Latest Offenders

Description

A man has been jailed for the rape of a woman at a house in Southampton earlier this year.

Thomas Antony Drew, 26, of Golden Grove, appeared at Southampton Crown Court yesterday (Thursday 5 September) where he was sentenced to three years and four months in prison. He will also be subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order with strict conditions for seven years, and will have a restraining order, meaning he will not be able to make contact with the victim for 15 years.

The woman involved, who is in her 30s, reported to police that in the early hours of Tuesday 27 February she was with Drew at a house in Southampton when he forced himself upon her and raped her.

An investigation was launched by Southampton’s Amberstone unit, which specialises in reports of rape and serious sexual assault, and Drew was arrested and subsequently charged.

At a Southampton Crown Court hearing in July he pleaded guilty to one count of rape and one count of sexual assault by penetration.

In a statement read to the court, the victim said that Drew had abused her trust in the most devastating way imaginable, and that what happened to her had impacted both her mental and physical health.

Description

A POWYS sex offender who breached an order by downloading 114 more of the worst images of child sexual abuse has been jailed.

Jason Moore, who was previously convicted under the name of Leon Barry Shinkwin in May 2023, was sentenced to 15 months at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on Thursday for four offences of making offensive images.

He was found with 122 category A images - the most serious kind - 47 category B and 231 category C images across two devices, including still pictures of the rape and sexual abuse of a girl aged between two and four years old.

He also breached his sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) which had been ordered in 2017.

Recorder R Philpotts heard that on April 30, 2022, Dyfed-Powys Police visited 35-year-old Moore’s address in Neuadd Terrace, Bronllys to check up on devices and internet history.

They knocked on the door and were told that Moore ‘was getting dressed’ but took five minutes to allow them into the property, arousing suspicion that he had been deleting his internet history.

An immediate search of the device showed gaps in the history on that device but screengrabs were found with eight category A images, 11 category B and 60 category C.

He was eventually interviewed in October 2022 and denied deleting his history, saying he had lost other devices on a night out in Cardiff.

Officers attended his workplace but were unable to gain access to his locker. By they the time they had returned the next day, they were told Moore had emptied it and removed it from the premises.

Officers were able to view CCTV that showed him using a phone and that device was never recovered.

In November 2022 – six months after his arrest – a third device was found containing 114 category A images including the rape of a girl between two and four by two men, as well as 36 category B and 171 category C.

He denied, again, the deletion of internet history because ‘I would be in breach of my SHPO’ but the court heard that his attempt to hide the device, by clearing out his locker, constituted the new breach.

In mitigation, Moore’s defence barrister Nick Gedge called for 25 per cent off his sentence because of an early guilty plea and also reminded the court that in the two years since his arrest, he had not reoffended.

He also called on Recorder Philpotts to spare his client jail so he could complete the Horizon rehabilitation programme for sex offenders.

Description

A man has been sentenced to ten years in prison after a 23-year campaign of controlling, violent and sexual abuse directed towards three women.

George McDonald targeted his victims across a number of locations in Argyll and Bute between 2000 and 2022.

The 43-year-old knocked his first victim over the head with a piece of wood before threatening her with a gun.

McDonald struggled with the same woman outside a pub before opening the bonnet of her car and tearing out wires from the engine, disabling the vehicle.

The second woman was verbally and physically abused by the 43-year-old on a number of occasions, including on one occasion when she was left without transport.

McDonald tracked the movements of his third victim, broke her phone, read her messages and coerced her to share her social media accounts. 

He also physically beat the woman and threatened to kill her and her parents.

The man was found guilty of ten charges, including two domestic abuse offences and four sexual offences, at  the High Court in Paisley on July 29.

On Thursday, McDonald was given a 14-year extended sentence, with ten years in custody at the High Court in Edinburgh. 

He has also been added to the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Scotland’s procurator fiscal for High Court sexual offending, Katrina Parkes said:“George McDonald is a dangerous individual who subjected his victims to unimaginable trauma and abuse over a number of years. 

“It is thanks to the bravery of these women giving evidence that this prosecution has been possible. 

“I hope this conviction brings some comfort while sending a message that this type of offending has no place in Scotland.  

“I would urge any victim of similar crime to report it and seek support. You will be listened to and we will use every tool available in seeking justice.” 

Detective Inspector Cheryl Gebbie added: “McDonald was an abusive individual and it’s difficult to comprehend the distress and suffering he caused the women in this case.

“They showed an enormous amount of strength in reporting these crimes to the police and in doing so, McDonald will now face the consequences of his actions.

“If anyone is experiencing or has experienced any type of violence or sexual abuse, we have detectives dedicated to investigating such offences. Please report it, and be assured you will be fully supported and listened to.”

Description

A Bulwell man has been jailed after exchanging a series of explicit text messages with a vulnerable teenage girl.

William Howell, who began exchanging messages with the girl when she was only 13 years old, came to police attention when a report was made by the girl’s mother.

A forensic investigation of his mobile phone revealed multiple explicit messages sent over a prolonged period of time.

Howell, now aged 46, was well aware of the girl’s true age when the offences took place.

He later pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual communications with a child.

Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday, August 30, Howell, of Northall Avenue, Bulwell, was jailed for 11 months.

He was also made the subject of a sexual ham prevention order that will restrict his access to children and his online activities once he is released from prison.

Detective Constable Joanne Thompson, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Howell was well-aware this girl was nowhere close to the age of consent when he exchanged these messages.

“His actions were totally indefensible and have understandably had a significant impact on this girl and her family.

“I am pleased he has now been jailed and hope this sentence serves as a reminder to others about the potential consequences of this kind of behaviour.”

Description

A child sex offender from Staffordshire has been sentenced to 16 years after the survivors came forward.

Kris Middleton, 39, of Baddeley Green, Stoke-on-Trent, was sentenced at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on Wednesday (4 September) after he was found guilty at an earlier hearing.

Our detectives questioned him in March 2021 after one of the survivors bravely came forward.

Since then, we’ve been working tirelessly to secure all of the evidence required to bring Middleton to justice.

Through the bravery of the survivors and our evidence, a jury found Middleton guilty on 15 counts following a trial at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on 21 May this year. These include eight counts of sexual assault of a girl under 13 and seven counts of causing or inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity.

Middleton was sentenced to 15-years imprisonment for his crimes, with an extended license period of one year, given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and put on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

Description

A child sex abuser has been jailed for 14 years after a jury saw through his lies.

David Spowage, from Rochester, committed offences including rape, sexual assault and taking an indecent image of a child, against a teenage girl in August 2022.

He was arrested and later charged after the victim reported the crimes.

The 39-year-old denied the offences but a jury at Maidstone Crown Court found him guilty at an earlier trial and on Friday, August 30 he was jailed for 14 years.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Ellie Allen said: Spowage targeted the teenager for his own sexual gratification.

He denied the charges and put her through the ordeal of a trial, hoping to not be found guilty but the jury saw through his lies.

I want to commend the victims bravery and courage in reporting his offending.

His lengthy sentence will ensure he can no longer harm anyone else.

Description

A convicted child sex offender is back behind bars after he downloaded images of abuse on a mobile phone he was barred from possessing.

Gavin Thornton was caught with the sickening child abuse images and videos when specialist police officers carried out an impromptu search of his home.

The 44-year-old was caught with more than 7,000 indecent images of children with more than 600 in the worst legal category.

Cole Cockburn, prosecuting, said the defendant was caught with images in September 2022 and again earlier this year when police searched his home.

He said: “In September 2022, police searched his home and discovered a number of electrical devices, including a laptop and a smartphone, which there then analysed.

“The images featured children as young as four subjected to various forms of sexual abuse.”

The court heard how the defendant was released on bail but continued to download child sexual abuse images.

He was convicted of similar offences in January this year and was given a suspended prison sentence.

Mr Cockburn said the defendant was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order and notification requirement order as the result of the earlier conviction.

The court heard how Thornton had failed to register a new smart phone and a number of aliases he was using to contact people online.

Thornton, formerly of Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to breaching his SHPO, breaching the conditions of his notification requirement order, six charges of making indecent images of children and one of distributing an indecent image of a child.

Nigel Soppitt, mitigating, said his client had spent ten months in custody since his arrest which is the equivalent of a 20-month prison sentence.

He added: “In the short time from the order being imposed and his offending, he had engaged enthusiastically with the probation service and there were no problems at all in that respect.

“He is a man who plainly wants to avoid this compulsion he has.”

Judge Jonathan Carroll locked the convicted sex offender up for a total of two years and eight months for all offences after he activated his previous suspended sentence for the 'high risk' offender.

“You have already had two sets of previous offences, all of a similar type,” he said.

“When the police officer attended your home, you had two opportunities to make a clean breast of the situation, you were still committing offences.

“It is clear to me that you are at a level of risk which cannot be safely managed in the community.”

Description

A paedophile "traded" sickening child abuse images to other perverts online and deleted a messenger app minutes before his arrest.

Nissan worker Scott Francis shared category A, B and C videos and pictures to other paedophiles online and was caught after a National Crime Agency investigation. The 47-year-old had been distributing material which depicted children as young as four-years-old being abused.

On Thursday, Francis, of Bowes Avenue, Easington Lane, Houghton-le-Spring, appeared at Newcastle Crown Court to be sentenced for three counts of distributing indecent images of children. He had pleaded guilty to the offences.

The court heard that on November 16 2021, Northumbria Police received a referral from the National Crime Agency which suggested indecent images of children had been uploaded to the internet via the Kik messenger app. The account which had uploaded the images was linked to Francis.

Antonia Adie, prosecuting, said: "Police went to the defendant's home in January 2022 and his iPhone was seized and he was arrested. He was interviewed and made admissions. He said he used the account to look at pornography and that sometimes indecent images were put into chats he was in.

"He said he'd received images and traded them in order to access pornography he was interested in." Ms Adie said that the Kik app he had been using had been uninstalled minutes before he was arrested and that it was an attempt to "conceal his offending".

In total, Francis shared four category A images, two category B images and two category C images. Videos were also included, the court heard.

Helen Towers, defending, said Francis has a son and that he was "deeply ashamed" of his actions. She said: "He has no previous convictions and worked for 12 years at Nissan." She added he had shown "remorse" and that prison would have a "significant impact on those reliant on him".

Judge Prince jailed Francis for two years. He will also be on the sex offender register for 10 years and a 10 year sexual harm prevention order was also imposed.

Description

A serving police officer who was jailed for possessing more than 500 indecent sexual images of children “should be appalled” by his crimes, his force has said.

Mark Rosebury, 38, was jailed for 18 months at Preston Crown Court on Wednesday (September 4) having admitted possession of images in all three categories, as well possessing extreme pornographic images and prohibited images of children.

Rosebury, of Earnshaw Road, Bacup, was a serving officer with Greater Manchester Police at the time of his arrest.

Detective chief superintendent Mike Allen, head of the force’s professional standards directorate, said a misconduct hearing will now be accelerated.

He said in a statement: “The public rightly expects the highest professional standards from those who serve in the police, and it is clear the actions of Mark Rosebury fall disgracefully below that.

“He should be appalled by his crimes and the impact his actions understandably have on the public’s confidence in the overwhelming majority of officers who are professional, decent, hard-working people who serve their communities day-in day-out.

“We have assisted our colleagues in Lancashire throughout this case to ensure that Rosebury is brought to justice for his crimes.

“Rosebury remains suspended from the force and following his imprisonment, legally we have now been able to stop his pay with immediate effect.

"A misconduct hearing will now be accelerated since there is no longer a risk to prejudicing criminal proceedings.”

James Heyworth, mitigating for Rosebury at the sentencing hearing, said Rosebury joined the police force in 2017 and had previously worked as a transport driver in the ambulance service.

In 2021 he was trained as a collision reconstruction expert, and he said in the pre-sentence report it was the numbness he experienced from this job that caused him to act in the way he did.

Niamh McGinty, prosecuting, said police attended Rosebury’s house on May 27, 2023, having received information concerning peer-to-peer file sharing.

Rosebury was suspected of using three IP addresses to access and download images – one linked to his home address and two connected to the East Lancashire Railway, where he was a volunteer.

His devices were seized and upon examination found to contain 257 category A images, 110 category B images, and 150 category C images, as well as three prohibited images of children and nine extreme pornographic images.

Judge Robert Altham said in sentencing Rosebury: “Each of those children is a living, breathing human being who had been exploited in a horrible way so you could watch.

“Your work cannot provide any excuse or reason for you to resort to watching the suffering of children.

“When police officers commit offences there is a loss of public confidence in the police service as a whole.”

A spokesperson for the East Lancashire Railway said Rosebury’s role with them required no interaction with the general public visiting the railway, and his role has now been terminated.

Description

A man who subjected a girl to repeated sexual abuse over the course of a year has been jailed.

Steve Adams started to abuse the girl in January 2019 before she was able to disclose the offences. 

The 67-year-old from Marine Parade, Sheerness was arrested and later charged with sexual assaults.

He denied the allegations but a jury at Maidstone Crown Court found him guilty and on Thursday 29 August 2024 at the same court was jailed for a total of 13 years.

Description

A convicted sex offender is facing another jail sentence for depraved online sex chats after he was snared for a third time by a paedophile hunter group.

Alan White, 62, previously of Richmond but now of Bedale, contacted what he thought to be a 14-year-old girl who was actually an adult member of an online vigilante group posing as a child, York Magistrates’ Court heard today.

He was subject to a strict court order at the time to curb his online activities following previous convictions for similar behaviour.

Prosecutor Martin Butterworth said that on September 3, North Yorkshire Police’s child online safety team were contacted by a paedophile-hunting group in South Wales who said that “a man called Alan” had been engaging in sexual chats with an adult decoy on an internet platform called RandoChat.

The decoy had pretended to be a 14-year-old girl and gathered incontrovertible evidence which was provided to police who turned up at White’s home in South End Avenue.

During his arrest, they noticed a Samsung tablet on his bedside table. When an officer checked the tablet, the RandoChat social media platform was open with the screen clearly showing the sordid sex chat with the adult decoy.

Mr Butterworth said the sex chats began on October 31, when White, under the nickname “Chalky”, sent a message to the decoy who said she was 14 and from Cardiff.

“The conversation became sexualised, with a request (by White) for a topless picture,” added Mr Butterworth.

“The conversation continued over a couple of days.

“Chalky then asked the ‘child’ to perform a lewd act and engage in sexual activity.”

Mr Butterworth said a further message in the chatroom was subsequently deleted by White, who was charged with attempting to cause or incite a 14-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity, attempted sexual communication with a child under 16 years of age and breaching a sexual harm prevention order.

He admitted the offences when he appeared in court today, but magistrates decided that the offences were so serious that sentence should be transferred to the crown court.

The prosecution outlined White’s track record for similar offences, starting in 2018 when he received a 12-month suspended prison sentence at Teesside Crown Court for offences including sexual communication with a child and possessing indecent images of a child, after being snared by another adult decoy from a group called Keeping Kids Safe.

In February 2021, at the same court, he received a 28-month jail sentence and made subject to a 10-year sexual harm prevention order after he was again trapped by “paedophile hunters” while trying to talk to underage girls online.

In that case, White contacted a user in an online chatroom in December 2020. The user immediately said she was a 14-year-old girl.

Despite this, White told her she was “gorgeous” and that he’d like to kiss and touch her, then asked her to take her clothes off and touch herself in a sexual manner.

He also asked her for naked pictures, promising he would later delete them.

White will be sentenced for the new offences at Teesside Crown Court on September 16.

He was remanded in custody until then.

Description

A convicted sex offender who kept secret devices before selling them on has been jailed for repeatedly breaching his court order.

Harry Palmer, 22, was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order when he was previously convicted of offences against a teenage girl.

The order, which had been amended as a result of a previous breach, gave police the power to monitor all his electronic devices and also prohibited him from having any contact with girls under the age of 18.

Detectives launched an investigation after learning from the probation service that Palmer had sold a MacBook laptop without gaining permission from the police.

Inquiries found he had sold a MacBook laptop, a Samsung tablet and a Huawei mobile phone to CEX stores in Coventry and Bulwell.

Nottingham Crown Court heard the items were sold for a combined sum of £142 across three separate dates in August 2023 – and that he’d kept the Samsung tablet and Huawei mobile phone a secret from the authorities.

When his address was searched, officers found four bank cards that also had not been registered with the police – again putting him in breach of the court order.

Palmer, formerly of Astral Grove, Hucknall, later admitted to three counts of breaching his sexual harm prevention order and four counts of failing to comply with notification requirements.

Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on August 30, he was jailed for two years.

Palmer had only recently been released from prison on licence for previous breaches of the order and drugs offences.

Detective Constable Richard Johnson, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Safeguarding vulnerable young people is a key priority for Nottinghamshire Police and we take a very proactive approach to monitoring known offenders.

“These court orders are put in place for a very good reason and we expect them to be obeyed. When we find that they are being flouted so brazenly we will take swift action. As Palmer has just found out there the subsequent punishments can be very severe indeed.

“I hope this case serves as a reminder to other offenders about the potential consequences of attempting to deceive us, and also hope that members of the wider public will be reassured by our ongoing efforts to keep the public safe from harm.”

Description

A child sex offender from Staffordshire has been jailed for more than two years after he was found guilty on three counts in court.

Shaun Willcocks, 63, of Bagnall, Stoke-on-Trent, was sentenced to two-years-and-four-months imprisonment at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on 23 August after he was found guilty of three child sexual offences:

• Two counts of the sexual assault of a girl under 13
• One count of causing a child under 13 to look at an image of sexual activity

We started investigating Willcocks when the survivor bravely came forward in June 2021 and told an adult what had been happening to her.

The abuse happened in 2015.

Detectives worked hard to gather all of the evidence possible to take Willcocks to court and support the survivor as much as possible.

Willcocks denied the offences but was found guilty by a jury following a trial at Stoke-on-Trent in July this year.

As part of his sentencing, Willcocks was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) for ten years.

Description

A former Cambridge University medical student on the verge of completing his studies has been sentenced to four years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to child sex offences. Lorcan Elliott demanded that boys as young as 13 send him indecent images while he was still a student.

Judge Philip Grey described Elliott's offending as "utterly selfish, manipulative, and exploitative" at a hearing at Cambridge Crown Court on Wednesday (September 4). He said Elliott played the role of a 'sugar daddy' during communications with victims.

Prosecutor Samantha Marsh said that Elliott had offered between £200 and £800 for some images and sent screenshots of his bank account to prove he had the money. There was no evidence that any payments had been made.

Summing up, Judge Grey described how Elliott used social media to find boys under the age of 15 who identified as gay or bisexual between January 2022 and May 2023, before speaking with them online and asking for explicit images. "All of the chats are highly sexualised; you are often very demanding and insistent that they provide you with what you want," he said.

"It was young boys that you wanted to find, that you wanted to induce into performing sexually on camera for your pleasure. The sexual pleasure and excitement that you derived from these chats is clear from the text of the chats themselves."

Elliott knew that his victims were children – at least one told him that they were 13 years old. He sent explicit pictures and videos of himself to some victims, as well as instructing them on the types of images and videos he wanted them to send him.

In all, Elliott possessed a total of at least 600 indecent images of children, 142 of which were category A – the most serious. "What you did is the sort of foul online behaviour that causes parents the world over to fear what their children are being exposed to online," the judge said during sentencing.

The 25-year-old from Orton Southgate, Peterborough, put his head in his hands and cried at times during the hearing. He was described by Judge Grey as 'academically gifted' and two of his professors had submitted letters in his support to the court.

The judge told Elliott, who was on the verge of qualifying as a doctor at the time of his arrest, that he could never be considered fit to practice. Elliott was arrested at his student accommodation in May 2023 after the IP address relating to his Snapchat account was traced to his parents' home.

Henry Oghoetuoma, defending, said his client was of previous good character and "fully understands the offences and that it is not a victimless crime". He said Elliott had lost his medical career, as well as friendships with peers.

Mr Oghoetuoma said: "When the police came knocking, he immediately owned up to it. He realises that what he did was wrong."

Elliott pleaded guilty to 22 charges at Peterborough Crown Court on August 2 this year. These included engaging in sexual communication with a child, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, making or distributing indecent images of children, and distributing indecent photographs.

PC Alex Cochrane said: "The offences were committed over a sustained period with numerous victims here and abroad and it is clear Elliott knew they were children because some were wearing their school uniform. Although there was no physical contact between the defendant and the victims, this case highlights the potential dangers of online activity with unknown people.

"As a force we work tirelessly to detect and prosecute these types of crimes while protecting the vulnerable children involved."

He has been added to the Sex Offenders Register for the rest of his life and handed a Sexual Offences Prevention Order without a time limit. He will be barred from working with children and other vulnerable groups.

Description

A convicted sex offender was found with dozens of "disgusting" images of children after he continued his obsession with them and failed to learn his lesson from being jailed for previous similar offences.

His "despicable" behaviour helped to fuel the abuse of children that caused "lifelong harm" to them. He now understood the serious damage to children that was caused by the vile trade, Hull Crown Court heard.

Scott Lister, 53, of Ferndale Terrace, Bridlington, admitted three offences of making indecent images of children between July 7, 2021 and March 18, 2022 and another of breaching a sexual harm prevention order on March 17, 2022.

Amber Hobson, prosecuting, said that police were given information about indecent images of children being downloaded and seized a memory stick and a phone belonging to Lister.

There were 66 images and 71 videos on the memory stick. They included 10 images in the most serious Category A, nine in Category B and 47 in Category C. The videos included 28 in Category A, 21 in Category B and 22 in Category C.

On the phone, there were eight images in Category A, five in Category B and one in Category C. There were 17 videos, including six in Category A, six in Category B and five in Category C.

During police interview, Lister denied having a sexual interest in children. He claimed that he did not specifically seek out images of children but that he did look at areas of the internet where such material was. He claimed that he might have been intoxicated at the time.

Lister had convictions for 21 previous offences, including similar offences in 2016, when he had been given a sexual harm prevention order for life. He was in breach of that order by committing the latest offences.

Holly Thompson, mitigating, said that Lister had taken a long time to come to terms with the fact that he had a sexual interest in children but he realised the "disgusting and despicable nature of the offending" and that it affected the most vulnerable people in society.

He was "under absolutely no illusion" about the prison sentence that he faced and the offences were a "form of self-medication for him" but he knew, with hindsight, that it was not acceptable. He had been jailed previously.

Lister had been working self-employed, building models for war games that he provided to the public and to museums. "After his release from custody, he did battle public perception of the offence," said Miss Thompson.

Lister had struggled with isolation and alcohol misuse. "His alcohol usage is now zero," said Miss Thompson. "He understands what the difficulties are in his head.

"He is understanding of the harm to children who are depicted in the pornography, which is something that he has struggled with previously. He is now aware of the impact on others."

Judge John Thackray KC told Lister: "This is not a victimless crime – far from it. It's people like you, viewing this disgusting material, your actions, which fuels the abuse of children, causing lifelong damage to them.

"You have proved that your risk cannot be managed in the community. You have gone on to commit serious offences. Only appropriate punishment can be achieved by way of an immediate custodial sentence."

Lister, who had been on bail, was jailed for 14 months.