Latest Offenders

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A man has been jailed for 16 years after subjecting a teenage girl to years of sexual abuse. Martin Falconer, of Spennymoor Court, Runcorn, was jailed on Tuesday, November 26 after being found guilty of five counts of sexual activity with a child under 16, attempted rape, sexual assault, and possession of indecent images of children.

Leah Green previously spoke to the ECHO and waived her right to anonymity to share her story after enduring the horrendous abuse at the hands of Falconer, who was her stepdad. During her early adolescence she endured inappropriate sexual behaviour from Falconer, 66.

The now 21-year-old claims Falconer put a camera in her bedroom to film her, and he later tried to rape her. Falconer came to the attention of Cheshire Police in 2019 when Ms Green reported he had sexually abused her.

This barrage of abuse occurred between 2016 and 2019, during which Falconer sexually assaulted and attempted to rape Ms Green. He also had indecent images of her in his possession on his laptop.

Speaking to the ECHO, Ms Green said: "I want my story out there. After being called a liar by my family for so many years, I want to be heard." She is encouraging others to come forward to stop abusers like Falconer damaging other children.

She said: "There are so many little girls out there losing their innocence to these vile men. There's something we can do to stop it. You should speak out if you can. You'll be protecting so many young girls. You'll be saving little girls' lives and saving their innocence."

Falconer moved into the family home when Ms Green was a toddler. For years, she called him dad, and he played the role of a doting stepdad. According to Ms Green, Falconer showered her with attention, buying her gifts, running her baths and making her hot water bottles.

"He was loving," she said, "and I liked the fact I was loved by someone. But I was loved in the wrong way. When I look back now, I think, 'that's wasn't love, that was grooming'." Following an investigation, Falconer was charged with the offences and later found guilty following a trial in June 2024.

On top of his custodial sentence, Falconer will be subject to notification requirements, a restraining order and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. Detective Sergeant Lee Ellis said: “Firstly, I would like to commend the bravery of the victim in this case, and I hope the conclusion of this lengthy investigation and subsequent court process will help to bring her some closure.

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A man has been jailed for more than four years for child sexual offences. 

Andrew Grant, of Queen Street, Bampton, was sentenced to 54 months for attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, being an adult attempting to meet a girl following grooming, arranging or facilitating sexual activity with a child and driving without third party insurance.

Grant, 58, was sentenced during a hearing at Oxford Crown Court on Friday, November 29. 

Grant was accused of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a girl under the age of 16 – namely 14 - in Eynsham between November 22, 2022 and February 18, 2023.

Between the same dates, he was accused of trying to meet the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at Oxford Train Station after a period of grooming.

Grant was also charged with arranging/facilitating commission of offence of a sexual activity with a child in Eynsham between the same dates.

His driving offences took place on February 18 last year in Park End Street, at Oxford Train Station in a Nissan X Trail.

As well as being jailed, he was given six penalty points on his driving licence for the driving offence. 

Grant was also given a sexual harm prevention order and put on the sex offender register, both indefinitely. 

He was also barred indefinitely from working with children and vulnerable people. 

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A registered sex offender who had online chats with teenage boys, despite an order imposed against him, is now behind bars once again, after a diligent investigation by his Offender Manager.

Mark Lee (23/01/2003) of Greenbrow Road, has been sentenced to five years in prison with an extended licence period. He has also been placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life, with an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order imposed off.

Lee’s victims disclosed to him that they were under 16, and he knowingly continued to target children in an online chatroom using a prohibited device.

Following his conviction for indecent image offences in 2023, where he received a suspended sentence, Lee was banned from having contact with anyone under the age of 18 and prohibited from possessing any images of anyone under the age of 18. He was also subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order to comply with. A case worker from our Sex Offender Management Unit conducted weekly checks on Lee from this point.

In 2022, Lee began contacting a 13-year-old boy. When using the chatroom app to speak to this boy, Lee coerced him into sending explicit pictures. He also paid a total of £1,200 to him, to try and encourage the boy into sending more explicit images. The boy tried to break things off with Lee, sensing that Lee was not 17 years old like he had originally told him. In attempts to continue speaking to the boy, Lee set up another social media account and pretended to be his own sister to communicate with the teenage boy saying to him that Lee was a good brother and good person and encouraged the boy to start speaking to him again.

At the same time, Lee was speaking to another teenage boy using the same chatroom. It was uncovered that Lee used age filters to target specifically 13-year-old teenage boys, and was pretending to be a teenager himself.

He was first arrested in November 2023 by DC Dan Foy, and placed on bail for further enquiries. However he kept up online contact and even went to meet one the boys in February 2024.

Once further intelligence came to light, we swiftly arrested him in April 2024, after his Offender Manager was made aware of a report he had made about being a victim of fraud. He reported that he’d never been paid for a laptop he sold on Ebay, but of course we knew that he should not have had that device in the first place.

On arrest, his mobile phone was inspected and found to contain images showing young teenage boys. From this, officers were able to find his victims through detective work to trace the school uniforms on a UK database along with some conducting some investigations on the phone data.

He was subsequently charged with multiple sexual offences, including engaging in sexual communication with a child, cause or incite a boy age 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity, possession of indecent images of children and meeting a young boy following grooming, as well as repeated breaches of a sexual harm prevention order.

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A POLICE worker and kids’ football coach was caught engaging in depraved sex chats with someone he believed to be a ’14-year-old girl’.

Gary Marsden actually communicated with and shared a sexualised photo with an undercover police officer.

The 50-year-old appeared before Liverpool Crown Court yesterday, Monday, to face sentence after admitting a charge of attempted sexual communications with a child.

It was heard that, in his pre-sentence report, the dad-of-two claimed not to have a sexual interest in children except on the day of the chats.

However, this basis of plea was abandoned, allowing the case to proceed to sentence without the need for a trial of issue.

The charge arose out of internet chats that he took part in on February 8, 2023, explained Martyn Walsh, prosecuting.

Marsden communicated online with an undercover police officer who was posing as both a 22-year-old woman called Sophie and a 14-year-old girl named ‘Emz’.

The court heard how he sent a sexual image of himself in his boxer shorts and solicited a photo of the ‘girl’ in her nightie.

The officer played the roles of both Emz and Sophie during the course of the conversation, and the defendant, the Crown said, ‘believed and intended all that he wrote in those messages’.

At the time of the offending, the defendant was employed by Cheshire Police as a civilian supervisor in the motorway control unit, based off Robb Lane in Newton-le-Willows – a job he had been in since 2014.

He resigned from the force in May 2023 during an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

The case against him was that he used a work computer to log into his Twitter account, and that he was in work when he was talking with the undercover officer.

The prosecution case was also that he took a photo of himself in his boxer shorts to send to the ‘child’ when he was in work.

Moreover, at the time of the offence he was the manager of a children's football team, and when he was arrested, he was living at the family home with his wife and two children.

During chats, after being told by the ‘girl’ that she was aged 14, Marsden asked to see her nightie and called her ‘cute’ after being sent a photo by the officer.

He also asked her to show him her legs, and after being sent another photo by the officer, he replied ‘hot hot hot’.

The defendant called the girl ‘babe’ and ‘very sweet’, discussed having an erection and commented “I don’t mind some risk.”

Marsden also made mention of the ‘girl’ visiting his office on work experience and ‘kissing her all over’, adding that he thought she was ‘so sexy’ and ‘perfect’, and that he ‘liked her a lot’.

Chats included references to her ‘perfect bum’ and that he was ‘excited’ by the photo of her in the nightie.

The chat with the undercover officer ended that same day, with Cheshire Police officers attending his home address the following day, February 9, and arresting him.

Items seized from the address included his mobile phone, on which authorities found the corresponding chats and photos.

When interviewed under caution on March 9 2023, Marsden admitted that the Twitter account was his profile, and that it was only used and accessed by him.

He admitted the communicating with the female profiles and sending all images within the communication, but he claimed he did not believe it was real or that he was communicating with a child.

In mitigation, it was heard from Steven Nikolich, defending, that his client, who has no previous convictions, should be given some credit for his guilty plea entered during a trial.

“Clearly, he is someone the Probation Service can work with,” Mr Nikolich said, with the court hearing that the date of sentence was a ‘seminal day’ as Marsden had admitted his sexual interest in children.

Commenting that there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation in his client’s case, Mr Nikolich asked the court to suspend the sentence of imprisonment.

Before sentencing, judge Anil Murray said: “Clearly, the threshold for custody has been crossed.

“The sentence is short enough to be considered for suspension, you are not thought to be a risk to the public, and you are a realistic prospect of rehabilitation.

“On balance, I can just about suspend the sentence.”

Marsden, of Snowshill Drive in Wigan, was sentenced to nine months in prison, but this was suspended for the next two years.

During this time, he must also complete 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 150 hours of unpaid work in the community.

Moreover, the defendant was ordered to sign the sex offender register and abide by the terms of a sexual harm prevention order, both for the next 10 years.

Towards the cost of court proceedings, he was told he must pay £1,200, while an order was approved for the forfeiture and destruction of his mobile phone seized on his arrest.

Judge Murray added: “I reserve any breaches to myself, and if you reoffend or fail to carry out the work, we will meet again, I will remember you, and I am not likely to give you a second chance.”

Following the hearing, IOPC director of operations Steve Noonan said: “Marsden’s actions were abhorrent in sexually communicating with someone he believed to be a child.

“His actions amounted to predatory behaviour for his own sexual gratification.

“Marsden’s conviction sends a clear message for his appalling behaviour which significantly undermines the public confidence in policing.

“Our involvement ensured independent oversight of this sensitive investigation, and I am grateful to Cheshire Police’s counter corruption unit for its efforts in holding the former staff member accountable for his actions.”

The IOPC recommended Marsden had a case to answer for gross misconduct, and following a hearing in January this year, it was determined that his actions breached the police standards of professional behaviour.

This was relating to authority, respect, courtesy, discreditable conduct, honesty and integrity at the level of gross misconduct.

It was ruled he would have been dismissed without notice had he not already resigned, and he was placed on the barred list, meaning he cannot be employed in policing in the future.

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A convicted sex offender has had his jail term increased after another victim came forward. Damien Riley, of Ewood, Oldham, was convicted of 16 incidents of inappropriate sexual activity relating to four young boys in Oldham in the 1980s - when he was a teenager - by a jury in 2021.

The former carer was jailed for 10 years. Sentencing him at the time, Judge Angela Nield said: "The victims of your offending behaviour were four in number - they were children, children who all lived on the same estate in very different times to now, when it was commonplace for groups of children to play together on the street.

"When those children were believed, usually with good cause, to be safe by their parents, safety in numbers; sadly in this case that was far from the truth.

"Each of them was undoubtedly damaged by that behaviour and by their premature and inappropriate exposure to sexual experiences.

"All these young men were part and parcel of a group of children who should have been enjoying the delights of playing with their friends and the games that were enjoyed in the streets of Oldham, but there was a very much darker undercurrent on that street."

Following the sentencing in 2021, another victim who lived in the area at the same time, has come forward.

Amy Weir, prosecuting, said Riley, who was a teenager at the time, performed a sex act on the boy. Mitigating, Michael Johnson said his client was a child at the time, and the maximum sentence for such offences which were committed in the 1980s was 12 months imprisonment.

Jailing him for a further year, Judge Nield said: “In 2021 and following a trial in respect of four separate complainants who alleged similar types of behaviour. I sentenced you to 10 years imprisonment.

“This complainant did not come forward until much later and you chose to have a trial, which is your right. He had to give evidence about something which was very distressing to him.

“It was open to you to acknowledge your guilt and potentially to come clean and avoid the situation you have now found yourself in.”

Riley was sentenced to 12 months, to be served consecutively to his current sentence, for indecent assault on a child.

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A convicted child sex offender died in HMP Liverpool on the day he was due to be sentenced for new offences. John Sadler, previously of the Woodchurch area, died at the Walton prison on Tuesday, November 26.

The 32-year-old, whose address was most recently listed as HMP Altcourse, was convicted of a number of offences on Monday this week following a trial. According to charge sheets, Sadler faced communication and image charges involving both real children and police decoys.

The ECHO understands Sadler was facing the prospects of a sentence up to 10 years' imprisonment. A source told the ECHO that Sadler was due to be sentenced on video link on Tuesday afternoon but the hearing got adjourned due to a medical emergency.

Both the Prison Service and the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has now confirmed to the ECHO that Sadler died. A spokesperson for the Prison Service said: "HMP Liverpool prisoner John Sadler died on 26/11/2024. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate."

Adrian Usher, Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, added: "My office are conducting an independent investigation into the death of Mr John Sadler at HMP Liverpool on 26 November 2024. We will publish our final investigation report into his death after the inquest concludes."

The ECHO has previously covered Sadler's previous appearances in court. In 2014 the then 21-year-old groomed a 13-year-old girl before having sex with her in a Wirral park. He met the victim online and chatted to her through Skype before meeting up with her on multiple occasions.

Sadler denied five counts of sexual activity with a child but was found guilty after trial. He was handed an extended prison sentence, as well as a consecutive term for contempt of court after he threatened the victim's family, telling them: "I’ll ****ing have you when I’m out."

Sadler attempted to challenge his sentence at the Court of Appeal in 2017 claiming he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice. He said his password was "known to others" and that his computer and mobile phone had been hacked. Despite the strength of the prosecution case, Sadler fought a futile battle to prove his innocence - including making representations to the Queen about his case.

The dangerous offender, branded "manipulative and calculating" by his trial judge, was refused permission to appeal, with a high court judge concluding: "These convictions are entirely safe, he has failed to identify a single valid ground." Sadler's offending time frame for his recent offences stretched between March 2019 and September 2021, according to charge sheets.

A number of separate investigations are currently ongoing by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman into deaths at HMP Liverpool. he most recent inspection report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons praised its "caring culture". The chief inspector of prisons wrote: "The prison’s strategy for reducing self-harm evidenced a good approach to care, predicated on good staff-prisoner relationships, which were a real strength at HMP Liverpool."

The Ministry of Justice's most recent performance list ranked HMP Liverpool as good. However, a whistle-blower at the prison told the ECHO staffing levels were "frighteningly low", adding the prison's resources were severely stretched, "putting staff and prisoners at risk". In response to the whistle-blower's claims, the Ministry of Justice said the prison had increased the number of officers and invested in new security measures.

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An unsuspecting woman was left shocked and terrified when a creepy sex pest targeted her during a "totally random" and "offensive" encounter in her car after she innocently went to an all-night petrol station.

Kevin Pexton sexually touched her before getting into the back of her car and asking her: "Can we go back to your house, babes?" He stroked her leg and boasted to her: "I'm viral. All of the girls want me."

He made an obscene suggestion to the woman and started behaving in an unpleasant sexualised way before a man who arrived on the scene quickly saw what was happening and pulled him out of the car, Hull Crown Court heard. Pexton, 37, of Kinloss Garth, Bransholme, Hull, admitted offences of sexual assault, exposure and assault on September 8.

Ben Hammersley, prosecuting, said that Pexton went to a 24-hour petrol station in the Hull area, in the early hours and walked up to the service hatch. He asked to borrow a mobile phone and used it to send a message to a woman. She did not reply.

A few minutes later, a car pulled up on the forecourt, with two women inside. The driver saw Pexton and thought that he was "just acting silly" and she went to the service hatch.

When she returned, Pexton was standing at the driver-side rear door. When she got into the car, he touched her on the bottom. She got in the car but Pexton opened the rear passenger door and got in.

He asked: "Can we go back to your house, babes?" The woman was scared and told him to get out. Her friend went to the service hatch to seek help. Pexton was sitting directly behind the driver.

She stared straight ahead, rather than look at him, as he pressed himself up behind the seat. He stroked her leg and made a lewd suggestion to her. He started committing a sex act. The woman texted her friend, who had gone to the hatch for help.

Pexton told the woman: "Turn around and look at me. I'm viral. All of the girls want me." A second car pulled up and the woman's friend told the driver of that car what was going on.

"He pulled the defendant out of the vehicle," said Mr Hammersley. Pexton shouted: "It's consensual."

There was a scuffle and the man tried to restrain him. "The defendant was swinging his fists at him," said Mr Hammersley. "They ended up on the floor and the defendant bit his leg, drawing blood. Shortly afterwards, the police arrived."

The woman later said that the incident put her "on edge" and made her worried about being in her car. She kept having dreams and the incident from that night kept coming back to her.

She did not like going out and she had been left feeling vulnerable. "I suffer from anxiety anyway and this has made me feel on edge," she said.

David Godfrey, mitigating, said that the "disgraceful acts" were out of character for Pexton. He had no previous convictions. "This is an aberration," said Mr Godfrey.

"This is plainly troubling and disgraceful behaviour, really troubling. This was disgraceful but utterly out of character.

"It's prolonged. He acknowledges that his behaviour that night was unforgivable. He has made one awful set of mistakes."

Father-of-three Pexton had lost a good job and had suffered a family bereavement in the recent past. He had been in custody on remand for about 11 weeks.

Judge Mark Bury told Pexton: "This behaviour is extremely serious. It was a random female. This is behaviour which isn't just against a person you knew.

"It's totally random and it's offensive and it's caused her significant trauma. Hardly surprising, she wants to sell her car. She can't bear to sit in it any more. The incident keeps coming back to her and she is on edge, not constantly, but more than she should be.

"All she was doing was going to an all-night garage to get some drink or something. This was in public, late at night. There was a person in the passenger seat who must have felt extremely intimidated by what was going on."

Pexton had "no business" going and sitting in the woman's car. "She must have been terrified sitting in there," said Judge Bury.

Pexton was jailed for 21 months and he must register as a sex offender for 10 years.

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A sex offender from Faversham has received a 10 year prison sentence for committing multiple crimes against children.

An investigation was commenced after Kent Police received allegations that Robert Gunner had targeted victims between 2014 and 2017.

He was arrested in June 2022 and officers seized his laptop computer and mobile phone.

Analysis of the content found 226 illegal images of children of which 27 were of the most serious category. A further eight extreme pornographic images were also recovered.

Gunner, of Field End Place, Faversham, was charged and pleaded guilty to causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, making indecent photographs of children, causing a child to watch a sexual act and possessing an extreme pornographic image.

The 42-year-old was sentenced on Thursday 28 November 2024 at Maidstone Crown Court to seven years’ imprisonment.

The judge stated he was a dangerous offender who posed a serious risk to children. On his release, he will remain on licence for an extended period of three years.

Gunner was also made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 20 years and was added to the sex offenders’ register for life.

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Philip Hamer (13/08/1990) of Birchfield Drive, Worsley, was charged on 6 March 2024 with sexual offences against eight victims.

The charges relate to offences taking place between 2010 and 2023. 

Hamer had already admitted several offences but following a trial he has now been found guilty of a further 21 charges, including eight counts of rape; seven counts of sexual assault; six counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity; and one count of sexual activity with a child.

Hamer was found guilty of 33 charges by a jury at a trial which concluded at Manchester Crown Court today (Friday 29 November 2024).

Detectives investigating Hamer found he used social media apps to target and make contact with his victims by manipulating and grooming them. Many of Hamer’s victims were teenagers at the time they were abused.

After one victim came forward, Hamer’s phone was seized which enabled police to trace further victims.

Hamer would send unsolicited pictures to his victims and also tracked their movements.

He incited his victims to send him hundreds of pictures and videos over a period of seven years. One victim was in fear that Hamer may disclose the pictures to others or come to their address.

Officers later found voyeuristic videos and pictures Hamer had taken of people in changing rooms who were not aware they were being filmed.

Hamer worked as an ice hockey player and had appeared on television shows as an extra. He sexually assaulted an actress while on set of one show.

Hamer will be sentenced on Thursday 30 January 2025. 

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A dangerous sex offender who abducted and raped a man at gunpoint will find out later this week if he is going to the subject to life-long monitoring.

Nathan Sim was found guilty of the sustained and brutal attack following a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen in August.

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A predator who raped a 14-year-old girl after grooming her online has been jailed for eight years.

Rhys Walker, 24, spent weeks messaging the teenager before he forced her to engage in sexual acts with him, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

He had denied rape and sexual assault but was found guilty of both offences by jurors.

Judge Tim Gittins said Walker, from West Boldon in South Tyneside, knew about and "preyed upon" the "particularly vulnerable" girl's age and her difficult home life.

'I can move on'

Walker was 21 when he befriended the girl on social media and quickly started sending her sexualised images, the court heard.

After three or four weeks he offered to let the girl stay at his home, jurors were told.

Judge Gittins said it appeared on the face of it to be an offer of sanctuary, but Walker was actually "seeking to get her alone" where he would be prepared to use force to have sexual activity with her.

In a statement read to the court, the girl said the attack had severely damaged her mental health and led to her self-harming, while she also suffered flashbacks and an inability to sleep.

"I am relieved people have believed me and I can get closure knowing he can't do this to anyone else," the girl said, adding: "I can finally start to move on with my life."

Walker, of Hall Gardens, must also sign the sex offender register and abide by a sexual harm prevention order limiting his use of internet-enabled devices for an indefinite period.

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A Cambridge man who sent a “13-year-old-girl” explicit photos and said he wanted to have sex with her has been jailed.

Natalya Draven, 50, was challenged by an online child activist group in St Andrew’s Street, Cambridge, at about 8pm on 20 July, 2022.

The group had arranged to meet with Draven after engaging with him for several months on Facebook Messenger using the guise of a teenage girl.

Officers arrived after Draven called 999 and said the group had assaulted him.

Draven, who was using the name Fane Aro Cardei in chats with the “girl”, said he wished to be her boyfriend and wanted to have sex with her. He also sent explicit photos despite the decoy saying from the outset she was 13. He also described her as “stunningly beautiful”.

In 285 screenshots that showed contact between the pair between May and July, Draven spoke about meeting up and booking a hotel room for them both to spend time together so they could have sex.

Draven was also arrested for breaching his Sex Offenders Register notification requirements after not telling police within three days of registering the name Fane Aro Cardei.

After his arrest when his mobile phone and laptop were examined, an indecent video of a child was found on the phone.

Draven, of Mill Road, Cambridge, was jailed for two years and seven months on Friday (22 November) at Cambridge Crown Court after pleading guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and failure to comply with Sex Offenders Register notification requirements. He was also found guilty of one count of making indecent images of children.

Det Con Andrew McKeane said: “Draven brazenly continued to talk to the decoy and sent explicit photos of himself, despite being told she was 13-years-old.

“We will do everything in our power to bring those who groom, or attempt to groom, children to court and I am pleased Draven has now faced justice.”

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A convicted paedophile has gone on the run and failed to turn up for his sentencing, police have said.

Hilmi Kisacik was convicted of sexual offences after speaking with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl on Facebook Messenger in April.

The person was in fact a decoy from an online child activist group, which arrived at his home in Fore Hill, Ely, to confront him later that month.

The 44-year-old was convicted and sentenced in his absence at Cambridge Crown Court and officers have issued a warrant for his arrest.

Kisacik pleaded not guilty to the charges in May, but he failed to turn up to a preliminary hearing in August.

He was due to stand trial on Thursday, but was convicted in his absence of two counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and one count of attempting to cause or incite a girl to engage in sexual activity.

He was given a custodial sentence of two years and eight months on Friday.

PC Shane O’Brien said: "Although Kisacik didn’t speak to a real 14-year-old girl, the intent to incite a child to engage in sexually activity was still there.

"Protecting children from paedophiles is a force priority and I would urge anyone who knows of this man's whereabouts to contact police."

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A SEX offender has admitted masturbating on a public bus in front of a group of children and threatening to rape a schoolgirl.

Gordon Sawers told a primary school-aged female that he was “going to rape and stab yous" during the incident on board the vehicle which was travelling between Kilmarnock and Ardrossan.

The 46-year-old pleaded guilty to a total of five charges when he appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on Tuesday, November 26.

The Stagecoach vehicle was pulled over by police in Kilwinning on February 25 this year.

Sawers accepted a charge of communicating indecently with teenage girls, another of indecently causing a youth to hear sexual communications and threatening her with sexual violence, along with an offence of public indecency.

The incident took place at around 4pm on the day in question, procurator fiscal depute Fraser Alexander told the court, when Sawers was travelling on the double decker bus, sitting within the rear seats upstairs.

During the journey, a group of girls came on board and sat together close to where Sawers was located.

"Sawers then began to engage the girls in conversation. Very quickly this turned onto a sexual conversation," Mr Alexander told the court.

"To be clear, it was the accused only that was making any sexual references."

The prosecutor then detailed a number of specific explicit remarks made by Sawers, who is now described as a prisoner at HMP Kilmarnock, towards two of the group.

He told the pair "I will take you to my house and s**g you", adding “I will inject you with heroin” before warning he would “get with your maw".

Sawers made further comments which were directed towards the youngest member of the group.

He stated that he wanted to perform a sexual act upon the girl and told her “I’m going to rape and stab yous and that”.

The court heard that Sawers then proceeded to perform a sex act on himself, causing the youngsters to be "distressed" and "visibly upset".

It was at this stage that another passenger who was travelling on the bus informed the driver of Sawers' conduct - with the police immediately contacted.

The bus pulled over on Pennyburn Road where officers attended and traced the offender.

He was arrested and taken to Saltcoats police office where he was cautioned and charged and made no reply.

Sawers later appeared in court and was granted bail - an order which he breached on two occasions in May of this year having been found out with his home address.

Defence solicitor Brian Holliman asked for sentence to be deferred for the preparation of background reports and to call alongside other, unrelated, matters which are outstanding.

Sheriff Nicola Patrick set a date for sentencing in the new year with the lawyer reserving further comment until then.

Sawers will be remanded in custody in the meantime and was added to the sex offenders register in the interim.

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A young woman raped multiple times today said her childhood had been stolen from her but she is leaving the "darkness" behind. Osian Owen, now 28, raped the girl when she was under 13 and targeted another victim several years ago.

Mold Crown Court heard he had been found guilty of five counts of rape against the first victim after a trial last month. He was also convicted of causing or inciting the second girl, also aged under 13 at the time, to engage in sexual activity.

Today a judge branded the defendant, of Min y Ddol, Maesgeirchen, Bangor, as "depraved" and said he had shown no remorse for his crimes. At a sentencing hearing, prosecutor Joshua Gorst said the rape victim wanted to read out a statement about her ordeal herself.

The young woman, who cannot be named to protect her anonymity, said she was disbelieved until the truth came out. She said of Owen: "He stole my childhood (but) today I leave all the darkness, shame and burden with you.

"I will carry on - free from the shadows of your cruelty." The prosecutor read out a statement by the second victim, who cannot be named either.

In it she said Owen had made her feel disgusted and dirty and it made her school life harder. She added: "It was a horrible secret to keep."

It was so long ago she didn't think anyone would believe her but she eventually felt able to speak out as an older teenager. "This made her a stronger version of herself. I could stop being your victim and leave the past behind," she added.

Gareth Bellis, defending, said Owen was a much younger person when he committed his crimes over six months.

The judge His Honour Rhys Rowlands called the defendant "depraved" and said his behaviour had been shameful and wrong. He jailed Owen for four and a half years for each of five counts of raping a girl under 13, to run concurrently, and for six months for causing or inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity.

He must sign the Sex Offender's Register indefinitely and was subject to a sexual harm prevention order. He was also handed a ten-year restraining order prohibiting him from contacting his victims.