Latest Offenders Merseyside

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A WIRRAL mum whose teenage daughter was raped has spoken of the nightmare her family are still living through. The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told of the heart-wrenching moment she was told her little girl had been sexually assaulted by middle-aged David Cookson. Cookson, 48, from Liscard Road, Wallasey, was jailed for 12 years at Liverpool Crown Court on June 26. He had pleaded guilty to five rape offences and 11 of making indecent photographs involving 170 images and videos. The court also heard how Cookson had videoed himself having sex with the young girl who was 12 years old at the time. The offences came to light in March when she confided to a member of staff at her school. The girls mother says she still cannot believe what has happened. She said: I remember social services turning up on my doorstep to tell me and it just felt like a fist going right through my chest and ripping my heart out it didnt seem real. I couldnt get it off my mind and kept asking why? I couldnt understand how someone could do this to a little girl and hurt her in such a way. "I know I am not the victim but as her mother I feel her pain and anger. When interviewed by police, Cookson admitted having sexual intercourse with the girl on eight occasions. The court heard he has previous convictions but not for similar offences. Paul Wood, defending, said Cookson accepted the activity should never have occurred and takes responsibility for it. "He has good victim empathy," he added. But the girls mum said she now fears for her daughters future and worries about how she will come to terms with her ordeal. She said: I do worry all the time about how this is going to affect her later in life and how she will form a loving relationship and be able to trust anyone? "She wont sleep with the bedroom light off and neither will I its like were still living this horrible nightmare. Now the woman is hoping to look into setting up a support group for other parents of sexually abused children. She added: There is nothing out there where parents can go and share their stories and get advice from others in a similar situation. I need to be strong for my daughter but it is very hard. I am so proud of her for having the courage to come forward and tell someone what had happened she has effectively saved other children from going through the same thing. Other relatives outside the court last Tuesday expressed disappointment with Cooksons sentence calling it "totally inadequate".

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A CATHOLIC priest with “an unhealthy interest in adolescent boys” was locked up for five years.

Father Peter Hooper, the parish priest at St Luke's the Physician, in Bebington, was caught performing a sex act on an underage boy in the diocesan house where he lived.

The 55-year-old pleaded guilty to 10  counts of sexual activity with a child. At yesterday’s sentencing hearing he was  supported at Liverpool Crown Court by more than a dozen parishioners  and two priests.

Robert Jansen, prosecuting, told the court a social gathering at the diocesan house, in Church Road, Bebington, was winding down when Hooper was caught out.

He said: "There was a gentleman called Matthew Howard, who at the time was living at this defendant's address, and had been for some years.

"As the social gathering was coming to an end...Mr Howard had cause to walk past the kitchen window and look inside.”

The lawyer said Mr Howard saw the boy and the priest perform a sex act on  each other.

He added:  "Whilst looking through the window it seems the defendant saw Mr Howard who simply shook his head in disbelief at what he had seen going on. It seems afterwards Mr Howard asked the defendant what he was playing at.

"The defendant replied to Mr Howard ‘I don't know what to do. I've been seduced by a 15-year-old boy’."

Mr Jansen said Hooper was arrested and admitted carrying out sex acts on the boy though he said they did not have full sex – this was accepted.

He told detectives the boy made sexual advances, wanted to explore sexually from an early age and was 'manipulative'.

He said he felt “mentally raped” by the teenager.

The boy, who cannot be named, was interviewed and said he met Hooper through a band he was in  made up entirely of priests.

The pair grew close after he told Hooper, a trained counsellor, about  problems he was facing  in his life.

He said at one stage he went to hug the priest who then kissed him on the cheek and then moved to kiss him on the mouth.

The sexual contact followed in the boy's family home and then later at the diocese house.

He described Hooper as a “father figure” adding: “I don’t hate Father Hooper. Part of me wants to forgive him.”

Gerald Pachter defending, said his client accepted “100% responsibility” for what happened adding: “He feels great shame at the damage he has caused the church.”

He said: “Through me he wishes to express his full sincere and profound apologies for his criminal behaviour.

“He admits he is homosexual. Since his twenties he has tried to repress it because of his faith but he has failed.”

Mr Pachter added: “He is very well thought of. That is clear from the turn out today and the many references from clergymen, parishioners and friends.”

He said Hooper was now the subject of daily verbal abuse by fellow prisoners and had been attacked in the prison chapel.

But Judge David Aubrey QC said: "You have betrayed your religion, you have betrayed your church, you have betrayed your parishioners.

"More significantly you have betrayed your victim who was just 14 and 15 years of age and vulnerable and in truth he was in your care while in your home and you were in his.

"You have also betrayed his mother. They are both devout Roman Catholics who are now in consequence of that which you have done challenging the church.

"In my judgement you have an unhealthy interest in adolescent boys as this case has demonstrated.

"You have failed in your responsibilities and duties as a Catholic priest. You have abused and failed everybody who has placed their trust in you.

"You knew when you crossed the boundary. You wished to cross the boundary. Your actions were a gross breach of trust.

"You have fallen from grace and lost your ministry. The offences are so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence is justified for them."

He jailed Hooper for five years – of which he must serve half less 37 days spent on remand.

Judge Aubrey ordered him to sign on the sex offenders register, made a sexual offences prevention order and banned him from working with children.

Bespectacled Hooper, wearing a red polo shirt and grey jumper, signalled to supporters as he was taken to jail.

After the sentencing The Rt Rev. Mark Davies, Bishop of Shrewsbury, said: “I wish to express today both the sorrow and the horror felt within the Catholic community at these offences and the betrayal of trust involved.

“There can be no place in the priesthood for those who harm the young.”

Hooper was appointed priest at St Luke’s in 2006 after leaving St Werburgh’s, in Chester. 

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A married deputy head teacher was today jailed for seven years for encouraging and watching the rape of a three-year-old girl.

Respected Patrick Lennon had taught for decades at the all girl Greenbank High School in Southport, Merseyside, where he was a regarded as a 'pillar of society'.

But he had secretly struck up a friendship with two other paedophiles, Joseph John Hawley, 38, and Phillip Skitt, 54.

On November 16 2008, the disgraced teacher and Skitt, Wigan, watched on webcams as Hawley raped the little girl and broadcast it over the internet.

The duo encouraged Hawley, of Boundary Street, Bolton, by sending him chat room messages.

A transcript of the trio's conversation during the abuse was read to Liverpool Crown Court.

Hawley can be heard saying it was a 'pity' the others were not there 'to help me play'.

At the end of the abuse the disgraced teacher and father of two described the attack as 'awesome'.

When he was interviewed on September 2 last year, Lennon refused to answer detectives' questions.

Forensics experts found more than 500 indecent images on his computer.

During interviews on March 23 this year, he admitted pretending to be a 14-year-old girl, Paula Jones, when online, and using the webname Stargazer in his chats with Hawley and Skitt, who knew his real identity.

When asked about the chat logs from the little girl's rape, he pretended it was all fantasy.

Police were alerted to the paedophile by investigators in Canada.

In December 2006 the authorities arrested a man who had traded sick images of children across the Atlantic with Lennon.

They tracked an email account, [email protected], to him.

Merseyside Police detectives raided the teacher's home in Crosby, Merseyside, in September last year and he was arrested.

A trawl of his computer revealed his horrific encounters with Skitt and Hawley.

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Reported to be working in the jewish community of Cyprus. A 33-year-old family man who downloaded child porn from the internet was today (Mon) jailed for nine months. Heath Colwyn was arrested after police investigating a West Midlands man discovered that he had sent images to Colwyn. When police went to Colwyn's home on March 22, 2005 they seized two laptop computers and 21 floppy discs. When these were analysed officers found a total of 488 indecent images of children aged between about nine to 15 years. Geoffrey Greenwood, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that 277 of the images were in the lowest category of such images but there were 89 in the serious category involving sex with adults. On one of the laptops they found emails showing that he had distributed images to other similar minded people in the UK. Colwyn, of Cornwall Way, Ainsdale, pleaded guilty to 26 offences of making indecent images of children and five of distributing them. His barrister, Andrew Loveridge, said that Colwyn, who has no similar previous convictions, denied his behaviour had been sexually motived. But jailing him Judge David Aubrey, QC, said he found that "difficult to accept." He pointed out that viewing such images perpetuates child abuse. Mr Loveridge said that Colwyn committed the offences because he felt isolated. His wife, with whom he has a three-year-old son, is standing by him. He pointed out that the offences committed by Colwyn, who works as an electrical engineer, happened two and a half years ago.