Search the database
clearly and quickly

Description

A judge jailed a sex molester for 27 years after telling him he wanted to protect Britain's children, including those not yet born. The sentence is one of the longest imposed for offences which do not carry a life term.

A charity worker, Raymond Hodgson, 43, carried out a catalogue of sex abuse on nine young girls. Police caught him after he had abused four children but he escaped by locking officers in his house.

He went on to sexually abuse another five children, after winning the trust of their parents as he travelled around Britain. He was caught when his photograph was shown on the BBC television programme Crimewatch and the station was inundated with calls.

Winchester Crown Court was shown a pornographic video Hodgson made in which he forced a six-year-old girl to perform sexual acts. Judge Martin Tucker QC told him: "Having seen in the video of the sort of things you were doing, it must be realised what a revolting series of offences these were.

"When you are eventually at liberty the overwhelming probability is you will try to do it again. I have got to protect children and unborn children.

"I am passing a sentence that will keep you inside until your sexual life is on the wane."

The court heard Hodgson re-offended when he was released from prison after a conviction for raping a 12-year-old girl.

The girls he targeted on his release were aged 6 to 13.

The court heard Hodgson began working for a charity and befriended one of his employees who had young children. Once he won the family's trust he began abusing the girl. After befriending this girl he met other youngsters by "wheedling himself into the affections and trust of their parents".

One girl told police Hodgson pulled her into his bed, stripped and removed her pants.

While visiting friends in Gosport, Hampshire, Hodgson abused an eight- year-old girl after giving her shandy. The girl woke in the middle of the night to find Hodgson touching her. She began crying and later told her sister. Police were alerted.

But when police went to arrest Hodgson he conned them into letting him say goodbye to his landlady, locking them in the house while he escaped. He then moved north to Morecombe under an assumed name where he again used his work with a charity to abuse another set of children.

Hodgson said he did not know why he had abused the children. "Ninety per cent of the time I am like any other in the street and then situations crop up and I lose control," he said.

Hodgson, of Basingstoke, Hampshire, admitted six counts of indecent assault, four of indecency with a child and five counts of taking indecent photographs, and one of unlawful escape.

Description

A hooded rapist calling himself 'Jack The Stripper' who attacked students close to a university campus was jailed yesterday for 12 years.

For 15 months, David Martin Jackson, 28, stalked women walking home from Leeds University to their bedsits in the Hyde Park area of the city.

At Leeds Crown Court, he was found guilty of rape, three indecent assaults, two attempted indecent assaults and four charges of assault causing actual bodily harm after a 14- day trial.

The judge, Mr Justice Harrison, told Jackson: 'You lay in wait for your victims at night time, hooded by a balaclava to obscure your face. You attacked your victims from behind and dragged them into the undergrowth. You then subjected them to terrifying ordeals from which they have not yet fully recovered. You subjected them to sexual indignities. Offences such as these should be punished by a substantial period of imprisonment.' Jackson was found guilty of one indecent assault, two attempted indecent assaults and three assaults causing bodily harm, after the jury took 27 hours to reach verdicts. On Monday, the jurors found him guilty of the other charges, including the rape.

Jackson, of Osmondthorpe, Leeds, who married a month before carrying out the rape, had denied all the charges.

He told the jury that on the night of the first two attacks, in June 1991, he was staying at the house of his fiancee's parents preparing for their church's national conference in Brighton.

Jackson, a member of the New Testament Church of God in Harehills, Leeds, said he and his wife, Jennifer, and their parents always stayed together, shopped together and did everything together before a church conference.

The court was told that between June 1991 and October 1992, Jackson carried out five attacks. On each occasion he ran up to his victim, dragged her off the road and into an area of parkland known as Woodhouse Moor and threatened to kill her.

A hooded rapist calling himself 'Jack The Stripper' who attacked students close to a university campus was jailed yesterday for 12 years.

For 15 months, David Jackson, 28, stalked women walking home from Leeds University to their bedsits in the Hyde Park area of the city.

At Leeds Crown Court, he was found guilty of rape, three indecent assaults, two attempted indecent assaults and four charges of assault causing actual bodily harm after a 14- day trial.

The judge, Mr Justice Harrison, told Jackson: 'You lay in wait for your victims at night time, hooded by a balaclava to obscure your face. You attacked your victims from behind and dragged them into the undergrowth. You then subjected them to terrifying ordeals from which they have not yet fully recovered. You subjected them to sexual indignities. Offences such as these should be punished by a substantial period of imprisonment.' Jackson was found guilty of one indecent assault, two attempted indecent assaults and three assaults causing bodily harm, after the jury took 27 hours to reach verdicts. On Monday, the jurors found him guilty of the other charges, including the rape.

Jackson, of Osmondthorpe, Leeds, who married a month before carrying out the rape, had denied all the charges.

He told the jury that on the night of the first two attacks, in June 1991, he was staying at the house of his fiancee's parents preparing for their church's national conference in Brighton.

Jackson, a member of the New Testament Church of God in Harehills, Leeds, said he and his wife, Jennifer, and their parents always stayed together, shopped together and did everything together before a church conference.

The court was told that between June 1991 and October 1992, Jackson carried out five attacks. On each occasion he ran up to his victim, dragged her off the road and into an area of parkland known as Woodhouse Moor and threatened to kill her.

A hooded rapist calling himself 'Jack The Stripper' who attacked students close to a university campus was jailed yesterday for 12 years.

For 15 months, David Jackson, 28, stalked women walking home from Leeds University to their bedsits in the Hyde Park area of the city.

At Leeds Crown Court, he was found guilty of rape, three indecent assaults, two attempted indecent assaults and four charges of assault causing actual bodily harm after a 14- day trial.

The judge, Mr Justice Harrison, told Jackson: 'You lay in wait for your victims at night time, hooded by a balaclava to obscure your face. You attacked your victims from behind and dragged them into the undergrowth. You then subjected them to terrifying ordeals from which they have not yet fully recovered. You subjected them to sexual indignities. Offences such as these should be punished by a substantial period of imprisonment.' Jackson was found guilty of one indecent assault, two attempted indecent assaults and three assaults causing bodily harm, after the jury took 27 hours to reach verdicts. On Monday, the jurors found him guilty of the other charges, including the rape.

Jackson, of Osmondthorpe, Leeds, who married a month before carrying out the rape, had denied all the charges.

He told the jury that on the night of the first two attacks, in June 1991, he was staying at the house of his fiancee's parents preparing for their church's national conference in Brighton.

Jackson, a member of the New Testament Church of God in Harehills, Leeds, said he and his wife, Jennifer, and their parents always stayed together, shopped together and did everything together before a church conference.

The court was told that between June 1991 and October 1992, Jackson carried out five attacks. On each occasion he ran up to his victim, dragged her off the road and into an area of parkland known as Woodhouse Moor and threatened to kill her.

Description

On 21 November 1983, 15-year-old Lynda Mann took a shortcut on her way home from babysitting instead of taking her normal route home. She did not return and her parents and neighbours spent the night searching for her. The next morning, she was found raped and strangled on a deserted footpath known locally as the Black Pad. Using forensic science techniques available at the time, police linked a semen sample taken from her body to a person with type A blood and an enzyme profile that matched only 10% of males. With no other leads or evidence, the case was left open.

On 31 July 1986, a second 15-year-old girl, Dawn Ashworth, left her home to visit a friend's house. Her parents expected her to return at 9:30 pm; when she failed to do so they called police to report her missing. Two days later, her body was found in a wooded area near a footpath called Ten Pound Lane. She had been beaten, savagely raped and strangled. The modus operandi matched that of the first attack, and semen samples revealed the same blood type.

An initial suspect was Richard Buckland, a local 17-year-old with learning difficulties who, while innocent of both crimes, revealed knowledge of Ashworth's body, and admitted to the Ashworth crime under questioning, denying the first murder.

Description

THE former Vicar of White Waltham developed a fondness for a choirboy which "crossed that terrible line" to become a physical relationship. Consequently, he would have to bear the penalty and guilt for the rest of his life, said the defence counsel at Maidenhead Magistrates' Court on Tuesday. The former vicar, Kenneth Norman Senior (62) now of Hope Rd, Leighton, Welshpool, Powys, pleaded guilty to two offences of indecently assaulting a male person under the age of 13 years. He asked for 22 similar offences to be taken into consideration. He was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for each offence, to run concurrently, but suspended for two years. Prosecuting solicitor Mrs. Janet Fedrick told the court that in June 1982 the boy joined the choir at White Waltham church, where Senior was then vicar. A few weeks after he joined, and for 18 months or two years, he was indecently assaulted by Senior on a number of occasions. GIFTS The boy would be asked if he wished to help with odd jobs. On various occasions, he would be taken to the bell tower, fondled and masturbated. The boy also went on holiday with the vicar, to Tenerife, Fordingbridge, and the New Forest, Hants, where similar acts took place. Mrs. Fedrick said the boy had never seen Senior naked. And at no time did Senior invite the boy to mutually exchange sexual expressions with him. There was no question of coercion or roughness. "It was done, obviously, through his fondness for the boy," said Mrs. Fedrick. She said the boy used to be paid both for the odd jobs, and his visits to the bell tower. Amounts would be entered on bits of paper, and on occasions he would receive gifts. On one occasion he received a bicycle. Eventually the boy left the choir. "He says he did not like these events," said Mrs. Fedrick. "He told no one, and did not tell the vicar that he did not. "But if he could get out of choir practice, he did. Eventually, he became ill and left the choir about two years ago. It is only recently, in the middle of the summer of this year, that he told his mother about these events." Defence counsel Mr. Richard Beckett said that this was one of those sad, wretched cases that made the role of magistrates particularly difficult and unenviable. But much of the punisment had already been administered, or would be, over the coming years, to somebody whose family relationships were affected; selfesteem impaired; and whose role in life had gone. "It is an isolated single relationship, one of fondness which should never have been allowed by Senior, the much older person, to have become a physical relationship. Sadly, once that terrible line had been crossed, it did continue in the same vein for a considerable period. NO COERCION "The police must, understandingly, have been aware throughout this matter that there was an absence of nastiness about the relationship. An absence of coercion, an absence of any sort of force, and the obvious presence of a considerable amount of affection," said Mr. Beckett. He said Senior wished to put on record an apology to the boy and his parents. Mr. Beckett said that, after working in South Africa, Senior felt he wished to join the Church, and was ordained in 1957. He came to White Waltham in 1974. He had worked hard in the parish. He had used his vicarage often to assist families in particular need. He had an excellent reputation. He was married, with four grownup children, who were supporting him. Mr. Beckett said that Senior's wife had a stroke in early November. "The feeling that haunts Senior is the knowledge that it cannot be entirely ruled out that it is connected with these incidents, he said. PSYCHIATRY Mr. Beckett said that Senior had been undergoing a psychiatric course for sometime. He obviously wished to ensure that there was no repetition of this type of offence. Asking the magistrates not to send Senior to prison, Mr. Beckett said: "So much of the penalty and guilt is to be borne from this day onward for the rest of his life. Older people who have fallen from grace suffer more than those who have ample life before them to make amends." Kenneth Senior graduated from Leeds University with a B.Sc. He was a school master for a number of years before joining the Church. St. Mary's was his first parish. He stood as an Independent candidate for the Hurley ward at the District Council elections in 1979, but failed to win a seat. Bishop's statement AFTER the hearing, the following statement was issued by the Bishop of Reading, the Right Rev. Graham Foley: I cannot and I would not attempt to play down the gravity of what Mr. Senior has done. A parish priest is placed in a position of great trust and responsibility, and it is clearly a cause for great sadness when, through his frail humanity, he is unequal to this. Had I had any suspicion of this at an earlier date, and had I been convinced of its substance, I would of course have suspended Mr. Senior at once. However, I had no idea of what was happening until police investigations were under way. As soon as I saw Mr. Senior he offered his resignation which I accepted at once, and he ceased to be Vicar of Shottesbrook with White Waltham as of that moment. Everyone in this case has suffered appallingly, and the Church's first concern must be to minister to those who are hurt. That, of course, includes Mr. Senior himself. He did something very wrong, but he admitted what he had done, and immediately resigned his living. Now there are lives to be rebuilt, and a parish to be reassured of the pastoral concern and care of the Church.