Latest Offenders Cheshire

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Ex-BBC broadcaster Stuart Hall has been sentenced to an extra two years and six months in prison for two counts of indecently assaulting a girl. Hall, 84, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, will start the sentence after completing a 30-month term for similar offences. He admitted indecently assaulting the girl when she was 13 and was found guilty of one count in a majority jury verdict at Preston Crown Court. He was cleared of 15 rape charges and four indecent assaults. The charge Hall admitted involved an incident at a dinner party where he crept into his victim's bedroom and assaulted her. 'Vile bravado' Sentencing him, Mr Justice Turner, said there had been "an element of grooming" to his offences. Mr Justice Turner said there had been a "breach of trust" in relation to the assault on the girl when she was 13. He said that Hall had acted with "a sense of arrogance and immunity... vile bravado and horrible betrayal". He added that the 84-year-old had shown "a lack of candour or remorse" and criticised him for not admitting to these offences when he was convicted of other offences in 2013. Hall did not react to the sentence as he listened to the proceedings through headphones, while his victim, who was also in court, wiped away tears with a handkerchief as details of the offences were mentioned. The former broadcaster, who was accused of abusing two girls between 1976 and 1981, is already serving a 30-month jail term after he pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting 13 other girls, one as young as nine. His original 15-month sentence, for abuse that occurred between 1967 and 1985, was later doubled at the Court of Appeal. Speaking after the hearing, the Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West, Nazir Afzal, said Hall's convictions "were only made possible by the courage of his victims". "I would like to thank them for coming forward and ensuring that he was brought to justice," he said.

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A DANGEROUS sexual predator strangled and punched a 21-year-old woman after following her from work in Widnes.

Patrick Sullivan, of Cleveleys Avenue in Widnes, had been drinking at the bar where his victim worked before the assault on Cross Street just after midnight on January 26.

The father of four had admitted ABH but had denied any sexual motive. He was subsequently found guilty of intent to commit a sexual offence at trial.

Judge Andrew Hatton said when sentencing Sullivan: This a young womans worst nightmare. She was alone late at night in a quiet, secluded location and became concerned that she was being followed.

She crossed the road twice deliberately to see if she really was being followed and you matched her every move. She was then jumped on from behind, strangled by your arm and wrestled to the ground.

Further violence followed, including punches to her face. Your interest was not in her money or phone as she offered you both in an attempt to stop the assault. Nor was your interest in her upper body or breasts.

Your hands went straight to her jeans. You intended to commit either rape or a very serious sexual offence.

The court heard how heavy snow fall that evening meant a colleague, who was supposed to give the victim a lift home, was not prepared to risk driving.

Judge Hatton continued: Within moments of parting from her work colleague, the victim turned onto a quiet residential road of terraced houses where she was strangled from behind and then subjected to an assault occasioning actual bodily harm."

During the incident Sullivan was disturbed and fled, pursued by a man and the police were called.

Judge Hatton added: What was described as old fashioned detective work led to your arrest. Had it not been for footprints in the snow you would never have been detained.

Sullivan, aged 52, was jailed for four years at Liverpool Crown Court on August 21. He will serve at least two thirds of his sentence before remaining on license for six years when released.

Judge Hatton concluded: You argued that you were just messing about, a defence which was quite rightly in my opinion, nonsensed by the jury.

I accept that you had been drinking but I do not accept you were intoxicated to the extent that you describe.

You dealt a gratuitous kick to the back of the young women as you left and you did so as an act of frustration that your plans to sexually assault her had been thwarted.

I consider the extended license to be necessary for the protection of members of the public from an extremely dangerous sexual predator.

Sullivan will also be placed on the sex offenders' register for life.

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A SERIAL sex predator struck at a Crewe charity shop just two weeks after being released from prison.

Daniel OGrady, 47, of London Road, Sandbach, was convicted at Chester Crown Court on Thursday of sexually assaulting a young mum in the DebRA charity shop on September 11 last year.

He denied a charge of touching without consent but was found guilty after a two-day trial. He was cleared of a second count of sexual assault against an unidentified young girl in the same shop.

The jury heard how he approached his victim from behind in a thrusting movement an almost identical assault to his seven previous convictions of indecently assaulting a child between the ages of five and 13.

The woman in her 20s, who cannot be named, was browsing in the Victoria Centre charity shop at about 3.15pm with her one-year-old daughter when OGrady struck.

In tears on the witness stand, she said: I felt somebody bang into me from behind. He thrust himself against me twice.

When I looked around he was really startled and rushed off to the other side of the store.

The jury also heard from shop manager Susan Hindle, who described how OGrady caught her eye as soon as he walked in because he looked suspicious.

She said: He walked past the counter and I smiled but he didnt smile back and seemed to have a funny expression on his face.

She called the shopping centre security after the young woman told her what had happened.

OGrady, who was also convicted in 2004 of exposing himself in a petrol station shop, was arrested by police in a furniture shop 15 minutes later.