Locations
Extradited from Vendelso, Sweden.
Description
A man who sexually abused a young boy in the 1980s and moved to Sweden has been jailed after an international investigation spanning 13 years.
Glenn Langrish, aka Glenn Stephens, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with another three to be spent on licence, at Hove Crown Court on Friday (2 February) for multiple child sex offences.
Langrish, 74, worked at a lawnmower repair shop in Crawley called ReeEven Hire during the 1980s.
In 1983, Langrish began communicating with a 10-year-old boy called Stephen Lewsey over a shortwave radio.
Eventually the pair arranged to meet, and Stephen began working regular weekends at the hire shop with Langrish.
Over the next several years, Langrish sexually assaulted Stephen every time he worked at the shop and when he was giving him a lift home.
The abuse stopped in 1989 when Langrish was jailed for unrelated child sex offences. On his release in 1994, he moved to Sweden and changed his name to Glenn Stephens.
Stephen, who is now 51, reported the abuse to Sussex Police in 2011 and an international search began for Langrish.
In 2016, Interpol discovered he was living in Vendelso, Sweden, with Swedish citizenship. He was interviewed by Swedish police, but as a Swedish citizen was protected from extradition back to the United Kingdom.
An international warrant was issued for his arrest should he leave Sweden and, in May 2023, Sussex Police were alerted by the National Crime Agency that Langrish was in Poland.
He was brought back from Poland by the Metropolitan Police’s extradition team on 5 July, 2023, and taken into custody at Heathrow Airport the same day.
Langrish was subsequently charged with four counts of indecency with a child and four counts of indecent assault on a child
He was found guilty on all counts at Chichester Crown Court.
At Hove Crown Court on Friday, 2 February, he was told he must serve a minimum of nine years and eight months of his custodial sentence before he is eligible for parole.