Latest Offenders

Description

A masked sex attacker who targeted two lone women was tracked down due to the Boris bike he rode off on. Christion Wright, 28, dragged his first victim, a paramedic, into the bushes at St Jamess Park in a terrifying ordeal at around midnight on 29 January last year. Three days after the attack in central London, he pulled his trousers down and molested a second woman on a train. He was jailed last month, but police have now revealed details of how they caught him. Detectives pieced together CCTV evidence showing him cycle away from the first attack. He was then seen to dock the hired Santander bike in Lower Marsh on the Southbank. Wright was then linked to the train assault by his DNA. Catherine Milsom, prosecuting, had told Southwark Crown Court that the first victim had just finished a shift with the NHS and then went into the park. She walked around the lake and up towards Buckingham Palace when she noticed a man nearby wearing a face mask and hoodie. Something about him made her very suspicious, Ms Milson said. Concerned, the victim changed her direction but then spotted Wright hiding behind some trees and clearly following her. She thought he wanted to rob her and offered him her mobile phone. He didnt take and instead said I just want to f**k you, said Ms Milsom. Wright dragged the struggling woman up to some bushes and sexually assaulted her. The woman bit his hand and he then made off on a Santander hire bike. Three days later, Wright pulled his trousers on a train and molested a teenager, 19, on the trip between Waterloo East and Greenhithe in Kent. She had been sitting alone watching YouTube videos on her phone when the defendant came and stood behind her. When she stood to get off and turned round, she found the defendant with his trousers down, Ms Milsom said. The Crown would say he is dangerous. Wright, of Southwark, admitted two counts of sexual assault relating to the first victim and sexual assault and exposure for the train attack. He was jailed for three years and eight months last month and was also placed in the sex offenders register for life. Referrring to the attack on the paramedic, Judge Andrew Goymer said: It is sufficient to say he followed the victim into St Jamess Park, she was subjected to considerable force and feared, for good reason, she was going to be raped. Both are very unpleasant assaults and very distressing to the victims and nobody suggests anything other than a sentence of imprisonment of some substance. Detective Constable Henh Ban Song said: My colleagues and I are using all legitimate methods at our disposal to identify and convict those who commit crimes against women in the capital. In this case, Met officers based at Charing Cross police station used technologies including the CCTV network, financial instrument analysis and DNA matching to identify and convict the offender. Women and girls in London are safer for our hard work and tenacity. Det Con Song also appealed for any other victims of the predator to come forward, adding: In my view, Wrights offending may have escalated quickly and alarmingly had he not been caught so soon after the offence in St Jamess Park.

Description

A dangerous sex offender who targets children is campaigning to be chemically castrated, a court was told when he was sentenced to ten years Ashley Colville, 31, formerly from Peterlee, has briefed his defence team to push the Prison Service to speed up his castration using drugs. He was previously top of of the list, his defence barrister Shada Mellor told Teesside Crown Court. Colville has five convictions for 17 offences relating to child sex and breaches of court orders. Prosecutor Tom Mitchell said that a woman police officer monitoring his behaviour after his release from prison found that he had an illegal mobile phone from which 350 messages had been deleted. Technical experts discovered that he had been in touch with a person claiming to be the mother of a girl who she sexually abused as they messaged. Police were unable to trace the named woman despite a nationwide hunt, said Mr Mitchell. Judge Jonathan Carroll dismissed Colvilles claim that it was a fantasy, saying that he was convinced that Colville believed that he was in touch with a like-minded woman who was sexually abusing her child. Miss Mellor said that Colville, who appeared over a videolink from Durham Prison, had been in custody for 27 months after having been re-called for breaching his licence which would not count towards his new sentence. She added:He is willing to engage in chemical castration. He says that is because he does not want to spend the remainder of his life in and out of prison. He is fighting for this assistance. He asked those instructing me to campaign on his behalf to find out which prisons are able to offer him the medication. He was top of the list but for various reasons including the epidemic he ceased to be so. The judge told him: In my judgment you believed that you were talking to an adult female and that she had a a female child and that she was engaging in sexual abusing that child Over a number of hours you engaged in quite repugnant conversations with her , a form of conversation that is shocking to any right-minded person. In September 2010 Colville pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of a 16 year old girl in a shop, and in January 2014 he pleaded guilty to 11 offences of possessing indecent photographs of children In April 2015 he pleaded guilty to breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order when he had a phone which he had not declared. He was jailed for five years for inciting a girl for sex He was jailed for 54 months in July 2018 for breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order by attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child In November 2020 a woman with four children including a 14 year old girl received a Friendship request from him on Facebook. The police officer visited his home on 16 November 2020 Colville, formerly of Cotswold place, Peterlee and later the Nelson Street Bail Hostel in South Bank, Middlesbrough, was sentenced to 10 years with six years custody and four years on extended licence after he pleaded guilty to two breaches of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and was convicted of arranging or facilitating a child sex offence The SHPO will last for life and he must register as a sex offender for for life

Description

A MAN who raped and sexually abused a young girl has been jailed for 15 years. York Crown Court heard how the child became separated from the rest of her family while out shopping in York. Darren Lee James, 42, then took her down an alleyway by a shop. There it was dark, and he carried his first sexual assault on her, York Crown Court heard. A few days later, he raped her and carried out a serious sexual assault on her. In a video recorded by police years after the abuse the victim said: I still feel frightened of him. She was also angry about what had happened to her. Last December, the jury heard how the girl initially didnt tell anyone what had happened to her. But then she confided in a relative and told her and a social worker what James had done to her. The jury heard how she had been scared that she would get into trouble. James and the girl are not related. This was a sustained incident on a particularly vulnerable complainant, Recorder Dapinder Singh QC said about the abuse. He handed out a 15-year prison sentence. James will have an extra year of probation officer supervision after he finishes his prison sentence because his crimes make him an offender of particular concern. He was put on the sex offenders register for life and also made subject to a sexual harm prevention order aimed at stopping him committing more sexual offences for an indefinite period. James, of Thoresby Road, Acomb, denied rape and two charges of sexual assault but was convicted by a York jury at a trial last December. For him, Amanda Johnson said: There is nothing I can say about the offences themselves. She said she was not in a position where she could put forward any mitigation based on remorse by the defendant. James had had a chequered upbringing and some difficulties in his life circumstances. His mother was standing by him. At the time the offences took place, James was drinking to excess and was also taking so much cannabis he described himself as dependent about it. He had lost his employment. He was leading not the most healthy or productive of lives, she said. He also had had long-standing mental health problems for which he was receiving anti-depressants from his GP. In recent months, his mental health had deteriorated and she would arrange for prison staff to be told about mental health concerns for him. Although James had convictions for four previous offences, he had none for sexual offences and had never been to prison before. Members of both the girls family and James family were in court for the sentencing hearing.

Description

A "depraved" rapist who controlled and violently assaulted several women has been jailed for 20 years. Darren Sysum, 30, conducted a six-year "campaign of rape" against several "vulnerable" women whom he played off against each other. Judge Lawrie QC has also sentenced him to a five-year period on licence following his release. He said Sysum had a "complete disregard for consent" and showed "no palpable sense of remorse". Sentencing him at Gloucester Crown Court on Friday and Monday, Judge Lawrie commended the bravery of his victims for helping secure the conviction with his earliest charge dating back to 2015. 'Haunted' by rape Sysum, formerly of Matson Avenue, Gloucester, caused his victims "psychological and emotional pain" and posed a "significant risk of violent reoffending", the judge ruled. The court heard he had also threatened the vulnerable women, violently assaulted them and controlled them between January 2018 until he was arrested in 2021. Sysum would choose what they could wear, how long they could leave home for and repeatedly checked their phones. Prosecutor David Maunder described an assault where one of the victims was knocked unconscious and an imprint was left on her face from where she had been struck by Sysum. He also filmed intimate sexual videos with her, and distributed them on social media without her consent. Sysum has since been diagnosed with dissocial personality disorder - where a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others. Victim impact statements from four of the women were read out in court earlier. One victim compared their relationship to a "prison sentence". She added: "I tried numerous times to get away from him. "He treats women as disposable items after he charms himself into their lives. "The rape will haunt me for the rest of my life. I often felt he was going to kill me."

Description

A paedophile ex parish councillor, 78, who sexually and physically abused four youngsters and forced them to fight in makeshift boxing ring until they 'drew blood' has been jailed for 12 years.

Peter Orme, 78, spent almost 15 years physically, emotionally and sexually abusing children and today started a 12-year jail sentence.

Orme used to be chairman of Woughton Community Council in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.

He was found guilty of sexually and physically abusing children from the 1970s to the 1990s.

Judge Geoffrey Payne was told details of the abuse, including details of the boxing bouts two young children took part in.

Jailing Orme, Judge Payne said: 'You would arrange chairs in the living room into a form of boxing ring and would require the children to fight each other and goad them on, encouraging the boy who was under 10 years old at the time, to fight with the girl. The aim was to draw blood.'

Orme stood in the dock at Aylesbury Crown Court as the judge heard how he had abused three girls and one boy from 1977 to 1992.

Orme had also forced a boy, aged under 13 at the time, to perform a sex act on him in the bathtub and sexually assaulted a teenage girl after buying her vodka and waiting until she passed out.

He was convicted by a jury of two counts of gross indecency with a boy under 14 years, one count of neglecting a child likely to cause unnecessary suffering and four counts of indecent assault on a girl under the age of 14 years.

He was also convicted of one count of indecent assault on girl under 16 years and one count of taking an indecent photograph of a child.

Orme will also be on the Sex Offender's Register for the rest of his life.

One of Orme's victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: 'I think what he did has destroyed me. My mind is a total wreck. It's always going through my mind.'

Another said: 'When I look back at my childhood and at the time he came into my life I can't think of a single day I was truly happy.

'He would question me and call me stupid. I found out later on I was dyslexic but I had thought I was just thick.'

Defending him, Tania Panagiotopoulou said Orme had lived in 24-hour hospital care before his arrest and asked for a 'just and proportionate' sentence.

Sentencing Orme, Judge Payne said: 'As soon as you came into the lives of the children, their lives turned for the worst.

'You mistreated one of the victims and one of the ways was by smacking him on the bottom and bending him over your knee and taking his trousers down to humiliate him.

'All of the children lived in fear. Another victim was kicked by you and you would pull her underwear off and smack her, pulling her underwear off in front of boys, which I'm sure was calculated to humiliate and degrade her.

'One of the victims had low self-esteem and you invited her to the flat and got her drunk.

'I imagine you thought the children would not come forward and if they did they wouldn't be believed and you were proved right to a point - there were complaints to police but no action was taken - a sad indictment of those times.

'Your past conduct has caught up with you now.'

Description

A former Lidl worker who claimed that key evidence from a pair of pyjamas had been overlooked in his 2018 trial has had his appeal thrown out.

Justin Finnerty, then 22, was jailed for eight years and given an extended four year licence period after jurors at Oxford Crown Court convicted him of rape and sexual assault by penetration three-and-a-half years ago.

He raped the woman as she lay on his sofa, having invited her back to his Bicester home. His girlfriend was upstairs in the couples bedroom when he carried out his sick attack in July 2017. At his trial, Finnerty denied raping the woman claiming that they had had unprotected consensual sex several days earlier.

Lawyers for Finnerty asked the Court of Appeal on Tuesday to quash the Oxford jurys convictions, claiming that new evidence and alleged issues in how the trial was handled made them unsafe.

The new evidence was a report by a forensics expert, instructed by the bearded rapists legal team, questioning why Finnertys semen was apparently not found on pyjama bottoms worn by the victim on the night of the assault. It transpired that samples taken from the victim had been destroyed by the authorities.

Finnerty, formerly of Roman Way, Bicester, represented by Michelle Heeley QC at the hearing in the Royal Courts of Justice, argued that Judge Ian Pringle QC had failed to remind the jury of the defendants account when after being asked to by the 12-strong panel - he read from the victims police interview recounting her memory of the assault.

He suggested the jury was misled by inaccurate timings in a table of text messages he sent his girlfriend while downstairs with his victim, who was being sick. He claimed it meant the jurors were misled as to the amount of time he and the victim were alone together, giving the impression that it was for longer.

Rejecting the application for permission to appeal, Lord Justice Green said the new evidence the pyjamas could have been tested at the time and for whatever reason the defendants lawyers had not done so.

The new forensic report was based on a series of assumptions [about] what happened to the pyjamas that might be inaccurate.

The panel of three appeal judges said Judge Pringle, the trial judge, did not err in his handling of the case. We are clear none of it [the new evidence or grounds of appeal] casts doubt on the correctness of the convictions, Lord Justice Green said.

The Court of Appeal upheld the 12 year extended sentence, concluding: This was repeat offending upon a person in a vulnerable, incapacitated state. The pre-sentence report concluded [Finnerty] posed a danger to women.

We have read the pre-sentence report carefully and we conclude the judge was entitled to treat it as an important and persuasive factor in his own sentencing decision.

Description

A man has been jailed for 20 years for child sexual offences described as "wicked in the extreme".

In December Matthew Dobie was found guilty at trial of two counts of raping a child and four counts of sexual activity with a child.

He was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on 18 February for the offences, which involved a single victim and were committed several years ago.

Judge Julian Lambert told Dobie: "You are truly a monster."

The crimes committed by Dobie, 47, were reported to Avon and Somerset Police in 2020.

He was a former resident of South Gloucestershire before he moved to Cambridge and his treatment of his victim was described as "despicable".

The judge told Dobie: "The extent of the damage which you did is utterly numbing.

"The damage done is irreparable. There is no question but that you knew what you were doing was wrong and wicked in the extreme.

"You chose your own corrupt sexual pleasures and thought nothing of the ruination of a young life.

"Few words can properly describe the depth of you degeneracy, few words can do you justice. You are truly a monster."

'Courage' of victim

Investigating officer Det Con Melanie Downton praised the "immense bravery" of Dobie's victim.

"The defendant accepted no responsibility for his deplorable actions and I believe this sentence reflects both the serious and impactful nature of the offending and the fact that the perpetrator did everything in his power to escape accountability for his crimes," she said.

Suzie Butler, Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS South West, said: "The victim showed immense courage in speaking out against the perpetrator of these awful crimes and supporting the prosecution.

"I am very pleased that we were able to deliver justice for the victim in this case. The sentence handed down is wholly appropriate given the degree of harm that the defendant has caused.

"We want every victim of sexual assault to have the confidence to come forward to report abuse, in the knowledge that support is available and that the police and CPS are committed to securing justice."

Dobie was handed a 20-year sentence with a further four years to be served on licence. He will be required to serve a minimum of two-thirds of his custodial sentence.

He was placed on the sex offenders register and made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

Police said anyone who had been a victim of sexual abuse could contact The Bridge sexual assault referral centre for support.

Description

A man has been jailed for a sexual offence against a young girl around 18 years ago and for having and creating indecent images of children.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that Michael Parkinson, 59, from Mountbatten Avenue in Wakefield, committed the offence against the young girl in her parents home in Cheshire.

Parkinson had befriended the family and took the opportunity to abuse the child in an upstairs bedroom.

Years later, the victim was at university and had a conversation with her boyfriend. She talked about the abuse and decided to report it to the police.

Parkinson was arrested at his home on 25 March 2019 and his phone and IT equipment were seized.

A search of his IT revealed that he had been making and storing indecent images of children in recent months.

He pleaded guilty to causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and possessing indecent images of children at Liverpool Crown Court on 6 December 2021.

He was jailed for 18 months at the court today (18 2 2022). He has been placed on the Sexual Offenders Register for 10 years and the Crown Prosecution Service also asked for a sexual harm prevention order to be put in place. This was granted by the court and will also be in place for 10 years. Parkinsons computer and phone will also be destroyed.

In a Victim Personal Statement, the victim said she was the person that friends came to for advice and she had thought she was able to bottle up her own struggles to come to terms with the abuse she had suffered.

But she became convinced that to report what had happened to her to the police was the right thing to do, to prevent other children becoming Parkinsons victims.

She added: I am a shell of my former self, I am more emotional than I have ever been and find myself becoming upset when having conversations with people over entirely separate matters. For 18 years I had told myself that what happened was not that big of a deal and that it could have been worse, and the release of the facts has caused more damage than I could have ever imagined. I was playing down the incident to protect myself, and its only now that I realise the impact it had on me. I have never sought counselling; however this is something I have now accepted that I need to aid my recovery.

Senior Crown Prosecutor Christopher Fontaine, of CPS Mersey-Cheshire, said: We would like to thank the victim for her courage in reporting this abuse, providing us with the evidence needed to prosecute and persevering until her abuser was brought to justice.

Michael Parkinson claimed to be a friend of the victims parents. However, when staying at their house, he sexually abused their child. He gave no thought to the impact the abuse would have on the child and her family.

In her Victim Personal Statement, she explained the long-term impact of the abuse, the mixture of feelings that surround it guilt, anxiety, sadness, disgust - and how it affected her relationships.

The decision of the victim as an adult to report what happened to her when she was a child directly resulted in the police attending his address and discovering indecent images of children on his phone.

"Every indecent image of a child is an image of a real child being abused. Sharing, downloading and viewing such images is a continuation of the abuse shown in the images.

"Michael Parkinson had not done anything to address his sexual interest in children.

To anyone else who has suffered child abuse, it is normal to only feel able to begin to address what happened when reaching adulthood. It is never too late to come forward and to help us protect other children from abuse.

Description

Four men who subjected an extremely vulnerable teenager to a "campaign of rape" have been jailed.

The gang plied the girl, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, with drugs and alcohol and "systematically and repeatedly" abused her, prosecutors said.

Her ordeal, which occurred between 2009 and 2010, left her with long-standing psychological problems including PTSD.

A fifth member of the group was found guilty of three rapes and will be sentenced at a later date.

Prosecutor Katherine Robinson told Bradford Crown Court the woman was 20 years old when she came forward to report the abuse to police.

Officers found that the older men could see she was "plainly extremely vulnerable" and had drink problems when they targeted her.

In a victim statement read to the court the woman said she had been left "unable to look after myself due to my mental health" in the aftermath of the abuse.

Passing sentence, Judge Andrew Hatton said: "The gross abuse she suffered at the hands of you is a significant factor in her current mental health."

Det Ch Insp Alan Weekes, of West Yorkshire Police, said the victim had been "robbed her of her childhood"

"I hope seeing all of these men sent to prison today for these horrendous offences she was subjected to will allow her to start to look forward to the future," he said.

Ed Hulbert, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said the men had "cynically manipulated and ruthlessly exploited a young and vulnerable girl".

Omar Safdar, 30, of no fixed address, was jailed for 12 years after being convicted of three counts of rape.

Imran Sabir, 42, of Spencer Street, Keighley, received 12 years after being convicted of two counts of rape.

Hassan Basharat, 32, of Highfield Road, Keighley, was jailed for 12 years after being convicted of three counts of rape. He will also serve an additional 16 months for two counts of dangerous driving.

Barber Hussain, 36, of Thorn Lane, Bradford, was jailed for 13 years after being convicted of seven counts of rape.

Amjad Hussain convicted of three rapes, will be sentenced later.

All five men were found guilty at a trial in October.

Description

Four men who subjected an extremely vulnerable teenager to a "campaign of rape" have been jailed.

The gang plied the girl, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, with drugs and alcohol and "systematically and repeatedly" abused her, prosecutors said.

Her ordeal, which occurred between 2009 and 2010, left her with long-standing psychological problems including PTSD.

A fifth member of the group was found guilty of three rapes and will be sentenced at a later date.

Prosecutor Katherine Robinson told Bradford Crown Court the woman was 20 years old when she came forward to report the abuse to police.

Officers found that the older men could see she was "plainly extremely vulnerable" and had drink problems when they targeted her.

In a victim statement read to the court the woman said she had been left "unable to look after myself due to my mental health" in the aftermath of the abuse.

Passing sentence, Judge Andrew Hatton said: "The gross abuse she suffered at the hands of you is a significant factor in her current mental health."

Det Ch Insp Alan Weekes, of West Yorkshire Police, said the victim had been "robbed her of her childhood"

"I hope seeing all of these men sent to prison today for these horrendous offences she was subjected to will allow her to start to look forward to the future," he said.

Ed Hulbert, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said the men had "cynically manipulated and ruthlessly exploited a young and vulnerable girl".

Omar Safdar, 30, of no fixed address, was jailed for 12 years after being convicted of three counts of rape.

Imran Sabir, 42, of Spencer Street, Keighley, received 12 years after being convicted of two counts of rape.

Hassan Basharat, 32, of Highfield Road, Keighley, was jailed for 12 years after being convicted of three counts of rape. He will also serve an additional 16 months for two counts of dangerous driving.

Barber Hussain, 36, of Thorn Lane, Bradford, was jailed for 13 years after being convicted of seven counts of rape.

Amjad Hussain convicted of three rapes, will be sentenced later.

All five men were found guilty at a trial in October.

Description

Four men who subjected an extremely vulnerable teenager to a "campaign of rape" have been jailed.

The gang plied the girl, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, with drugs and alcohol and "systematically and repeatedly" abused her, prosecutors said.

Her ordeal, which occurred between 2009 and 2010, left her with long-standing psychological problems including PTSD.

A fifth member of the group was found guilty of three rapes and will be sentenced at a later date.

Prosecutor Katherine Robinson told Bradford Crown Court the woman was 20 years old when she came forward to report the abuse to police.

Officers found that the older men could see she was "plainly extremely vulnerable" and had drink problems when they targeted her.

In a victim statement read to the court the woman said she had been left "unable to look after myself due to my mental health" in the aftermath of the abuse.

Passing sentence, Judge Andrew Hatton said: "The gross abuse she suffered at the hands of you is a significant factor in her current mental health."

Det Ch Insp Alan Weekes, of West Yorkshire Police, said the victim had been "robbed her of her childhood"

"I hope seeing all of these men sent to prison today for these horrendous offences she was subjected to will allow her to start to look forward to the future," he said.

Ed Hulbert, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said the men had "cynically manipulated and ruthlessly exploited a young and vulnerable girl".

Omar Safdar, 30, of no fixed address, was jailed for 12 years after being convicted of three counts of rape.

Imran Sabir, 42, of Spencer Street, Keighley, received 12 years after being convicted of two counts of rape.

Hassan Basharat, 32, of Highfield Road, Keighley, was jailed for 12 years after being convicted of three counts of rape. He will also serve an additional 16 months for two counts of dangerous driving.

Barber Hussain, 36, of Thorn Lane, Bradford, was jailed for 13 years after being convicted of seven counts of rape.

Amjad Hussain convicted of three rapes, will be sentenced later.

All five men were found guilty at a trial in October.

Description

Four men who subjected an extremely vulnerable teenager to a "campaign of rape" have been jailed.

The gang plied the girl, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, with drugs and alcohol and "systematically and repeatedly" abused her, prosecutors said.

Her ordeal, which occurred between 2009 and 2010, left her with long-standing psychological problems including PTSD.

A fifth member of the group was found guilty of three rapes and will be sentenced at a later date.

Prosecutor Katherine Robinson told Bradford Crown Court the woman was 20 years old when she came forward to report the abuse to police.

Officers found that the older men could see she was "plainly extremely vulnerable" and had drink problems when they targeted her.

In a victim statement read to the court the woman said she had been left "unable to look after myself due to my mental health" in the aftermath of the abuse.

Passing sentence, Judge Andrew Hatton said: "The gross abuse she suffered at the hands of you is a significant factor in her current mental health."

Det Ch Insp Alan Weekes, of West Yorkshire Police, said the victim had been "robbed her of her childhood"

"I hope seeing all of these men sent to prison today for these horrendous offences she was subjected to will allow her to start to look forward to the future," he said.

Ed Hulbert, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said the men had "cynically manipulated and ruthlessly exploited a young and vulnerable girl".

Omar Safdar, 30, of no fixed address, was jailed for 12 years after being convicted of three counts of rape.

Imran Sabir, 42, of Spencer Street, Keighley, received 12 years after being convicted of two counts of rape.

Hassan Basharat, 32, of Highfield Road, Keighley, was jailed for 12 years after being convicted of three counts of rape. He will also serve an additional 16 months for two counts of dangerous driving.

Barber Hussain, 36, of Thorn Lane, Bradford, was jailed for 13 years after being convicted of seven counts of rape.

Amjad Hussain convicted of three rapes, will be sentenced later.

All five men were found guilty at a trial in October.

Description

Former Walsall Council leader Sean Coughlan has pleaded guilty to two child sex offences. The 65-year-old admitted one count relating to sexual communication and one count relating to attempted sexual activity with a child under 16 between August and December 2021 when he appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday. Coughlan spoke to change his plea to guilty from not guilty. There was no application for bail. A trial had been due to be held on July 18. However now the veteran politician has pleaded guilty he will be sentenced in four weeks. Coughlan, of Martin Drive, Short Heath, Willenhall, was remanded in custody until then. Coughlan was the elected representative for the Willenhall South ward but resigned in December following his arrest after being caught in an internet sting. Self-styled paedophile hunters confronted Coughlan and posted a 30-minute video of them questioning the Labour politician on social media. He was then arrested and charged by West Midlands Police and spent Christmas behind bars after being kept in custody. A spokesman for Walsall Council said at the time: The council received Councillor Sean Coughlans written notice of resignation from his office as a councillor. His resignation was formally and immediately accepted. He is no longer a Walsall MBC councillor. He was first elected in 1995 and has successfully defended the seat on a number of occasions, the latest being in May this year. During his career he rose to become deputy leader and then leader of both his party and Walsall Council, which he was in charge of between 2016 and 2018. He stepped down as leader of the Walsall Labour Group in 2019. It is understood that Councillor Coughlan was also suspended from the Labour Party following his arrest.

Description

A former Countdown contestant who encouraged the abuse of a child in the US has been jailed for 12 years. Craig Chittenden, 33, of Willington, County Durham, persuaded a woman to abuse her daughter as he watched. He was caught after arranging a visit online to abuse a child in the UK, but was snared by an undercover officer. When police visited his home, they found almost 1,000 indecent images. At Durham Crown Court, he admitted seven sex offences. Chittenden, of Hall Lane Estate, appeared on the Channel 4 show as a 22-year-old student in 2010, and enjoyed a winning streak before he was beaten in the semi-final. 'Emotionless and detached' Police in Durham were alerted by FBI special agents in Dallas, Texas, that he had been exchanging messages with a suspect who had been abusing her child while he watched. She has also been jailed. Chittenden pleaded guilty to a charge of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sexual offence, inciting the sexual exploitation of girl under 13, possessing extreme pornography, distributing indecent photographs and three counts of making indecent photographs. Prosecutor Jane Waugh said Chittenden shared 24 indecent images of children during a conversation with another paedophile in February 2020, where he discussed the kidnapping, rape and murder of a young child. She said when arrested and interviewed by detectives, he dismissed the discussions as "fantasy and escapism". 'Fallen down a rabbit hole' The court heard that when police visited his home they found almost 1,000 abuse images and over four hours of video footage, as well as extreme animal pornography. Multiple devices were seized and examined which revealed Chittenden had been making contact with paedophiles in the US and inciting sexual acts on young children. Chittenden described a planned visit to the south of England to abuse a child as a "fantasy" and that he had "fallen down a rabbit hole" into new areas of abuse. Sentencing, Judge Ray Singh said Chittenden had "remained emotionless and detached". "There was a clear interest in sadistic torture, extreme violence and sexual offences towards children," he said. "In my view you are a dangerous offender." Det Con Georgina Lewis from Durham Police said: "Chittenden is a sexual predator who tried to hide his crimes online and encourage like-minded individuals in the USA to carry out sex acts on children. "This was a complex investigation but thanks to the collaborative investigative efforts between Texas police and ourselves he was left with no option but to plead guilty."

Description

A local historian has been jailed for nine years after he undressed and raped a drunken and sleepy teenage girl after a party.

Shane Jessop took advantage of the teenager after she 'passed out' on a sofa and he led her upstairs to a bedroom, where he took all her clothes off and kissed her before raping her.

The girl had been left very upset and said that the 'horrendous' incident would 'haunt' her forever, Hull Crown Court heard.

Jessop, 49, from Hull, admitted attacking the girl in September 2021.

Michele Stuart-Lofthouse, prosecuting, said the teenage girl was at a party in Hull and Jessop had bought alcoholic drinks for the gathering.

The court heard the victim had been placed on a sofa after becoming sick and had passed out. She woke after 11pm to find Jessop on top of her.

Jessop had carried her victim upstairs and undressed her before the rape.

Jessop stopped after three to five minutes but only when he heard another girl about, the court heard, at which point the victim got dressed.

The court heard how police were alerted and he later told them: 'My life is over, isn't it?'

The girl later said that the incident was 'horrendous' and she had since suffered anxiety, including finding it difficult to breathe as though she was 'under water trying to get back'.

She suffered from flashbacks and often lost focus.

'I haven't been out of the house really since the incident,' she said

in a statement to the court. 'I spend a lot of my time in bed.

'I know this has affected my mum and dad a lot. I suffer a lot with anxiety.

'I just sit and cry until I can't cry any more. I get upset often for no reason.

'My mum worries about me constantly. This will haunt me forever.'

Jessop denied charges of sexual assault against the same victim and another girl on the same day.

He also denied perverting the course of justice between October 1 and 10 by asking another girl to contact the two teenagers to suggest that they withdraw their allegations in exchange for money. Police confirmed Jessop had tried to pay off the victim via a third party before his first appearance in court, but those three charges were not pursued by the prosecution.

Jessop had previously denied all the offences and had been due to face trial in April but he later changed his pleas to guilty for rape and sexual assault.

Nigel Clive, mitigating, said that Jessop wanted to apologise for his actions.

The offences happened at an unhappy time in his life because of personal matters and he turned to drinking. He had been drinking at the time of the rape.

'His baser desires turned to criminality,' said Mr Clive. 'He bitterly apologises. If he could turn back time, he would.'

Jessop realised that the victim and her family would suffer terribly.

'His actions have let everybody down terribly,' said Mr Clive.

'He bought alcohol with no intention of committing offending.

'He found his victim drunk and what happened there was terrible but he did not provide alcohol in order to abuse people.'

Jessop had no previous convictions.

He had gained a degree in local history and had worked in museums and libraries.

'He led ordinarily a very quiet life,' said Mr Clive.

Judge Mark Bury told Jessop: 'The effect of this offending has been severe as far as she is concerned.

'She feels betrayed by your actions. Her levels of anxiety have been raised significantly.

'She now suffers flashbacks, breakdowns and crying fits. The whole family have had to suffer along with her.

'You took advantage of a drunk young lady who was simply incapable of consenting and incapable of protecting herself and you were aware of that position.

'She was, in those circumstances, particularly vulnerable.'

Jessop was given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and will have to register as a sex offender for life.

Jessop describes himself on his LinkedIn account as a customer advisor based in Hull since November 2016.

Before that, he was a museum heritage assistant between September 2011 and November 2016.

He says: 'A proud family person, I consider myself as an articulate, educated and confident individual whose greatest strengths include historical research, writing, communication, inclusive participation, problem solving and social engagement.

'I pride myself on the ability to not only develop new skills but to harness and adapt my current abilities towards any vocational setting.'

Jessop studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree in local and regional history at the University of Hull between 2008 and 2014.

He also studied at Hull College, has been a senior steward with Unison and was previously a volunteer tour guide on the Arctic Corsair, Hull's last remaining sidewinder trawler.