Latest Offenders

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The father of Stephen Downing has been jailed for eight months for indecently assaulting a teenage girl with a mental age of eight. Ray Downing, 69, of Bakewell, Derbyshire, told Derby Crown Court he was teaching the teenager about sex.

Downing - whose son was wrongly jailed for 27 years for murder - befriended the 17-year-old girl in September 2001.

The court was told that the pensioner was naked in her bedroom and Downing admitted inappropriate physical contact took place.

Other charges

Sentencing, Judge Peter Stretton said: "You imposed yourself on an inadequate family and you used your dominance to behave in the way that has been described to me.

"That anyone could have believed that your behaviour was sexual education is beyond belief."

Downing, who collapsed in the dock as he was sentenced, must serve an extended licence period of three years and four months and will be subject to the terms of the Sexual Offenders Act for 10 years.

Fifteen other charges of indecent assault against five other women will remain on file.

'Huge pressure'

His defence solicitor said the family had suffered stress over the 27 years his son was in jail for the murder of a woman in a Bakewell cemetery.

Stephen Downing's conviction was found unsafe in 2001.

Speaking after the case, Stephen Downing, 47, said his father did not deserve jail and vowed to support him.

He said: "I am saddened that the judge has decided to send my father to prison.

"He is not a paedophile or sexual predator and this sad business has come about because of his stupidity and the huge pressures he has been under in the last 30 years."

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A senior doctor who downloaded over 1,600 pornographic images of children has blamed it on pressure of work and depression, a court has heard. Consultant radiologist Charles Bartlett, 49, of Ferryside, Llanelli, had admitted 17 charges of making and possessing indecent photographs of children.

Cardiff Crown Court was told a depressive illness "disinhibited" a persistent interest Bartlett had in pornography.

He avoided a jail sentence but was ordered to carry out a three-year community rehabilitation order, which includes treatment for sex offenders.

He was also banned from working with children, put on the sex offender's register for five years and prohibited from using computers without permission from probation officers.

He was ordered to pay £800 prosecution costs and an unnamed amount of defence costs.

Anxiety

The judge, Mr Justice Christopher Pitchford, said the loss of Bartlett's reputation and job was "a punishment that will last for the rest of your life".

"The illness disinhibited your interest in pornography and its cause was primarily the burden you undertook in your working life" Mr Justice Pitchford.

He was not considered to be danger to the public and his "distorted thinking" would be attended to by his sentence, the judge added.

"You were suffering from an illness throughout the time these offences were committed," he said.

"The illness disinhibited your interest in pornography and its cause was primarily the burden you undertook in your working life."

A GP's report from April 2002 said the consultant was suffering anxiety, depression, anorexia and insomnia.

Bartlett, who is serving out his notice at West Wales General Hospital in Carmarthen, was arrested in June as part of a worldwide hunt for paedophiles known as Operation Ore.

Material taken from his home revealed he had saved more than 1,600 indecent images.

Testimonials

Mr Justice Pitchford said: "These images are only available through the corruption and coercion of children.

"You are experienced and intelligent enough to have known this."

The court heard 10 of Bartlett's senior colleagues gave testimonials about the quality of his work during 16 years with Carmarthenshire NHS Trust.

"Your secret interest had no observable effect in your dealings with patients, in particular children," the judge added.

Bartlett said in a letter partially read in a previous hearing: "I wish to apologise to all my patients, and the parents of any younger patients, and assure them that the part of my life that brought me to this was always completely separate."

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PREP TEACHER TRIAL: DEPRAVED teacher Peter Hamilton-Leggett lured young schoolboys into his bedroom before carrying out brutal sex attacks on them, a court heard.

The retired biology and chemistry teacher, of Old Station Lane, Yelverton, Devon, admitted 54 charges of abuse on boys as young as eight.

On Tuesday, some of the 58-year-old's victims attended Swindon Crown Court and watched as he was sentenced to eight years in prison for the catalogue of sex offences.

It took more than an hour to read the charges, and, dressed in a suit, Hamilton-Leggett spoke only to confirm his name. His wife, Pauline, kept her eyes closed as the court heard details of each of his depraved acts. Thirteen former pupils of the Old Ride Preparatory School, Bradford on Avon, and six former pupils of Lambrook School in Bracknell, Berkshire, made complaints, dating back to a 15-year period between 1970 and 1985.

The paedophile investigation, headed by Det Sgt David Martin, is believed to be the biggest of its kind in the county.

It was the third investigation into the teacher's sick behaviour the other two failed because of a lack of evidence.

Don Tait, prosecuting, said Hamilton-Leggett's reign of terror began shortly after he started teaching at the Old Ride School, aged 26.

Preying on vulnerable, lonely pupils, he singled out his 'favourites' and would invite them back to his room offering them treats or telling them they could play on his computer. Once he had earned their trust he began systematically abusing them, playing what was described as a 'bravery test game', running his fingers down boys' bodies until they told him to stop.

Mr Tait said: "His fingers passed below the boy's throat and moved down his body, inviting the boy to say stop when his courage ran out."

Unless a pupil resisted, Hamilton-Leggett's behaviour would escalate, performing crude sex acts himself or he asked boys to gratify him.

Some victims were also pinned on the bed while the teacher seriously sexually assaulted them.

Mr Tait described one attack during a boy's last day at Old Ride School. "The experience was incredibly painful, he kept thinking he was going to die," he said. "Although he was crying the defendant carried on until he had his way.

"He then took him to meet his mother, wished him all the best for the future and nothing was said thereafter."

Mr Tait said other victims described how Hamilton-Leggett had made them feel special until they asked him to stop, and how the teacher was respected and trusted by pupils, parents and staff.

He asked his victims to keep quiet about their agonising abuse.

Sentencing Hamilton-Leggett Judge Thomas Longbotham spoke of the lives he had ruined and how he had denied the abuse during two earlier investigations.

He said: "It is not an attractive form of behaviour an aggravating feature in this case particularly because you picked on vulnerable boys in boarding school.

"You also abused a position of trust."

One victim, in a statement read to the court, told how he had turned to drink and even attempted suicide while trying to come to terms with his ordeal.

Others told police how the attacks had stopped them having normal relationships and how their experiences would stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Hamilton-Leggett was sentenced to eight years on each of seven counts of buggery and attempted buggery or assault and gross indecency.

All the sentences will run concurrently and he will be placed on the Sex Offenders' Register indefinitely.

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Prosecutors in the case of a paedophile who used the internet to groom under-age girls for sex are considering an appeal to try and increase his three-year jail sentence.Michael Wheeler, 36, from Cambridge, pleaded guilty to 11 sex offences against young girls.

Detectives believe Wheeler deliberately exploited the current law on sentencing by waiting until the girls were 13 before having sex with them so he could avoid being jailed for life if caught.

But a Crown Prosecution Service spokesman has told the BBC they will be seeking advice from counsel before deciding whether to appeal because the sentence was too lenient.

Wheeler was told by Judge Philip Curl, passing sentence at Norwich Crown Court, he would be freed on licence after serving half his sentence providing he behaved well.

Detectives said he had been in custody since his arrest in October 2002 so would probably be released early next summer.

"He was prepared to play the long game, gain her trust and then abuse her" John Farmer Prosecution.

Wheeler, who will remain on the Sex Offenders' Register for life, abused two 13-year-old friends after making contact with them through an internet chat room.

The electronics engineer had contacted the first girl through the internet when she was 11, and then "groomed her" for two years, buying her presents and taking her to the cinema.

'Dark cloud'

John Farmer, prosecuting, told the court: "This case concerns a mature man who is a dangerous paedophile who initially made contact with a vulnerable girl through the internet chat rooms.

"He was prepared to play the long game, gain her trust and then abuse her.

"He gave the girl gifts and more cruelly, he spotted that she presented a loveless character and he exploited that to make her emotionally dependent upon him.

"You can go to jail for a much longer time if you burgle a house or take cars or if you are involved in drugs" Michele Elliot, Kidscape.

"He manipulated her to such a degree of dependence that she was prepared to lie to her parents."

The mother of one of the girls said the length of sentence was "disgusting" because her daughter would have to live with it for the "rest of her life" and the whole family was under a "dark cloud".

She said realising "what he'd done to her was wrong" had left a deep scar on the girl.

She said she could only imagine her daughter had been "brain-washed" by Wheeler.

Wheeler admitted five counts of having unlawful sex with the girls and six counts of indecently assaulting them.

Karim Khalil QC said, in mitigation, that Wheeler had believed the first girl to be 16 when he first made contact with her.

Mr Khalil said the girls had made a number of allegations, of which Wheeler had not been convicted and which he denied.

He added: "Mr Wheeler feels terrible, disgusted and ashamed. He accepts what he has done was wrong."

Judge Philip Curl made it clear the girls had been groomed and the offences were extremely serious.

Police believe Wheeler deliberately waited until the girls were 13.

Discrepancy highlighted

The maximum sentence for unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 13 is life.

The maximum sentence for sex with a girl over 13 is two years.

Judge Curl pointed out that senior judges had already highlighted this discrepancy - and the government is expected to make changes to the law later this year.

The charity Kidscape has been lobbying for the law to be changed.

Spokeswoman Michele Elliot said the sentence was ludicrous.

"You can go to jail for a much longer time if you burgle a house or take cars or if you are involved in drugs.

"Next to murder, this sort of crime is the worst that you can do."

'Sexual problems'

Detective Inspector Neil Smith, who led the investigation, told BBC News Wheeler posed a significant danger to young girls.

"He knew the audience he was going to target and if we hadn't arrested him he would be continuing to offend now.

"Wheeler preyed on their vulnerability. He would talk to them about their sexual problems, about problems they had with boyfriends and with their parents.

"He knew how vulnerable these girls would be."

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Roy Whiting has been sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of the kidnap and murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne. He was convicted of both charges by a jury of nine men and three women at Lewes Crown Court, after a trial lasting almost four weeks.

"This doesn't make us happy but justice has been done - Sarah can rest in peace now" Sara and Michael Payne.

There were cries of delight in the packed courtroom as the verdicts were read out on Wednesday, listened to by Sarah's parents and brothers Lee and Luke.

As soon as the unanimous verdicts were declared, the court heard details of Whiting's previous conviction for the kidnap and indecent assault of a nine-year-old girl in 1995.

Trial judge Mr Justice Richard Curtis said it was a rare case when he would recommend that a life sentence should mean life.

Outside court Sarah's parents Sara and Michael said: "This doesn't make us happy but justice has been done.

"Sarah can rest in peace now."

'Absolute menace'

They also called on the government to change the law to ensure it does not happen again.

Sarah disappeared while playing with her siblings

Sarah went missing on 1 July last year after playing near her grandparents' home in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex. Her naked body was found 16 days later.

Whiting, 42, formerly of St Augustine Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex, had denied having anything to do with her.

But Mr Justice Curtis said he believed Whiting was "an evil man" and "a cunning and glib liar".

"You are and will remain an absolute menace to any little girl," he told Whiting.

"You're every parent's and grandparent's nightmare come true.

"I recommend you be kept in prison for the rest of your life so that no further child can be added to the list of your victims."

Sarah's mother Sara said: "Let's make sure this stops happening time and time again.

"People are being let out of prison when everybody concerned knows that this is going to happen again."

Abnormal desires

The judge said a psychiatrist who saw Whiting after his 1995 attack warned he was a high risk repeat offender.

He said Sarah's tragic and appalling murder had proved the psychiatrist right.

Whiting's reaction when he was charged with the murder

"It is important in ordinary life that children are allowed to have some freedom by their parents and others to learn self-reliance and enjoy their childhood... You exploited this for your own abnormal sexual desires."

The judge said he was satisfied Whiting was out hunting for children and said he had turned his van into an "moving prison".

During the trial, prosecuting lawyer Timothy Langdale QC told the jury there was "compelling" evidence against Whiting.

Snatched

A strand of Sarah's hair had been found on Whiting's sweatshirt, and fibres from his van were found on her hair and shoe.

Items found by police in Whiting's van included a length of rope, two plastic ties, a knife and a bottle of baby oil.

Fibres from his van were found on Sarah's shoe

The van also contained a receipt for diesel from a garage near the spot where Sarah's body was found, close to the A29 near Pulborough.

Whiting had lied about his movements to police, Mr Langdale said, as he had denied being anywhere near the scene.

Mr Langdale questioned three scratch marks found on Whiting.

And he said Whiting had been seen grinning and driving off just as Sarah's brothers were looking for her.

Whiting took the stand himself for two days during the trial.

He told the court he had changed doors on the back of his van and stripped out wood panelling on the same day as Sarah was kidnapped.

But he told the jury: "It wasn't me."

'On the prowl'

Sarah's parents, Sara and Michael Payne, had been present for most of the trial.

Mr Langdale told the jury Sarah was snatched after a day out with her family.

Sarah, her brothers Lee, 13, Luke, 11, and her five-year-old sister, Charlotte, had separated from their parents and grandparents after a walk to the seaside, he said.

They were playing in a nearby cornfield when Sarah slipped through a hedge into a country lane.

Mr Langdale said Whiting, who had been driving around "on the prowl" for a young child or children, then grabbed her.

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Jonathan King (Kenneth King) still believes he has done nothing wrong

Former music impresario Jonathan King has been jailed for seven years for sexual abuse. King, charged under his real name Kenneth King, was found guilty of four indecent assaults and two serious sexual offences against boys aged 14 and 15, committed in the 1980s.

He will have to sign the sex offenders' register for life and will be barred from working with children.

"You used your fame and success to attract adolescent and impressionable boys" Judge David Paget.

King, who denied all the charges, continues to protest his innocence on his website.

His lawyers said they had already lodged an appeal to the High Court.

Judge David Paget told a pale and shaken King: "This was a serious breach of trust.

"You used your fame and success to attract adolescent and impressionable boys."

The 56-year-old former television presenter, who lives in Bayswater, west London, was convicted on 27 September.

But reporting restrictions were not lifted until Wednesday because other allegations were being dealt with.

Other allegations

A second trial collapsed on Tuesday, partly because a complainant was unsure of the dates involved.

The prosecution, after a meeting with detectives, decided not to continue with further charges.

"What he really gave them was his company, the company and interest of a celebrity" David Jeremy QC Prosecuting.

King was first questioned and charged last year after the initial allegations but more complainants came forward following the publicity.

He said "thousands" of youngsters had been in his home over the years as part of his market research into teenagers' musical tastes.

The court heard that his "method" involved luring teenage boys back to his home before showing them pictures of naked women and assaulting them.

A search of his home by police revealed some of these photos, as well as several hundred photos of teenage boys which were not indecent.

Boys' gifts

King had met boys who were on holidays or day trips to London, often accosting them on the street either on foot or in his car.

He offered lifts in his Rolls Royce, giving them signed t-shirts and records after attacks.

David Jeremy QC, prosecuting, told the jury: "What he really gave them was his company, the company and interest of a celebrity.

"King also gave evidence and mocked them - I am happy to say the jury saw through King's deceit" DI Brian Marjoram Surrey Police.

"It is not hard to imagine how these young men would have felt flattered and excited by the attention of such a person."

Celebrities who gave evidence as to King's character included lyricist Sir Tim Rice, former Radio One DJ Simon Bates, and Wheel of Fortune hostess Jenny Powell.

But questioned by Mr Jeremy, it soon became obvious that they did not realise the full extent of the accusations.

First fame

The former music impresario is well-known for a lengthy career in music as a performer, songwriter, TV presenter and record executive.

"You can't prove you didn't do something 18, 25 or 32 years ago" Jonathan King.

Pre-recorded statement
In a pre-recorded statement released through his website, King said it was "unfair" allegations could be made after so many years.

He said: "It is incredibly unfair that people can go back numerous years, in my case as far as 32 years but it can be 40 or 50 years.

'Victims mocked by King'

"You can't prove you didn't do something 18, 25 or 32 years ago.

"It is simply their word against mine. They say it happened, I say it didn't."

Speaking outside the Old Bailey, Detective Inspector Brian Marjoram of Surrey Police, said: "He put these victims through a very harrowing time in court. They were accused of fantasising and distorting the truth.

"King also gave evidence and mocked them - I am happy to say the jury saw through King's deceit."

King is now in Belmarsh prison in south east London, awaiting transfer to another jail.

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A PAEDOPHILE with the Aids virus was jailed for 19 years yesterday for raping a 14-year-old boy.

Mark Railly, 31, and his partner George Railly, 61, abducted the boy at knifepoint from public toilets and put him through a horrifying sex ordeal. The pair, who are not related, lived together at Southampton.

Terminally ill Mark sat grinning in the dock as he was sentenced at Winchester Crown Court. George, who posed as the younger man's father, was jailed for life.

The judge said: "Mercifully your victim has not contracted the disease."

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A PERVERT pensioner who made a young girl dress up as a nun and sexually abused her was jailed for seven years yesterday.

Lief Olaf Henriccssen, 70, filmed the abuse and told the schoolgirl he would shoot her family.

Lord Marnoch who was shown some of the explicit images said: I have seldom seen such a shocking case.

He imposed an extended sentence of 10 years seven years in custody and then three years on licence under supervision.

The girls mum, comforting her daughter, said afterwards: Its every mothers nightmare but its a victory for the victims and he needs to be off the streets.

First offender Henriccssen abused the schoolgirl when she was aged between just 11 and 13.

The retired storekeeper had earlier admitted having unlawful sexual intercourse with the girl, lewd and libidinous behaviour and taking indecent photos in the late 1990s and was sentenced at the High Court in Aberdeen yesterday.

Drew McKenzie, prosecuting, had told the court that the abuse happened on Shetland when the girl visited Henriccssens house.

He said: The child explains that as the abuse continued she felt intimidated by the accused, who apparently informed her that he would shoot her family if she did not stay with him in the house.

It was that which caused the young girl not to tell her mother what was happening to her.

The court heard he pretended the girl had to use his computer to communicate with an email penfriend he claimed to have set up for her.

The pervert took indecent photographs of the girl and asked her to dress up, including in a nuns costume.

Henriccssens crimes were only exposed when the girls mother was having a general conversation with her about sex education and she indicated she had been touched by the pensioner.

Police took video tapes from his home and found footage of Henriccssen performing sex acts with the girl.

Some indecent images had also been transferred onto computer.

The defence team said the guilty plea saved the girl the ordeal of giving evidence in a trial and seeing the images.

But Lord Marnoch said: Over a period of some 18 months you quite simply debauched a child.

You used lewd and indecent behaviour towards her and regularly had unlawful sexual intercourse with her.

As if that was not enough you also took a large number of disgustingly pornographic photographs of her.

Henriccssen, who had moved from Shetland to Aberdeen in the wake of the case, was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register.

Outside the court, the girls mum said: No sentence is long enough but it seems fairly fair.

We are just glad that this man is no longer free to harm any more children.

As for her abused daughter, the mother said: She does not want to talk about it but I think she is beginning to come out the other side.

When it came out it was a big burden off her shoulders.

She has been progressing and hopefully she will continue to progress.

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A senior detective yesterday demanded changes in the law to make it mandatory for social workers to notify police when sex offenders are released from custody after a student was given life for raping and murdering an 11-year-old boy.

Dominic McKilligan, 19, who had a history of sexually abusing children, was not on the official sex offenders register because a supervision order imposed from previous offences expired the day before the register was introduced.

He dodged social workers after he was released in August 1997 and 10 months later killed Wesley Neailey when the boy resisted his sexual advances.

Detective Superintendent Trevor Fordy, the officer who led the investigation, said the case showed there were shortfalls in the legislation.

He added: "If police are not informed about the release of paedophiles then it's impossible for us to exercise any form of risk management against them hurting other children. Society cannot afford to have anyone with a history of paedophilia at liberty in the community without an in-depth assessment of the risk they might pose to children or other vulnerable people. We have got to look at what is in place at the moment and see how we can make it better in the future."

McKilligan struck Wesley over the head with a wrench and dumped the body by a quiet road near the village of Healey, Northumberland.

He then led the police to the site three weeks later after telling detectives Wesley's death had been an accident.

Following the verdict at Newcastle crown court, Christopher Knox, for the prosecution, told Mr Justice Bennett that McKilligan was convicted in August 1994 of gross indecency against four boys aged between seven and 11 in Bournemouth.

After inviting children to play games, he tortured them, in one case beating a boy with an iron bar.

Rumours in the playgrounds of local schools led to one of the most wide-ranging child sex abuse investigations in the history of the Dorset constabulary.

McKilligan served a three-year supervision order, but due to the timing of the previous conviction he missed being added to the sex offenders register by 24-hours.

McKilligan managed to dupe social workers when he moved from the south coast to a secure unit in the north-east, side-stepping the authorities in Bournemouth, Durham and Newcastle as his release date came closer.

When he was discharged from the unit for young sex offenders in Durham in November 1997, social workers lost track of him.

McKilligan befriended Wesley in the weeks before the murder. A shy and trusting boy who was thought to be mildly epileptic, Wesley visited McKilligan at his home in the west end of Newcastle, the court heard.

On June 5, Wesley waved goodbye to his mother and rode to see McKilligan.

He was caught when a former care worker rang to tell detectives about his past, and a cheque made out to Wesley was found in his flat.

Mr Fordy emphasised that Wesley might still be alive if his supervision order had ended on September 1 1997 - the day the register was established. His whereabouts would have been known to police and officers would have been free to check on him when they chose.

The NSPCC called for a national network of services to help stop children from becoming paedophiles.

Its director of child protection, Neil Hunt, said: "Dominic McKilligan was already a seriously disturbed boy by 14.

"He was in local authority care and assessed as a very grave risk to children. A full investigation should take place into whether this tragic death could have been averted. Too many young abusers are slipping through the net. Their behaviour and problems are not recognised early enough, they are left untreated and their victims are left unprotected."

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A HEADTEACHER has spoken of the 'shock' and 'disappointment' in her school after a staff member received an 18-month jail term for sexually abusing two boys.

Liz Allen, the head of Altwood School, Maidenhead, said she was stunned when she heard the news about maths teacher Brian Lee who was jailed on Friday.

A packed public gallery at Reading Crown Court heard how Lee admitted seven charges of indecent assault on the boys, neither of whom were students at Altwood.

The victims, now young men in their 20s, told police how the previously respected teacher had sexually abused them over a 10-year period.

Lee, 58, was the teacher who lead Altwood School's Easter 1988 skiing trip to Untersberg, Austria, in which four boys were killed.

Mrs Allen said this week: "I've sent a letter home to parents and spoken to stu- dents.

"It's extremely sad that a 30-year career of committed service to Altwood should end so abruptly.

"In that time he was an excellent maths teacher and supported many of our young people to academic success.

"The students' main reaction was sad- ness and disappointment because he was somebody they respected.

"His colleagues and the students share a strong hope that this will not be a judgement on the school."

Lee, of Glendevon Road. Woodley, Reading, was immediately suspended from work when the complaints were first brought against him in July last year.

During the hearing last week Robert Spencer-Bernard, prosecuting, told how LM'S two victims were touched inde- cently over and under their clothing in a

variety of places.

On one occasion, the court heard, Lee, who also ran a boys football team as well as helping with a Scout group, took a boy into his bi^oom after a ball ended up on the roof of his home. There he indecent- ly assaulted the youngster

Mr Spencer-Bernard added: "The defendant told the boys not to tell their parents.

"After the abuse he would sometimes give them extra money or sweets - there was no suggestion of any threat or any- thing of significance in that direction."

Sheelagh Davies, defending, passed on a raft of references to Judge Stanley Spence from supporters and well-wishes who wanted to register their high regard for Lee.

Mrs Davies said: "He was a gifted and caring teacher. There is no other sugges-tion that other children have been involved. The breach of trust is slightly reduced because the boys were not taught by him.

"He cannot explain why or how he came to commit theses offences. This man gave his time for many years to the betterment of children."

In jailing Lee Judge Spence said: "It is, and I take diose words from your counsel, a case of horror and misery and total loss to everyone concerned.

"There is very clearly genuine remorse by you. You are greatly ashamed, you have lost your employment and, I might add, quite rightly so.

"You have a desire to receive treatment for your problem but there remains a potential risk to the problem, in the shape of young boys.

"The real aggravating feature here is the very long period over which the abuse occurred - 10 years, five for each boy. In each case there was a clear breach of the trust placed in you.

"There was clearly some element of grooming and seduction.

"I note as one young boy decided, of his own volition, that the time had come when he should withdraw from the rela- tionship there was then a switch to anoth- er - highly coincidental with this tragedy in 1988.

"Your victims are still very angry and confused as to their own feelings, one said he broke his silence to save others.

"Very many others have suffered from this - the boys, parents, your own family and friends and many people who know you are greatly shocked and cannot believe it."

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Victor Farrant, a convicted rapist who murdered one woman and attempted to murder another after he was released from prison, received a life sentence yesterday, with a recommendation that he should never be released. Steve Boggan and Kathy Marks examine the background to the trial of a violent and dangerous man.

The murder of Glenda Hoskins, 45, a mother of three, was "a ruthless, callous and evil act", Mr Justice Butterfield told Victor Farrant at Winchester Crown Court yesterday. His attack on Ann Fidler, 45, a prostitute, was "one of unparalleled ferocity".

Families of the two victims applauded in the public gallery after the jury returned guilty verdicts. Members of the jury were then told that Farrant, 48, committed the offences within weeks of being released from jail after serving seven years of a 12-year sentence for rape.

Sentencing Farrant to life for the murder and to 18 years for the attempted murder, the judge told him: "This murder was so terrible and you are so dangerous that in your case, the sentence of life should mean just that - you should never be released.

"You have devastated the lives of many people. The opportunity to do so again should not be allowed to you."

Mrs Fidler was attacked so savagely that she has no memory of the incident. At her home in Eastleigh, Hants, in December 1995, Farrant smashed her around the head with three wine bottles and an iron, "reducing her to a bloodied unrecognisable heap", according to the judge. She nearly died from her injuries.

In February 1996, Farrant murdered his former girlfriend, Mrs Hoskins, an accountant, at her home in Portsmouth. She died of asphyxiation, and the prosecution suggested that he held her under water in the bath after demanding sex.

He then hid her body in the attic, took her car and fled to the Continent, where he was arrested in the south of France in the following July and extradited to Britain a year ago.

Mrs Hoskins, who was separated from her husband, had a sexual relationship with Farrant, but relations soured between them and she began seeing another man. He claimed that her death was an accident, caused when she fell in the bath after sex.

Her husband, Tony Hoskins, said of Farrant: "If ever there was a case for locking someone up and throwing away the key, then he's it. He's a total psychopath, but what makes him particularly dangerous is that he is so apparently normal - he's so plausible and seems to be able to take people in so easily. He has to be locked up and never let out."

After the trial ended, Farrant's family issued a statement expressing sympathy with relatives of his victims. "Under the British justice system, we trust that Victor will never again be free to inflict his evil, savage deeds on anyone," it said.

Detective Superintendent David Hanna, who led the police investigation, said it was a matter of "grave concern" that while in prison for rape, Farrant refused to attend a sex offender rehabilitation programme. Had he done so, he would have been strictly monitored by the probation service on his release.

One of the most chilling features to emerge from the trial was the revelation that Mrs Hoskins' daughter, Katie, then 15, had found her mother's corpse wrapped in carpet in the loft of her home.

At the time, Mr Hoskins and a police officer were searching her marina- side home, eight hours after she had failed to meet Katie from school.

"I'll never forget that scream," said Mr Hoskins, 49, a businessman from Stubbington, Hants. "Both the policeman and myself had searched the loft and found nothing, so when Katie asked if she could do something, I told her to look there, thinking that would be perfectly safe.

"We heard Katie scream and I just ran up the ladder and got her out of there," said Mr Hoskins.

Mr Hoskins, who was divorced from Mrs Hoskins in 1991 but remained close friends, was desperate to protect his children, Katie, David, then 13, and Ian, then 23, from the outside world in the immediate aftermath of the murder.

"At first, I kept them away from newspapers and television but, after a while, they said, Dad, we want to know what's going on," he said.

Within months of the murder, Katie sat her GCSE exams, passing 10, including five Grade-As. David is preparing to take his GCSEs later this year, and Ian is in the final year of a media and cultural studies course at Liverpool University.

"Glenda always stressed the importance of education," said Mr Hoskins. "So, they've done it for her. And I think they would have made her proud."

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Owen Oyston, the owner of Blackpool Football Club, media tycoon and long-time Labour Party donor, was yesterday sentenced to six years in prison for raping and indecently assaulting a 16-year-old girl.

Mr Justice McCullough told him: "You were 58, she was 16. You were rich and powerful with a strong personality. She was young and vulnerable."

She had not, said the judge, "led you on in any way. As Miss B so accurately put it, 'he treated me as an object and I'm not'." The judge told Liverpool Crown Court that it was impossible to know to what extent Miss B has been traumatised by her ordeal. Describing them as "horrendous offences", he sentenced Oyston to three years on the indecent assault and six on the rape, the sentences to run concurrently.

The judge said that but for the fact he was 62, of previous good character and that the offences took place four years ago, he would have gone down for nine years. The verdict delivered after a marathon legal process and a jury deliberation lasting over eight hours, makes Oyston, who is worth an estimated pounds 40m, the richest man to go to prison in Britain for sex offences.

He was acquitted of raping a woman known as "Miss A", at his country mansion. But the jury found he indecently assaulted Miss B, a model who is now 20, by forcing her to have oral sex in a car and then raping her at his home, Claughton Hall, near Lancaster. Lawyers for Oyston, led by Anthony Scrivener QC, said they were considering an appeal.

Proceedings against Oyston began in January last year when he was charged with offences involving six women. Unknown to the jury, a Manchester magistrate ruled last year that he had no case to answer on charges of raping one woman and indecently assaulting two others.

Earlier this year, Oyston was tried at Manchester Crown Court on two counts of rape and one of indecent assault. Separate juries were sworn in for each rape charge and the judge ruled the trial could not be reported until all the sex charges against him had been decided.

On one rape, of a woman in London's Hilton Hotel in Park Lane, he was acquitted. On another, at his home, the jury could not agree and a retrial was ordered. That retrial, of Miss A, was heard along with the case of Miss B. On one charge of indecently assaulting Miss A he was acquitted in Manchester.

For the last few weeks, jurors in Liverpool have listened to a lurid saga of sex in cars, in London, and at his home, involving women from a model agency in Manchester.

At one point during the trial, when Miss B recounted how, aged 16, she was subjected to a sex attack by Oyston in the back of a Toyota Supra car and was then forced into further sex at his home, three members of the jury were reduced to tears.

Mr Scrivener argued that Oyston deserved some clemency because the offences occurred a long time ago, his age and the facts showed that little force was used, but his plea cut no ice with the judge.

As Oyston was being led from the dock, he mouthed "I love you" to his daughter Heidi, who was in the public gallery. She responded by mouthing to her father: "I love you too."

Detective Sergeant Harry Harrison, of the Greater Manchester police investigation team, said of the young model: "The last few years have been a very difficult time for the young lady and her family.

"She has shown tremendous courage in coming to court and giving her evidence, which at time included details of an intimate and traumatic nature.

"I hope that she can take some consolation from the fact that today's result can be seen as a victory for the average person by showing that no matter who an offender is, action can and will be taken when a person's privacy is violated".

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A judge jailed a sex molester for 27 years after telling him he wanted to protect Britain's children, including those not yet born. The sentence is one of the longest imposed for offences which do not carry a life term.

A charity worker, Raymond Hodgson, 43, carried out a catalogue of sex abuse on nine young girls. Police caught him after he had abused four children but he escaped by locking officers in his house.

He went on to sexually abuse another five children, after winning the trust of their parents as he travelled around Britain. He was caught when his photograph was shown on the BBC television programme Crimewatch and the station was inundated with calls.

Winchester Crown Court was shown a pornographic video Hodgson made in which he forced a six-year-old girl to perform sexual acts. Judge Martin Tucker QC told him: "Having seen in the video of the sort of things you were doing, it must be realised what a revolting series of offences these were.

"When you are eventually at liberty the overwhelming probability is you will try to do it again. I have got to protect children and unborn children.

"I am passing a sentence that will keep you inside until your sexual life is on the wane."

The court heard Hodgson re-offended when he was released from prison after a conviction for raping a 12-year-old girl.

The girls he targeted on his release were aged 6 to 13.

The court heard Hodgson began working for a charity and befriended one of his employees who had young children. Once he won the family's trust he began abusing the girl. After befriending this girl he met other youngsters by "wheedling himself into the affections and trust of their parents".

One girl told police Hodgson pulled her into his bed, stripped and removed her pants.

While visiting friends in Gosport, Hampshire, Hodgson abused an eight- year-old girl after giving her shandy. The girl woke in the middle of the night to find Hodgson touching her. She began crying and later told her sister. Police were alerted.

But when police went to arrest Hodgson he conned them into letting him say goodbye to his landlady, locking them in the house while he escaped. He then moved north to Morecombe under an assumed name where he again used his work with a charity to abuse another set of children.

Hodgson said he did not know why he had abused the children. "Ninety per cent of the time I am like any other in the street and then situations crop up and I lose control," he said.

Hodgson, of Basingstoke, Hampshire, admitted six counts of indecent assault, four of indecency with a child and five counts of taking indecent photographs, and one of unlawful escape.

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A hooded rapist calling himself 'Jack The Stripper' who attacked students close to a university campus was jailed yesterday for 12 years.

For 15 months, David Martin Jackson, 28, stalked women walking home from Leeds University to their bedsits in the Hyde Park area of the city.

At Leeds Crown Court, he was found guilty of rape, three indecent assaults, two attempted indecent assaults and four charges of assault causing actual bodily harm after a 14- day trial.

The judge, Mr Justice Harrison, told Jackson: 'You lay in wait for your victims at night time, hooded by a balaclava to obscure your face. You attacked your victims from behind and dragged them into the undergrowth. You then subjected them to terrifying ordeals from which they have not yet fully recovered. You subjected them to sexual indignities. Offences such as these should be punished by a substantial period of imprisonment.' Jackson was found guilty of one indecent assault, two attempted indecent assaults and three assaults causing bodily harm, after the jury took 27 hours to reach verdicts. On Monday, the jurors found him guilty of the other charges, including the rape.

Jackson, of Osmondthorpe, Leeds, who married a month before carrying out the rape, had denied all the charges.

He told the jury that on the night of the first two attacks, in June 1991, he was staying at the house of his fiancee's parents preparing for their church's national conference in Brighton.

Jackson, a member of the New Testament Church of God in Harehills, Leeds, said he and his wife, Jennifer, and their parents always stayed together, shopped together and did everything together before a church conference.

The court was told that between June 1991 and October 1992, Jackson carried out five attacks. On each occasion he ran up to his victim, dragged her off the road and into an area of parkland known as Woodhouse Moor and threatened to kill her.

A hooded rapist calling himself 'Jack The Stripper' who attacked students close to a university campus was jailed yesterday for 12 years.

For 15 months, David Jackson, 28, stalked women walking home from Leeds University to their bedsits in the Hyde Park area of the city.

At Leeds Crown Court, he was found guilty of rape, three indecent assaults, two attempted indecent assaults and four charges of assault causing actual bodily harm after a 14- day trial.

The judge, Mr Justice Harrison, told Jackson: 'You lay in wait for your victims at night time, hooded by a balaclava to obscure your face. You attacked your victims from behind and dragged them into the undergrowth. You then subjected them to terrifying ordeals from which they have not yet fully recovered. You subjected them to sexual indignities. Offences such as these should be punished by a substantial period of imprisonment.' Jackson was found guilty of one indecent assault, two attempted indecent assaults and three assaults causing bodily harm, after the jury took 27 hours to reach verdicts. On Monday, the jurors found him guilty of the other charges, including the rape.

Jackson, of Osmondthorpe, Leeds, who married a month before carrying out the rape, had denied all the charges.

He told the jury that on the night of the first two attacks, in June 1991, he was staying at the house of his fiancee's parents preparing for their church's national conference in Brighton.

Jackson, a member of the New Testament Church of God in Harehills, Leeds, said he and his wife, Jennifer, and their parents always stayed together, shopped together and did everything together before a church conference.

The court was told that between June 1991 and October 1992, Jackson carried out five attacks. On each occasion he ran up to his victim, dragged her off the road and into an area of parkland known as Woodhouse Moor and threatened to kill her.

A hooded rapist calling himself 'Jack The Stripper' who attacked students close to a university campus was jailed yesterday for 12 years.

For 15 months, David Jackson, 28, stalked women walking home from Leeds University to their bedsits in the Hyde Park area of the city.

At Leeds Crown Court, he was found guilty of rape, three indecent assaults, two attempted indecent assaults and four charges of assault causing actual bodily harm after a 14- day trial.

The judge, Mr Justice Harrison, told Jackson: 'You lay in wait for your victims at night time, hooded by a balaclava to obscure your face. You attacked your victims from behind and dragged them into the undergrowth. You then subjected them to terrifying ordeals from which they have not yet fully recovered. You subjected them to sexual indignities. Offences such as these should be punished by a substantial period of imprisonment.' Jackson was found guilty of one indecent assault, two attempted indecent assaults and three assaults causing bodily harm, after the jury took 27 hours to reach verdicts. On Monday, the jurors found him guilty of the other charges, including the rape.

Jackson, of Osmondthorpe, Leeds, who married a month before carrying out the rape, had denied all the charges.

He told the jury that on the night of the first two attacks, in June 1991, he was staying at the house of his fiancee's parents preparing for their church's national conference in Brighton.

Jackson, a member of the New Testament Church of God in Harehills, Leeds, said he and his wife, Jennifer, and their parents always stayed together, shopped together and did everything together before a church conference.

The court was told that between June 1991 and October 1992, Jackson carried out five attacks. On each occasion he ran up to his victim, dragged her off the road and into an area of parkland known as Woodhouse Moor and threatened to kill her.

Description

On 21 November 1983, 15-year-old Lynda Mann took a shortcut on her way home from babysitting instead of taking her normal route home. She did not return and her parents and neighbours spent the night searching for her. The next morning, she was found raped and strangled on a deserted footpath known locally as the Black Pad. Using forensic science techniques available at the time, police linked a semen sample taken from her body to a person with type A blood and an enzyme profile that matched only 10% of males. With no other leads or evidence, the case was left open.

On 31 July 1986, a second 15-year-old girl, Dawn Ashworth, left her home to visit a friend's house. Her parents expected her to return at 9:30 pm; when she failed to do so they called police to report her missing. Two days later, her body was found in a wooded area near a footpath called Ten Pound Lane. She had been beaten, savagely raped and strangled. The modus operandi matched that of the first attack, and semen samples revealed the same blood type.

An initial suspect was Richard Buckland, a local 17-year-old with learning difficulties who, while innocent of both crimes, revealed knowledge of Ashworth's body, and admitted to the Ashworth crime under questioning, denying the first murder.