Latest Offenders

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A convicted sex offender who went on the run after climbing a fence at a secure hospital in Hampshire has been found. Stephen Munden, 54, went missing from an independent hospital in Winchfield on Tuesday evening and Dorset Police was among the forces issuing an appeal for information. Hampshire Constabulary said he handed himself into police in Thames Valley at about 00.45am yesterday. A police spokesman said: "He has been detained and taken to a mental health facility." Munden was described by police as a "vulnerable adult" with mental health treatment needs. Munden was detained at the facility under a hospital order after being sentenced for sexual offences in 2014. These were possessing, making and attempting to make indecent images of children, and sexual assault on a child under 13. The 54-year-old, who was detained under the Mental Health Act, was last spotted leaving Mildmay Oaks independent hospital in Winchfield, near Hook, but he failed to return. It has emerged that Munden climbed over a fence and fled on foot from the hospital grounds. Despite being sent to the hospital by a judge after being convicted of sexually touching a child and possessing indecent images of children, the hospital told the Daily Echo that it did not deem this patient suitable for a secure setting.

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A night-stalker rapist who targeted vulnerable women walking alone has been jailed for life.

Clive Howard, 57, of Stowmarket, Suffolk, was sentenced at Norwich Crown Court after admitting seven counts of rape, three of kidnap, and one of attempted rape against six women. Described as a dangerous sexual predator for attacks in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, he must serve at least 10 years and three months before parole eligibility.

Judge Stephen Holt said:

"This was a campaign of sexual offences over many years. Two of the victims describe you spanking them - this is additional humiliation and degradation.

"There was clearly a significant degree of planning and targeting.

"All of the victims' statements show a similar pattern of how terrified they were and the ongoing effect this has had."

Howard sobbed uncontrollably as one victim read a statement describing her struggles with anxiety, self-harm, and an eating disorder since the attack.

Fifteen women contacted police after his first court appearance, fearing they were targeted; Det Sgt Chris Burgess of Norfolk Police confirmed at least one was attacked by Howard.

He said:

"He is a very dangerous man - he was a sexual predator. There is concern that there are further victims."

Howard was caught after raping a woman in her 20s in Norwich's St Helens Wharf car park on 30 May 2014. He offered her a lift but assaulted her instead. CCTV provided a partial Volvo number plate, leading to his arrest.

His DNA matched an unsolved 2013 Cambridgeshire case where a woman fought him off, trapping his DNA under her fingernail from a scratch. This linked him to other similar attacks, Burgess said.

Howard's offences include:

• Six counts of rape against a woman in Ely between November 1986 and March 1993.
• Attempted kidnap of a woman in Glisson Road, Cambridge, at 02:15 BST on 5 May 2013.
• Attempted rape of another woman at Christ's Pieces, Cambridge, at 02:45 BST on 5 May 2013.
• Attempted kidnaps of women in Cavendish Road (02:00 BST) and Clarendon Road (04:40 BST), Cambridge, on 15 February 2014.
• Rape in St Helens Wharf car park, Norwich, on 30 May 2014.

Father-of-six Howard, a mechanic and "loner" whose marriage ended 15 years ago, lived with his parents, used dating sites, and searched for street workers. At arrest, he had an 82-year-old girlfriend.

Mitigating, Jude Durr said Howard was ashamed, felt genuine remorse, and "recognises he should have asked for help a long time ago."

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A former Cumbria Police worker has been jailed for possessing and distributing indecent images of children.

David Robinson, 46, used his computer to hunt out images and videos of child sex abuse, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

His conversations with other paedophiles were of the "most sickening nature", Judge Peter Hughes QC said.

Robinson, of Waldegrave Road, Carlisle, was jailed for six years after admitting 20 counts of possession and distribution of indecent images.

The court heard how Robinson had offered to buy a child online in order to abuse them as well as decorating a room in his house for a child before applying to become a foster carer for young boys.

The hearing was also told a number of the images were of children as young as five and were of the most serious "Category A" type.

Judge Hughes said: "Robinson had presented one face to the outside world, another deeply unattractive one online."

Robinson was employed as a front counter worker at Cumbria Police when he was arrested last October. He was immediately suspended and left the force in January.

Det Insp Doug Marshall said: "This prosecution reflects the serious nature of the images which Mr Robinson was viewing and distributing.

"Images of this nature have been created via the suffering and abuse of children and they are criminal offences."

He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders' register and given a sexual offences prevention order for life.

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Reported to be in Hadlow

A 25 year old WROTHAM man has been charged with downloading hundreds of videos and photographs of child abuse.

Lee Drury, of Borough Green Road, was found guilty of 18 offences which prosecutors claim took place between July 7 and August 20 last year.

Some of the images related to pictures classed as level A the most serious classification, which can include content involving bestiality and sadism.

Drury who lives opposite two schools in the Wrotham area of Kent was sentenced to 16 months at Maidstone Crown court

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A 28-year-old who abused his position as a Scout leader to commit sexual offences against young boys has been jailed.

Robert Hepburn, 28, unemployed, of The Fieldings, Southwater, has been sentenced over a series of sexual offences against young boys.

He was sentenced to a total of five and a half years' imprisonment at Brighton Crown Court on today having been convicted on Monday March 30, after a trial, of 18 sexual offences.

Ten of the offences were of causing or inciting engagement in sexual activity, seven were of possession of indecent images and videos of children, and one was of possessing prohibited images.

He will also be a registered sex offender for life and was served with a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) to run indefinitely, severely restricting his access to children and computers.

There was no evidence of direct physical contact offending against children and there is no evidence to suggest that any children are currently at risk.

Detective Constable Phil Peadon said:

"Hepburn was an Assistant Scout Leader with a local Scout Group.

"We arrested him in August 2012 after receiving information, and numerous indecent images and videos and some prohibited images were found on a computer we seized from his address.

"Thousands of Skype and MSN Chat Logs were also been found on the computer and a number of Skype User Ids and email addresses were created.

"He then used these Id's and email addresses to contact young boys and one young girl, some but not all of whom he met at or through the Scouts, befriending them before exchanging indecent images and sexually explicit messages and in some cases watching them carry out indecent acts on webcam.

"We have had the fullest co-operation from the Scouts Association and from local authority children's services throughout this investigation, and families of the boys concerned have been kept informed."

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A Birmingham grammar school teacher has received a suspended jail sentence after admitting making and possessing indecent images of children.

Oliver Downes, 40 and from Erdington, had also pleaded guilty in court to the production of a Class B drug, cannabis, following his arrest by police.

He had taught for more than 13 years at the prestigious Bishop Vesey Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield, a role which included him coaching rugby to pupils.

The teacher was suspended after the police investigation and he resigned from his post last July.

In a statement after the court case, a Bishop Vesey spokesman said: “The school has co-operated fully with the police. The offences relate to the former teacher’s behaviour outside of school and there is no evidence to suggest any child from the school was involved in any way.

“The member of staff was suspended and resigned on 18 July with immediate effect.”

Downes had appeared at Birmingham Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to nine counts of making indecent images of children and nine counts of possessing indecent images of children. He had also admitted production of a Class B drug, cannabis.

He received a 12 month jail sentence for making indecent images, suspended for two years, along with concurrent suspended sentences of nine months for possession of indecent images and two months for the drugs charge.

He was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work in the community. He was also ordered to attend a sex offenders’ work programme for 50 hours and was placed on a two-year supervision order.

Bishop Vesey is one of the oldest schools in the West Midlands, founded in the 16th Century. Today it caters for more than 900 pupils and has almost 100 full and part-time members of staff.

Downes, an avid football fan, had joined the school in 2001, having graduated from university in 1998.

He had previously been a student at King Edward VI School in Aston.

On his Facebook site, Downes describes himself as single and as ‘‘chilled, different, fun, intense, work that out.’’

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A JUDGE branded a serial offender as a potential danger to women when he jailed him for 20 months for sexually abusing a student in a Southampton supermarket.

David Lunn, 28, pictured, distracted the 20-year-old as she was approaching him on stairs in the Asda city centre store before groping her.

He then dropped his trousers when she walked past him on the street outside.

Lunn, of no fixed abode, admitted sexual assault and exposure.

He further pleaded guilty to stealing £190 from a cashpoint machine after taking an acquaintance's bank card.

The court heard Lunn had 36 previous convictions for 78 offences, 11 of which were for sex related offences.

As the judge told him that he was probably unaware of the affect he would have had on his victim, Lunn interrupted, shouting. "Yes, I can."

He then bawled: "You're wasting my time. I just want to be sentenced."

In addition to the jail term, Lunn was also placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

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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."