Latest Offenders

Description

A Fife man caught with more than 90,000 extreme porn images and videos had amassed the collection over the course of 15 years.

Gary Gray had a server running in his garage and dozens of hard drives containing the vile images were found.

Description

A sex attacker who put a noose around a woman's neck and dragged her away has been jailed for eight years.

Ben Creek, 31, launched the "sinister and disturbing" attack as his victim returned from taking her children to school in Holbeck, Leeds, last year, a jury heard.

He pinned her to the ground before before a passer-by interrupted and Creek fled through rush-hour traffic.

Creek, of Britannia Road, Morley, was jailed at Leeds Crown Court on Friday.

The court had heard that Creek grabbed the woman, who was in her 20s, from behind as she walked under a viaduct between Domestic Road and Cross Ingram Road at about 09:15 BST on 5 May last year.

Dressed in black with a beanie hat and with his face covered, Creek choked the struggling victim with the noose as he dragged her to a grassy area.

After the passer-by intervened, he fled through queuing traffic on busy city centre roads, including the A643 dual carriageway.

Creek was arrested 10 days later, after CCTV images released in a police appeal led to his identification.

Detectives learned he had also exposed himself to a schoolgirl in Asquith Avenue, Morley, four days after the noose attack.

In November, Creek had pleaded guilty to sexual assault, attempting to choke, suffocate or strangle a person in order to commit an offence, indecent exposure, and outraging public decency.

After the sentencing, Det Insp Suzanne Hall, of West Yorkshire Police, said: "This was a very sinister and disturbing incident. A woman was brazenly attacked near a busy road as she walked back from taking her child to school during the morning rush hour.

"It was terrifying for her and it has left her traumatised."

The offences showed Hall was a "dangerous sexual predator", Det Insp Hall added.

"We hope it will give some degree of comfort to his victims and to the wider community to know that he is behind bars."

Creek will also have to serve five years on licence after his eventual release from prison.

Description

A Huddersfield man who sexually assaulted a vulnerable woman also attacked two other females, it has been revealed.

Naveed Khawaja, 55, of Yew Street, Huddersfield was jailed for three years at Leeds Crown Court on May 9 after being convicted of three sexual assaults. The 55-year-old was arrested on October 11, 2021 following a report that a man had attended the home of a victim earlier that month.

Once in the house he committed a sexual assault on the victim who was particularly vulnerable. An investigation was launched by officers from Kirklees CID who on reviewing the offence, linked Khawaja with two unsolved offences in Bradford from July 2017 and October 2019.

In both of them, vulnerable women had been sexually assaulted. Following a detailed investigation, the 53-year-old was charged with all of the offences in September 2022.

Detective Inspector Simon Reddington of Kirklees CID, said: “Khawaja is a predatory sex offender who offended against vulnerable victims and we welcome his conviction and sentencing. All reports of sexual offending are treated extremely seriously by West Yorkshire Police and we continue to urge victims to come forwards.

“As this case shows, even where it may not be initially possible to bring a prosecution, unsolved cases are not forgotten and new evidence can come to light which makes it possible to put a suspect before the courts.

“West Yorkshire Police is absolutely committed to making women and girls safer and does all it can to get offenders like Khawaja off our streets.”

Description

A landlord who secretly filmed his female lodger in the bath and had thousands of indecent images of children on his phone has been jailed. Oliver Fay, 45, had been subletting one of the rooms in his council flat to the woman for at least three years after she saw it advertised online.

Fay covertly recorded her in intimate circumstances whilst she was sleeping and in the bathroom. Various images showed that on some occasions he had hidden his mobile phone in a small black vanity drawer and the end of the bath.

Fay was caught when the National Crime Agency (NCA) received information that linked him to uploading indecent images of children to the internet. When the police went to Fay’s home address in Bethnal Green, east London, several of his electronic devices were seized from his bedroom and were examined whilst he was in custody.

There was a total of 9,831 indecent images of children, including 1,200 of which were the most serious category. Whilst reviewing his phone officers quickly identified that he had been recording his lodger.

Fay was arrested at the address for voyeurism and indecent images offences. He pleaded guilty in January, and was sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison for six counts of voyeurism between September 2019 and August last year when he appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday.

Fay was also jailed for three counts of making indecent images of children of category A, B and C and received an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order. Category A refers to images involving penetrative sexual activity, while category B are images that involve non-penetrative sexual activity.

Category C includes any other indecent image that does not fall into the other two categories. He will also be required to sign the Sex Offender’s Register indefinitely.

Sentencing Fay, Judge Caroline English told him: “Anyone involved in such imagery, whether in the production, distribution or simple download is quite literally plummeting into the depths of depravity. Make no mistake, anyone who downloads or views such imagery is complicit in the abuse of those children because you provide and perpetuate a market for such material. You should be thoroughly ashamed.”

Investigating officer PC Lindsey England said: “Oliver Fay used his mobile phone to take images of his lodger over a period of at least three years. This was the grossest violation of her privacy and it cannot be overstated how horrific it must have been to learn that her home had not been the safe place she thought it was.

“I would like to commend her bravery and I hope that she can now begin to find a degree of closure and move forward with her life."

PC England added: “Fay’s sexual interests and predatory behaviour is deeply concerning and he paid no regard to the distress and humiliation that this would cause. I would like to encourage anyone who has concerns that they have been secretly recorded to please contact the Police and they will be supported."

Description

A PAEDOPHILE was snared by waiting police officers after arranging to meet a child for sex at a McDonald’s.

Nikolas Buchholz engaged in disgusting and depraved sexual chats online with someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.

The 37-year-old father was in fact however talking with an undercover police officer trained to expose child-sex offenders.

He was subsequently charged with attempted sexual communications with a child and attempting to meet a child after grooming.

He was also convicted of counts of attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity and two counts of attempting to cause a child to watch sexual activity.

Lee Bonner, prosecuting the case at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday, May 18, explained how on the first day of his trial, the defendant changed his pleas to guilty on all five charges.

The defendant was snared in an operation run by an undercover police officer posing under the guise of an account purporting to be Grace, as 13-year-old girl.

The officer was deployed online, on the social media app Kik Messenger, with the task of detecting offenders with a sexual interest in children.

The court heard how the officer registered with the username ‘lilgrace07’, and it was clear in the ‘bio’ of the profile that it was being run by a 13-year-old girl.

On April 19, 2021, the profile was messaged by the defendant, assisted in court by a Romanian interpreter, under the username ‘buddyf**k4fun’, who said he was a 34-year-old man from Warrington.

The officer told him they were a 13-year-old girl from Manchester, but despite knowing this, Buchholz began to sexualise the conversation, asking about her previous sexual activity and offering to ‘teach her’.

This continued over several days, during which time he sent her a photo of his face and the steering wheel of his BMW, and asked her to send him photos of herself.

As talk progressed over three weeks, he sent the officer photos and videos of his erect penis, asking if she liked it and encouraging her to perform sex acts on herself, calling it ‘their secret game’.

The ‘girl’ said that she was scared and that she was worried she would get into trouble if her mum found out, but the defendant said she could be his ‘secret pleasure’.

Discussion soon turned to meeting up for sex, and despite Buchholz stating he was worried about it being a trap and him going to prison, he still continued with the chats.

They arranged to meet at a McDonald’s in the Fallowfield area, and when he arrived in his silver BMW, he was met by plain clothed police officers and arrested.

The defendant’s Samsung mobile phone was seized, showing the chat history, and during an interview he said that he thought he was communicating with an adult, and that talk of a 13-year-old girl was a ‘joke’.

Defending his client, Matt Lawson said that Buchholz has no previous convictions and has not committed any further offences since.

He also spoke of the defendant’s ‘genuine expression of remorse and regret’, and while he is not living with his family at present, his wife, who was present in court, ‘remains fully supportive of him and bringing the family unit back together’.

The court was told that he works full time for Amazon, as well as an additional job on top, to provide for his family and send money home to his elderly parents, who are in poor health back in his native Romania.

Before sentencing, judge David Aubrey commented that Buchholz believed he was ‘grooming the ‘girl’’ and that sexual activity was ‘clearly intended’.

He added that this would have taken place had he not in fact been chatting with an undercover police officer.

“The fact she was 13, or so you believed, did not deter you. It encouraged you, such was your perversion,” The judge concluded.

Buchholz, of Ripley Street in Whitecross, was sentenced to 43 months in prison.

He was also made the subject of sex offender registration and notification requirements indefinitely and a sexual harm prevention order for the next 10 years.

Description

A violent rapist who forced his way into a woman's home when she opened the door has been handed a 25-year prison term.

Brute James Walton, 32, dragged his victim into her living room, before attacking her and strangling her.

In an ordeal lasting 14-hours, he raped her three times and later tried to intimidate her into stopping the police case against him. Walton had only been out of prison for a matter of months when he attacked his third female victim.

Teesside Crown Court heard the woman, who broke down in tears as she read out her victim statement on Monday, thought she was going to die in the attack.

After standing trial, Walton was convicted of:

• three rapes,
• assault occasioning actual bodily harm,
• false imprisonment,
• harassment
• witness intimidation.

'Choke hold'

The court heard that after getting into the woman's home, he put her in a "choke hold" which left her limp.

After dragging her into her living room, he slapped her across her face so hard that she "could only see black," as she fell to the floor and blood poured from her busted lip.

The woman thought Walton would kill her before he raped her three times, the court heard. Jurors also heard how he wouldn't let the woman leave her home for over 12 hours during the ordeal.

Giving evidence at the trial, the victim recalled: "I saw black and stars. There was blood all over my floor when I opened my eyes again. I had a pain in my skull like someone was rattling my brain around in my head."

But Walton made her clean up the blood and force-fed her pasta, when he was eating and she didn't want anything. He later tried to pressure her into dropping the case against him.

During the trial, he claimed the woman had wanted to have sex with him, and that she "begged him to stay".

The court heard that Walton has previously been violent towards two other women; and that he was released from a five-and-a-half year sentence last year. He then went onto attack his latest victim.

Walton, who appeared in court on video link from prison, shook his head as the judge told him: "You have a history of violence and dominating behaviour towards women. You put your hands around her neck. You slapped her around her face. You made her clean up the blood saying: 'That's it, I'm going to jail. I might as well just slit your face up.'

"She wasn't allowed to leave her house. You raped her three times.

"It's necessary to protect women from serious harm by you. I have concluded that you are a dangerous man, and I shall impose an extended sentence."

The judge handed Walton, of Ashling Way in Middlesbrough, a 19-year prison term, with an extended licence period of six-years. He is eligible for release after serving two-thirds of his jail term, but can be called back to prison to serve the full 25-years, if he breaches the terms of his licence after he is released.

He will be subject to sex offender notification requirements indefinitely.

Description

A sexual opportunist took advantage of a teenage woman’s drunken condition to rape her in her own home, a court heard.

Robert James Barnett, a “virtual stranger” to everyone at a house party at his victim’s home, had been drinking vodka in the kitchen until the other guests had either left or fallen asleep, before he struck.

He then dragged the woman up the stairs, stripped her naked in her bedroom and was in the act of raping her when she came around.

Durham Crown Court heard that although she protested and urged him to stop, he took hold of her firmly around her throat, squeezed her neck, then grabbed her breasts and continued with the rape.

When he did stop, the victim quickly dressed into her pyjamas, ran from the house and sought sanctuary at a relative’s home nearby.

Paul Cleasby, prosecuting, said the defendant followed her and tried to get into the house, with the victim so scared he may gain entry that she hid in a child’s bedroom.

Police were called and were soon in attendance, arresting Barnett, who struggled as he was being detained.

Mr Cleasby said Barnett claimed he had only taken the woman up to her bed to assist due to her condition but he made no comment when asked further questions.

The, now, 58-year-old defendant denied charges of rape and sexual assault, maintaining his “Good Samaritan” defence during his trial earlier this month.

But he was found guilty on both counts and was remanded in custody, pending his sentencing hearing on Friday (May 19).

The court was read parts of the impact statement of the victim who said she moved home in the wake of the attack as she could no longer bear to live there.

She also left her job in that area and moved to a different location.

The victim stated that she found the court process difficult as she inadvertently came face-to-face with the defendant during the trial.

Mr Cleasby said that should not have happened, but it had clearly upset the victim.

He told the court there must have been some planning by the defendant, as he remained at the victim’s home for five hours until others had either left or gone to sleep, before taking her upstairs.

Chris Morrison, in mitigation, said despite there being two charges, both arose as part of the same incident.

He disputed that there was any great degree of planning, claiming it was, “more opportunist than planned”.

Mr Morrison said: “He’s a 58-year-old man, with no history of this type of offending.

“He finds himself in prison, is in poor health and with a lengthy history of poor mental health.”

Mr Morrison said the defendant has struggled in the prison environment, where he is on medication for anxiety and depression, while he is also a type-two diabetic, all of which, “has taken a toll on him.”

Judge James Adkin told Barnett he attended the woman’s house “uninvited”, a man in his mid-50s, at the time, among a gathering of mostly teenagers.

He said the defendant’s claim during his trial that he merely fell on the woman was clearly not believed by the jury.

“You were a trespasser in her home, never invited to the party, and you choked her while you raped her.

“Despite her obvious upset, you continued to rape her.

“In my view there was significant planning.

“My judgement is that when the party died down, you thought you would take your chance and dragged her upstairs and raped her.”

Judge Adkin imposed a 12-year prison sentence, of which the defendant must serve two-thirds before being released on licence.

He made the defendant, of Gore Hill Estate, Thornley, County Durham, subject of registration as a sex offender for life.

Judge Adkin also put in place a lifetime restraining order, prohibiting Barnett from contacting or approaching the rape victim.

Description

A SEX attacker broke into a woman's home through an attic before tying her to a chair and trying to rape her at knifepoint.

Karan Pullock, 37, was described as "truly dangerous" individual after attacking the victim at her home in Hackney, London.

Pullock had entered the victim’s flat through an attic on June 30 last year, a court heard.

Once the victim returned home later that day, she noticed the blinds had been drawn and her dog was unusually quiet.

Pullock then emerged from a darkened room armed with a knife and grabbed the woman.

She bravely tried to fight him off, but he overpowered her before holding a knife to her throat.

The sick offender then threatened to kill her as she continued to scream in fear.

Pullock then took the frightened victim into her bedroom, where he tied her to a chair and demanded money.

He began to cut the victim’s clothes off before sexually assaulting her and attempting to rape her.

Shortly after, Pullock called the Met Police and confessed to the incident with cops rushing to the scene to arrest him shortly after.

Pullock, of Hackney, East London, has been jailed for 12 years and will be on the Sex Offenders' Register for life.

He pleaded guilty on January 18 to attempted robbery, attempted rape, sexual assault and threats to kill.

The victim said: “There are days where I struggle to get out of bed. Not recognising the person I once was. I wonder what the point is, where I no longer have the confidence to live like I used to.

"To live in a city like London and constantly be in fear feels hopeless.

“I’m a grown woman who is now scared of the dark. I feel embarrassed trying to make plans to see friends, or client meetings and having to work around this.

"In the winter months, it makes this basically impossible."

Detective Sergeant Matthew Cooksey said: “Pullock is a truly dangerous individual who planned a terrifying attack on the victim for no reason other than his own gratification.

"I am glad that he pleaded guilty and spared the victim from having to relive the experience at court.

"He will now spend a significant period behind bars. We are working hard to prevent violence against women and girls and we will continue to remove these dangerous offenders from the streets of London.”

Description

A convicted sex offender has been jailed after staying at the home of a young mother without telling her about his previous convictions.

David Spencer was made subject of sex offender registration for life when he was jailed at Newcastle Crown Court for seven years for sexual offences with girls, in February 2013.

Following his release from custody, the 36-year-old was required to notify police where he was living, what social media accounts he was using, and register his banking details.

Teesside Crown Court heard how concerns were raised after he failed to return to his accommodation for several nights and he was eventually located stating at the 18-year-old’s home.

Annelise Haugstad, prosecuting, said: “In August 2022 he was living in supported housing and on a number of occasions he was reported as missing.

“The police were made aware he was missing for several nights and it was discovered that he was staying at the home address of an 18-year-old and her young son.

“He failed to register that address or that he had stayed there seven nights in a row. The woman had not been made aware of his previous offences.”

The court heard how Spencer also used his step-father’s name on a snapchat account, again without notifying the authorities.

Miss Haugstad said the defendant was also in possession of two unregistered mobile phones and a bank card.

In a victim impact statement, the woman said she was shocked to learn about his previous convictions after she was introduced to him by a friend from a mother and toddlers’ group.

She added: “I didn’t know anything about his past but if I had, I wouldn’t have had anything to do with him.”

Spencer, formerly of Fencehouses, near Houghton-le-Spring, but whose most recent address was given as care/of a charity-run men’s hostel, in Plawsworth, near Chester-le-Street, admitted eight charges of failing to comply with the terms of his notification requirements between July 18 and October 12 last year.

Victoria Lamballe, mitigating, said her client had made good use of his time on remand to take part in a number of courses.

Judge Paul Watson KC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, sentenced Spencer to 12 months in custody but told him he would be soon released as he had spent seven months on remand.

Description

A 72-year-old man has been jailed after being found guilty of repeatedly sexually abusing a child.

Michael Peter Wilson, from the Kirk Sandall area of Doncaster, attacked the girl on a number of occasions while she was under the age of 13.

She eventually reported the abuse to police.

Wilson was convicted of rape, sexual assault of a child, sexual activity with a child and causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

He was sentenced to 21 years in prison following a trial at Sheffield Crown Court.

Det Con Rachael Ellis, South Yorkshire Police, praised the victim's "courage".

She said: "She has been so incredibly brave over the course of our investigation, sharing with us and the court the shocking and horrific details of Wilsons abuse.

"She recalled how he would groom her with treats in a bid to further his manipulation and control over her, a young child, as well as telling her how to behave in order to keep his sick crimes hidden from others.

"Wilson has shown absolutely no remorse for the harm he has caused, refusing to acknowledge his exploitative sexual offending. While I am pleased he has received a significant custodial sentence for his crimes and will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars, it does not diminish the damage he caused to an innocent child.

Description

An ageing music teacher masturbated during online lessons he would provide for children, and then used advance computer software to superimpose pupils’ heads into sexual scenes.

Warped 70-year-old Paul Moxon taught freelance lessons from his home in the Wakefield area using the meeting platform, Zoom. But he was caught out when a horrified pupil noticed he had taken his trousers down during one of her lessons.

She then caught sight of him performing a sex act on himself. The youngster suspected he had done it before but had previously covered his genitals with the musical instrument he was teaching, prosecutor Gerald Hendron told Leeds Crown Court.

The girl told her parents and the police were called. Moxon was arrested and internet devices and hard drives seized. They found more 1,000 illegal indecent images made up of Category A – the most serious – and Category B. But even more disturbingly, they found recordings of online lessons with pupils, from which Moxon then superimposed still images of the youngsters into sexual scenes involving himself. He even put audio of the victims’ speaking during lessons into the vile scenes.

Mr Hendron suggested that pupils were coerced into saying certain words that could be construed as sexually suggestive, in order for him to place them into his sick videos and fuel his sexual gratification. It was eventually found that there were several other victims.

The court heard that he had masturbated in front of the victims on multiple occasions. He was not affiliated to teaching at any schools in the area.

Moxon, of Wakefield Road, Normanton, gave no comments during two police interviews. He later admitted eight counts of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, and two of making indecent images.

He has no previous convictions, but his defence barrister Satpal Roth-Sharma said that he has accepted he had thrown away his long and distinguished career as a music tutor.

She said: “These are serious offences and he was a teacher in a position of trust which he wholly abused. He has had a shining career and one has to wonder what has triggered this. He has no previous convictions, he has never even had a speeding ticket in his life.

"Regrettably, his sexual behaviour has led to this, and he does not seek to avoid accepting that. He has become separated from his family and loneliness has played a part.”

The judge, Recorder David Gordon told Moxon: “This is extremely serious sexual offending, this was an abuse of trust. You were trusted by the parents of these children to help teach them music.”

He said of the superimposed images: “You are somebody with computer skills who manipulated those images for your own sexual gratification.”

He jailed him for three years and gave him a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) designed to monitor his internet use and ban him from contact with children. The order will last for life, while he will also be on the sex offenders register for life.

Moxon is also barred from ever teaching young people again.

Description

A sex offender on a suspended sentence went back to his "old ways" and had indecent images on the Kik app. Sion Wyn Thomas, 43, messaged a man with supposedly similar interests but that man was an undercover Metropolitan Police officer.

Police also found small-sized women's clothes and underwear in his car. Caernarfon Crown Court heard Thomas, of Orme Road, Bangor, had been given a 12-month prison term, suspended for 18 months, for distributing indecent images of young children, and was also given a ten-year sexual harm prevention order, in December 2021.

He completed the requirements but his attitude was "superficial", according to the probation service.

Earlier this year, a Metropolitan Police officer investigating the sexual abuse of young children online created various Messenger accounts, including one on the Kik app, said prosecutor Elen Owen.

She said people with shared interests could join a group, which could have up to 50 members or more.

Ms Owen said that on April 18 this year the police officer using a certain profile name was contacted by someone using the "John Smith" profile, who said he was a 39-year-old man. It was Sion Wyn Thomas.

Ms Owen said after exchanges between them and further enquiries North Wales Police decided to go to Thomas's home. They searched his property and his car and found "small-sized women's clothing and underwear" in the vehicle.

Police also seized his phone and tablet and found 15 images of naked girls, images of girls aged between eight and 12 and chats about the sexual abuse of young girls. It was however unclear whether Thomas himself had contributed to those conversations, said Ms Owen.

Thomas admitted breaching a sexual harm prevention order and breaching the terms of a suspended sentence.

Anna Price, defending, said Thomas can't explain his behaviour. It was towards the end of the suspension of his sentence from 2021.

He did comply with the rehabilitation activity and alcohol treatment treatment requirement programme from that sentence, she added.

But the court heard today the probation service deemed his attendance at meetings "superficial".

Indeed the judge His Honour Rhys Rowlands told Thomas today the terms of his SHPO prohibited him from using social media without strict controls but he went onto Kik.

He had shown "unnatural and extremely worrying behaviour".

The judge added: "It shows you have learned absolutely nothing from your time on the suspended sentence." His non-compliance with the SHPO showed he was "seeking to revert to (his) old ways".

He said there was no prospect of rehabilitation and jailed Thomas for ten months for breaching the SHPO and six months to run consecutively for breaching the terms of a suspended sentence.

Description

A CORNWALL man has been sentenced for a string of sex offences including attempted sexual communication with a child and three counts of making indecent images of children.

Lee Sharp, aged 39, formerly of Liskeard, has been jailed for a total of six sex offences after appearing at Truro Crown Court on Wednesday, May 10.

Sharp was sentenced on one count of breaching a sexual harm prevention order, one count of attempted sexual communication with a child, one count of incitement to view sexual material, and three counts of making indecent images of children.

The offences took place over the course of two years, between September 2020 and November 2022. 

Sharp pleaded guilty to all of the offences.

During his sentencing, Sharp was handed down a sentence of 52 months imprisonment and made to pay a victim surcharge.

According to the Sentencing Council, the maximum sentence for sexual communication with a child ranges is two years custody, with the maximum sentence for breaching a sexual harm prevention order being five years custody. 

The maximum sentence for the possession of indecent images of children is five years custody.

Description

A sex offender has been convicted after he failed to notify police of his travel plans.

As a condition of his sexual harm prevention order, Gary Ahearne, a registered sex offender, was required to tell police about his whereabouts.

But on May 17 last year Ahearne travelled from Luton Airport to Poland but failed to notify police of his intended travel.

The 43-year-old, of no fixed address, was subsequently charged with failure to comply with the notification requirements of the sex offenders register.

He pleaded guilty to the offence and at Lewes Crown Court on May 14, he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.

PC Mat Wyatt said: “These conditions are put in place for a reason. They are designed to protect the public from harm and to prevent those individuals subject to the conditions from further offending.

“This case should serve as a reminder that these are extremely serious offences which should not be taken lightly.”

Description

A dangerous Keighley sex offender has been been given a life sentence by a judge after it was discovered he was sexually abusing children.

Judge Andrew Hatton said Jonathon Warren, 33, would have to serve a minimum term of six years and eight months and would be on licence for the rest of his life after being given permission to be released by the Parole Board.

Bradford Crown Court heard on Friday that Warren was locked up for eight years when he was still a teenager in 2005 for previous sexual offending including the rape of a boy. In November last year Warren, who had been the subject of a life-long sexual offences prevention order, admitted a series of sexual abuse charges relating to two young girls who must not be identified for legal reasons.

He was arrested last October after police received information that he had been involved in the distribution of indecent images. Officers seized Warren's devices and discovered 2,086 indecent images of children. Among the images and videos were ones which showed him committing sexual acts on the two complainants, who were nine and 12-years-old at the time.

Warren admitted offences relating to his sexual abuse of the two girls and possession and distribution of indecent images and videos He also admitted assaulting an emergency worker. His barrister Abdul Shakoor said Warren himself had acknowledged that his offending was “heinous”.

Jailing him for life Judge Hatton said he was satisfied that Warren posed a significant risk of causing serious harm. He told Warren, who appeared in court via a video link from HMP Leeds: “I am also sure that that is a risk that is likely to carry on long into the future and I am satisfied that your offending is so serious that a sentence of life imprisonment is required and that’s the sentence that I impose."

The judge also made Warren subject to a new lifelong sexual harm prevention order. Detective Constable Adam Flaxington said: "I am particularly pleased that the judge has today recognised the abhorrent offending of Warren against two vulnerable girls. This sends a clear message to offenders committing these sorts of offences and I am delighted that his victims will now have justice.

"The lengths that Warren went to try and avoid detection and arrest signifies he knew he was looking at a significant sentence when caught. I would also like to thank the Digital Forensic Unit and all their work on the case. Our close work with them has again brought a positive result."