Colwyn Bay man groomed 14-year-old boy on internet

A CONVICTED paedophile groomed a 14-year-old boy using a gay chat roomon the internet.

Mark Holcroft had sexually explicit internet conversations with the youngster, and twice tried to meet him.

Police found 14,189 obscene images on the 40-year-old’s computer when they raided his home. He has now been jailed for 33 months and ordered to sign the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Holcroft, of Highfield Road, Colwyn Bay, went on trial at Liverpool Crown Court after he twice drove from North Wales in a bid to meet his victim in the city.

But Jonathan Clarke, prosecuting, told how on the second occasion, November 25 2007, the teenager rang the police, who arrested Holcroft nearby.

When police searched his home they found the obscene images on his computer – more than 13,000 category one images, 829 at category two, three category three, 199 category four and 53 at category five, the most severe level. Holcroft already has a previous conviction for child porn.

He denied grooming and in interview denied going to the meeting point for any sexual motivation. He claimed he’d made the trip purely out of curiosity and as an attempt to flush out the police, because he believed it was some kind of entrapment.

Simon Berkson, defending, said psychiatric reports showed he had no mental health problems and was not regarded as being dangerous.

He said: “This child was never himself put in danger, mainly because of the public-spirited actions of the child.”

He said Holcroft had been very open in the witness box and he said there had been no further offending between his arrest and his conviction.

Sentencing him on Monday, Judge Robert Warnock said: “You have been convicted by the jury in respect of these offences of possessing indecent images and also the more serious offence of sexual grooming.

“Let me make it clear, having presided over your trial, having observed you and having heard from you, I am quite satisfied it was purely fortuitous that you did not actually meet that 14-year-old boy.

“I reject any suggestion you were simply going along to see what was going to happen. You went there with the specific intent to carry out the acts you had discussed on the internet with that youth.”

He added the main aggravating feature was that in July 2000 Holcroft was put on probation for three years for “all but identical offences”. He ordered Holcroft to sign the sex offenders register indefinitely and imposed an indefinite Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

Paedohile at Wrexham bail hostel sentenced to four and a half years for groomign two girls

A DANGEROUS paedophile who tried to groom two young girls for sex while staying at a bail hostel was locked up for four-and-a-half-years.

Locals blasted the sentence as too lenient after Patrick Smith, was sent back behind bars by a judge at Caernarfon yesterday.

The 44-year-old admitted trying to groom two schoolgirls aged 12 and 13 for sexual activity while staying at the Plas Y Wern probation hostel at Plas Madoc, near Wrexham, last January.

Although he will be eligible for parole after half the term, the judge made an indeterminate order for public protection, which means he will stay locked up until it is considered safe to release him.

Judge Merfyn Hughes QC said: “In my judgement there’s a significant degree of predatory behaviour and distorted sexual interest towards children, with a level of violence.”

But yesterday locals slammed the sentence and said with his dangerous history, Smith should have been locked up for life.

Protestor Sue Charles said: “I am disgusted, it is a disgrace.

“Given his past history he should have been locked up for life.”

Another protestor Stuart Hughes said: “I am very disappointed with the sentence, with what he has done before he should have been sent down for a lot longer.

“We have concerns about the bail hostel housing serious sex offenders there – it shouldn’t be allowed to happen.”

Clwyd South MP Martyn Jones is lobbying ministers to get the level of offenders housed at Plas y Wern, which is a stone’s throw away from the Plas Madoc estate, downgraded.

Smith had been sent to the probation hostel after completing a 12 months sentence imposed last year at Preston crown court for assaulting a girl of 13 at Blackpool on her early morning paper round, demanding sex and threatening to kill her.

Yesterday Judge Hughes heard Lancashire police had failed to update the court record for the judge at Preston to know that Smith had been sentenced to 12 years in Ireland for two rapes – one involving a girl of seven.

But yesterday North Wales Probation Service chiefs defended the decision to house serious offenders there.

A probation service spokesman said: “Over the years, Plas y Wern has provided a place where we have been able to monitor and manage offenders and organise their return to the community.

He said: “If the hostel did not exist, offenders would be released straight into the community with much less supervision.

“It’s a question of balancing a difficult scenario and we believe that Approved Premises like Plas y Wern are the safer option for society,” the spokesman added.

“Because of the stringent regime at Plas y Wern and the close cooperation between the Probation Service and the Police, Smith was caught very quickly when the offences came to light and was returned to custody.

“We are mindful of the concerns of local people.

“We would like to assure them that our first priority at all times is public protection and, for that reason, it is important that Plas y Wern continues to provide this service.”

Nine years in jail for paedophile

A PAEDOPHILE who took photographs with a mobile phone as he sexually abused a boy was jailed for nine years yesterday.

Robert Hardern, 40, showed “a complete lack of remorse” when quizzed by police, prosecutor Karl Scholz told Caernarfon Crown Court.

Hardern admitted sexual activity with a child, gross indecency and another serious sexual offence.

Judge Merfyn Hughes told Hardern, of Lawson Road, Colwyn Bay: “The consequences to him will be far-reaching indeed.”

Hardern was banned from working with children and must register as a sex offender for life.

Defence barrister Simon Mintz said Hardern made “substantial admissions.”

A pre-sentence report indicated a degree of remorse. He had acknowledged his guilt and the need for help.

Mr Scholz said at one stage, Hardern had claimed the victim propositioned him.

Conwy paedophile jailed for 14 years for sickening images

TWO victims of a paedophile were traced after he filmed the abuse and sent indecent images to an internet user in the US, a court heard yesterday.

Widower Jonathan Lindsay, 46, of Upper Gate Street, Conwy, was jailed for 14 years after he admitted 28 charges including five rapes, sexual activity with a child, and making, downloading and distributing child porn.

Judge Merfyn Hughes QC said at Caernarfon crown court that Lindsay had groomed the children, finishing with one and then moving to the younger. “For a period of over four years you were engaged in the systematic sexual abuse of two children,” the judge said. “You did so primarily for your own sexual gratification.”

The judge said it was “an extremely aggravating feature” that he shared images – 70 according to Lindsay – over the internet with a man in America. A sexual offences prevention order was made and he must register as a sex offender.

Prosecutor Duncan Bould said one victim was heard in a film saying: “Get off me, no – I don’t want to.”

Mr Bould remarked: “There can be little doubt the child is distressed by what’s taking place.”

The barrister said after a man known as “Toddy” was arrested in the US last November images were recovered. “Through international police cooperation the two boys were traced back to the UK and the defendant arrested.”

Mr Bould added that Lindsay told police: “I always had suppressed feelings of a sexual nature towards boys of that age.”

Defence QC Simon Medland said Lindsay had expressed remorse. He had accepted when quizzed by police that he had ruined the victims’ lives.

“I’m totally devastated at the effect of what I have done. I’m deeply ashamed and sorry,” Lindsay had stated.

North Wales Police and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre welcomed the 14 years sentence.

Lindsay was brought to justice through the efforts of police and the CEOP Victim Identification Team.

Chief Inspector Iestyn Davies said: “Our joint investigation in relation to theactivities of Lindsay was focussed and robust. Some excellent policing by the officers who initially dealt with Lindsay identified a number of suspected offences which were investigated diligently leading to a number of charges.

“The evidence against him was compelling and the sentence recognises the severity of his offending.”

Wrexham pervert jailed for nine years for assault on girl, 5

A MAN who committed a serious sex assault on a little girl was jailed for nine years yesterday.

Jason David Jones, 25, was placed on the sex offender’s register for life.

Jones, of no fixed address but who comes from the Wrexham area, was also made the subject of a life-time Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) under which he must not have unsupervised contact with children.

Mold Crown Court heard Jones was described as presenting an unacceptable risk to others, particularly children.

Judge Niclas Parry told him: “You will understand that you have admitted an extremely serious offence.”

He had then warned the girl not to tell anyone what he had done.

Judge Parry said: “It will be many years, if ever, before the extent to the psychological harm you caused will become apparent.”

He had been assessed as a high risk of harm to children but a medium risk of re-offending.

The court heard Jones was arrested after the little girl told members of her family what the defendant had done.

Interviewed, he said that he didn’t know why he did it.

Girl’s mother traps sex offender

A mother has told how she turned detective to trap a sex offender trying to groom her daughter on the internet.

Robert Giddings, of Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, was jailed for two years at Mold Crown Court.

The accountant, a divorced father of four, admitted inciting the 12-year-old to perform sexual acts on a webcam.

Over a week, the mother from Rhyl, Denbighshire, helped police trap Giddings, 51, who initially posed as a 15-year-old girl.

The mother said children should not be left unsupervised on computers.

“Don’t ignore the fact that children are on computers,” she said.

“Don’t let them have computers in their own bedrooms because you don’t know who they are talking to.”

The mother went to police after her daughter came to her and told her what was happening.

Giddings had pretended to her daughter that he was the 15-year-old girl but then exposed his lower half to her via a webcam, she said.

“I was fuming – I thought how could somebody do this type of thing to a 12-year-old girl?” the mother said.

“I straightaway got on the phone to the police and told them everything that had gone on and they passed it straight over to CID and they got straight in touch with me.”

With police co-operation, mother continued over the course of a week to chat over the web to Giddings, and once even talked to him using an old mobile phone.

Nightmares

“A lot of the time I did break down because he was talking to me even though he thought I was my 12-year-old daughter.

“So to be honest what he was actually asking me was actually aimed at my daughter and it was very emotional”, she said.

She said the experience had had an impact on both her daughter and her, and her daughter was now nervous of chatrooms

“She was having nightmares, if we’d go out in public places she kept thinking that he was following her

“She’s very streetwise, I’m glad she did straightway come to me and say’ Mum, look there is a problem.’”

Deter others

Giddings also admitted engaging in sexual acts in the presence of a child.

He will be placed on a sex offenders’ register for 10 years and is also banned from associating or seeking contact with any child under the age of 16, other than his own children or grandchildren.

An earlier court hearing was told that Giddings had been communicating via the internet with a large number of young girls as well as older women.

Much of the content related to sexual activity. He had used a number of female pseudonyms of various ages.

Passing sentence, Judge John Rogers told Giddings that prison was “inevitable to punish you and to deter others.”

He added that Giddings was a man of previous good character and was considered to be a low risk of reoffending.

Welcoming the sentence as “fantastic,” the mother said she would also like to go to schools to explain the dangers of chatrooms. 

Wrexham banker jailed for internet sex offences

A PERVERT who masqueraded as a youth on the internet to find young girls has been jailed for four years

Samand Safi, 36, a married bank worker of Court Road, Wrexham, incited two girls aged 12 to engage in sex acts and groomed one of them to meet him in his car.

But a jury heard the mum of one of the girls found out and went along as well – and was shocked to see an older man in the vehicle. Police traced the car and when they seized his mobile phone found dozens of messages of a sexual nature sent to young girls.

Jailing the 36-year-old, Judge Niclas Parry said: “This is a case that should serve as a stark warning to the parents of every young child of the inherent dangers of social networking websites.

“The court has heard how bright young girls were duped into putting themselves at risk of harm. It is quite alarming a child as young as 12 can put their mobile telephone number on a webspace where it can be seen by all.”

Safi was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register indefinitely and was barred from working with children and vulnerable adults.

John Wyn Williams, prosecuting, said Safi had been trawling websites such as MSN and Facebook, calling himself Rich or Tom and pretending to be aged 17 or 18, to look for victims.

Safi, employed at MBNA Chester, denied the offences and told the jury a friend, who had since returned to Afghanistan, had been staying with him at the time and he must have sent the messages and tried to meet up with the girl.

But a jury rejected his story and he was convicted of inciting one of the girls to engage in a sex act and grooming the other child for sex.

Both offences occurred in January last year.

Pervert posed as teenager to groom girls

A WREXHAM man masqueraded as a youth on the internet to find young girls.

Samand Safi, 36, a married bank worker, incited girls aged 12 to engage in sex acts and groomed one of them so she would meethim in his car in a field.

But a court heard how her mother luckily found out and went along as well – and was shocked to see an older man in the vehicle.

The quick-thinking mum took down the registration number of Safi’s green Fiat Stilo and gave it to police.

Police traced the registered owner, went to the defendant’s home, and when they seized his mobile phone found dozens of messages of a sexual nature sent to young girls.

Safi had been trawling MSN and Facebook, pretending to be aged 17 or 18, to look for victims.

In one text he boasted about his nine inch long manhood.

In another he said he was 17 but told a young girl that if she went with someone older then she would get more experience and fun.

On his arrest, Safi, of Court Road, Wrexham, confirmed he was the only one who used the phone and the car.

But in court he claimed a friend, who had since returned to Afghanistan, had been staying with him at the time and he must have sent the messages and tried to meet up with the girl.

His wife and mother of his baby also gave evidence that a man who they named had stayed and used his car and phone.

It was a nightmare, she said, because her husband was being blamed for something he had not done.

But a jury at Mold Crown Court rejected his story and he was convicted yesterday of inciting one girl aged 12 to engage in a sex act after he asked her to expose her breasts via a web cam on her computer.

He was also convicted of grooming a child for sex in January of last year. He had denied both offences.

Judge Niclas Parry adjourned the case for his future risk to young children to be assessed and Safi was remanded in custody.

John Wyn Williams, prosecuting, said one of the texts said Safi had a Fiat Stilo car.
“That was your car and that was your text,” he said.

If there was any truth in the visitor from Afghanistan story then they would have mentioned it to police at the time. Safi was giving the jury “a pack of lies”, he said. 

But Safi – employed at MBNA Chester – denied he had lied at all.

The jury heard claims that Safi called himself Rich or Tom on MSN and Facebook and pretended to be a teenager.

Safi put up a picture of an 18-year-old on his Facebook site to entice young girls, Mr Williams claimed.

He would send girls texts on his mobile phone to befriend them and to gain their trust.

Some read “hi babe, you ok, what are you up to?” and “fancy coming out for a bit?”
But others spoke of his fit body, he said he went to the gym and referred to his manhood.

One read “do you fancy a s**g?” and he asked what time the girl finished school?
“The defendant wanted to meet up with them and have sex with them, knowing their age,” Mr Williams alleged.

On his arrest police found hundreds of text messages sent to various girls as he masqueraded as a teenager from the Wrexham area.

He asked one girl to show her breasts over a webcam but when he said he was going to expose himself the girl aged 12 became frightened and turned it off immediately.

Safi arranged to meet one girl in his green Fiat and told her “if you walk to the field you will see my car.” He asked point blank “do you fancy a f***? ”
In evidence, Safi said he did not even know where the field was.

The jury heard the girl’s mother was very concerned when she saw the text messages to her young daughter, turned up at the meeting place, and when she saw a man who looked a lot older than a teenager she took a note of the registration number and informed the police.

John Hedgecoe, defending, said it was Safi’s case he had nothing to do with any of the texts. He had not written any texts to any girls, he had not posed as a young man on the internet and he had never arranged to meet any young girl for sex after grooming her.

Safi had gone to great lengths to try to contact the man who had stayed with him at the time and who had used his phone and car, but he had been unable to do so.

Fugitive ex-youth club leader jailed on sex charges

A FORMER Birkenhead boys club leader was jailed for more than 12 years yesterday for seriously sexually abusing three boys.

George Welsh had been due to face the allegations six years ago, but on the first day of his proposed trial he fled to Spain.

But ill health forced him to return in March this year and, when he landed at Manchester Airport, police were waiting and he was re-arrested.

Welsh, 64, of Saxonia Road, Walton, denied a total of 29 offences involving four boys but was convicted after a trial of 22 involving three victims.

Judge John Phipps jailed him for 12 years for six offences of buggery and 16 indecent assaults and also imposed four months consecutively for breaching his bail.

He also ordered him to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life and banned him from working with children indefinitely.

Simon Christie, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that Welsh had been a youth leader at the Shaftesbury Boys Club, in Tranmere, and in the late 1980s befriended vulnerable boys at the club.

He bought them sweets and other treats, and also took them to his caravan in Rhyl, in North Wales. He sexually abused two of them when they were aged between 12 and 16, both on Merseyside and at the caravan.

They did not tell anyone in authority, though did tell friends, but in about 2000 they decided to tell police about their ordeals.

By pure chance, North Wales police were currently investigating complaints by a boy who told how Welsh had molested him in 1999.

By that time, Welsh had retired and moved to his caravan in Rhyl and the offences took place there, said Mr Christie.

Welsh was arrested and was due to face trial in April, 2002, but fled to Spain, he added.

Philip Hall, defending, said that Welsh, who told the jury that the allegations were untrue, has no previous convictions and was in poor health

A sixties pop star jailed for child sex offences has won a two-year reduction in his prison sentence.

Terminally-ill Peter MacBeth, now 71, founder member and bass player with chart-toppers The Foundations, was jailed for six years in March.

But judges in the Court of Appeal in London today (Friday) allowed his challenge to the length of his sentence, reducing it to four years.

MacBeth, of Trefriw, near Llanrwst, North Wales, had admitted sexually abusing a young girl and downloading child porn from the internet. Mold Crown Court heard he sexually assaulted a young girl four times, when she was seven and eight and later when she was 12 and 13, ending in 2005.

He was sentenced to a total of five years for the four indecency offences and a consecutive 12-months in relation to downloading pornographic images.

MacBeth, who was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx in 2000 and has been told he has between three and five years to live, wasn’t present in court for the ruling by Lord Justice Scott Baker, sitting with two other judges.

Announcing the court’s decision, Lord Justice Scott Baker said: “We have come to the conclusion that, looking at this case from the viewpoint of totality, the sentence of six years imprisonment was significantly too long, taking into account all the circumstances.

“We think the right total sentence was one of four years imprisonment.”

He said: “It is, in our judgment, a matter of significance that the service of his time in prison will be that much harder for him to bear than someone, even of the same age, who is perfectly fit.”

March 2008

Ex-pop star jailed for child sex

Sixties pop star Peter MacBeth, a member of The Foundations who had a hit with Build Me Up Buttercup, has been jailed for child sex offences.

MacBeth sexually assaulted a young girl on four occasions over the course of six years and downloaded child porn from the internet, a court heard.

The 71-year-old from Trefriw near Llanrwst in the Conwy valley may die in prison because he has terminal cancer.

He was jailed for six years at Mold Crown Court by Judge John Rogers QC.

MacBeth was the founding member and bass player with the Foundations until 1970 and had a worldwide hit with Build Me Up Buttercup in 1968.

He later forged a career in publishing literature for European golfing competitions.

In his later life he worked as a bus driver but developed a tumour of the larynx in 2001.

In 2006 he received a tracheotomy which meant he lost his voice and he has been told he has between three and five years to live.

His defence team originally argued that his illness meant he could not have a fair trial.

MacBeth also claimed the sex allegations were lies and the downloaded images were for academic research.

But when it was ruled that he could stand trial MacBeth changed his pleas to guilty.

Simon Mills, prosecuting, told the court how there had been four instances of sexual assault on the girl, when she was seven and eight and later when she was 12 and 13, ending in 2005.

The court heard how he would give her alcohol, he also drank heavily and the last offence occurred in a wood while on a walk.

The girl said she would sniff petrol to escape from what he had done, the court was told.

After his arrest in June 2006, MacBeth told officers they would find images on his computer.

He was writing about a young boy being sexually abused, and said he did not feel he could write with conviction without seeing what it was all about, the court heard.

Around 500 images were found and Maria Massellis-Brookes, defending, told the court her client could not really explain or understand why he had downloaded the images.

She asked the court to show mercy on MacBeth because of his age and precarious health.

“It is fair to say that he has very little to look forward to in his life,” she said.

“His illness will be the death of him,” she said, adding there was a danger he would die in custody.

She asked Judge Rogers to extend him some mercy although MacBeth accepted he had to be punished for what were serious offences.

In sentencing MacBeth to five years for the four offences of indecency and a consecutive 12 month sentence for downloading child porn, Judge Rogers said he had taken into account MacBeth’s age, his previous good character and the fact he was suffering from a terminal illness.

“But that factor has very little weight compared to the damage you have done,” said the judge.

MacBeth was also placed on the sex offender register for life.

Connah’s Quay paedophile sacked by Flintshire County Council

FLINTSHIRE County Council has confirmed a disgraced official has finally been sacked.

David Bloore, formerly of Kestrel Close in Connah’s Quay, was suspended on full pay in October after being charged with making indecent images of children, which he later admitted.

The senior transport assistant was sentenced for 16 offences on February 3, which included 14 charges of downloading indecent images of children aged between two and 13 and two of possessing pictures and videos.

He was put on a two-year community order and told to attend a treatment programme.

Bloore had admitted 16 charges – 14 that he made indecent images of children aged between two and 13 by downloading them from the internet, and two of possessing images and videos.

Police seized his computer last January. It contained 619 indecent images. Most were at the least serious level one, with 52 at level four and one at level five – the most serious. Nine videos were at level one and two.

They were all in un-allocated files which meant they had been deleted after being viewed.

It emerged he’d been accessing members-only sites of child sex abuse on a regular basis.

Interviewed by the police, he said he’d been viewing images of children aged between 14 and 16, between August 2008 and March 2010.

When police found the images of the younger children he made no comment, but conceded he could not mistake a three year old for a 13-year-old.

A week later the Chronicle revealed he was still on full pay ‘pending the completion of an ongoing investigation’ at County Hall. The investigation was completed and on February 15 the council said ‘matters will be drawn to a close very shortly’.

On Thursday the council issued a statement which said: “David Bloore is no longer employed by Flintshire County Council.”

And on Tuesday a spokesman told the Chronicle: “We can confirm that Mr Bloore was dismissed from his post in accordance with the council’s disciplinary procedures at the beginning of March.”

The authority would not disclose any details of Mr Bloore’s salary.

Life term for girl’s rape, kidnap

A convicted rapist has been jailed for life for the kidnap and rape of a girl of 15 from north Wales last October.

Alan Grant, also known as Alan Weston, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, had been jailed in 1991 for 12 years for raping a woman in her West Sussex home.

Grant, 49, forced the girl into his van in Wrexham and subjected her to a 15-hour “horrendous” ordeal.

He pleaded guilty at Mold Crown Court and the judge recommended that he should serve at least seven years.

Greater Manchester probation service said Grant had finished a supervision order after his first conviction for rape around six weeks before he abducted and raped the 15-year-old girl.

The teenager was snatched near Summerhill Road in the Highfield area of Wrexham on Friday 20 October.

She was threatened with a machete, tied up and driven to a secluded spot.

After raping the teenager, Grant drove for another hour before attempting to rape her again.

She was eventually freed 70 miles (113km) away in Bangor

Police were alerted by a member of the public who said the girl was being forced into a van.

Judge Stephen Clarke told Grant: “Your behaviour certainly manifests quite clearly a perverted, what might be called psychopathic, tendency.

“If you are at large you are likely to remain a danger to women for an indefinite period of time.”

Grant has a history of violent sexual offending.

He had been jailed for 12 years in 1991 after raping a woman having beaten her husband and locked him in a cupboard at their home in West Sussex.

He committed the rape, dubbed the “Straw Dogs attack” after a film in which a similar incident occurred, after escaping from Stafford Prison, where he had been serving five years for burglary.

Grant broke into the couple’s cottage wearing a mask and armed with a pump-action shotgun, then tied up the man before raping his 26-year-old wife.

The most recent offences led to a police operation involving six UK police forces.

At the time police said the girl had undergone a “horrendous” ordeal before being found.

Judge Clarke praised her courage during the “nightmare”.

He said: “She showed remarkable courage in what must have been a terrifying ordeal, and one can only hope that gradually the memory of this will fade, but I imagine it will remain with her for a long, long time.

“She was simply unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“She was simply walking down the street when she was snatched off it and the nightmare began.”

The girl’s family are all still receiving counselling.

Her father said in a statement that his daughter had undergone a “very traumatic experience” and was still suffering flashbacks.

“It’s been a very bad time for us and we’re glad it’s all over. This man got what he deserves, and we have now got to try to help my daughter to get on with her life.

“This has certainly brought us closer as a family – we all do a lot more together.”

North Wales Police’s deputy chief constable Clive Wolfendale paid tribute to “a magnificent team effort” which led to Grant’s capture and conviction.

“This was, in every respect, detective work of the highest calibre. We are also very grateful to police forces across the north of England who helped in the arrest.”

Toddler abuser’s indefinite jail

A convicted paedophile who photographed himself sexually abusing an 18-month-old toddler has been jailed indefinitely.

Judge Dafydd Hughes at Mold Crown Court told Edward Bernard Collins, 46, from Rhyl, he was a danger to young girls.

He said ordinarily Collins would have been given a six year term, but this sentence was to protect the public.

The prosecution said it was a “horrific example” of grooming and assaulting a child. Collins admitted 15 offences.

These included two charges of sexually touching a child of one, seven offences of taking indecent photographs of children and six offences of downloading child pornography off the internet.

The court heard Collins was jailed for two years at Birmingham Crown Court in October 1999 for eight child pornography offences.

He had worked as a nursery nurse and was at teacher training college when he was caught in Birmingham and was then placed on the sex register for 10 years.

Laptop computer

Released from jail he befriended a woman and her partner and when the couple moved to north Wales, Collins moved to Rhyl to be closer to them.

It was then, the court heard, that the paedophile groomed the couple’s children and sexually assaulted the baby.

In April, police first found pornographic images on Collins’computer hard drive and later a further 360 images on a laptop computer that he had pawned at a local shop.

Forty seven photos were of the two little girls, including some showing Collins indecently assaulting the 18-month-old girl.

Prosecuting, Gareth Parry said Collins has taken the two girls out on a Sunday morning, first to McDonalds and then to his flat. There he took photographs of the girls jumping up and down on his bed when they had no underwear on.

‘Abiding sexual interest’

Mr Parry said: “The defendant admitted that he was sexually aroused by that.”

While the older girl played, Collins indecently photographed himself assaulting the her sister, he added.

Simon Mintz, defending, said that a psychiatric report raised many issues and he accepted that a sentence for public protection would be passed.

Mr Mintz said fortunately the girls were so young they would not have been aware what was happening to them.

The judge said he hoped he was right but it was clear the girls had been exposed to sexual behaviour.

“You had no thought of the harm you may have caused those children,” the judge told Collins.

He said it was clear that he had an “abiding sexual interest in very young girls” and that he posed a significant risk to them.

The judge said Collins would be locked up until the parole baord considered he was safe to be released.

The law meant he could apply for release after three years but that did not means Collins would be released then, the judge added.

Collins was ordered to register as sex offender for life and told he must never work with children, nor own a camera or mobile with camera facility 

Ex-businessman jailed for abuse

A former businessman is starting a three-year jail term for sex offences against a 13-year-old girl.

David Lloyd, 67, from Gresford, near Wrexham, was also placed on the sex offenders’ register and banned from working with children.

Mold Crown Court heard that Lloyd had worked in industry for 40 years.

He pleaded guilty to systematic abuse but the court heard he could not understand why he had committed the offences against the teenager.

Defending, Owen Edwards said; “He does not hide away from the fact that sexual acts have sexual motives but he cannot understand how he could have done what he has done.”

Mr Edwards said Lloyd was a member of the Chartered Institute of Managers, and was on the executive of the British Business Association in East Africa.

He spoke a number of languages but in 1999 he was diagnosed with heart problems and he suffered a stroke in 2000.

His speech and memory had been affected although he had made a partial recovery.

Lloyd had prepared himself for prison and took the view that he needed to be punished but Mr Edwards said that he would be eligible for a suspended prison sentence.

‘Social pariah’

Jailing Lloyd, Judge Nicholas Woodward said his was despicable behaviour which had a profound effect upon the victim and her family.

“The damage that you had done cannot properly be assessed,” the judge told him, describing the case as an extremely grave matter.

He said he took into account his admissions and guilty pleas, his remorse, his age and health and the fact that he was a man of previous good character, and the fact that he would now be “a social pariah”.

The custodial sentence which he imposed would be all the harder for him to suffer as a result of those factors, added the judge. 

More men jailed in beach sex case

Four men who were involved in sexual activity with a young girl on two north Wales beaches have been jailed for a total of 10 and a half years.

The men were all traced within 24 hours of an appeal on the BBC’s Crimewatch.

Judge Merfyn Hughes QC, told Mold Crown Court the men were caught as a direct result of the publicity.

The men had met the girl through Frederick Lawlor, who has already been jailed for an indefinite period for offering the 13-year-old girl for sex.

Gareth Vaughan Lloyd, 47, of Brynteg near Wrexham was jailed for three years and three months after he admitted two charges of sexual activity with a child which involved intercourse.

Michael Kenny, 54, of Gronant, Prestatyn, and Raymond Foulkes, 51, of Colwyn Bay, admitted one charge of sexual activity with a child and one of taking indecent photographs of the girl.

Kenny was jailed for 21 months and Foulkes for two years and nine months.

Alan Coleclough, 51, from Rhyl, admitted one charge of sexual activity with a child and he was jailed for two years and nine months.

Gary McIlroy, 50, of Weatherby Way, Little Sutton, Ellesmere Port, was jailed for 21 months after admitting sexual activity with the girl when she was 14.

Former Birmingham police officer Raymond Ketland, 66, of Nant y Coed, Glan Conwy, admitted two charges of sexual activity with a minor, taking indecent photographs of a child and facilitating a child sex offence. He was jailed for two-and-a-half years.

All the men were banned from ever working with children and were ordered to register with the police as sex offenders.

Febuary 2006

Six jailed for sex acts with girl

Six men have been jailed for a total of more than 17 years for sexual offences involving a girl aged 13.

They took part in sex acts with the girl on beaches, in a car and in a flat after they were introduced to her by Frederick Lawlor, from Abergele, Conwy.

Lawlor, 52, described as the teenager’s “evil controller”, and another man will be sentenced after psychiatric reports.

The six had treated the girl like a sex object without any thought for her, the judge at Mold Crown Court said.

The court heard the police investigation into the abuse is still going on, and the girl has told officers that she has sex with about 50 men in all, organised by Lawlor, who advertised in the magazine Loot.

He offered the schoolgirl whom he controlled and corrupted and the court heard the men were too weak, and lacked the moral fibre, to resist.

Videos of men taking part in sex acts with the girl at locations including Llanddulas and Pensarn beaches in north Wales were shown in court.

All six men, from north Wales and the Wirral, sentenced on Tuesday admitted offences including sexual activity with a child.

Richard White, 58, of Old Colwyn, was jailed for three years six months; Eric Craven, 47, from Penmaenmawr, for four years; Ronald Farrington, 45, from Birkenhead ,and James McCoy, of Abergele, both received three year terms; Ronald Roche, 49, of Abergele, was jailed for two years and three months, and David Forshaw, of Rhyl, for one year and nine months.

Five men were placed on the sex offenders’ register for life while Roche was told to register for 10 years.

Judge Mervyn Hughes QC said that for more than a year, each of the six had systematically sexually abused the girl.

He was satisfied that each man knew the girl was indulging in sexual activity under the direction and control of Frederick Lawlor.

With the exception of Roche and McCoy, the men willingly took part in the making of indecent videos and DVDs showing sexual activity with a child, he said.

“The damage which each of you have done to that girl may never be known until many years have passed.

“Each of you to a greater or lesser extent treated her as a sexual object without any consideration whatsoever for her feelings, or the consequences to her of your behaviour,” the judge told the six men.

He ordered a psychiatric report on Lawlor and another man.

Lawlor admitted 18 charges including sexual activity with a child, causing a child to engage in sexual activity with another, and taking indecent photographs.

Judge Hughes said: “It is recognised by this court that abuse would not have been possible were it not for the contact of the defendant Frederick Lawlor.” (pic below)

Sexual gratification

Outside court, Det Insp Wayne Jones, who led the police inquiry, said: “They committed serious offences against a weak, vulnerable victim.

“They’ve all had an opportunity when they were first introduced to the victim to say no and to report the matter to the police but they decided not to.

“The overriding factor for all of them was their own sexual gratification.”

Sex attacker preyed on teenagers

A serial sex attacker who preyed on young girls has been warned he will not be released for years.

Peter Warburton, 49, fled across the country to seek help from friends after assaulting a 16-year-old girl in Norwich in July 2005.

But it emerged that he had been responsible for a series of assaults in North Wales in the 1990s.

At Mold Crown Court he admitted seven assaults and was given an indeterminate sentence, which can mean life.

Jurors heard Warburton, who has previously lived at Bryn Seion in Denbigh and at Rhyl, North Wales, would not be released until he was considered safe.

Warburton was on parole when he committed sex offences against young girls in the 1990s after being jailed for eight years for raping and sexually assaulting a teenage prostitute in Manchester.

In July he picked up a drunken teenager in Norwich who had become separated from her friends and assaulted her but fled following a major Norfolk Police media appeal to catch him.

But back in Rhyl he told friends that he was in trouble, sought help and was arrested when it emerged that he had been responsible for a series of sexual offences against young girls there.

On Thursday Warburton was sentenced to nine years for the six indecent assault charges against young girls in North Wales.

Recall to prison

Judge John Rogers QC also imposed a separate indeterminate prison sentence for the Norwich assault.

He said Warburton should serve at least three years before seeking parole but warned him that he would not be released for very many years.

Warburton, who must also register as a sex offender for life, would not be released until he was considered safe, and he would be subject to recall to prison for life.

Judge Rogers told him: “You constitute a very real risk to young teenage females.”

Child sex vicar jailed

A former parish priest has been jailed for four years after admitting sex attacks against young girls.

Richard Nigel Parry, 47, from Shotton, admitted four charges of indecent assault and one charge of gross indecency against two girls under 16.

Mold Crown Court heard the offences happened between 12 and 14 years ago.

Judge Merfyn Hughes QC told Parry he will not be considered for parole until he has served at least half his sentence.

Mr Hughes told Parry that at the time of the offences “you held the position of parish priest and no doubt received the respect of the community.

“But you behaved in a depraved way.

“It goes without saying it was a gross breach of the trust of a child.”

Lost vocation

Parry, who worked in Wrexham and Flintshire, left the church in 2000 and started work as a counsellor.

Prosecuting barrister Matthew Dunford told the court that when one of Parry’s victims found out that his new role could involve working with children and young people, she reported the matter to the police.

Defending barrister Gordon Hennell said that his client was had lost his reputation, his family, his home and his vocation.

Parry was given two sentences of four and two-and-a-half years to run concurrently

He was placed on the sex offenders’ register for life and an indefinite sexual offences prevention order was also made, limiting his contact with young people when he is released from jail.

Home-owner child abuse conviction

A former supervisor at two children’s homes in north Wales has been jailed for five years for indecently assaulting boys in his care in the 1970s. 

During a 10-day trial last month at Mold Crown Court, Richard Leake denied abusing boys and said his victims were simply making it up to get compensation. 

But since being convicted of 14 charges of indecent assault he has made a full confession at Altcourse Prison. 

Sentencing him, Judge Roger Dutton said it was a pity Leake was not man enough to own up in the first place. 

Some of his victims, now men in their 30s, had broken down while giving evidence. 

Leake, 58, sexually assaulted boys in his care while working as a supervisor at Bersham Children’s Home in Wrexham and later as principal at Ystrad Hall in Llangollen. 

He was ordered to register as a sex offender for life and pay £36,000 in costs. 

July 2000

A social worker who abused two boys at an Islington Council children’s home in the 1970s was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment earlier this week.

Michael Taylor pleaded guilty at London’s Snaresbrook crown court to seven counts of indecent assault at Gisburne House.

When he left Gisburne House he became deputy superintendent of Bersham Hall children’s home in North Wales where he repeatedly assaulted two 11-year-old boys in his care.

Taylor was arrested after the people he abused, now adults, went to the police. He was previously convicted of two indecent assaults in 1980. His name will be added to the sex offenders’ register.

Child porn man caught out by burglar

A MAN with more than 8,500 illegal images of child abuse on his computer was caught out – by a burglar.

An unknown burglar broke into David Pethig’s home and stole his laptop.

Police then received an anonymous tip-off, presumably from the burglar, telling officers what he had found on the stolen computer.

He arranged to leave it at an unoccupied house in Wrexham and when officers went to the location they found the laptop and disks in a black bin bag.

When it and another computer seized from Pethig’s home were examined, more than 8,500 still images and more than 400 movie images were found – including some of the worst kind imaginable, involving very young children.

Pethig, 56, of Brandy Brook, Johnstown, near Wrexham, admitted 17 charges of making indecent images and two of possessing indecent images and video but escaped an immediate prison sentence at Mold Crown Court.

The court heard that Pethig had lost everything as a result of the prosecution.

He had lost his job, he had no friends, his family was in turmoil and one had attempted suicide; and he had to move when his neighbours found out what he had been up to.

The effect of the case on him, together with his immediate guilty pleas, were among the reasons given by Judge Gareth Jones for suspending the prison sentence.

Pethig was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

He was placed on supervision for two years and sent on a sex offender group work programme run by the probation service. He was ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for the next 10 years. The judge also made a 10-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) limiting his use of the internet in future. He must also pay £500 prosecution costs.

Judge Jones said these were extremely serious offences which were sustained over a significant period of time, showing “a sustained interest by you in material of this kind”.

The nature of the images involving young children showed acts of indecency and degradation.

The judge said Pethig may not have abused or degraded children personally, but indirectly that was what was being done on his behalf.

He had no previous convictions, he had admitted what he had done immediately and the judge said he was aware of the devastating effect the case had upon him.

Emmalyne Downing, prosecuting, told how in April police received a report of a burglary at Pethig’s property.

They then received an anonymous call telling officers where the stolen computer would be and when police analysed it, and another one they found the images.

Of the 8,585 still images, 326 were at level five, the worst level, and 617 were at level four.

A total of 433 movie images were found and 36 of them were at level five and 290 at level four.

Justine McVitie, defending, said it was accepted the aggravating features were the sheer number of images and the number at the most serious level.

They were all for his own personal use, there was no distribution and there was no involvement in trading of such material.

Suspended Pc’s pay defended

North Wales Police have defended their actions after they admitted continuing to pay an officer found guilty of making child porn.

Two months ago John Clare from Lixwm near Holywell was put on the sex offender’s register for five years, fined £1,500 and ordered to pay £1,000 costs for possessing and making child porn in 2001.

Mr Clare, who has been suspended on full pay since the inquiry was launched more than a year ago, will face a police disciplinary hearing next week.

North Wales Police Assistant Chief Constable Clive Wolfendale said the officer was entitled to receive his wages until his future is decided.

“Before conviction people are innocent until proven guilty, if we choose to suspend someone we are duly obliged to suspend them with pay,” he said.

“North Wales Police have investigated this matter, brought it to trial and secured the conviction.

“John Clare will appear before a disciplinary committee next week, there is a set disciplinary procedure which must be followed.”

North Wales Police said the officer could face allegations which were not dealt with during the criminal proceedings and he therefore had to be given time to mount his defence.

“Being convicted of a crime is in itself an offence of the police disciplinary code,” said Mr Wolfendale.

Thirty-eight-year-old Mr Clare was found guilty at Knutsford Crown Court in April of three counts of possessing and making indecent images of girls under 16 on his home computer.

The policeman had previously received a bravery award for his actions during a gas explosion which destroyed a house in Flint.

He and another officer were at the property trying to persuade a man to come out when the blast occurred and he was thrown into the air and injured.

The hearing will take place at North Wales Police headquarters in Colwyn Bay.

Mr Clare’s punishment could range from a warning to dismissal from the force.

Howard Hughes (born 1965 in Llandudno, Conwy, Wales) is a convicted child murderer.

Howard Hughes was born in Llandudno, North Wales, in 1965, the youngest of four children born to Gerald and Renee Hughes. He had three older sisters, and his father was a wealthy businessman who ran a construction firm. He was born with a genetic disorder which caused him to grow at an abnormally quick rate, and on starting primary school in 1969 he quickly gained a reputation for being aggressive with other pupils. He was expelled from several primary and secondary schools for violent attacks on other pupils, and at one stage his father offered the headteacher of one private school double fees to keep him on, but the headteacher refused to allow Howard to remain at the school.

Hughes would regularly play truant from school, where he and other tearaways would steal items including bicycles from garden sheds. He would sell stolen bicycles from the garden of the family home. When his parents divorced, he moved into his mother’s house.

Hughes came to the attention of police in 1981, when at the age of 16 he was arrested for strangling a seven-year-old boy so fiercely that he was rendered unconscious and had to go to hospital. He was convicted of assault, and placed onprobation.

After leaving home, he moved into a flat in Llandudno and began a lengthy feud with his female next-door neighbour. He would peer over the fence when she was sunbathing, threatened to ‘blow her head off’ with a gun, and regularly played loud music. In 1985, Hughes was briefly admitted to a mental hospital in Northamptonshire but failed to make any real progress. According to a friend, he continued to walk the streets of Llandudno and look up girls’ skirts while standing below a footbridge, as well as peering into the dormitory at an all-girls boarding school. In 1987, he was charged with raping a 14-year-old girl but the case collapsed due to a lack of evidence. By this stage, the local schoolchildren had given him the nickname “Mad Howard”.

Murder of Sophie Hook

In July 1995 Hughes was arrested for the murder of Sophie Hook, a 7-year-old girl who was abducted from a tent in her uncle’s garden. Sophie was visiting Llandudno with her family to celebrate the ninth birthday of one of her cousins with a barbecue and garden party.

Allegedly, although he has always vehemently denied this, Hughes observed her from an adjacent bridle path. A thick hedge obscured him from view. From this vantage point he could easily have heard the family’s conversations.

Howard Hughes went on trial at Chester Crown Court on 24 June 1996, charged with abduction, rape and murder.

The jury heard no forensic evidence which linked Hughes to the death of Sophie Hook, but they received valuable information from three witnesses. Hughes’s father Gerald told the jury that his son had admitted the murder to him shortly after he was arrested and being held in custody at a local police station (although Hughes himself has always denied that any such confession took place). Jonathan Carroll, a 30-year-old thief who was in prison at the time he testified, told the jury that he had seen Hughes carrying a hessian sack along a Llandudno street on the night of Sophie’s murder, and that he had caught a glimpse of a naked body in the sack. A third witness, convicted child sex offender Michael Guidi, testified that Hughes had boasted to him some time earlier that he would like to ‘rape a girl of 4 or 5′. The jury also heard details of the injuries that Sophie had sustained in the attack, many of which had been inflicted before she died.

On 18 July 1996, the jury returned a guilty verdict on all three charges against Howard Hughes. The 31-year-old was then given three life sentences by trial judge Mr Justice Curtis, who branded Hughes a ‘fiend’ and recommended that he should never be released from prison.

On 5 September 1997, the Court of Appeal gave Howard Hughes leave to appeal against his conviction for the abduction, rape and murder of Sophie Hook. Six months later he sparked further outrage by launching a £50,000 compensationclaim against the Bryn Estyn children’s home, where he claimed he was abused as a child. Two weeks later, the Court of Appeal rejected Hughes’s bid to have his convictions quashed.

Hughes himself has always vehemently protested his innocence. Despite the unanimous ‘guilty’ verdict from the jury at his trial in 1996, there have been some doubts over whether Howard Hughes was actually the murderer ever since he was convicted, largely due to the fact there was nothing more than circumstantial evidence to connect him to the crime at the time of his trial – and no further evidence has turned up since, circumstantial or forensic. This fact did not go unnoticed by local and national press at the time of the murder

July 1996

Police knew him for years as a violent paedophile, yet no one stopped him stealing an innocent life

Police in north Wales knew for many years about the paedophilic and violent tendencies of Howard Hughes, it emerged yesterday after he was jailed for life for the savage double rape and murder of seven-year- old Sophie Hook. Hughes’s record dates back to his mid-teens when he was arrested after attempting to assault a boy indecently and then strangle him.

Social services officials in north Wales yesterday argued that his subsequent conviction and suspended sentence for assault – a Schedule One offence – meant police should have entered his name on a warning register and alerted the children’s agencies.

However, a north Wales police spokeswoman said last night that criticism from the social services staff made little sense when Howard Hughes had been known to social services from an early age. She said that the police had had a good working relationship with social services, and that arrangements for working with other agencies had been tightened up across the country since 1981.

North Wales police are understood, however, to have interpreted the definition of Schedule One narrowly, applying it only to sex offenders.

After Hughes was found guilty, the judge at Chester Crown Court yesterday called for a change in the law to protect society against men like him. Recommending that Hughes should never be released, Mr Justice Curtis saidthat the country needed a statutory system of supervision and control. “Your crimes are every parent’s nightmare. No girl is, or ever will be, safe from you.”

The Home Office said later that the judge’s recommendation about tighter supervision for paedophiles had already been addressed in a consultant document launched last month when Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, announced preliminary plans to set up a register of sex offenders.

Hughes had been the subject of complaint from various sources over the years. Among them, the Independent has learned, was the Llwyn Onn children’s home in Colwyn Bay who told police that Hughes had contacted one of their boy residents. The boy had previously been a resident at Bryn Estyn, the children’s home at the centre of the Clwyd child abuse scandal, where he had beenabused. Hughes himself spent 13 days in Bryn Estyn on the way to treatment at St Andrew’s Hospital, Northampton, under the Mental Health Act.

“Social work staff were very worried about Hughes, who was hanging around the home,” a senior social services source said yesterday. “They went to the police, who could have arrested him.” Police did issue a warning, through their child protection team, last year, shortly before Sophie was killed at Llandudno in August.

The social workers argue that the police should have maintained a vigil instead.

In the close-knit community of Colwyn Bay where he grew up, Hughes was known as “Mad Howard”. The son of Rene and Gerald, a successful and well- respected businessman, he had been difficult from an early age and shown signs of emotional insecurity. A chromosomal abnormality had left him exceptionally tall, at 6ft 8ins. Shortly after his 10th birthday he had been sent to a special school for children with behavioural problems in Derbyshire. His parents paid for private tuition, but he was never to gain any qualifications.

Hughes’ peers spoke of his violent tendencies even as a youth. “He was always in fights with people much older than him,” one said. “He was always killing things, like small animals. Everyone knew his reputation – you didn’t mess with him.”

He was obsessed with children. In the mid-Eighties he approached a girl, thought to be 11 or 12, in some woods for sex. In 1993, a 15-year-old alleged she was assaulted by him with intent to rape, and an 11-year-old claimed he spied on her. Last year, two witnesses spoke of indecent suggestions being made to them, and a 15-year-old girl was threatened with rape.

Detective Superintendent Eric Jones confirmed Hughes had been closely watched since 1981, but added: “I have had a look at the papers we have in relation to Howard Hughes and I am quite happy in my own mind that everything that could have been done at various stages was done.”

Malcolm King, policy and resources chairman at Wrexham Borough Council and former chair of Clywd social services, said: “It appears that this person was known to all the agencies in Colwyn Bay for many years and it must give everybody the greatest cause for concern that he had been on the loose for so long. If we dealt with the issue of Schedule One offenders differently, maybe this would not have happened.”