Latest Offenders Southsea

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Maxwell Hallahan, a retired Church of England Vicar has today been sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court to 21 months for a series of offences against a boy while he was the vicar at Saint Faiths Church in Cowes (Isle of Wight). He will be subject to a 10 years notification on the Sex Offender Register and subject to a Safeguarding order.

Following sentencing, Senior Crown Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in Wessex Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit (Rasso), Richard Powell said: Maxwell Hallahan abused his position of authority as vicar in his parish. He abused the boy, who is now an adult but was only 13 years of age when the abuse started, for a period of approximately three years between 1974 and 1977.

Hallahan had already been convicted of similar offences in 2011. There is no doubt that he is a sexual predator who did not hesitate to take advantage of his position as a pillar of the society at the time to abuse young boys. The victim in this case has shown great courage in coming forward after living with the memory of the abuse for all these years.

This, we hope, will encourage anyone who has been the victim of such crime to report it to the police. CPS Wessex Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit works very closely with the police and relentlessly to bring these types of cases to court. We trust that this prosecution will bring some closure to the victim of this horrible crime.

If your or a loved one have been subject to abuse please do not hesitate to contact our specialist child abuse solicitorS. We will treat any communications with the strictest of confidence.

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A FAILED Blind Date contestant jailed for having sex with a schoolgirl after giving her cannabis has been convicted of raping another after also giving her the drug. Johnny Law, pictured, was jailed for a year in 2002 after picking up the 15-year-old outside a Bicester school, giving her cannabis and then having sex with her. He was initially charged with rape but it was dropped and he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex. Now Law who was an unsuccessful contestant on Blind Date ten years ago has again been convicted of rape. Law, formerly of Iffley Road, Oxford, picked up the 15-year-old in his van, gave her cannabis before attacking her in a field in Waterlooville, Portsmouth, months after moving to Hampshire, Portsmouth Crown Court heard. His latest victim gave video interviews to tell how Law asked for directions and gave her cannabis before leading her to the field off Stakes Hill Road, where he carried out his attack. He fled back to Oxfordshire, but was quickly arrested. Law initially told officers they would not find any DNA evidence. But when forensic tests on the girl's clothing showed traces of Law's DNA he changed his story, claiming the girl wanted to have sex with him. A jury at Portsmouth Crown Court took just four hours to reject Law's explanation. He had previously admitted supplying cannabis to the girl. Dressed in a grey suit, Law showed little emotion as the foreman returned the guilty verdict. But as he left court he shouted: "I am going to kill myself. I'd rather be dead than in prison." Outside court, the girl's distraught mother said: "To know that he has done something like this before makes me feel sick. Maybe if he had been dealt with properly my daughter would not have had to have gone through this." Law claimed to be a part-time singer when he appeared with Cilla Black on ITV's matchmaking programme Blind Date. He was one of three contestants trying to be picked. He tried to impress the studio audience and the girl by singing a Buddy Holly song. But his would-be date was not impressed and picked another contestant. Audiences at the time did not know Law had already been accused of rape after a woman claimed she was attacked in his van a year earlier. In 1995, Law was acquitted of rape after picking up a woman at the end of Cornmarket Street and had sex with her in a road in North Oxford. He told the jury the woman had consented to sex, but ran away after he told her about his girlfriend and baby. Law, now of Green Road, Southsea, will be sentenced at Isle of Wight Crown Court next month. When he was jailed at Oxford Crown Court, Judge Paul Clark said the pre-sentence report revealed an attitude of blaming everybody but himself. He added the maximum sentence for unlawful sexual intercourse was two years. He put Law on the sex offenders' register for ten years.