January trial date set for Barry Bennell on
child sex abuse charges
The trial date has been set for ex-football coach Barry Bennell who faces 55 allegations of historical child sex abuse following an investigation by Cheshire Constabulary.
The 63-year-old is charged with 42 counts of indecent assault, 11 counts of serious sexual assault and two attempted serious sexual assaults.
They relate to 12 complainants – all aged between eight and 15 – and allegedly took place between 1979 and 1991, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
Mr Bennell denies the charges he faces and the trial – set for January 8, 2018 – is scheduled to last eight weeks, Liverpool Crown Court heard on Friday (July 21).
Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Clement Goldstone said a pre-trial hearing would be held in October.
Currently on remand in custody, he appeared via video link at Liverpool Crown Court from HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes for the proceedings.
A former Crewe Alexandra coach, Mr Bennell also had a close association with Stoke City and Manchester City during his career.
Child migrants sent to 'pedophile rings'
Child migrants kept being trafficked from the UK to Australia despite officials knowing that some institutions they were sent to harboured pedophile rings, a UK inquiry has been told.
Dr Margaret Humphreys of the Child Migrants Trust told the child sexual abuse inquiry in London that recruiters were sent to the UK to select children for church and charity-run farm schools in Australia.
"I think we would categorise that now as child trafficking," she said on Friday.
The inquiry is examining the sexual, physical and emotional abuse suffered by thousands of children in care who were sent to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Rhodesia up to the 1970s.
Among the worst offenders were the Catholic order the Christian Brothers who ran farm schools in Western Australia and the royals-backed Fairbridge Society which ran farm schools in NSW.
The inquiry has heard from former child migrants that say they were routinely sexually abused and flogged by staff, were poorly fed, clothed and educated and used as virtual slave labour on the farms.
It's also heard that authorities in the UK and Australia knew of sex abuse scandals at the institutions but no proper inspection systems were in place and the offending institutions were allowed to keep operating.
"It's much clearer now that there was knowledge that some of the institutions were quite clearly pedophile rings," Humphreys told the inquiry.
She said the sexual abuse of even one child should have prompted an inquiry but that didn't happen and hundreds of children were abused.
Humphreys, who in 1993 was awarded the Order of Australia for her work with former child migrants, said a regime of bullying and beatings at the institutions meant children were terrified to complain of abuse.
She said children who ran away and complained to police were invariably not believed and would be returned to the institution where they were often beaten in front of the other children as a warning.
They were left "lonely and isolated" to deal with the abuse on their own, she said.
Humphreys slammed the defence that such abuse was in line with the "standards of the day".
"When was it ever the standards of the day to rape children, to abuse children in this way?" she said.
On Thursday former British prime minister Gordon Brown told the inquiry the child migration scheme was a "national disgrace" and the UK government must compensate the more than 2000 former child migrants left before they died.
In 2010 Brown apologised to former child migrants on behalf of the British government for the distress caused to them by the scheme.
These 16 Essex paedophiles have been
locked up this year
By Essex Chronicle, Michael Mutch
These are some of the paedophiles who have been jailed across Essex during the first half of 2017.
They include two brothers, a football coach and a man who made contact with his victims via Skype.
DAVID AND JAMES LENCH - JAILED FOR A TOTAL OF 22 YEARS
Brothers David and James Lench were jailed for a string of sexual offences in Rochford that took place between 2003 and 2005 against a young boy.
David Lench was convicted of three counts of indecency with a child and seven counts of rape.
He was sentenced to 12 years in jail.
His brother James was convicted of three counts of indeceny with a child and five counts of rape.
James was sentenced to 10 years and four months.
DC Marcus Baker of Essex Police described the two men as "dangerous abusers".
BRADLEY CHALLIS - JAILED FOR 5 YEARS
Challis pleaded guilty to nine offences on May 30 this year.
The most sinister of Challis' crimes were the horrific sexual assaults on a sleeping youngster last spring.
Prosecutor Jamie Sawyer said: "He [Bradley] said he lowered the boy's pyjamas, he said he put his finger in the boy's mouth and kissed him on the lips."
DAVID LANGFIELD - JAILED FOR 12 MONTHS
After searching his home officers found two laptops which contained a film from Category A, the most serious category of abuse, four films from Category B, two images from Category C and 66 images of extreme pornography.
ROBERT ELLIS - JAILED FOR 9 YEARS
Ellis was a football coach in Harlow who was jailed for grooming and sexual activity with teenage boys.
Ellis was banned from FA coaching when he arranged to meet young men online by posing as a talent scout and then sexually engaged with his victims.
He was found guilty of six counts of engaging in sexual activity with a boy aged under 15 and three counts of sexual touching.
JAMIE GOODCHILD - JAILED FOR 20 MONTHS
Goodchild was sentenced to 20 months in prison for meeting a child after sexual grooming and two breaches of a previous order.
As the court heard details of Goodchild's repeated sexual offences against children, he laughed to himself, before looking over to the public gallery and winking.
BARRY GOODERHAM - JAILED FOR 6 YEARS
Police raided his home on December 1, 2015 and uncovered chat logs dating as far as back as January 2014, in which he encouraged what are purported to be teenage girls to perform sex acts and send him indecent photographs.
He later admitted three charges of attempting to cause a girl aged 13 to 15 years old to engage in sexual activity.
A movie and stills of a 13-year-old he had filmed himself were among the material he distributed among three other men.
Referring to Gooderham's chat logs, judge Peters said: "To say they were utterly disgusting, repugnant, vile things to read would be to understate it considerably."
BRIAN NEWMAN - JAILED FOR 12 YEARS
Brian Newman denied committing eight counts of indecent assault on a child and two counts of sexual activity with a child.
But a jury found the retired removal man guilty of 10 offences on December 14, 2016.
Newman, who was arrested on June 21 2015, committed the vile attacks over a 22-years between April 1993 and June 2015.
CHRISTOPHER FRANCIS - JAILED FOR 22 YEARS
Christopher Francis pleaded guilty to a series of crimes carried out in Maldon during the 1970s and 80s, including the rape of a girl under 16 who "remembers lying there like a statue.
The ages of his victims ranged from five to 14. The first offence could have happened as early as 1974 and the last in 1989.
Handing down the sentence, Judge Emma Peters said: "You are a predatory, grooming, callous and evil paedophile abuser. I hope this sentence brings some small measure of comfort to your victims."
CONNOR ALLEN-HOWE - JAILED FOR 8 YEARS
Connor Allen-Howe used Skype to make contact with boys aged between 12 and 17 over three years and secretly recorded videos and photos of the children performing sex acts on themselves and others.
Allen-Howe's vile acts were first uncovered when one of the boys, who lived in Colorado, USA, reported the conversations over Skype to his parents, who then went to their local police department.
Eventually, five separate Skype accounts linked to Allen-Howe were uncovered and traced back across the Atlantic to Halstead, where he was arrested and interviewed by police.
Officers also seized his laptop and mobile phone where they found an "archive" of illicit material, showing many of his 22 victims either naked or performing sex acts on themselves.
The court heard that Allen-Howe urged one of the boys to sexually assault his own dog.
The boy, just 13 at the time, was asked to drink his own urine and "put his finger in his dog's vagina", which he then did.
LEO HARTLEY - JAILED FOR 2 YEARS
Leo Hartley sobbed in court when he was handed a two-year jail sentence for sexually assaulting underage boys.
The former retail worker and personal trainer touched the penises of two 14-year-old boys, the first on December 10, 2014.
He sexually assaulted the second boy the following February.
He was also sentenced for possessing 386 pictures and 18 videos showing child abuse, including one which involved the oral rape of a girl aged four to five.
JOHN BAKER - JAILED FOR 2 YEARS
Former refrigerator engineer John Baker told another paedophile on Skype that he was "very horny" and needed to view an indecent image of a child.
The father-of-two claimed he was "off his face on cocaine" when he accessed the vile images, which were found after police raided his home.
He was jailed for two years after admitting to possessing 231 indecent pictures and videos of children, as well as making and sharing indecent images.
SIMON MORTIMER - JAILED FOR 7 YEARS
Simon Mortimer was jailed for nine counts of sexual abuse of a girl aged between eight and ten, two of which were attempted rapes.
The other charges ranged from kissing to causing the girl to perform oral sex on him and digital penetration.
Mortimer was aged 16 and 18 at the time the assaults took place in Chelmsford between 1983 and 1985.
The court heard how his victim had told her mother of the abuse in 1991 after having counselling.
But apart from approaching Mortimer in a pub in Chelmsford where he admitted abusing her, her family decided not to call the police.
It was only in 2013 that the victim decided to tell the police.
LESLIE PENNICK - JAILED FOR 12 YEARS
A mechanic from near Maldon, Leslie Pennick committed sxual offences against children – including raping a boy – over the course of a decade.
He was sentenced for two counts of raping a boy aged under 16, four counts of indecent assault on a boy aged under 14 and two counts of indecent assault on a boy aged under 16.
Pennick denied the offences, which he committed between 1982 and 1992, but was convicted by a jury after standing trial.
The two victims were aged six and nine when they were first sexually assaulted.
MOHAMMAD ROSTAMI AND MEHDI ZARE - JAILED FOR A TOTAL OF 33 YEARS
Three men were convicted in relation to the exploitation of a young girl for sex in return for drugs were jailed for 29.5 years back in January.
The victim revealed how Mohammad Rostami, who she met at a pizza shop in Duke Street, had groomed her into believing she was his girlfriend when she was aged just 13 or 14, before farming her out for sex to other men in the Iranian community.
When his interest fizzled out, she was exploited by Mehdi Zare, who arranged for her to have sex with other men in exchange for drugs or money.
Rostami was jailed for 21 years and Zare was given a 12-year sentence.
Another man, Amin Kaveh, who shared a home with Rostami, stood trial alongside the two men. He was found guilty of supplying a controlled class B drug to the same victim. He was jailed for 10 years.
Judge Lynch said at the time of sentencing: ""In this case I'm dealing with two of the most serious aspects of criminal activity in this country.
Essex, UK
Why don't all paedophiles who view indecent images of children go to prison in the UK?
By Richard Duggan
More than 2,000 people were not prosecuted for possessing indecent images of children across the last decade
Not a day goes by without one news outlet or another reporting about sex offenders' being found guilty for possessing indecent images of children.
The internet has provided an easy-to-use platform for these abusers to share indecent photographs and videos.
High-profile police investigations such as Operation Yewtree, which saw Jimmy Saville exposed as a serial sex offender, or the conviction of Rolf Harris for a string of sex offences, has thrown the issue of child abuse into the public forum.
Those found guilty of the most heinous acts against children, including rape and assault by penetration, go into their sentencing hearings knowing they could spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
But this is not the case for all who violate the weakest in society, particularly those who view indecent images of children for sexual gratification.
Simon Collins pleaded guilty to
12 sex offences spanning over five years
- his two year sentence was
suspended for two years
Possessing an indecent photograph of a child can be tried either in a magistrates' court or a crown court depending on the severity of the case against the accused.
According to sentencing guidelines, the maximum punishment for the offence is five years' custody and the minimum being a medium level community order of 26 weeks.
The fate of a guilty party depends entirely of the circumstances of each case, with courts looking at both aggravating and mitigating factors.
Images which depict penetrative sexual activity or activity with an animal or sadism, are some of the factors at the highest end of the seriousness scale, as does manufacturing images of the same nature.
Distributing child abuse images is another act which weighs against sex offenders.
Possessing images involving non-penetrative sexual activity, creating such images or sharing them lands offenders in the middle category, with images not falling into that category placing offenders in the lowest bracket.
Having shown remorse or being of previous good character are cards that can be played to downscale a defendant's crime as can having a lack of maturity where if affects the responsibility of the offender.
Courts must also take into account any time spent on bail, early guilty pleas and co-operation with investigating authorities when sentencing such individuals.
Ryan Clements pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent photographs of children - he received a two year custodial sentenced suspended for two years
Bearing in mind the plethora of issues that have to be considered by judges before they hand down sentence, the trend seems to be that those who only view indecent images of children, particularly those with no previous convictions, tend to not be immediately jailed.
Whereas sex offenders who actively distribute abuse images, particularly on a large scale, tread a more dangerous line when it comes to being imprisoned.
Surely anyone who deliberately participates in the abuse of children, even by viewing indecent images of those evil acts, should spend some time in prison?
Last year Chief Superintendent Gavin Thomas, President of the Police Superintendents' Association in England and Wales, told The Times there simply wasn't enough room in Britain's prisons to cope with the number of convicted paedophiles.
He also said there needed to be 'alternative thinking' towards those who view child abuse images at the lower end of the scale.
He is not the only high-profile police officer to hold that view, with one officer claiming police forces are at 'saturation point'.
In February, Chief Constable Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs' Council Lead for Child Protection, said: "There has never been such a robust approach to tackling the viewing of indecent images.
"Working with the National Crime Agency, police are arresting over 400 offenders and safeguarding over 500 children a month in relation to the viewing of child abuse imagery.
"But research suggests we are barely scratching the surface because there may be as many as 500,000 men in the UK who have or are viewing indecent images of children.
John Holman pleading guilty to possession of
indecent images of children - he was sentenced
to a year in prison, suspended for two years
"The police service is dealing with an unprecedented volume of reports of child sexual abuse - non-recent abuse, ongoing abuse, online abuse and peer-to-peer abuse.
"The numbers are continuing to rise. We have reached saturation point.
"The police service has responded to the threat but it has now reached that point whereby we have to try and turn the tide."
CC Bailey also suggested rehabilitation and treatment rather than prosecution for those who view low-level indecent images
He believes this would allow officers, the Crown Prosecution Service and courts to deal with the scale and volume of abuse and allow focus to target those individuals who pose the greatest threat to children.
In March of this year, analysis of criminal justice data by the Press Association found that more than 2,000 people were not prosecuted for possessing indecent images of children across the last decade.
The same data showed hundreds of people who were successfully prosecuted given non-custodial sentences.
As the number of those viewing indecent images of children rises and the criminal justice system is at a point where it's drowning in cases, it's no wonder not all sex offenders are facing jail time.
Colin Peak, NSPCC Head of Service for the East of England, said: "Prison sentences serve a vital purpose in reflecting society's attitude to the recording and distributing indecent images, while also protecting the public, acting as a deterrent, and helping victims of abuse see offenders deservedly brought to justice.
"But we cannot imprison our way out of the current situation - if we are to stem this tide and protect more children we must also make prevention and rehabilitation a priority.
"With the right support we can prevent offenders from abusing and help those who do harm children change their behaviour.
"The NSPCC is also calling on government, law enforcement and internet providers to commit resources and expertise to prevent this sickening material being published online in the first place."
Police knew teenage paedophile was looking at indecent images but did nothing about it til he turned 18
James Owen-Davies, 18, locked up for possessing extreme abuse videos - more than 18 months after police were aware of his activities, according to his solicitor
BY ELWYN ROBERTS
An 18-year-old paedophile was locked up for possessing extreme child sex abuse videos - more than 18 months after police became aware of his activities but did nothing about it, a court heard.
At Mold Crown Court, teenage council worker James Owen-Davies was sentenced to 10 months youth detention for horrifying images of children aged three, five and nine.
The court heard how violent child sex abuse was found on his computers during a raid at his home at Ffordd Gwenllian, Llay, near Wrexham.
Owen-Davies was caught after police received intelligence he had up-loaded an indecent image of a child onto Facebook using a false account.
William Hingston, prosecuting, said police raided Owen-Davies’ home in April and seized computers.
The account had been created in August last year and seven different folders had been created.
In total there were 250 videos and 35 images at the worst category A, 130 videos and 72 images at category B and 77 videos and 18 images at category C.
There was one prohibited image and eight extreme images depicting bestiality.
Owen-Davies admitted three offences of making indecent images, two charges of possession, and one charge of possessing extreme images between August last year and April this year.
Oliver King, defending, said when his client was aged 13 he found porn on his father’s laptop and he explored that.
Way to go, dad! How do you feel about that now?
He said the defendant went on chatrooms on the internet to make friends, started receiving indecent images of children and initially saw it as “part and parcel of making friends.”
Mr King alleged: “The police first became aware of something being posted on Facebook - allegations that he was looking at indecent images in December 2015, but for some reason they chose to do nothing until this year.
“By then he had turned 18.”
Mr King claimed it could have been dealt with earlier “instead of escalating to where it has now”.
Judge Niclas Parry said Owen-Davies had admitted serious sexual offending over a significant period of time – repeated occasions for more than 12 months.
He told him: “You were making images of the most dreadful sexual abuse of children.
“The most aggravating features are the length of the offending and the significant number of images and movies.
“Some of the children were very young – aged three, five and nine.
“Search terms show that you were actually searching for that kind of material.”
Owen-Davies was also made to sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order.
North Wales Police declined to comment.
Reading child sex abuse magistrate jailed
From BBC Berkshire
A magistrate has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy in a car park beneath the courthouse he sat in.
Rodney Fox, 49, used his special privileges to access Reading Magistrates' Court's underground car park in order to molest the child.
He was convicted in April of two counts of sexual abuse and making indecent images of teenage boys.
The offences took place between October 2013 and October 2014.
St Albans Crown Court heard earlier that Fox befriended the boy and would buy him lunch on Saturdays before driving him to the empty car park and abusing him.
The magistrate, of Northumberland Avenue, Reading, was arrested in November 2015, when the boy told a teacher about the offences.
Det Sgt Christopher Lemm, of Reading's Child Abuse Investigation Unit, said he had "no doubt" Fox would have continued to offend against other children.
Senior prosecutor Susan Krikler, from Thames and Chiltern Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), added: "It is only due to the courage of the victim that the disgraceful behaviour of this man has been exposed."
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