Latest Offenders

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An engineer who lost his job when he was arrested on suspicion of being a paedophile has avoided jail after being convicted by a jury.

Michael Insch sent an indecent video of himself to a female decoy he believed was a 13-year-old girl.

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A man in his 40s pulled his trousers down and pleasured himself near a children's play area in a popular park, a court has heard. Police then found Daniel Thyer had been "grooming" a young boy with gifts of vapes and energy drinks.

Sending the defendant to prison, a judge at Swansea Crown Court said he had engaged in "predatory sexual behaviour" with the child. Georgia Donohue, prosecuting, told the court that on February 26 this year a woman walking through Swansea's Morriston Park saw a man sitting on a grass bank near a children's play area with his trousers around his ankles.

She said the man was seen holding his mobile phone with one hand and masturbating with the other. The court heard there were no children in the play area at the time but the woman did see two teenage boys cycling near the defendant.

The barrister said the woman was "disgusted" at Thyer's behaviour and called the police. Officers arrived at the park and arrested the 41-year-old defendant who said he was there to meet somebody, and he said he had been "adjusting his trousers". 

The court heard that when officers examined the defendant's phone they found he had been in contact with a boy and in messages between the two had talked about masturbation.

Officers identified and located the child and spoke to him, and the boy disclosed a series of incidents when Thyer had put his hands down his trousers, pushed his erect penis into him from behind over his clothes, and had touched his bottom. The child also said the defendant had given him vapes, money and energy drinks.

In a victim statement read to the court by the prosecutor, the defendant said he now suffers with sleepless nights and feels "uncomfortable" around grown men, and he said he "keeps himself to himself" at school.

Daniel James Thyer - also known as Daniel David - of Brangwyn Close, Morriston, had previously pleaded guilty to exposure, four counts of sexual activity with a child, and one count of sexual activity with a child when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.

Charlotte Surley, for Thyer, said the defendant had learning difficulties and a pre-sentence report outlined that he may have an "emotional congruence" with children.

Judge Huw Rees said there was "clear evidence of grooming behaviour" in the offending and said the defendant had engaged in "predatory sexual behaviour".

With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas, Thyer was sentenced to 12 months in prison. He was also made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and will be a registered sex offender for the same length of time.

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A convicted sex offender sought out the services of an escort and ended up behind bars. Matthew Bushell had only recently been released from prison when he was caught breaching restrictions that are designed to prevent him from committing crimes of a sexual nature.

Having been quickly rumbled by the police, he then confessed to his attempts to cover his tracks as he "thought he could get away with it". Back in jail, he now "understands that he needs to try to stop getting into trouble".

Liverpool Crown Court heard this afternoon, Tuesday, that Bushell is subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order as a result of a conviction for sexual assault in 2014. This prevents the 52-year-old from deleting his internet history, amongst a number of other terms restricting his online activities.

Ben Stanley, prosecuting, described how Merseyside Police paid a visit to the defendant's then home on Cobden Road in Southport on June 3 last year, shortly after his release from an earlier spell in jail, in order to ensure his compliance with the order. While Bushell handed over his mobile phone and a tablet computer upon request, it was subsequently discovered that he had wiped the browsing history of both devices earlier the same day.

When questioned on the matter, he claimed that he "didn't want prison staff to see his browsing history while he was in prison". The PC however pointed out that these electronics were not available to him when he was locked up, at which stage he "admitted that he must have deleted it while intoxicated".

Investigations thereafter discovered that Bushell had wiped the internet history from his phone on 356 previous occasions, as well as 125 times from the tablet computer. It was further established that he had searched for terms relating to online sex chats, pornographic websites and escort page Viva Street.

Following his arrest, Bushell confessed under interview that he "was doing stuff he shouldn't have" and had deleted his browsing history as he was "scared and thought he could get away with it". His criminal record shows a total of nine previous convictions for 19 offences, including flouting the terms of the same order in 2016 and 2021.

Bushell has since been recalled on licence in relation to a 16-month sentence he received in July 2024 for seven counts of breaching his SHPO, and is not due to be released until November this year. Desmond Lennon, defending, told the court: "He had material on those devices which he accepts that he should not have had.

"He readily accepts that conduct. He hopes that he would have perhaps moved on from it, but, at the moment, it seems that he is unable to do so. He has had significant issues with alcohol abuse.

"He understands that he does need to try to stop getting himself into trouble in terms of his interests and to stop getting himself in breach of this order. He is in his 50s, and he really does need to move on if he possibly can."

Bushell admitted one count of breaching a sexual harm prevention order. Appearing via video link to HMP Risley wearing a grey t-shirt two days after his birthday, he was jailed for a further eight months.

Sentencing, Recorder Mark Ainsworth said: "This order has been in place, in one form or another, since May 2014. There is no doubt that you were aware of the requirements. It became clear that the search history on these devices had been deleted, which, of course, was a breach of the order.

"You accepted that you were doing stuff that you should not have been doing and deleted your history, and you did that because you were scared of the consequences and thought you could get away with it. The real problem, in this case, is the fact that this is not the first time that you have been before the court for such breaches."

16 Dec 2021 - Liverpool Echo

Groped women and sucked their fingers in his home.

A sex attacker placed adverts for topless women to clean his home.

Matthew Bushell, 48, is banned from advertising for women to contact him as a result of past sex attacks.

The pervert lured two female victims to his home under false pretences then molested them in 2013.

Courts have heard about his "unhealthy obsession" with sex and history of using sex workers and escorts.

But last December he flouted the ban by placing 32 ads for what he called "consensual sexual entertainment".

Bushell was convicted of two sexual assaults in May 2014 after putting adverts on Gumtree for female cleaners.

Explaining the "context" to his latest offence, Simon Duncan, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court one woman met him at Southport train station in June 2013.

Mr Duncan said Bushell took her to his home in Cobden Road, Southport, where "he grabbed her, kissed her and sucked her fingers", so she left and called police.

Officers went to his house the next day and found another woman, there "under the pretence of a job interview".

She didn't make any criminal allegations, but then a second female victim came forward, who had also responded to a Gumtree advert.

She went to Bushell's house that April, but when she arrived, he asked her if she would clean topless for cash.

Mr Duncan said he "put his hand down her pants and touched her breasts and offered her money to stay the night".

Bushell was sentenced to a hospital order and hit with an indefinite Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO).

He was released from hospital in February 2015 and then monitored by Merseyside Police's sex offender unit.

Mr Duncan said "suspicions were building" for officers in October 2020, when they examined his electronic devices and found search terms "of concern", but no evidence of any offences.

However, in February this year, police discovered he had placed ads on the website Viva Street under the username "CoolBoy47" asking women if they wanted "horny fun".

Mr Duncan said: "He was inviting females to call, text or WhatsApp at any time."

He said Bushell placed 32 adverts for women on Viva Street between December 10 and 16 "inviting them to engage in sex work, some advertising for topless cleaning services, and others offered payment for sexual services".

Mr Duncan said: "He has a history of using sex workers and strangely on occasions reporting his dissatisfaction with their services to the police."

He added: "He was interviewed on March 29, 2021. He admitted that he created the Viva Street account with a view to some 'consensual sexual entertainment'."

Bushell admitted placing the adverts and said he received "a fair few responses" but only chatted to them on the phone and then stopped because he feared it would be discovered.

He admitted breaching his SOPO.

Bushell was previously convicted of breaching the order in February 2018, when he was spared jail after placing ads for female house cleaners.

Mr Duncan said he was later convicted of harassment against a female doctor, who had once treated him, by sending her "abusive and insulting messages" and calls.

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A father and son have been sentenced after they were both fond guilty of a string of sexual assaults against young girls in Shropshire.

Hugh Hughes, of Lion Lane in Clee Hull, Ludlow was given an 18-year custodial sentence on Thursday (June 12) at Shrewsbury Crown Court. He will also be placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.

The 72-year-old was found guilty in April 2025 of the following offences:

• Six counts of sexual assault against a female child under the age of 13
• 12 counts of indecent assault on a child under 14
• One count of sexual assault against a female

The offences took place between 1987 and 2021 and involved a number of victims.

On Thursday (June 12) Lyle Huges, also of Lion Lane in Clee Hull, Ludlow was given an 18-month community order, and told he must complete 100 hours of unpaid work.

The 23-year-old will also be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for five years.

He was found guilty of sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault on a child in April 2025. The offences took place between 2014 and 2021.

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An online sex offender from Arbroath used a “Mr Bean” Facebook profile to engage in smutty chats with female teenagers.

Social media creep Norman Mathieson thought both teenagers he was talking to were 15.

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A janitor has been placed on the sex offenders register for filming two children having sex on the grounds of a Dundee secondary school.

Graeme Strachan admitted recording the youngsters – aged 13 and 14 – on his mobile phone before sharing the footage with friends.

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A serially-convicted paedophile has lost an appeal against his latest prison sentence.

Former teacher Michael Costin, who molested a string of boys across two decades, insisted he received no sexual gratification from his crimes and only abused his victims for their own benefit.

The sex offender’s victims spoke out at a two-day sentencing hearing last July, describing the decades of torment they had suffered because of his abuse.

One aided police from beyond the grave, having died but left behind a letter detailing Costin’s crimes and their impact.

Costin, then 59, was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court last year to 15 years in prison, after being convicted of 22 offences of indecent assault.

The crimes began in the 1980s, when he served as a young scout leader at St Augustine’s Church in Rush Green, Romford.

He continued abusing children in the 1990s in Sussex, where he worked as a teacher in Ipswich and volunteered as a scout leader in Kirton.

He performed sex acts on boys aged 11 to 15 and “encouraged some boys to engage in sexual activity with each other”.

Judge Alex Gordon described the crimes as “repeated, brazen, manipulative and abusive offending”.

One victim said Costin had created an environment where such offending was “normalised”.

The now 60-year-old paedophile, known to victims as Mick, was already serving an indeterminate prison sentence for public protection before the latest charges, having racked up a catalogue of prior child sex convictions.

He was first convicted of abusing scouts in Sussex in 1996 and jailed for two years.

After his release, he relocated to Abingdon in Oxfordshire where, in 2007, he began abusing a 13-year-old boy. Over time, the boy’s girlfriend was also introduced into the abuse. Costin plied them both with drugs and booze and molested them, a court later heard.

By the time he was brought to justice for his Abingdon crimes, Costin had returned to Romford and become chairman of Millwall Rugby Club on the Isle of Dogs, despite already being a convicted child molester.

When he was prosecuted for the Oxfordshire crimes, he also faced prosecution for molesting a 17-year-old boy in a vehicle outside the east London rugby club.

It was after these convictions that he received his indeterminate sentence.

Appealing against his latest sentence, Costin argued the lengthy investigation into the most recent charges had affected his prospects of parole from that existing indeterminate sentence.

He had been eligible for parole since 2015, if a parole board could be persuaded he was safe to release.

But after the new investigation began in 2017, he was “returned to closed conditions” in prison, which “blocked any progress as regards his release on temporary license or for a period of testing prior to release into the community”.

Barrister Sarah Morris said there were then “unjustified delays” in bringing Costin to trial.

But prosector Walton Hornsby countered that while the first complainant came forward in 2017, others followed in 2021 and 2022, with police ultimately investigating “a large number of offences”.

Three High Court judges – Lord Justice Fraser, Mr Justice Hilliard and Mr Justice Constable – upheld the 15-year sentence, saying Costin was at least partly to blame for the delays.

“The appellant did not admit some of the offences until a very late stage in the proceedings and continued to deny others,” they wrote.

“Had the appellant admitted the offending at the beginning of the investigative process, no doubt he would have been sentenced far earlier in time than he was.”

They added that while it was possible he might have received parole, that was “entirely hypothetical" and “speculation”.

Even if he had, they said, he would have been released “in ignorance of the true scale of [his] offending”, given he now has 22 further convictions for offences he had never admitted in custody, despite rehabilitation courses encouraging him to admit and express remorse for all his crimes.

Instead, he denied offences which jurors later convicted him of and “was still claiming he had not received sexual gratification for himself from the offending, but had been seeking to enable the victims to receive pleasure for themselves”.

“Had these factors been known about by the parole board… they would have been bound to have had a considerable impact upon the assessment of risk that he presented,” the judges wrote.

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A pervert must now sign on the sex offenders register after he messaged “two girls” on Snapchat with pictures of his genitals.

Michael Wells, from Gillingham, thought he was chatting to two schoolgirls, aged 13 and 14, when he sent the sexual messages on the social communication app.

The 35-year-old, not only sent them both images of his erect penis, he also sent one of them a video of himself masturbating after he started talking to what he thought was 14-year-old girl called Molly and a 13-year-old called Maisie.

However, what the pervert didn’t know was that he was messaging two decoys who were, in fact, undercover police officers.

Wells, of Littlebourne Avenue, Gillingham, was arrested and later charged with four offences.

These were two counts attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and two counts of attempting to cause a child to watch or look at an image of sexual activity.

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He admitted all the offences when he appeared in the dock at Medway Magistrates’ Court on June 6.

Victoria Aked, prosecuting, said: “They were decoy officers and he sent images them of his penis to both girls.

“He was masturbating in one video he sent, but he’s of previous good character.”

Magistrates decided a pre-sentencing report was needed to be completed on Wells before he was sentenced, but told him now that he’d admitted the offences, he was convicted of them.

As a result, he would need to sign on at Medway Police Station within three days as part of the notification requirements of sex offenders.

Such offenders are required to register with the police and provide them with certain personal details, including name, address, date of birth, and passport details, so they can be managed in the community.

They must also notify the police of any changes to this information, and for some offences, they are required to notify the police of any travel plans.

Wells was granted bail until he is sentenced, which will be at the same court on August 4.

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A Highland crofter has been convicted of sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl with a gun as he made her lie naked on the floor at a property in Fife.

John Spence’s wicked crime was part of a litany of physical, emotional and sexual abuse directed towards two girls at various addresses in Fife and Sutherland spanning about 15 years.

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A man from Wolverhampton has been jailed for 12 years for child sexual abuse dating back to the 1970s.

John Harris, aged 64, was convicted of a series of nine offences after his victim was able to help our investigators compile a case against him.

She came to us at a time when she felt ready to talk about the abuse she'd suffered as a child. And with the support of our specialist team of detectives she helped bring Harris before the courts, and yesterday he was jailed for 12 years.

Harris was convicted at Wolverhampton Crown Court of eight counts of rape and one count of sexual intercourse with a girl under 13, with the offences dating back to 1976. In addition to the jail term he has also been put on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

Detective Inspector Emma Jobson, from our dedicated non-recent rape and serious sexual offences team, said: "All our cases start with the person who suffered the abuse, and it was this woman's strength and fortitude which has meant Harris has now been convicted of crimes carried out many, many years ago.

"Despite the passing of time, we have the commitment and expertise to help identify and then trace crucial evidence which has seen this perpetrator being successfully prosecuted.

"In this case, as with many others which date back years, the laws and legislation which were in force at the time have to be adhered to.

"But that does not prevent us from being able to develop an investigation which sees offenders convicted years after the abuse."

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A man who raped and strangled a woman in Andover has been jailed.

Martin Collins, aged 46, was found guilty by a jury at Winchester Crown Court of two counts of intentional strangulation and one count of rape against a woman who was known to him.

The offences took place between 1 July 2023 and 1 August 2023, and Collins was also found guilty of criminal damage to a tumble dryer at an address in Andover, which took place during this same period.

The trial began on Monday 9 June this year, with the jury returning their verdicts on Friday 13 June.

Collins, of Netton Close in Bishopstone, Wiltshire, was sentenced that same afternoon. His Honour Judge Dugdale jailed him for seven years and issued a 20 year restraining order.

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“I am a survivor. As hard as it’s been, I am proud I spoke up and told someone.”

These are the powerful words of a young girl who this week saw her abuser jailed for four years.

Newrick Grange, who is more commonly known as Rob, tried to force the girl to carry out sex acts on herself over several years when he lived in Darlington.

The quick-thinking girl managed to secretly record one of the instances on her phone, which provided evidence of the abuse to the police and courts.   

Grange was arrested after the girl bravely told an adult what had happened, and an investigation was launched.

The 41-year-old was charged with three counts of sexual assault and one count of causing or inciting a girl under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity.

Grange (Rob Grange), of South Bank, Middlesbrough, denied the offences and went on trial at Teesside Crown Court in April.

A jury found him guilty of causing or inciting a girl under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity. He was acquitted of sexual assault.

He returned to court on Monday (June 9) for sentencing, where he was jailed for four years and handed a restraining order prohibiting him from contacting the girl.

He was also made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) preventing him from having any contact with children under 16 and placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely. 

In a victim impact statement, the girl said:

“The trauma inflicted on me is not just a moment in time, but a lifetime burden that will always affect me and all my relationships. However, I will try to heal as best as I can for the younger me.

“I tell people I’m okay, but I’m not. My childhood has been taken away from me due to the actions of Rob. All my good memories are now shadowed with the bad. I feel like I’ve had to mentally mature faster due to what I was subjected to by him.

“I want Rob to know exactly what he has done to me and the trauma he has caused me. He knows exactly what he has done, and it will haunt me for the rest of my life.

“I will use my experience to better other people. I want to spread awareness and help anyone who has or is going through what I have endured.”

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A man has been jailed for after he pleaded guilty to child sexual offences.

Akhtar Gul Rhamani, 52, of Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, was sentenced to three-years-and-two-months’ imprisonment at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on Tuesday (10 June) after he pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a boy at an earlier hearing.

Rhamani was arrested in October 2023 after the crime was reported to us.

As part of his sentencing, he was also given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and put on the Sex Offenders Register.

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Chewe Chitalu raped a young woman on her way home from a night out in Preston. Yesterday, he was jailed for 13 years.

In August 2022, the victim was on a night out in Preston. At some point in the evening, she was walked to Chitalu’s (pictured below) van, where she was sexually assaulted. The victim later woke up in Chitalu’s bedroom, where she was raped.

The offences were reported to us, and an investigation commenced.

Chitalu, 32, of Mountbatten Close, Preston was arrested on suspicion of, and later charged with rape, assault by penetration and sexual assault.

He was found guilty following a trial and was sentenced to 13 years. Chitalu was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

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A 45-year-old man has been jailed after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a child.

Giedrius Arcisauscas from Downing Close in Ellesmere Port appeared at Chester Crown Court on 22 April for a four-day trial. He was found guilty on 25 April of sexual assault of a girl under 13, sexual assault of a girl under 13 by penetration, and three counts of making an indecent image/pseudo image of a child.

He was remanded in custody to appear at Chester Crown Court on 12 June where he was sentenced to 13 years in prison and one year on licence.

He was handed an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

The court heard how on 27 February a mother and daughter attended his address for a party.

At one point Arcisauscas was upstairs in a bedroom with three children when two left the room leaving him alone with the victim, who was four at the time.

The mother heard a scream and went to the aid of her daughter who told her what had happened. She found Arcisauscas in the bedroom and slapped him before leaving.

It was reported to police and Arcisauscas was arrested. His mobile phone was seized and officers subsequently found six indecent images of children. He was arrested again regarding the images found on his phone.