Latest Offenders

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A convicted paedophile plucked a young girl’s image from the internet then sent it to a woman, claiming it was his daughter and asking if she wanted him to perform a sex act on the child.

Archibald Smith’s sick move came shortly after he sent a video of himself masturbating to the woman.

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Brandon Smith (14/02/2000) of Larch Road in Denton, was found guilty of two counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault and one assault by penetration.

He was sentenced to 12-and-a-half years at Bolton Crown Court today (Wednesday 30 April 2025) for raping and sexually assaulting a woman in July 2024. Smith will then serve three years on extended licence. 

On Friday 5 July 2024, Smith launched his attack on the woman, who was not known to him, grabbed her and threatened to stab her if she made any noise.

He then dragged her down a path off King Street and Pitt Street in Hyde before he carried out a sustained sexual attack.

He told the woman he had been watching her for six months and following the attack, he made threats to harm her family if she said anything.

Following an investigation, Smith was arrested on Sunday 7 July 2024. After a trial at Bolton Crown Court, he was found guilty on all five counts on Wednesday 8 January 2025.

Brandon Smith was jailed for 12-and-a-half years.

Description

A man has been sentenced after he sexually assaulted a woman at Creamfields music festival in Daresbury.

Gergel Ludanyi, of Adelaide Road, Southampton, appeared at Chester Crown Court on Friday 25 April, where he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

The 35-year-old was earlier found guilty of sexual assault by penetration, and two counts of sexual assault by touching.

During the trial, the court heard how the victim had attended the Creamfields music festival with a group of friends in August 2022. Whilst there, and in the early hours of the morning, the victim was approached by Ludanyi, who had been working on the fairground at the festival.

Ludanyi tried to kiss the victim, but she pushed him away. She then started to feel unwell and lay down on the floor before losing consciousness.

When the victim regained consciousness, the sun had risen and Ludanyi was on top of her. She tried to push him off of her before again losing consciousness.

During this time, a witness reported seeing Ludanyi move the victim’s clothing as he sexually assaulted her - all while the victim laid there unconscious.

It’s unknown how much time had passed when the victim woke up to Ludanyi lying on top of her. She pushed him off her for the third time before the witness approached and helped her to her feet. The women then reported the incident to security and Cheshire Police.

Subsequently, Ludanyi was arrested and later charged in relation to the incident.

Description

A seedy pervert drove around east Hull looking opportunities to approach and attack unsuspecting women – and filmed himself grabbing and intimately touching one woman as she walked home alone.

Dylan Templeman made random attacks on women – two of them within an hour of each other – and he was part of a social media group who filmed themselves performing lewd acts in public, a court heard. Templeman, 22, of Severn Street, off Holderness Road, east Hull, admitted two offences of sexual assault on women on September 21 last year.

He also admitted exposing himself to a mother and her stepdaughter in Hull on September 14 and a further offence of having indecent images of children. Julia Baggs, prosecuting, told Grimsby Crown Court that a mother and stepdaughter were walking through Sutton village at 8.40pm on September 14 when the stepdaughter became aware of a man walking closely behind them in a suspicious manner.

When they turned around in Burlington Road, he had exposed himself and was playing with himself. When he was challenged by the women, he ran off. Police were called and, through an identification procedure, they were able to identify the culprit.

On September 21, a woman was walking home alone at 12.20am in Hull, when she was suddenly grabbed on her bottom by a man. She shouted at him and he fled. The woman heard the engine of a car start up nearby and she spotted a small black car.

About 40 minutes later, another woman was walking home after her night shift at 1am on a road in east Hull, about a mile away from where the first sexual assault incident happened.

A man suddenly appeared and grabbed the woman between her legs and touched her intimately. The shocked woman broke free and ran off, pursued by the man. He ran into Bedale Avenue and got into his car.

The victims of both sexual assaults were able to give descriptions of the attacker. Police traced the car the following evening and Templeman was arrested. Analysis of his phone showed footage, which he had taken himself, of him grabbing the woman in the second assault.

Details were given in court of some of the footage shown on a social media platform in which people carried out disgusting acts in public. Templeman had three cautions for sex offences and battery in 2022.

Oliver Shipley, mitigating, said that Templeman had expressed a degree of shame and embarrassment and he said that he was deeply sorry for his actions. He was working in the information technology sector and lived at home with his mother.

Judge Gurdial Singh said that Templeman joined an online group in which "like-minded members boasted about what they did and encouraged people to do the same". The women were vulnerable because they were walking home at night.

Templeman was jailed for two years and seven months. He was given a sexual harm prevention order for life and he must register as a sex offender for life.

Description

A predator who raped a vulnerable underage girl has been jailed for ten-and-a-half-years.

Toray Douglas, who goes by the nickname 'Shotty', picked up the 15-year-old as she walked alone in Birmingham city centre on June 20 last year.

He bought her something to eat and they exchanged messages to meet at his bedsit the same night.

Birmingham Crown Court heard she was in the care of Birmingham City Council and had run away from a centre on the night of the attack.

Staff alerted police who tracked her phone to Douglas' HMO bedsit where they were found in bed.

When the victim was returned to her care home by police, she confided in a support worker that she had been raped.

Following an earlier trial Douglas, of Blakeland Street, Bordesley Green, was found guilty of one charge of rape and one of assault by penetration.

At his sentencing hearing, Stefan Kolodynsky, prosecuting, said the victim told Douglas "no" when he said they were going to have sex.

Mr Kolodynsky said: "He then proceeded to have sex with her, at the time he knew she was 15. He knew she was vulnerable."

Neil Baki, defending, said: "He's now 38, he's been in some trouble in the past but nothing like this.

"He's going to find his time in custody difficult because of this."

Sentencing Douglas, Judge Sarah Buckingham said the victim "has been left feeling anxious, cautious and scared in the company of men".

Douglas, who has a string of previous convictions, was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for the rest of his life.

Description

A SEX OFFENDER from Cumbria who had secret sexualised conversations online with a 15-year-old has been jailed.

When police arrived at Billy Sowerby’s home address, they found him hurriedly attempting to eradicate any evidence of his wrongdoing by deleting his phone's WhatsApp application, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

Despite his initial denials, the defendant, 35, was also found to have other devices which he had failed to tell the police about.

Sowerby, of Croft Close, Kirkby Stephen, who was once described as a "danger to children" by a national children's charity, admitted four breaches of his existing sexual harm prevention order.

They consisted of him contacting the 15-year-old, deleting his internet history, and failing to notify his offender manager of two social media accounts.

The court heard that Sowerby was given the order in 2016 when he was given a three year jail term for his first set of sexual offences.

They involved him sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 16 and engaging in sexual activity with a child.

His latest offences came to light after police visited the defendant at his home and found him in the process of deleting his WhatsApp from a phone. When challenged about this, he claimed it was to protect somebody he had contacted.

Police later confirmed that he had been messaging a 15-year-old girl.

When police arrived at his home, he claimed to have no other digital devices other than the phone he was handling.

But when the officers said they would search the house, he went to his bedroom and retrieved another iPhone while there was a third device he had access to in the living room.

His messages confirmed he was providing the teenager with vapes, but he asked the girl to not tell her parents about this. There was also evidence he talked with her about sex and asked intimate questions.

“Her mother was completely unaware of this contact,” said the prosecutor in court, pointing out that the girl said the conversations left her feeling uncomfortable.

The prosecutor said the defendant’s online communications – and his searches online – revealed his “high level of sexual preoccupation.”

“This was determined offending for the gratification of his sexual interests,” said the barrister.

Gerard Rogerson, defending, said Sowerby was aware of how serious his situation looked, bearing in mind his record, but the defendant recognised that the girl was going through a difficult time in her life.

“He chose to speak to her about some of the issues that were causing her difficulties,” said the barrister. “He was trying to encourage her to be herself and not to change or bend to the will of other people, particularly her peers.”

He had wanted to make himself available to the teenager as somebody she could speak to, trespassing on to the remit of her parents by offering a “kindly shoulder to cry on,” said Mr Rogerson.

The barrister added that Sowerby’s online searches – including about the age of consent in different European countries – were motived by simple curiosity after the issue was mentioned in a media article he had read.

Sowerby did not even own a passport, added Mr Rogerson.

Recorder Ciaran Rankin said Sowerby’s chats with the teenager were at times “highly sexualised” in their nature, as were some of his online searches. The judge said: “I am afraid I do not accept that your communication with [the girl] was at any stage entirely innocent or from laudable motives.

“And I don’t accept that your searches were entirely out of curiosity. They were all clearly very highly sexually motivated.”

Sowerby - said by the NSPCC in 2016 to be danger to children - was jailed for five years.

It will be up to the Chief Constable to decide whether to apply to the court to have the defendant’s sexual harm prevention order extended beyond next year, when it is due to expire.

Description

A convicted child sex offender ordered a pregnant woman to stop on a motorway using a flashing orange light on his dashboard and told her he was a military police officer, a court has heard.

Sinister Sidney McLagan pursued 29-year-old Sian Owen down the M90 and flashed his full beam headlights at her until she pulled over.

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A predator who prowled online chatrooms sent explicit images to a ‘girl’ before arranging for them to have sex.

Darren Warner struck up a conversation with 13-year-old ‘Maisie’, who was a police officer posing as a teen.

The pair quickly moved from an online chat forum to Kik, where the girl revealed her age to Warner.

Plans were made for them to meet “in a public park or car park in Southampton” to have sex at the end of May 2024 but the plug was pulled by Warner, Southampton Crown Court heard.

Prosecuting, Lucy Taylor said: “Communication between the defendant and the ‘girl’ including them agreeing to have sex, with Warner asking what she would wear and where it would happen.

“The pair also spoke about having different kinds of sex together.

“A discussion was had about them meeting at the end of May, but Warner said his car had broken down so he could no longer meet.”

The court heard how the 49-year-old sent two explicit images to the ‘girl’ and encouraged her to carry out sexual acts on herself.

Warner was arrested by police on June 1, 2024, two days after he was due to meet the ‘girl’ for sex.

Mitigating, Keely Harvey said the severity of his actions hit home months before he was charged.

“Mr Warner contacted two organisations to help rehabilitate him in September 2024, three months before he was charged”, she said.

“He had that sudden realisation that it was wrong, and he stopped himself.

“He is determined to make sure this never happens again and has demonstrated that he can be rehabilitated.”

Warner, of Fairfield Road, Salisbury, pleaded guilty to a charge of arranging or facilitating sexual activity with a child involving penetration, intentionally causing a child to look at an image of a person engaging in sexual activity, and a charge of attempted to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity.

He also admitted a charge of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

Judge Nigel Peters KC described Warner’s approach as “exceptional” as he “accepted the behaviour was wrong”.

“I have never come across a case where a defendant has paid, more than £700, for some rehabilitation prior to being charged."

Warner was handed a two-year sentence suspended for two years.

He must complete 26 sessions with probation and five rehabilitation activity days, pay £150 costs and is on the sex offenders’ register for ten years.

Description

Warwick Crown Court heard yesterday that 31-year-old Joshua Ashby, of Rugby, was jailed for 10 years and 8 months.

He pleaded guilty to breaching a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO), two charges of inciting girls to engage in and watch sexual activity, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a person under 16, and failing to comply with his sex offender registration.

Following an 18-month sentence and two orders imposed in October 2015, Ashby was jailed for 25 months in February 2019 after pleading guilty to breaching his SHPO and failing to comply with his sex offender registration.

As a high-risk sex offender, Ashby has been managed by our Sex Offender Management Unit (SOMU) in the north of the county since then. He’s been subject to intense offender management and as a result of the work by the unit, we were able to charge and remand Ashby in custody last year for a breach of his order where he communicated with a 13 year old child. He pled guilty to this charge, and was subsequently sentenced on all counts.

DS Kim Stafford said, “As a team it’s our job to enforce the conditions when someone like Ashby is released into the community. By being proactive, we’ve got a prolific sex offender back behind bars.

“An SHPO is a civil order, but it was given on conviction for Ashby due to the nature of his offences. We have a number of options at our disposal to keep the public safe from sexual predators, and we use them effectively.”

Description

An asylum seeker who arrived in the country on a small boat raped a woman in the centre of Norwich after she left a nightclub.

Dan Tesfalul, an Eritrean who has been in the UK since 2022, attacked his victim on Rose Lane before running off when challenged by a security guard.

He was initially charged with raping the woman three times on the same occasion.

However, after he pleaded guilty to one charge, prosecutors agreed to let the other two counts lie on file.

Appearing at Norwich Crown Court yesterday, he was jailed for eight years and three months.

His sentencing came on the day Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, announced plans she said would make it harder for asylum seekers convicted of sex offences to stay in the UK.

The court was told that Tesfalul had left Eritrea seven years ago and arrived by boat in the UK in 2022.

The war-torn country, in the Horn of Africa, is home to just 3.6 million people but Eritreans have made up the fourth-largest group of asylum seekers in the UK in recent years.

As an asylum seeker, Tesfalul - who had been studying for a psychology degree in his home country - was granted leave to remain in November 2023.

At the time of the attack, in May 2024, he had been staying at the Brook Hotel in Bowthorpe, one of two hotels in Norwich used by the Home Office as a temporary home for those seeking asylum.

He had been drinking in Norwich city centre on the evening of May 2, 2024, when he spotted the victim in Qube nightclub, on Prince of Wales Road.

He bought drinks for the woman before she went to buy food. He also left the nightclub and approached her on nearby Mountergate.

Stephen Spence, prosecuting, said that although the victim was too intoxicated to remember what happened to her other witnesses saw her being raped by the 27-year-old in a grassed area near Rose Lane car park.

Mr Spence said a woman leaving the car park saw the victim on the grass with the defendant having sex with her.

The witness became concerned after she heard the woman "screaming out" and called police. 

A car park security guard also realised something was wrong and after challenging Tesfalul the defendant pulled up his trousers and ran off.

Mr Spence said he was arrested in Whitefriars a short while later.

Sentencing Tesfalul to an extended sentence of 13 years and five months - eight years three months custody and five years on licence - Judge Alice Robinson told him: "This was a horrific attack on a lone intoxicated female in the middle of the night resulting in a number of bruises and deep distress."

She said Tesfalul had "specifically targeted" the victim who was particularly vulnerable and unable to defend herself through drink.

The judge said he was an "extremely dangerous" offender who had demonstrated a "predatory sexual manner" toward the victim.

Before the sentencing, the victim read out a statement in which she said: "It was such a horrible attack when I was at my most vulnerable."
She said was now “scared of being out alone in case it might happen again”.

“I feel scared of men and feel they are out to get me and rape me too.

“It’s horrible to feel scared of every man you see when in the city and in the shops."

The victim also said she now "hates people touching me", keeps herself "hidden away" and just wants to "curl up into a ball".

Matthew Sorel-Cameron, mitigating, said Tesfalul knows the victim "will have to live with the consequences of his actions".

He said the defendant was deeply sorry and profoundly ashamed” to have caused the suffering she had.

Mr Sorel-Cameron said the defendant deserved credit for his plea.

The defence barrister said the alcohol the victim had taken made her vulnerable but insisted there was “insufficient evidence” to say him buying her drinks had been a “calculated” act to “make this offence easier”.

He said the defendant had “been out by chance at the same time” as the victim.

Mr Sorel-Cameron said Tesfalul, whose own father died while "crossing the Mediterranean in a boat when the defendant was four or five", had been studying software development at the time of the offence.

Speaking after the sentencing, detective constable Dave Block said: "I hope this conviction and sentence serves to re-enforce the message that in Norfolk, dedicated detectives investigate reports of sexual offences thoroughly and that courts take these matters seriously.

"I would like to commend the members of the public who intervened in this incident, the police officers who attended swiftly and professionally, and most of all the victim who has engaged with us throughout the investigation. “

Tesfalul was made the subject of a restraining order banning him for contacting the victim directly or indirectly for 15 years.

He was also put on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

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A man has been jailed for engaging in sexual activity with a person with a mental disorder impeding choice.

The incident happened in the sauna at Hyndburn Leisure Centre in Accrington on 16th January 2022.

Stephen Tate, 69, approached his victim and without warning performed a sexual act on him.

The victim, who was 19 at the time and has severe learning difficulties, did not want that to happen.

He reported the incident to his dad, who had come to collect him and pointed out Tate to him.

The victim’s dad told Tate to wait but he ignored him and got into his black BMW and drove off.

The victim’s dad took note of the vehicle registration number and reported the matter to the police.

Tate, of Gordon Street, Church, was arrested and later charged with engaging in Sexual Activity with a person with a mental disorder impeding choice. He was found guilty following a trial at Preston Crown Court in December last year.

Tate returned to the same court today (29th April) where he was jailed for six years. He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life and was barred from working with children and vulnerable people. Tate was also made subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order, which bans him from entering any public sauna, steam room or solarium

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A serial city centre sex attacker who targeted a drunk student in a disturbing attack has been branded a danger and jailed.

Hosien Nedjad has repeatedly sexually and physically assaulted women on nights out in Newcastle in offences spanning almost a decade. Despite already being on the sex offenders register, he subjected a young woman who had become separated from her friends to a disgusting attack inside a bar.

Now, having evaded justice by fleeing to Germany for more than three years, the failed asylum seeker has finally been jailed and was told he is likely to be deported.

Newcastle Crown Court heard the victim was on a night out in Newcastle in 2019 when she ended up in Soho Room, on Mosley Street. By the early hours of the morning, she was drunk and had become separated from her friends.

Nedjad was in the same bar and sexually assaulted the student. Philip Morley, prosecuting, said: "He took the opportunity to put his hand, initially, down the front of her jeans and started to grab at her.

"She asked him not to and tried to push his hands away. However at this point he grabbed her arms and pushed her forward onto the bar and pulled her jeans further down."

After finishing his attack, Nedjad left the victim crying and distressed and she pulled her jeans back up. Forensic tests revealed Nedjad's DNA on her clothing.

In a victim impact statement, she said she finds it difficult to put her ordeal into words and she thinks about it every day. She has been left struggling with anxiety and has needed therapy and medication and struggles to sleep.

She added: "I relive the night so often but it still paralyses me." She added that she has been left questioning whether she is safe and has been "plagued by flashbacks so severe they have been mistaken for seizures".

She added: "The outside world is terrifying and exhausting. I can't feel safe or trust anyone ever again."

The court heard Nedjad was convicted of common assault against four women in 2011 at Beyond bar. He pulled one victim to the floor and punched her and when three of her friends intervened, he punched them too.

In 2013, he assaulted two women at the Magic Flame takeaway, in Newcastle, punching both of them in the face. Then in 2014, he sexually assaulted a woman in Newcastle city centre, pushing her against railings, molesting her and trying to pull her pants down despite her telling him to stop. He was placed on the sex offenders register for seven years after that offence.

While he was being investigated for the attack in Soho Rooms, he sexually assaulted a woman in Popworld, in Newcastle, lifting up her dress while he had his trousers unbuttoned.

For the Soho Rooms offence, Nedjad, of Brighton Grove, Newcastle, was found guilty of sexual assault after a trial in his absence and pleaded guilty to a Bail Act offence after going to Germany for three-and-a-half years, evading justice. He was found last year and sent back here.

Sentencing the 42-year-old to four years in prison with an extended licence period of a further four years and ordering to sign the sex offenders register for life, Judge Edward Bindloss said he poses a significant risk and is a dangerous offender.

He told him: "You took advantage of the fact she was on her own and in drink. She described the last five years as being in the prison of her own mind. This has had a significant and profound effect upon her."

He added: "You have relevant previous convictions. In all of them, you targeted females at night. You touched them either physically or sexually, even though they said no."

The court heard Nedjad came to this country in 2007 and had worked as a chef and Amazon driver. Judge Bindloss said he is a failed asylum seeker and is likely to be deported having been given a sentence of more than 12 months.

Andrew Walker, defending, said Nedjad is embarrassed and remorseful and has not consumed alcohol for three-and-a-half years. He added that he is a "capable and resourceful individual" with a good work ethic.

Description

A brazen sex offender has been jailed after he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl on a train to Sevenoaks.

Petro Ninichuk, 37, and of Station Street, Brighton, pleaded guilty to sexual assault at Inner London Crown Court on 11 April. He has been sentenced to 19 weeks in prison and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for seven years.

On Sunday 27 January 2024, the victim was walking through a train with her friend when Ninichuk grabbed her hand and pulled her to sit on the seat in front of him.

She told him she was only 15-years-old in the hope it would stop his advances, but Ninichuk was non-deterred and brazenly sexually assaulted her in a prolonged attack.

The victim’s friend approached another passenger who intervened and invited the girls to sit with him.

When the train reached Sevenoaks the victim’s friend alerted security staff who identified Ninichuk on the train. While he was with security staff Ninichuk spotted the victim who had been taken to safety in the station office and was trying to get near her, telling them “that’s my girlfriend”. Staff called BTP who arrived and arrested him immediately.

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On Monday 28 April at Liverpool Crown Court, Ashley Darbyshire (01/01/1997), of Bolton, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he was found guilty of grooming, raping and sexually assaulting underage girls in Blackrod, Bolton, between 2016-2018. He will serve 10 years in custody.

He has been put on the Sex Offenders' Register for life. 

He was the main offender of a group of sexual predators who preyed upon young teenage girls in the local area.

On the first day of a sentencing set to last into tomorrow (29 April), Darbyshire was sentenced alongside three other men.

The offences began in 2016 when the primary offender, Darbyshire, who was 19 at the time, first came into contact with the primary victim, a girl aged 13.  

He went on to introduce her to nine of his friends, and they went on to use and abuse her at their disposal on numerous occasions into 2018. 

The group of men were all convicted of a range of sexual offences - over 30 convictions between them - including rape, sexual assault and sexual activity with a child under 16. 

The men, who were all aged from between 17 and 29 at the time when the offences began, also approached the other victims, all girls under the age of 16, via private messaging and social media platforms. 

They got to know the girls from where many local teenagers would hang out and socialise near the community centre. 

The men plied some of the victims with alcohol and drugs. Some of them would send indecent images of their private body parts to the girls as well as initiating sexual conversations with them on messaging platforms.  

The group were friends of a male who was 17 at the time, and would visit his main home address where he lived with his father, a rented property in Blackrod, where most of the offences took place.  

He was a regular drug-user and would often bring his friends over to the house where they would hangout, use drugs and drink alcohol.

After a while, some of the friends would stay over at the address, and over time, the property deteriorated into a squalid condition. The men punched holes through the internal doors, smashed lightbulbs and even urinated in the corners of some of the rooms.  

The offences eventually came to light after an incident involving one of the victims and another defendant, on Sunday 17 June 2018.  

He messaged her to come over to an address in Blackrod. He was intoxicated and took some car keys belonging to his friend's father. 

The defendant left the house and sped off in the car with the 15-year-old girl travelling as a passenger. He drove round a bend, swerving to miss an oncoming vehicle, and crashed the car into a row of parked vehicles.   

The impact set the airbags off and caused a cut to the girl’s eye.  

On waking up for school the next day her eye was badly swollen. She initially told her mother and teachers at school that she had fallen out of bed when they asked her what had happened.  

Her friends became suspicious and told teachers of their concerns which led to the victim confessing and other victims coming forward.  

The police were notified, and an investigation was launched.  

Ashley Darbyshire (01/01/1997), of Bolton, was convicted of three counts of rape, 12 counts of sexual activity with a child, three counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and one count of making indecent photographs of a child. He was sentenced to 15 years, to serve 10. 

Brandon Harwood, (20/09/1999), of Bolton, was convicted of one count of rape, one count of attempted oral rape and one count of sexual activity with a child under 16. He was sentenced to 10 years, to serve two thirds. He has ben placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for life.

Ross Corley (14/01/1995) was convicted of two counts of sexual activity with a child and sentenced to 28 months in prison and given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. He has been placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years.

Another man convicted of two counts of sexual activity with a child under 16, was sentenced to 15 months, suspended for two years. He will do 100 hours of unpaid work and has been given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. He has been placed on the Sex Offenders' register for 10 years.

The men, many of whom showed no remorse for their actions in court, were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday 28 April 2025. The sentencing of the remaining defendants will continue into tomorrow (Tuesday 29 April 2025).  

Description

A 71-year-old man from Wootton Bridge has been jailed for 18 years after being found guilty of eight counts of non-recent sexual offences against three children in Ryde and East Cowes between 1994 and 2012.

On 14 July 2022 we received a third party report relating to a 26-year-old woman who had been physically, sexually, and mentally abused when she was under the age of 16 by Keith Matthews of Mary Rose Avenue. Subsequent enquiries identified a 28-year-old woman who was also a victim of similar offences by Matthews when she was under the age of 18. Following Matthews initial arrest on 28 July 2022 a 42-year-old woman came forward and reported that she had also been sexually assaulted by Matthews when she was under the age of 16. The offences all took place between 1994 and 2012 in Ryde and East Cowes.

Following a thorough investigation Matthews was charged on Monday 22 April 2024.

At Newport Crown Court on Friday 4 April 2025 Matthews was found guilty of the following after a thirteen day trial:

• Indecent assault – victim age 12-13 / multiple incidents.
• Engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child – victim age 8-9.
• Rape of a female – victim age 14-15.
• Assault by penetration – victim age 13-14 / multiple incidents.
• Two counts of sexual assault – victim age 13-14 / multiple incidents.
• Two counts of assault by penetration – victim age 13-14.

He was sentenced to a combined total of 18 years in prison at  Court on Wednesday 23 April 2025.