Prosecutor Maggie Meakin said Weller was at a friend's house when he started up conversation with a neighbour's children as they played in a garden.

She said: Ashleigh instigated conversation with the boys. He invited them into the garden and asked if they wanted to come to take the dog for a walk.

Its deliberate failure to comply with the requirements of the order.

The offence put Weller in breach of a suspended sentence order. Zoe Leese, mitigating, said Weller had difficulty with grasping the prohibitions of his sexual harm prevention order.

She said: "He is exceptionally vulnerable and therefore I would suggest it would be unjust to activate his suspended sentence."

However magistrates disagreed, and activated three weeks of Weller's suspended sentence. They also sentenced him to three weeks in prison - to run concurrently - for the new offence, making a total sentence of three weeks.

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Kenneth Mann, 43, a plasterer, now of Seafield Road, Portchester was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Monday for the offences which happened in Hastings.

He had been convicted at Hove Crown Court on March 23 of the rape and sexual assault of the girl, and of inciting her to commit an act of gross indecency.

He was acquitted of further alleged offences against the girl of indecency with a child, sexual assault, and indecent assault.

Mann will also be a registered sex offender for life and was given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order to last indefinitely, prohibiting him from any contact with the victim.

Detective Sergeant Steve Shimmons of the Hastings-based Safeguarding Investigations Unit said: ‘The girl was aged between nine and 13 at the time of the offences.

‘Mann came to know her locally in Hastings and cynically took advantage of her innocence and vulnerability for several years in the early to mid 2000s, for his own sexual gratification, until he moved away to Hampshire.

‘She kept this distressing experience to herself until four years ago when she first contacted us.

‘Even at that stage she was reluctant to support a prosecution, but then came back to us again, and over time we gained her confidence to enable the investigation to progress.

‘She bravely gave evidence in court, and this was crucial in helping to secure the guilty verdicts.

‘If you or anyone you know is being, or has been, subjected to this sort of predatory behaviour, do not suffer in silence.

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A man from Milton Keynes has been sentenced to seven years after being found guilty of a number of sex offences against children.

Following a Thames Valley Police investigation, Michael Lines, 41, formerly of Oxley Park, was found guilty by jury of two counts of sexual activity with a child under 16 and one count of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust.

It happened between 2010 and 2015 against his victims who were aged between 14-18 years old.

Mr Lines was charged in December 2016 and convicted of the offences on 19 July 2017 and has now been sentenced at Blackfriars Crown Court (on Monday 25th June).

Mr Lines was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register indefinitely and was made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) indefinitely.

In a separate trial at Aylesbury Crown Court which concluded in April, MrLines was acquitted of two further offences of sexual activity with a child.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Tonya Livingston, of the Child Abuse Investigation Unit at Bletchley police station, said:

Lines, having wreaked emotional havoc on the children involved in these offences, continued to deny any wrongdoing on his part.

His selfishness caused one child witness to have to give evidence three times and another to wait nearly a year to see justice administered in the sentencing on Monday.

The sentence set by the judge reflects the severity of Lines offending and the callousness of his actions throughout his offending and trials.

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A school teacher who downloaded hundreds of "horrible" child sex abuse images has been spared jail after a judge decided there was "a realistic prospect of rehabilitation".

Thomas Caudell, who also downloaded an "extreme" image of a woman having sex with an animal, was said to have an "addiction" that caused a spectacular fall from grace.

The 46-year-old former technology teacher at a Tunbridge Wells school admitted three offences of making indecent photos of a child, one of possessing images and one of possessing extreme pornography.

He was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered to complete 180 hours unpaid work.

Maidstone Crown court heard police discovered Caudell, of Little Footway, Langton Green, had 59 images in the highest category of seriousness, 45 in the next highest and 686 in the least serious category.

David Burgess, defending, said Caudell had family photos and school work projects he wanted to retrieve from his seized computer equipment.

He has arrived at the age of 46 with an unblemished character hardworking, family man loved and respected by one and all, as seen from character references and now has a criminal record and, worse still, as a sex offender, said Mr Burgess.

His fall from grace is from a very high order indeed. It has had a very profound effect on him and his wife, who sits in court, and other members of his family.

Caudell, who now works as a machine operator, had sought help from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation child protection charity and completed courses.

It goes a long way to say he sought to address the addiction for that is what it has become and ensure that with the help available this fall never happens again, said Mr Burgess.

That is very much to his credit. The effect on him has been very severe indeed. There was a time when he contemplated taking his own life. He has pulled back from that brink.

Passing sentence, Judge Philip Statman said: At the heart of this offending conduct are children, each of whom becomes a victim of the criminality you have performed.

Anyone who has to read, as I do all too often, a description of the images concerned in cases such as this is appalled by the description given.

In your case, young children - girls, pre-pubescent in a situation where they are performing under the direction of adults, and where the acts of which they are party to are gross and disgusting.

You sat in the comfort of your home and you downloaded these images for your own sexual gratification.

"Your conduct took place over a substantial period of time.

No doubt, as you sat there in your home you never thought the time would come when there would be a knock on the door and you would be arrested for these crimes.

But the judge said he had to take one step back and take a cool and measured look at what Caudell had done.

Nonetheless, you will appreciate these offences well and truly pass the custody threshold, he continued.

References showed he had always been decent and honourable. His wife of 20 years had written to the court on his behalf.

If I may say so, no one could ask for a better wife than the one you have, said the judge.

Your conduct has resulted in life-changing circumstances for the whole of your family.

"No doubt, as you sat there in your home you never thought the time would come when there would be a knock on the door and you would be arrested" - judge Philip Statman"

There would be those who would sink under the weight of what you have done. Not so your wife who has encouraged you to attend the Lucy Faithfull Foundation to complete a 10-session course with them.

"You have been able to come to terms with the fact you have a very real psycho-sexual problem and need to address the issues arising there from.

You are perfectly capable of restoring your life and, hopefully, return to a situation in the community where you can continue to contribute as a decent member of society.

I also hope you wont ever again go back to downloading these horrible images of children.

Judge Statman added: Sentences of imprisonment are appropriate, but I draw back from sending you to prison immediately. There is in my judgement a realistic prospect that exists for your rehabilitation.

I am persuaded there is strong personalised and individualised mitigation. I am clear this is a case where I should take an exceptional course by suspending the sentence.

Caudells name will appear on the sex offenders register for five years and a sexual harm prevention order was made for the same period to give the community extra protection from you.

He will be barred from working with children and vulnerable adults.

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Father jailed for having sex with school girl in New Forest car park

A HAMPSHIRE father has been jailed for having sex with a school girl after driving her to a secluded New Forest car park.

Stephen Nicholson had been a bus driver transporting students from a school in the Test Valley area ten years ago, when he began to build a rapport with a number of female students.

Southampton Crown Court heard how Nicholson then started to exchange messages with one pupil, that quickly then grew into flirting.

Then, on one afternoon in the summer of 2008, Nicholson, who was 27 at the time, picked up the student in his car and took her to a secluded car park in Minstead, where the two had consensual sex. He then took her to her usual address so that it seemed as though she had caught the bus as usual.

Nicholson denied the charges of three counts of sexual activity with a child, but was found guilty by a jury after a trial.

Nicholson, of Woodland Close, Southampton, had been a driver for the school, with his job listed as taking students home from the school back home across the county.

Prosecuting, Unyime Davies told the court how the girl, who can't be identified for legal reasons, "didn't know how to handle the attention from an older man".

She said: "Mr Nicholson, in a position of trust, began to build a rapport with a group of girls. This quickly turned to flirting with one student and a number of messages were sent. Some of these were recovered from an old SIM card of the victim.

"On one afternoon, Mr Nicholson then arranged to pick her up in his car and drove to a secluded car park in Minstead where the two engaged in sexual activities.

"There was also grooming against the victim before the offences. Significant planning was also needed to establish how much time the defendant would have before the bus reached the victim's home."

Mitigating for Nicholson, barrister Sarah Jones told the court that the now 37-year-old has built a family and a new life in the ten years since the offences took place.

She said: "The life of Mr Nicholson's wife and family is now going to come crumbling down. One of the hardest things for them is to not be able to tell their children, who are aged two, five and seven, when their father is going to be coming home."

Presiding, Judge Peter Henry said that had Nicholson pleaded guilty, he would have received a shorter time behind bars.

He said: "It's a great shame you did not plead guilty to these matters, particularly after the messages were recovered. I agree that there was planning involved in this, and for that I am sentencing you to four years and three months to be served concurrently."

A danger to women and highly manipulative individual. Prays on naivety and innocence.

Pretended to be an ex Royal Marine. Also worked in Poole Dorset for the RNLI with false paperwork.

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Logan was convicted of sexual offences in 2016 – when he was 17 – and was given a supervision order.

In June, at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, 20-year-old Logan had admitted to downloading images of the sexual abuse of young children between March 2014 and December 2017.

He had previously been convicted in 2016 of eight cases of sexual assault, one of those on a child who was six at the time. His existing supervision order was extended by three years and he was freed, and rehoused in Sim Street, Stewarton, which sparked the protests.

Logan pleaded guilty to downloading the extensive child pornography

“But he walked out to his family and was immediately given a mobile phone and rehoused by East Ayrshire Council.”

Neither the police nor any of the agencies involved is required to tell neighbours that the new tenant is a convicted sex offender. 

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Adam Bushell was not allowed unsupervised access to children - but he moved in with a woman and her young daughter

Devious sex offender Adam Bushell breached court orders by moving in with a single mum after changing his name to try to keep his sordid past a secret.

The 27-year-old was locked up in 2016 after being caught by paedophile hunters Dark Justice when he turned up for a meeting with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl he wrongly believed he had been chatting to on a dating website.

Having served a prison sentence for that, he was placed under restrictions in the community and was banned from having unsupervised contact with children without parental permission and without having disclosed his previous offending.

But he met a woman on a dating site and moved in with her and her 10-year-old daughter and had been living with her for eight months before the truth finally came out.

A court heard the woman had no idea he was a sex offender until her friend became suspicious and found him on a Google search.

He had been left alone with the youngster on numerous occasions, although there is no suggestion he abused her.

A judge branded Bushell devious after hearing he had even changed his name to Andrew Robinson in a bid to keep his past a secret.

The horrified mum, who was pregnant by him by the time she found out about his past, said she felt physically sick and said she wanted him out of her life.

Now Bushell has been sent back to prison for two years after he admitted failing to comply with sex offender registration requirements and breaching a sexual harm prevention order. Those orders remain in force.

Judge Simon Batiste, at Newcastle Crown Court, told him: I am satisfied you changed your name in order to hide your identity and hide your past.

You lived with a 10-year-old child and never notified her mother.

In my judgement, these were very high risk actions, given your previous convictions.

They show a very high level of deviousness and connivance.

People who behave in such a high risk way, having committed the past offences you have, must understand these orders, the sex offenders register and the sexual harm prevention order, have teeth.

You must understand, these requirements upon you must be met or longer and longer custodial sentences will follow.

Prosecutor Neil Pallister told the court Bushell had been assigned a risk management officer when he was released from his 16 month sentence for the Dark Justice offences.

By March this year Bushell, who had made excuses to keep the officer away from the Jarrow address he had been living at and suggested they meet at a police station, had lost contact completely with the authorities.

It was later revealed he had started a relationship with the woman early last year and had moved in with her in September.

Mr Pallister added: She has confirmed at no point did the defendant disclose he was the subject of a sexual harm prevention order or a registration requirement.

Throughout their relationship, the defendant continued to use the surname Robinson and was introduced to friends and family using the name Robinson.

The court heard the truth was revealed when a woman Bushell was introduced to became suspicious about him.

Mr Pallister said: The name she knew him by, Adam Robinson, she Googled and nothing came up.

In May 2018 she Googled Adam Newcastle and came up with a number of images of sex offenders. An image of Adam Bushell came up.

She immediately recognised that the image was the same male she knew as Adam Robinson.

When she found out, the single mum he had been living with told police: I dont want to speak to him, I just want him out of my life. I feel physically sick.

Brian Mark, defending, said there was no suggestion Bushell had committed any sexual offences.

Mr Mark said Bushell had wanted a normal life and a normal relationship and added: He slipped the leash in order to be able to have a relationship.

It was about his selfish wish to have a relationship.

Bushell had been jailed for 16 months in 2016 after he started talking to a decoy profile on an adult dating website and soon started exchanging private messages with her via Whatsapp, despite thinking she was just 13.

During the conversations, Bushell asked for nude pictures and sent shirtless snaps of himself. When asked if her young age put him off, Bushell said it did a bit and said he couldnt have sex due to her age but then promised to be gentle.

He was confronted by members of Dark Justice, who alerted the police, when he turned up to meet the girl in Newcastle.

In 2011, Bushell was convicted of battery after putting duct tape over the mouth of a woman who was 33 weeks pregnant and given a suspended sentence.

He assaulted the same woman later that year and was jailed.

Bushell received a caution in 2010, when he was 19, for having sex with a teenage schoolgirl.

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Pervert Paul Rhodes has been jailed for carrying out a serious sexual offence on a schoolboy four decades ago.

The 61-year-old was aged about 21 when he committed the crime against the child on three occasions.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard he put his hand over the youngsters mouth and told him not to say anything because he would not be believed.

But the victim finally reported the matter to the police in February last year. Rhodes, of St John's Road, Biddulph, pleaded guilty to buggery on April 30, the day of his trial. He has now been jailed for 10 years.

Prosecutor Martin Liddiard said the defendant had been drinking before he told his victim to be quiet and committed the first sexual offence.

He told the court: The boy was too scared to tell anybody what had taken place.

About a week later, he told the victim, You cant tell anybody, no one will believe you, before he put his hand over the boys mouth and performed the act.

The court heard the victim told his wife what had happened the day before his police interview in February 2017.

Rhodes's plea was on the basis it happened on no less than three occasions.

Joanne Wallbanks, mitigating, said the defendant cannot remember committing the offences.

In the pre-sentence report, there seems to be the beginning of an understanding of how these offences affect victims," she said. "In the 40 years since, he has committed no further offences.

Judge Paul Glenn told Rhodes: Your past has finally caught up with you.

You committed the offences when you were drunk. He gives a vivid description of the physical pain you caused him and the fear that he felt.

You told him he could not tell others. You held him down, covered his mouth and you left him bleeding.

He blamed himself for what occurred, something many victims do. He told his wife the day before he went to the police. He said to her he did not feel like a man anymore and described blanking it out over the years. He has been significantly affected by what happened. He described his childhood was cut short. You took away his dignity and self-esteem. Your actions have affected his life for 40 years and doubtless will continue to do so.

You do not really express remorse for what you did.

Rhodes will be on the sex offenders register indefinitely and was barred from a range of activities involving children and vulnerable adults.

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A former Mayor has been jailed for nine years for child sex offences against a 13-year-old girl.

Ex-Tory councillor Simon Thornton, 46, who was Mayor of Godalming, Surrey, groomed the girl with sweets and a top of the range mobile phone, Guildford Crown Court heard.

He forced the teenage girl to sleep in bed with him and his wife during the three years of abuse, reports Get Surrey.

The court also heard how Thornton told the arresting police officers: "You know I am the Mayor of Godalming?"

Mr Thornton admitted to 22 child sex offences, involving sexual relations with the girl when she was aged between 13 and 15.

He denied two other counts of paying for sex and producing child pornography.

The judge told of how he sexually abused the girl on a "weekly" basis over a three year period.

At the sentencing on Monday the court heard how Thornton engaged in sexual activity with the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in a number of locations including both their houses, an office, in the woods and in a van.

The court heard how Thornton "groomed" the girl from her 13th birthday and gifted her with sweets and the "most up-to-date mobile phone".

He picked her up from school and invited her to his work and home whenever possible.

During the police investigation, officers discovered condoms under the floorboards of his office in the butchers shop he owned at the time.

He even had her sleep next to him and his now ex-wife in an attempt to normalise his behaviour.

Investigating officer police constable Tamzin Ede said: “Simon Thornton displayed predatory behaviour to abuse a child for a prolonged period.

"He clearly believed he would get away with this offending given how long it carried on and has now rightly been jailed for his abhorrent crimes.

"Simon Thornton’s crimes have impacted the victim through her childhood and into adult life, the offending against her have caused low confidence, depression and difficulties in building new trusted relationships.

"The victim in this case has shown real courage in reporting and supporting the police investigation."

Wendy Cottee, prosecuting, said the victim was suffering with personal problems at home.

Ms Cottee said: "At the time she felt safe and secure and did not see anything wrong about what was happening."

She said how the victim added Thornton's contact details under the name "Charlie" on her phone, who she described as "someone she was going out with" to her family.

It was only when she turned 15 the victim began to realise his behaviour was wrong and decided to distant herself away from Thornton.

When Thornton was arrested on October 24 2017 at his butcher's shop in Godalming, he told police: "You know I am the Mayor of Godalming?"

The court heard a statement read out on behalf of the victim who talked about her "toxic relationship" with her mother, how she felt "safe" in Thornton's company and felt very "anxious and nervous" when she told police about their relationship.

The statement how she has "suffered with depression" and how she "isolates" herself, struggling to form new friendships in her life.

Ian Wilkinson, for the defence, told the court how Thornton suffered from dyslexia and tried to overcome to go to college to pursue a career.

Mr Wilkinson told the court how Mr Thornton expressed "remorse" the moment he was arrested and confessed to his wife on the phone at the police station about what had happened and understood how this had an effect on his friends and family.

The defence counsel stated he has no previous convictions and has added "nothing suggests Mr Thornton is a dangerous offender".

Before delivering sentence, Judge Robert Fraser told Thornton: "The fact is you exploited her vulnerability."

On May 8, Thornton pleaded guilty to 16 charges including eight counts of sexual activity with a child, possessing indecent images of a child including category A - the highest rating - videos, 33 Cat A photos, 2 Cat B photos and 32 Cat C photos.

He was sentenced to nine years imprisonment where he was told he has to serve "at least half of that". If he is released before this time, he will serve the rest of his sentence on licence.

Thornton, of Borden, Hampshire, will be on the Sexual Offenders Register and receives a Sexual Harm Prevention Order to be served indefinitely.

He has been disqualified from working with children indefinitely too.

He entered not guilty pleas for voyeurism and paying a child for sexual services which will "remain on file".

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A LERWICK man who had stored tens of thousands of indecent images of children on his computers will be sentenced early next month.

David William Bruce, of the towns Voderview, admitted a charge of taking or permitted to be taken indecent photographs of children over an almost ten year period between August 2008 and 25 October 2017.

Lerwick Sheriff Court heard on Thursday that police officers had found almost 50,000 indecent images and videos stored on six laptops, 13 mobile phones and a further seven memory cards.

Of the 48,894 images, just over 1,000 were of the most extreme category involving very young children.

Procurator Duncan Mackenzie said some of the images found were of the very worst imaginable.

The fiscal told the court that a further 547,373 images found on Bruces computers were found to be borderline.

He went on to say that 57 year old Bruce had acquired significant expertise in finding and downloading these images, and had done so over a lengthy period and had organised the images in archives in a systematic fashion.

Mackenzie added that there was no suggestion that Bruce had shared the images with anybody else.

Sheriff Ian Cruickshank deferred sentencing until 4 July to allow a criminal justice social work report to be prepared.

Bail was continued, and Bruce was put on the sex offenders register.

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A man in his 40s has been jailed after he was convicted of sex offences which occurred when he was a teenager.

Jason Hughes, 43, of Ffordd Mela, Pwllheli, pleaded not guilty at Mold Crown Court but was this afternoon convicted of indecent assault and indecency with a child by a 10 to two majority.

He was cleared of a third charge.

Judge Niclas Parry jailed him for three and a half years and ordered him to register with the police as a sex offender for life.

A life-time sexual harm prevention order was made under which he is not to approach the victim in any way.

He is not to have any unsupervised contact with girls under 16 apart from what is unavoidable in day to day life unless he had the consent of a parent or guardian who knows all about his offending.

Judge Parry said that, when he was aged 18 or so, the defendant had gratified himself sexually by abusing her when she was very young.

He isolated her and indulged in sexual acts with her.

She was a total innocent used by you for pleasure, the judge told him.

You knew that at that age if you told her not to tell anyone she would listen and that is what happened.

The judge said that, if he was sentenced under modern-day guidelines, the starting point would have been four years with a range of three to eight years.

Hughes, he said, was a hardworking man of good character.

He had been convicted of few incidents which were not repeated and no violence or threats had been used.

The offences occurred some 25 years ago when the defendant himself was aged about 18, the judge said.

Prosecuting barrister Anna Price told how the victim, now an adult woman, came forward more recently and reported what had happened to her when she was young.

Defending barrister Duncan Bould said after the jury verdicts that the defendant knew it had to be custody, which would be a big change for him he would lose his job and in all probability his home.

The sentence would mean that he would lose contact with his young son who he saw on a regular basis.

His offending as found by the jury had been limited and in the intervening 25 years or so he had led a positive life.

He had essentially worked for the same employer, he worked hard and had raised a family, said Mr Bould.

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Pervert Mahmoud Morad was snared by a paedophile hunter as he tried to meet an 11-year-old girl after grooming her online.

The 30-year-old Egyptian met the schoolgirl called Chloe on the internet.

He sent her sexual photographs before he travelled from his Stoke-on-Trent home to Burton to meet up.

But when he arrived, he was confronted by a group of paedophile vigilantes and he was arrested following an ugly confrontation.

Now Morad has been jailed for two-and-a-half years at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court.

The court heard the defendant accessed an adult website called Nearby in November and became aware of someone posting under the name Chloe Howarth. She indicated she was aged 11 and posted a photograph to support the claim.

Morad asked Chloe to send him intimate pictures of herself and he sent sexual photographs before arranging to meet.

The defendant, who has no previous offences, denied attempting to cause or incite sexual exploitation of a child; attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act; and attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming. But he was convicted of all three charges after a trial this week.

Michael Edmonds, defending, said the defendant has now lost his good character and the convictions will have ruinous consequences.

Mr Edmonds added: It may be he is unlikely to reside in this country going forward.

It is very hard for him and his wife. It is going to be a matter of considerable distress to her that he is incarcerated and, in all likelihood, will be deported.

Judge David Fletcher said: You travelled with the intention at some stage of involving yourself in penetrative sexual activity with a child. There is no evidence to say it would have happened on the first occasion you met.

There were sexual images exchanged. The picture sent to her was particularly graphic in terms of what it was showing, and it was intended for a child aged only 11.

This was very bad behaviour by you. It wasnt just foolish, this was criminal behaviour.

You entered into these discussions, these chat logs, with someone, and I have no doubt you believed she was 11 years of age, and you continued to do that over a period of days before arranging to meet her.

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Standing in the dock Sam Ashley, 30, was close to tears as the term was handed down by a judge at Portsmouth Crown Court today.

Police have welcomed the sentence, branding Ashley, who used GHB and diazepam to drug his victims, as ‘dangerous, calculating and manipulative’.

Insurance worker Ashley, who told some of his victims he had terminal colon cancer in an effort to win their sympathy, was last month convicted of four rapes, two attempted rapes, and four charges of administering a substance with intent.

Prosecutor Robert Bryan said that Ashley’s administering of the date-rape drug GHB to a man with HIV ‘could have killed’ him because of the combination with the victim’s medicine.

Ashley had laced one victim’s cup of tea with a drug, gave diazepam to another victim and even drove another to Ashley’s then-home in North End in order to rape him.

He has now been banned from using the Grindr app and from forming a sexual relationship without telling police under the terms of a sexual harm prevention order.

Ashley, of Lynton Gardens, Fareham, appeared in court from the cells after breaching the bail he was granted after the trial.

Addressing Ashley, judge David Melville QC said: ‘You made every step which was needed, so far as you saw it, in your warped way of thinking in order to overcome their reluctance and allow you to get up close when their barriers were down.

‘There’s a pattern of behaviour here – it’s dangerous in my judgment.

‘There you are, just imagine, you found it possible to get those drugs, you used them when you wanted to on innocent victims, one of whom was already seriously ill.

‘You took serious advantage of them and of course that was repeated on four occasions, all put into effect to make it easy for your by the use of the Grindr website, an easy way to meet those in the gay community.

‘And of course if you met with reluctance you had a wheeze, a final one - you told them you were dying of cancer.’

The judge added: ‘This was calculated behaviour, it was deliberate and awful.’

Ashley was convicted of:

• Drugging and twice raping a university student he met on Grindr to go jogging with.

• Raping, twice trying to rape, and drugging a man with HIV.

• Drugging a man who woke up to find ‘a number of sex toys on the bed’ with Ashley.

• Raping and drugging a man he met for a threesome who had taken what he thought was paracetamol from Ashley for a headache.

Speaking outside court, Detective Inspector James Stewart, from Hampshire police, said: ‘Samuel Ashley is a dangerous, calculating and manipulative individual who committed some of the most serious offences against multiple victims.

‘Today he has been jailed for a significant period of time and the community is a safer place.’

A trial heard Ashley had drugged and raped men he met on Grindr over six months in 2016. He also drugged another man earlier that year.

William Mousley QC, for Ashley, said ‘triggers’ for Ashley’s offending included the break-up of his civil partnership, workplace bullying, an anxiety diagnosis, and ‘undoubtedly significant events in Sam Ashley’s childhood which had never been confronted’.

Mr Mousley said Ashley had now written a letter to police about those matters.

He said: ‘The combination of those various factors and the stresses that they brought may well provide an explanation for why he had behaved in the way he did in that period of six months in 2016.

‘We submit that those combination of factors are unlikely to recur in his life.’

Mr Mousley added: ‘We submit that at the age of 30, while of course he will receive a lengthy term of imprisonment, he is someone who could be rehabilitated.’

He added that ‘at the appropriate time (Ashley should be allowed to) be able to take steps to rebuild the life that has been shattered as a result of his offending’.

Ashley had breathed a sigh of relief as the judge declined to give a life sentence but then was close to tears as the 23-year term was imposed.

Description

A young man from Dover who avoided jail for possessing indecent images has admitted to breaching a sexual offences order.

Kyle Brown, of Farthingloe Cottages in Folkestone Road, received a 16 month jail sentence, suspended for 12 months, for distributing and possessing indecent images.

The 24-year-old appeared at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court today (May 30) and pleaded guilty to breaching a sexual offences prevention order placed on him at Canterbury Crown Court on January 31.

The offence involved Brown failing to let police look at two mobile phones capable of connecting to the internet on April 10.

Brown was released on unconditional bail and will appear at Canterbury Crown Court at a later date for sentencing.