Latest Offenders

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A teaching assistant has been jailed for two years and four months after admitting a string of sex offences against children.

The youth worker, originally from Jewson Road, Norwich, was jailed for grooming a boy over the internet, child abduction and sexual assault.

The offences involved four boys in Swaffham and Norwich.

Following the case, Norfolk police urged parents to become more aware of the 'dangers of the online world' and to not be afraid to check their children's social network use.

Reuben Poll used the alias Jordan Green on social network site Facebook to chat to one 11-year-old.

The court heard how he groomed the boy by making sexual comments in private messages.

He encouraged the child to send explicit photos of himself and sent the child pornographic images.

Reuben, who volunteered at a youth club in Swaffham and worked as a teaching assistant at primary schools around Norfolk, then met up with the boy at a park in January this year.

But he was caught after the child's mother became suspicious.

William Carter, prosecuting, told Norwich Crown Court that the 11-year-old's mother noticed a change in his behaviour and discovered the messages from 'Jordan Green' when she checked her child's Facebook account dating back to early December 2012.

She took the laptop to police and Poll was arrested on January 12.

Her son told officers how Poll had 'drawn me in' through the messages in which he claimed he was 16 years old rather than 20.

He told the child: 'I want to be like your big bro and look after you.'

When Poll was arrested by police two boys, aged 12 and 15, were in his white Renault Clio without their parents' consent.

They said they were going to Poll's flat to do some decorating, but the children's parents said they were 'horrified' when told by officers, and Poll admitted two counts of abduction.

He also admitted sexual assault by touching a child at a Swaffham youth club where he volunteered. The case was dismissed by the club when reported by the boy last year as they believed Poll's denial.

Poll will now be placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years.

Andrew Shaw, mitigating, said Poll had a very troubled upbringing and was 'damaged' and 'confused'.

He is the son of a woman described in court as 'probably Norwich's most notorious prostitute' Carmen Dye. He was taken into foster care aged eight and grew up in Dereham.

But Mr Shaw said that his attempts to get his life on track by becoming a teaching assistant were scuppered when his sister Natasha Dye died from a drugs overdose supplied to her by her mother's partner. He fell into depression and lost his primary school job.

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A paedophile teacher found with 14,500 sick images of children told police he was looking at them for research purposes – so he could get them taken down from the Internet.

But science master Melvyn Carter, who taught at East Sussex County Council-run Heathfield Community College at the time of his arrest in August 2011, eventually admitted this was a lie.

He confessed he had been looking at such images for “several years”

while continuing to work as a teacher.

Carter has now been jailed for 15 months.

The 69-year-old left the school, in Cade Street, Heathfield, in November 2011, five months after he was initially arrested.

Pupils at the school yesterday spoke of their shock.

One former student,who asked not to be named, called Carter “sick”.

Another student added: “I can’t believe it.”

Heathfield head teacher Alan Powell said: “Melvyn Carter previously worked at the college as a cover supervisor and, before that, as a teacher.

“As soon as we were made aware of these allegations we took immediate action.

“He was dismissed from his post in November 2011 following an internal personnel investigation and we referred the case to the Independent Safeguarding Authority.

“None of the offences he was charged with in any way relate to the school or to any pupils from the school. Nor had any previous concerns of this nature been raised about him.”

A Sussex Police spokeswoman said: “Carter was a teacher at Heathfield Community School when he was arrested in August 2011 but he resigned shortly afterwards.

“There was no evidence of any link between the school and his offending, which was carried out on his home computer.”

At Lewes Crown Court Carter, of Malvern Way, Hastings, was also served with a ten-year sexual offence prevention order severely restricting his access to children and computers and will have to register as a sex offender on his release from prison.

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A man who sexually abused a teenager after throttling her until she passed out has been jailed for 14 years.

Darren Cowland, 37, of Union Close, Bideford, Devon, ripped out clumps of his 18-year-old victim's hair during the attack, Exeter Crown Court heard.

Cowland was on bail for attacking a man with a bottle in a nightclub when he assaulted the woman.

He admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and sexual assault.

'Long recovery'

Judge Francis Gilbert said: "It was a very, very violent assault on a young woman who will probably be a long time recovering from what you did to her.

"I am satisfied that you are a dangerous offender who poses a significant risk of committing further offences."

David Evans, prosecuting, said the bottle attack took place at Caesar's Palace nightclub in Bideford in July 2011. The victim was left with a 4cm scar.

Gareth Evans, mitigating, said Cowland was a victim of abuse as a child and has been determined to turn his back on alcohol since he had been remanded in custody.

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A 19-year-old man who had sex with a 14-year-old girl has been given 12 months custody.

Grant Pearson, of Aintree Road, South Shore, had pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual activity with a child.

Preston Crown Court heard Pearson had sex with the girl twice after they had met by accident at a bus stop and continued to contact each other by text and on Facebook.

Hanifa Patel, prosecuting, said Pearson had been fully aware of the her age.

The girls mother went on to find out what had happened and the police were called.

Janet Ironfield, defending, said: He entirely accepts that he is to blame. He hasnt sought to transfer any of the blame to the girl.

There was genuine affection between the two. There had been Facebook chatter which in the main of entirely flirtatious.

The court heard Pearsons mother had died when he was 13 and his father had later left him imprisoned in Singapore.

Passing sentence on Monday, Judge Andrew Woolman also told Pearson he recognised there was very profound mitigation in his case.

He said: You had very troubled years.

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SERIAL sex attacker Dean Goodwin tried to contact one of his terrified victims on Facebook, just weeks before he committed the brutal early morning rape in Poole. Speaking exclusively to the Daily Echo, the woman, who was just 13 when Goodwin molested her, said: I contacted the police after he attempted to add me as a Facebook friend and he was arrested. He was bailed but released without charge because I had deleted the message from my phone; otherwise he could have been jailed for two years. It's shocking that just a month later he was on the run again after another life had been destroyed. The woman, now 25, was moved from her Poole home to safe accommodation in Bournemouth and said she was petrified Goodwin would try to track her down again. She said: It's always been my worst fear. We were uprooted before when Goodwin was released from prison after he came to live in the same area. We're still too close and need to be moved out of the county; for the sake of my three young children. We are all holed up in one room; we can't go anywhere. The woman was just 13 when Goodwin sexually assaulted her in Parkstone on May 3, 2000, grabbing her and putting his hand over her mouth to stifle her screams. She said: I'd never seen him before that day; he threatened to cut me up if I screamed again. If my sister hadn't walked past I believe he would have done much worse. I've tried to rebuild my life but I still suffer from extreme anxiety and have difficulty trusting. I've needed intensive counselling. I'm also very protective of my children; they are my main concern. There is no way I would let my five-year-old even play in the garden which is very sad. Goodwin is still affecting all our lives; he is an extremely dangerous man and I wasn't surprised to hear that he was being hunted again.

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A "predatory bully" who groomed a girl in Lancashire from the age of 13 before abducting and abusing her has been jailed for four years and three months.

Mohammed Imran Amjad, 26, of Halifax Road, Brierfield, admitted sexual activity with a child and three counts of child abduction in 2009 and 2010.

A jury heard he drove her around the streets in his silver BMW.

Prosecutor Chris Long said he knew the victim's age yet continued to "corrupt and abuse her".

Amjad initially denied the charges but changed his plea part way through the trial at Manchester Crown Court.

'Coercing into submission'

He groomed the youngster after he was given her mobile phone number, said prosecutors, then took her out in his car before having sex with her aged 14.

The girl's mother contacted the police but the girl refused to make a complaint at the time and the relationship continued, the court heard.

Amjad was acquitted on the direction of the judge of other charges of rape and aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring rape, encouraging or assisting an offence and witness intimidation.

Five other men were also acquitted of various sex offences against the same girl.

Haroon Mahmood, 22, of John Street, Brierfield; Mohammed Suleman Farooq, 23, of Berry Street, Brierfield; Omar Mazafer, 22, of Halifax Road, Brierfield; Mohammed Zishan Amjad, 25, of Halifax Road, Brierfield; and Shiraz Afzal, 26, of Mansfield Crescent, Brierfield, had also been on trial.

After Amjad was sentenced at Burnley Crown Court earlier, Mr Long said: "Mohammed Imran Amjad was a predatory bully who befriended the victim when she was just 12 or 13-years-old.

"He was well aware that the victim was underage yet he continued to corrupt and abuse her for his own gratification, wielding his power over her and coercing her into submission."

Det Ch Insp Sion Hall said it was the culmination of a long and complex investigation, adding: "We've worked extremely hard with the young victim over a long period of time and she has shown a tremendous amount of courage and bravery throughout the case.

"I hope this sentence acts as a warning that this type of predatory crime will not be tolerated."

Amjad was also given a seven-year sexual offences prevention order which bars him from contacting or seeking to contact any female aged under 16 without the permission of their parent or guardian.

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A sex beast who carried out "appalling and depraved" sexual abuse of two young girls has been jailed for 16 years.

Lee Ashurst, of Parr Avenue, Gillingham, was told by a judge: "You chose to oppose these matters and have been convicted. You can expect and receive no mercy from this court."

The 29-year-old pervert denied six charges of rape of a child but was convicted of each by a 10-2 majority.

Judge Jeremy Carey said the jury of nine women and three men had to listen to the evidence of two little girls who gave in graphic detail an account of Ashurst's depraved sexual behaviour.

"Each of them described how you indulged yourself in the most appalling way," he said. "In their innocence they did not realise, and still do not realise, the enormity of the depravity of which you are now rightly found guilty.

"The impact on them I judge to be significant. When they do understand it is likely to be enormous and long lasting. It is that impact which makes that offending so grave."

The victims' families would feel the impact and shock waves for years to come.

After the guilty verdicts, Ashurst's lawyer spoke of the "horrific and appalling nature" of the offending.

Maidstone Crown Court, where Ashurst was sentenced

Ashurst, said to have a low IQ, will be on the sex offenders' register for life and banned from working with children and vulnerable adults.

After he had been led away to the cells to begin his sentence, Judge Carey told jurors, one of whom wept: "I turn to you with some feelings of anxiety.

"This case must have put you through an ordeal. It is your misfortune you had to sit on this case. Others have been through the ordeal you have had to go through.

"I don't suppose it will come to an end for some time. You have done your duty. After the dreadfulness of the evidence, you can sense that justice has been done."

He added: "Forget about this as best you can."

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SERVING police officer in Hampshire was caught distributing indecent images of children online by an undercover operation, a court heard.

Gary Prince, who resigned within days of his arrest, was jailed for three years yesterday after a court heard how thousands of images were discovered on his computer.

A court was told how a user on a file -sharing network, who had been sharing images of children, was traced back to the 49-year-old police constable.

Prince, who had been in the police for 21 years and was at the time an area car driver working in Fareham, had been unaware that he had been engaging with an undercover officer at the time, the court heard.

He was also a school governor and had been a trainer with a children’s motorcycle display team.

Tammy Mears, prosecuting, told Portsmouth Crown Court how the father’s computer contained more than 500 moving images and more than 2,000 photographs.

The court heard Prince had shared these images with at least 12 other people.

The offences stretched from 2008 to 2012.

Ms Mears said police discovered on Prince's laptop a screen shot of a girl, allegedly aged around ten, being sexually abused by a man who claimed to be her father and claimed to be in America.

The court heard that Prince had directed the activity between the man and the girl through a video link.

Prince, of Prinsted Walk, Fareham, confessed in interview his involvement and accepted that he had an interest in girls aged seven to 11, the court heard.

He also admitted having different profiles, including one where he claimed to be an 11-year-old girl.

Prince pleaded guilty to three charges of distributing indecent images of children, three charges of possessing indecent images of children, another of taking an indecent image of a child and one of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity.

James Bloomer, mitigating, said that the 49-year-old had no previous convictions, had addressed his behaviour through counselling, told friends and family, and reports showed he was not seeking to rationalise or excuse what he had done.

He said that Prince was described in one of numerous references from friends and family as “the world’s best father”.

Judge Iain Pearson said he had taken into account Prince’s early guilty plea, remorse and action to treat his addiction to indecent images of children.

Prince was put on the sex offenders’ register for life, disqualified from working with children indefinitely and the judge ordered that the computer and images be destroyed.

Detective Inspector Richard Wheeler, of the Paedophile and Online Investigation Team, said: “Clearly, while none of the offences are linked to Prince’s role as a police officer, he was trusted by his colleagues and by the public and has let them down.

“We must remember that every one of the thousands of images in Prince’s possession was an image of a child being subjected to abuse.”

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An osteopath who sexually assaulted five male patients has had his "unduly lenient" 18-month jail term increased to four years by the Court of Appeal.

Mark Piraino, 40, from Redhill, Surrey, was originally sentenced by a judge at Guildford Crown Court in February.

He was convicted following a trial in which jurors were told that two of the victims were aged 13 and 15.

His prison term was increased by three appeal judges after a plea from the Solicitor General.

Oliver Heald, the Conservative MP for North East Hertfordshire, appeared in person to ask the Court of Appeal to increase the sentence.

'Preying on boys'
Speaking after the hearing, he said: "I felt the original sentence didn't reflect the number of victims, period of offending or the appalling breach of trust.

"I am pleased the court agreed with me."

Lady Justice Hallett, who headed the panel of judges, said Piraino, whose oldest victim was 31, "carried on offending" until he was "preying on quite young boys".

She said appeal judges decided to impose a four-year term after concluding that the 18-month sentence for offences committed over a 12-year period was "not simply merciful" but "unduly lenient".

"We have a duty to the individual complainants and to patients or clients up and down the country who are entitled to trust that healthcare professionals behave appropriately when they are at their most vulnerable," Lady Justice Hallett said.

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A DANGEROUS child abuser took pictures of young girls in sexual poses so he could swap them with other paedophiles on the internet.

Karl Torgersen's crimes were uncovered after a European paedophile ring was cracked by German police and photos they uncovered were tracked back to Liverpool. Torgersen, 41, was arrested with his partner Joanne Roberts, 38, at their home on Churchway Road, Speke, last September.

His computer was confiscated and photographs of him abusing girls were found on the hard drive.

Torgersen pleaded guilty to more than 60 charges including sexual assault, taking an indecent picture of a child and distributing indecent images of a child.

Judge Robert Trevor-Jones said Torgersen was motivated to fulfil his "perverted ends".

His excuse that he was "objectively" investigating online paedophilia after being abused as a child were dismissed as "classic denial".

Torgersen was jailed for eight years and eight months, of which he will serve a minimum of two-thirds, after being labelled a dangerous offender. He was given an extended licence period of 14 years.

Joanne Roberts pleaded guilty to less serious sexual assaults and charges related to indecent images.

She was jailed for two years and seven months.

The judge said: "You were present and played your part."

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A long-serving teacher at a Derbyshire school has been sentenced for having a sexual relationship with a pupil.

Mark Fidler, who was removed from his post last year, wept in the dock as he was jailed.

He was working at Belper School when he began having intercourse with the teenager, whose identity is protected by law.

During their time together, a court heard she sent him a topless photograph of herself as well as pictures of her in her underwear which were found in a drawer in his office by a colleague.

The 49-year-old was spotted alone with the victim in his classroom, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

He later admitted they had been away together and had sex and that he had bought her gifts such as underwear, jewellery and clothes.

He originally pleaded guilty at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court last month but a court order prevented Derbyshire Live from naming the school.

Naming Belper School in the public interest

At the sentencing, the prosecution applied to the court to prevent the media from naming the school where Fidler worked.

However, our reporter successfully counter-argued to Judge Steven Coupland that naming Belper School and Sixth Form Centre as his place of work was in the public interest.

Dismissing the prosecution application and handing Fidler a 22-month jail term, Judge Coupland said: “You had been a teacher for more than a quarter of a century and head of music for a number of years.

“You were in a position of responsibility and knew what the rules were about sexual contact with pupils.

“Your teacher’s ethos must have told you about that."

Damage to the victim

“You should have taken steps to distance yourself from her but instead you moved closer," said the judge.

“She gave no victim statement but the reality is the damage this has caused her is impossible to quantify.”

Leanne Summers, prosecuting, said Fidler, of Johnson Drive, Heanor, had worked at Belper School since 1993 and had been head of music since 2002.

Fidler was dismissed from his role in December 2018 following an internal investigation.

She had stayed over at his home

Miss Summers said: “After being dismissed, a colleague was looking in the defendant’s office drawers and found a memory stick which contained pictures of the victim topless and in her underwear.

“He was arrested and candid, saying the lines had become blurred and that they were seeing each other three times a week.

“He said she had stayed over at his home, they had been away together that he had bought her gifts such as jewellery, clothes and underwear.”

'Honest man who lost sight of his responsibilities'

Miss Summers said that, as part of the police investigation, Fidler’s phone had been seized and it was discovered he had been Googling whether what he and the victim were doing was illegal or not.

She said the victim was interviewed by the police and admitted she and Fidler had been involved in a sexual relationship.

At Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court in July, Fidler pleaded guilty to one count of sexual activity with a girl while in a position of trust and one count of possessing 13 indecent images of the victim – 10 pictures and three videos.

Andrew Wesley, mitigating at the sentencing hearing in Nottingham, said his client has children of his own who he now no longer sees and has no previous convictions of any kind.

He said he started suffering depression following the break-up of his relationship with his former partner.

Mr Wesley said: “It was when there was nothing left to hide that he co-operated with the police.

“He is fundamentally an honest man who lost sight of his responsibilities as a teacher and an adult.”

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Three men have been jailed for life for murdering a sex offender from Dorset.

Stuart Wareham, 26, his half-brother Lee Wareham, 33, and Benjamin Walter, 22, beat Geoffrey Reed to death, before putting his body in a suitcase and burying it in woodland.

At Winchester Crown Court, Stuart Wareham got a minimum 20-year term. The other men must serve at least 18 years.

Reed, who spent time in jail for raping two people including a child, was killed at home in Cecil Road, Boscombe.

Passing sentence, Judge John Griffith Williams said Reed, 57, was "brutally murdered" in a "terrifying attack".

'Vulnerable and frail'

He said Stuart Wareham, who shared Reed's flat, was "principally responsible" but the other defendants, of no fixed address, were "willing participants".

"Stuart Wareham killed him not because he considered him a paedophile, but because he saw an opportunity to take his flat," he said.

The judge added: "No defendant is in the least bit remorseful."

Simon Jones, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said Reed was "vulnerable and frail" when he was beaten to death on 7 June.

"While it is true that Mr Reed was a convicted sex offender this cannot justify the brutal attack on him and from which he died," he said.

The killers buried his body in a shallow grave at Lytchett Matravers, near Poole. They told police he had gone to Weymouth for a few days.

But officers were suspicious and used sniffer dogs to find a possible burial site on 12 June.

The body, which showed signs of "horrendous" blunt force injuries, was disinterred the next day.

Speaking after sentencing, Det Insp Stewart Balmer from Dorset Police praised the "brave" witnesses who came forward and helped police to catch the killers.

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Police have tracked down a missing sex offender.

James Alexander Campbell has been found and arrested by detectives in the Manchester area.

As previously reported, officers from Hampshire Constabulary were appealing for information about Mr Campbells whereabouts after he failed to register his address with authorities.

The 41-year-old was last seen in Portsmouth on November 19, 2012, after being released from court over an unrelated charge of shoplifting.

But Mr Campbell is now in police custody after he was tracked down in the north of England.

A spokesperson for Hampshire police issued a thank you to residents who had helped out during the appeal over the Easter period.

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A COMPUTER consultant who was freed early from a jail sentence after being arrested in Shetland for amassing a huge hoard of child pornography was sent back to prison on Thursday for 15 months after downloading and possessing more indecent images. Yeoman Smith was released on licence with conditions that he did not access the internet unless supervised and with prior authorisation. But the judge who jailed him for his original crime said he had blatantly broken the conditions by obtaining computer equipment and committing the same sort of offence. Lord Uist told Smith at the High Court in Edinburgh: I am in no doubt it is appropriate that I should order you be returned to prison to serve part of the sentence which I imposed on you. Defence solicitor advocate Sandra Walker said: He has described his desire to view child pornography as an addiction. The 37 year old was jailed for 25 months in 2011 and put under supervision for a further three years after a friend found child pornography at his flat in Livingstone Place, in Edinburgh. He had built up a cache of more than half a million still images and in excess of 1800 pieces of footage. He had gone to Shetland for a family funeral when a downstairs neighbour contacted a friend of his over concerns about a potential water leak from his flat. The friend went to turn off the water but later found images of children performing sex acts on adult males and contacted police. Smith was released from prison in April last year and went to stay with relatives in the West Lothian village of Mid Calder but by August was committing similar offences.

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AN Accrington man has been jailed for 11 years for his part in sexually abusing young girls.

Jerry Lee Howe, 40, of Dunnyshop Avenue, was convicted of three counts against one victim, including rape. He was also given a Sexual Offences Prevention Order to last 20 years.

Another man, Paul Thomas, 50, of Western Way, Basingstoke, Hampshire, was sentenced to 19 years, at Winch-ester Crown Court after being convi-cted of 25 charges involving four girls.

He was also made subject to an indefinite SOPO. The trial heard the attacks took place from the mid-1990s, and stopped only in 2010.

Kerry Maylin, prosecuting, said: The victims were, the Crown says, sexually abused. They were children, and some of them very young.

The barrister said the abuse stopped only when the vic-tims reached 16.

She explained that some were very used to the abuse, and they did as they were bid as the men attacked them.

The pair abused the victims separ-ately at different times, and in diff-erent locations, including Hampshire and Lancashire, over the years.

Two other men, Paul Flynn, 30, of Bath Road, Reading, and Timothy Pittway, 49, of Mermaid Close, Winn-ersh, Berkshire, were acquitted of all child sexual abuse charges against them by the jury. Thomas was found not guilty of six offences against two victims one of whom was a boy and Howe was found not guilty of three charges involving a girl.

Speaking after the case, Detective Inspector Scott Clarke, from Hamp-shire Police, said: These men system-atically abused and degraded children to the point where their victims felt their ordeal was just a part of growing up. It is down to the courage of these women that these most evil of offen-ders have been brought to justice.

No-one should have to experience the childhood that these victims did.