Latest Offenders

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A former Devizes mayor who sexually abused a boy repeatedly during the 1970s was jailed for three years today.

Timothy Price, 57, of Waiblingen Way, Devizes, was found guilty of four counts of indecent assault and one of indecency with a child at Salisbury Crown Court on January 22.

Sentencing Price, Recorder Edward Burgess said: It was only a matter of time before the dark secret of what you had done to [the victim] was broken.

He added: It was a shame you did not have the decency to spare [the victim] the pain of a trial by pleading guilty.

Price, who has terminal prostate cancer, has just 12 months to live so may now die in prison.

A GPs report said going to prison would make it difficult for him to undergo successful treatment.

Recorder Burgess said his sentence was very considerably shorter than it would have been if Price had been in good health.

Prosecuting, Matthew Scott read from the victims impact statement, which said: I have spent most of my life pretending to myself I was not subject to the most horrendous sexual abuse.

I shut the disgusting memories of the things he made me do in a box inside my head.

A separate charge of possessing indecent images was ordered to lie on file.

Representing Price, Stephen Dent said his client had been very young at the time and had been experimenting with his sexuality.

He added that Price never forced his victim to comply.

It does have all the hallmarks of teenage sexual exploration, the problem being, of course, that one party was seven years older than the other, he said.

Mr Dent said Price had done a great deal of good public work and had enjoyed the respect of the community.

This is a tremendous fall from grace for him, he added.

Price was 16 and the boy, from Durrington, was nine when the five years of abuse started.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, broke a 34-year silence when he confronted Price by email in August 2013.

Price responded an hour later, admitting and appologising for his crimes, but later denied them in court.

The judge said Price mentally tortured and bullied his victim to comply with his selfish sexual demands.

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THOUSANDS of disturbing images and movies of child abuse found on a council worker’s computers have put him behind bars for two years.

Jamie Osborn, 41, of Gooch Street, had amassed the catalogue of media over a seven-year period and distributed them to like-minded people over the internet.

Canadian police provided a tip-off to Wiltshire officers after the North American force busted a firm selling paedophilic DVDs around the world.

Osborn, who worked as a sports assistant with Swindon Council, said he was distributing the material as a courtesy to an online community which shared his interests.

Officers in Toronto had raided a company which sold the DVDs and pictures. They found Osborn splashed out £650 on 25 movies with the firm.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre received the initial tip off.

After a search of his home in December 2013, officers discovered he had stored more than 250 videos and at least 2,450 pictures of abused children, some as young as two.

Two computers were taken away and found to be loaded with the material.

There were saved searches on his internet browsers such as ‘young boys sex’ and ‘naturalist boys’.

It emerged Osborn had sent more than 1,500 of the files by email to 16 different people he had come into contact with over the web.

Ms Hingston said five of the films sent across the Atlantic contained illicit material, with the others showing child nudity.

Osborn pleaded guilty to eight counts of making, five counts of distributing and one of possessing indecent images of children.

Rob Ross, defending, said his client had already sought help for the problem from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

“Everything one learns about Mr Osborn suggests to me he is a man who has lived the life of a loner for a very long time,” he said.

“He was able to divide this interest in looking at images from any suggestion that he would contemplate any physical contact.

“Immediately after he was confronted he began to seek assistance in how to put himself back on track.

“Whatever sentence he gets he won’t have a job as a recreational assistant with Swindon Borough Council. He has to rebuild his life at the age of 41.”

Jailing him for two years, Judge Peter Blair QC said: “You are likely to be barred from ever working with children by the barring authority.”

He also imposed a sexual harm prevention order restricting Osborn’s liberty for five years and told him he must register as a sex offender.

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Eliot Easterby, 44, was given a three year community order when he appeared for sentence at Southampton Crown Court following his conviction last month.

Jurors had heard how police armed with a search warrant arrived at his home at 6.45am on January 22 last year, following a tip off from Canadian police as part of a major international operation.

In a four and a half hour search, they found ten DVDs and examined his computer, a hard drive and three memory sticks on which they discovered almost 700 images.

Almost 300 had been viewed on the computer but deleted. Another 374 had been downloaded and stored.

The prosecution accepted the images were of the least serious category.

DVDs included Water Wiggles and More Water Wiggles, showing boys cavorting in paddling pools.

They also discovered a hoard of boys underwear beneath his bed, which had been left behind when he took scouts on trips as leader of Hamble Sea Scouts.

It took jurors less an hour to convict Easterby, who taught maths at Sholing Technology College and has written teenage ghost stories, guilty on 13 counts of possessing and making indecent images and not guilty of one other charge.

He had denied all the allegations.Passing sentence today, Judge Peter Henry said the jury had in his opinion quite rightly convicted him of the charges that involved boys aged between 8 and 15.

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The former TV weatherman Fred Talbot has been jailed for five years for indecently assaulting two schoolboys when he was a teacher.

Talbot, who was a regular on ITVs This Morning show, was described at his trial as a chancer who used his boundless energy and extrovert personality to gain the affection and trust of his victims.

The 65-year-old, who was cleared of assaulting three other boys, was sentenced by Judge Timothy Mort at Manchesters Minshull Street crown court. The judge told him: You deliberately and indecently assaulted the two of them for your own gratification.

Talbot, who was remanded in custody when he was convicted in February, showed no emotion as he was jailed. He appeared relaxed as he entered the dock and acknowledged people in the packed courtroom.

Suzanne Goddard QC, defending, said there was little that could be said in mitigation. She said Talbot had lost a stone in weight during his time in custody but was accustoming himself to life in jail.

Goddard said: He knows he must now receive a custodial sentence. He has come to terms with that.

The jury at last months trial heard that Talbot was obsessed with teenage boys throughout his teaching career and could not help himself around them when under the influence of drink.

Among the prosecution witnesses at the trial was the Stone Roses singer Ian Brown, who said Talbot gave masturbation practice as homework.

Prosecutors said Talbots modus operandi was to first establish his good guy credentials and then to break down the proper teacher-pupil boundaries, leaving his victims confused as he made his advances.

Talbot, of Bowdon, Greater Manchester, was convicted of two counts of indecent assault in relation to two complainants and cleared of eight counts of indecent assault in relation to three other complainants.

Four of the complainants were teenage pupils at Altrincham grammar school for boys, where Talbot taught biology, while the other attended a high school in Gateshead when the defendant was at teacher training college.

The science teacher denied anything sexual or even inappropriate occurred between himself and the Altrincham pupils, while he said sexual activity with the Gateshead complainant only happened when the boy had turned 16.

Both of Talbots victims were assaulted on school canal barge trips in the Cheshire area in the mid 1970s.

The first victim, who thought he was 14 at the time, said the teacher abused him after a mock naked orgy involving up to 10 boys and Talbot. Talbot told him to share a bed with him as there were not enough bunk beds to go round, and performed a sex act on him.

It emerged that he had reported the weatherman to police on four occasions dating back to 1992, but no action had been taken.

The second victim, who also thought he may have been aged 14 at the time, was abused on another barge trip in similar circumstances. He said boys would take turns to sleep in Talbots bed during the trip and when it was his turn the defendant started talking to me about sexual stuff before indecently assaulting him.

The complainant said when he was aged in his late 20s he had written toGranada Television to tell bosses Talbot had abused him.

The court heard that Talbots teaching career came to an abrupt end in May 1984 following an indecent proposal he made to two pupils at his home. He offered his bed for the night to the 15-year-old boys and said to them: Make sure you leave room for me in the middle.

Following the verdicts, it can be reported that a number of similar complaints against Talbot about offences said to have been committed in Scotland have been passed by police to the procurator fiscal.

Edinburgh-born Talbot moved at the age of seven to Sale, Greater Manchester, and later studied A-levels at Sale grammar school.

After a spell at teacher training college in the Newcastle area he joined Altrincham grammar school in 1974. He resigned in disgrace in 1984 and went into television a short time later, with one of his first jobs on a Saturday morning childrens show.

The investigation was triggered in December 2012 following publicity into a separate historic abuse inquiry at another Altrincham school, St Ambrose College, which led to a nine-year jail term for ex-teacher Alan Morris.

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An Orpington man has been jailed after inciting children to engage in sexual activity.

David Hill, 25, was jailed for 19 months on Monday (March 2) after pleading guilty to two counts of incitement to engage a child in sexual activity and one count of witness intimidation.

He was also required to sign the sex offenders register for seven years.

On October 1 last year police were informed that Hill, using the nickname Kemz, was sending messages of an extremely sexually graphic nature to girls aged 14 and 15.

Hill, of no fixed address, was contacting them through Facebook under the name Realke Mzme.

Hill went on to meet his first victim, the 15-year-old, on a train in Orpington and subsequently arranged to meet her at Bickley train station.

The girl took along a 14-year-old friend, but they became unnerved after meeting Hill and returned home.

He then bombarded the 15-year-old with texts, telling her he wanted to have sex with her.

He then turned his attention towards the 14-year-old, sending her sexually explicit texts.

Hill resorted to threats towards both girls when neither responded to his texts.

On October 10 last year Hill was arrested at Bromley police station, after he answered his bail for an assault and affray in Canterbury.

Hill denied the offences when interviewed, and maintained that a friend had accessed his Facebook account sending the messages and texts without his knowledge.

An additional charge of witness intimidation was added to the case after an allegation that Hill sent numerous sexually graphic messages to another 14-year-old girl.

When he became aware that the case had been reported to the police, he threatened the victim and her parents in an attempt to get them to drop the case.

Detective Constable James Coldham, from Bromley CID, said: "Hill targeted the young girls in this case by sending them vile and sexually explicit messages and then resorted to threats of violence when he was rebuffed.

"We would urge parents and guardians to teach your child to be very careful to befriend and communicate with only trusted people that they know.

"Above all, assure them that it's OK to come to you, or another trusted adult, if they feel threatened by or uncomfortable about something they have seen or done on a social networking site".

Hill was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court to 10 months for witness intimidation, five months each for two counts of incitement of child sexual activity to run concurrently, and four months for assault and affray in Canterbury.

In a separate case Hill was sentence to 12 weeks' imprisonment on February 26 at Bromley Magistrates' Court, after pleading guilty to harassment.

Hill had sent his 23-year-old ex-girlfriend a number of messages of a sexual nature through Facebook after setting up an account under the name of Steven Harris.

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A 51-YEAR-OLD engineer has been jailed for 15 years for a catalogue of "disgusting and terrible" sexual abuse against a young girl.

Paul Yeadon preyed on the child when she was aged between six and 14, raping and assaulting her "hundreds and hundreds of times," Bradford Crown Court heard.

Yeadon was a long distance lorry driver living in Great Horton, Bradford, when he targeted the little girl almost 20 years ago, telling her it was "their secret".

His victim, now a woman in her 30s, told the court he abused her at least once a week for eight years.

He sexually assaulted her after they watched TV together "as a treat" and molested her in the cab of his lorry, prosecutor Adrian Dent said.

Yeadon pleaded guilty in November to five offences of indecently assaulting the girl when she was six or seven years old.

But he continued to deny raping and abusing her over a long period of time.

Yesterday, a jury convicted him of a further 13 charges, including three sample counts of rape, three offences of indecency with a child, six of indecent assault and one of attempted indecent assault.

Burly and bespectacled Yeadon, now of Beancroft Road, Castleford, West Yorkshire, stood impassively in the dock as the guilty verdicts were returned.

During the trial, the court heard that the girl confided to her mother what Yeadon had done to her when she was aged 14.

But although her mother was horrified and disgusted, he got away with it for decades because the teenager was about to take exams and could not face becoming caught up in a police investigation.

In 2013, she plucked up the courage to tell the police what Yeadon had done to her.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, the woman told how she struggled to come to terms with the abuse.

Stress about the case had recently ended a recent relationship she was in and she suffered broken sleep and anxiety.

The woman wept in court as Mr Dent disclosed that she had flashbacks and was seriously unwell.

"I hope this brings closure and I can move on with my life," she said.

Yeadon's barrister, David McGonigal, said Yeadon was in his 20s when he abused the girl and had since led a blameless life.

He had always worked, giving up his job as an engineer only when the trial approached.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, told Yeadon: "This was a catalogue of sexual offending against a young girl, going back to the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"Your victim was abused from when she was aged about six. You persuaded her and drove her into a position where she could not resist you."

The judge added: "This was disgusting and terrible abuse. There are hundreds and hundreds of offences spanning a considerable period of time."

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Former pop star Gary Glitter has been jailed for a total of 16 years for sexually abusing three young girls between 1975 and 1980. Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was sentenced for attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one of having sex with a girl under 13. Sentencing, Judge Alistair McCreath said he could find "no real evidence" that Gadd had atoned for his crimes. The 70-year-old showed no emotion as he left the dock at Southwark Crown Court. Judge McCreath told Gadd it was clear his victims "were all profoundly affected" by his abuse of them. "You did all of them real and lasting damage and you did so for no other reason than to obtain sexual gratification for yourself of a wholly improper kind," he said. Sentencing explained Judge McCreath said he assessed the seriousness of the offences by current guidelines, but he was limited to the maximum sentences that were available at the time the offences were committed, when "the sentencing climate was less severe". "The offences for which I must pass sentence today took place many years ago at a time when in particular, in respect of one of them, the maximum sentence was considerably lower than that which is now available," he said. Judge McCreath said the modern equivalent offence of unlawful intercourse with a child under 13 would be equivalent to rape of a child, but said he was not permitted to pass a life sentence. He said the offence of attempted rape was "so serious" as to justify the maximum available sentence under the old regime of seven years, which he noted would be a lenient sentence under modern guidelines. Sallie Bennett-Jenkins QC, defending, told the court that Gadd had been subject to a "very high degree of vilification" and "demonification" in the press after being jailed in Vietnam in 2006 for molesting two girls aged 11 and 12. She said he had led "an increasingly isolated life" for the last decade and had been unable to walk down the street "without being the subject of vilification". Gadd, from Marylebone, central London, had denied the allegations against him but was found guilty at the end of a three-week-long trial earlier this month. He had been at the height of his fame when he attacked two girls aged 12 and 13 after inviting them backstage to his dressing room. His youngest victim had been less than 10 years old when he crept into her bed and tried to rape her in 1975. Judge McCreath described Gadd's abuse of a girl under 10 as "appalling" and said: "It is difficult to overstate the depravity of this dreadful behaviour." He noted that in 2011 Gadd sought professional help to understand his sexual behaviour but said: "Whatever changes may have been effected in you by this treatment, they did not include any admission at all on your part of the wrong that you had done." The allegations against Gadd came to light only years later when he became the first person to be arrested under Operation Yewtree - the investigation launched by the Met in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal. Scotland Yard confirmed that it had received other information in light of Gadd's conviction, and that it is "currently being assessed". Det Ch Insp Michael Orchard, from Operation Yewtree, said Gadd was a "habitual sexual predator who took advantage of the star status afforded to him". He added: "His lack of remorse and defence that the victims were lying make his crimes all the more indefensible." Mark Castle, chief executive of charity Victim Support, said: "This prison sentence is testament to the courage Glitter's victims showed in reporting their ordeal and bravely confronting this serial paedophile in court."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"He's no angel, but this isn't fair on my boy."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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A SOUTHAMPTON judge sympathised with a sexual abuse victim as he jailed her assailant for eight years.

Judge Peter Ralls QC said the girl struck him as bright and conscientious as she gave evidence against Nicholas Ray (Nick Ray) at the city crown court.

“I hope she recovers from this and is able to put the past behind her,” the judge said.

In two impact statements she told police how the abuse had affected her school work and friends had to tread warily around her because she could snap at them. She underwent counselling and suffered from panic attacks.

“What has happened has affected my education and has changed my future forever.”

Ray, 41, of Tenterton Avenue, Southampton, was convicted of four counts of having sexual activity with a child. He had pleaded not guilty.

The judge told him: “You took advantage of her in a cynical, appalling way.”

Ray also received a 15-year sex offenders prevention order and was placed on the sex offenders register for life.

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A TEENAGER has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for sex offences against children as young as 11. Oliver Sturman, 19, formerly of Knighton Close, Crawley, committed offences including incitement to sexual activity and making and possession of indecent images of children. Sturman pleaded guilty to seven offences of inciting an 11-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity and one offence of causing a child to watch a sexual act on a webcam. He also pleaded guilty to four similar offences in relation to another girl aged 12, both of whom live outside Sussex. A guilty plea was also entered for ten offences of taking and possessing indecent images of other girls using a webcam. He was also sentenced after admitting sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl and causing/inciting the same victim to have sexual activity by penetration. Detective Constable Chris Smith, of the paedophile online investigation team (POLIT) of Sussex Police, said: It became clear that he had for some time been systematically approaching teenage girls online and coercing them into performing indecent acts for his enjoyment and sexual gratification, threatening to tell their friends if they refused to co-operate. However this behaviour came to our notice, and we moved swiftly to arrest him and put a stop to his vicious and unpleasant activities. After his arrest and bail in May last year, Sturman moved to Newton Road in Southampton. While living in Hampshire he also incited girls under 16 to engage in sexual activity. He pleaded guilty to the offence in court. His victims were all contacted online and received indecent messages aimed or sent with the intention of facilitating sexual activity. Sturman appeared at Southampton Crown Court on January 9 and was sentenced to five and a half years imprisonment, with a further four and a half years to be served on extended release licence. He was also required to register as a sex offender for life and was given a Sexual Offence Prevention Order (SOPO) for 12 years severely restricting his access to young girls and computers. He also admitted sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl, and causing/inciting the same victim to have sexual activity by penetration. Both offences were committed in Nottinghamshire, while he was on bail after he had moved to Southampton. DC Smith added: When we arrested him and seized his computer we found evidence of all the other offending. This case serves as a further reminder to parents and teenage children that great care needs to be taken in making contacts online. For more information on keeping young people safe online, visit sussex.police.uk and search computers and the internet.

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Lewis Daynes, 19, who lured 14-year-old he met online before murdering him, to serve minimum 25-year sentence A teenager who groomed a 14-year-old boy over the internet before slashing his throat in a sexual and sadistic attack has been sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison. Computer engineer Lewis Daynes, 19, admitted murdering Breck Bednar after luring him to his flat in Grays, Essex, on 17 February last year. Breck told his parents he was sleeping at a friends house near their home in Caterham, Surrey, but secretly travelled to see Daynes after months of talking in an online gaming forum. It was there that Daynes used duct tape to bind his young victim by his wrists and ankles before knifing him in the throat, causing him to die within seconds. Prosecutors said there was evidence of sexual activity between the pair shortly before the killing and that afterwards Daynes sent pictures of Brecks bloodied body to two of his online friends. Sentencing Daynes at Chelmsford crown court, the judge, Mrs Justice Cox, ordered him to serve life with a minimum of 25 years in prison, meaning he will be at least 44 by the time he is released. Cox said: Having lured the young victim to your flat, you murdered him. You had befriended Breck and a number of other adolescent friends through an online community. Your contact with Breck increased in a sinister way. The precise details of what happened in your flat are unclear and may never be known. Im sure that this murder was driven by sadistic or sexual motivation. There were serious questions over the police handling of the case as it emerged that Daynes was arrested on suspicion of the rape and sexual assault of a 15-year-old alleged victim three years before he attacked Breck. These offences were reported to Essex police in 2011 but the force decided not to take any action. They were then re-investigated when Daynes was brought in for questioning over Brecks murder. The Guardian revealed in November that Brecks parents, Barry Bednar and Lorin LaFave, have launched a legal action against Essex and Surrey police forces over their handling of the case. The Independent Police Complaints Commission has also launched investigations into the two forces. Daynes, who used the online monicker EagleOneSix, befriended Breck in the internet gaming group TeamSpeak in which the 19-year-old was described as the controlling ringmaster. The pair played war games like Call of Duty and Battlefield for hours, during which Daynes claimed that he worked for the US government and promised Breck great wealth through a fictional computer business. LaFave, 47, a teaching assistant from Michigan, grew increasingly concerned that Daynes was manipulating her son at one stage she confronted him online before contacting Surrey police in December 2013 over strong fears that he was being groomed and manipulated by the older man. Despite this report, the family believe no action was taken to prevent Daynes carrying out the killing two months later. Prosecutor Richard Whittam QC told the court how Daynes bought condoms, duct tape and syringes online in preparation for the attack before giving Breck a false alibi in case his parents asked questions about visiting a friend. After stabbing the 14-year-old in the neck, Daynes posted pictures of the body to at least two people and circulated news of Brecks death online. Daynes then showered and changed his clothes before calling 999, claiming in a calm voice that he had stabbed Breck while trying to stop him from taking his life. During the call, Daynes claimed he and the 14-year-old had got into an altercation, adding: Only one of us came out alive. Outlining his story in a matter-of-fact manner, the controlling killer told the operator: I grabbed the knife and stabbed him in the back of the neck, I believe somewhere near the brain stem. I dont remember exactly what happened but the fight ended with me cutting his throat. Asked by the operator if he was saying he had killed somebody, he replied simply: Yes, I am. When officers arrived at his home, they found Brecks body laying in the bedroom. Daynes had submerged his computer equipment in water to destroy evidence. In mitigation, Dayness counsel Simon Mayo QC said the 19-year-old had experienced deep-rooted feelings of rejection and isolation in his life and that he was taken into local authority care at a young age after his mother moved abroad. He felt more at home in the game world than the real world, Mayo said. Outside court, crown prosecutor Jenny Hopkins said: Our case was that Lewis Daynes, even though he was only 18 when he committed Brecks murder, was a controlling and manipulative individual who carefully planned this crime. He groomed Breck online using their shared interest in computer games and over a period of months he manipulated Breck, turning him against his family. A month before the tragic event of Brecks death, Daynes was clearly organising and planning, buying duct tape and other items online. He gave Breck a mobile phone and also sent instructions by text on the lies Breck should tell his family so he would be able to visit Dayness home in Grays, Essex. We have seen cases where young people have been groomed online but it is rare for it to culminate in such a dreadful and violent murder. The degree of planning and manipulation by Daynes is shocking and when you consider the young ages of perpetrator and victim, it stands out as one of the most cruel, violent and unusual cases we have dealt with.