Former brewery manager tried to sell a phone
containing child abuse images
By Rob Kennedy, Chronicle Live
This perverted pensioner tried to sell a mobile phone containing child abuse images - while on bail after being caught with a similar sickening collection.
Police found 164 pictures and videos on Bruce Walker’s mobile phone and computer tablet when they raided his home in July 2017.
A total of 27 of the images were in category A, the most serious of their type.
Newcastle Crown Court heard the former brewery manager denied he had deliberately searched for or downloaded abuse pictures but admitted he had been using chatrooms.
The 65-year-old was granted bail while investigations continued.
Two months later, another phone, which had been handed in to a shop in North Shields to be sold, was traced back to Walker after staff alerted police that it contained six vile pictures.
Walker, formerly of Essex Gardens, Wallsend, North Tyneside, claimed the images had been “inadvertently downloaded”. He later pleaded guilty to three offences of possessing indecent images of children.
Judge Edward Bindloss sentenced Walker to 12 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with programme requirements. Walker must register as a sex offender and abide by a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.
The judge told him: “On July 25, 2017 the police attended your address in Wallsend and seized a Samsung mobile phone and a Hewlett Packard device, a tablet.
“Upon those devices were 27 category A images and video, seven category B images and 130 category C images.
“You were interviewed and accepted the devices were yours but denied you had been searching for sexual images of children. You said you had been in chatrooms.
“In September 2017 a person known to you took a mobile phone to a shop in North Shields for it to be sold. They found six category C images of children and alerted the police, which led back to you.”
Judge Bindloss said it was an “aggravating feature” that Walker had images on the second phone while on bail for what was found on the first devices.
The court heard Walker, who has health problems, handed in references to his ordinarily positive character. The judge said he accepted Walker had accessed the images at a time when was receiving treatment for mental health problems and was at a “low point” in his life, physically and mentally.
That's not an excuse! Feeling bad is never an excuse to act bad! If hurting other people helps you feel better, you have a very serious problem.
Shaun Routledge, defending, said Walker poses a low risk of re-offending and will co-operate with agencies who can help him in future.
Jury out in UK incest child sex abuse trial
In the courtroom
By James Connell
A JURY has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of a man accused of sexually abusing his own daughter.
The 51-year-old defendant from Worcester denies all charges against him at a trial at the city's crown court. The jury of six men and six women retired before 4pm yesterday to consider its verdict. The jury had deliberated for around 20 minutes when members were sent home. Deliberations will continue on Monday.
The dad denies two counts of sexual assault against a child under 13, two counts of sexual assault against a child by penetration, one of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and another of causing a child to watch a sexual act.
Yesterday was given over to the closing speeches by prosecution and defence and a summary of the case by judge Jim Tindal.
Kannan Siva, prosecuting, said the defendant had threatened to kill himself in order to manipulate his daughter into not revealing what had happened to her but that she had found the courage to speak out.
He said: "She knew the allegation she was about to make would tear the family apart. It would mean she would not see the brother she dearly loved."
Mr Siva said the defendant's son, called as a defence witness, had been 'dragged along to support his dad'. The defendant was described as 'being in a tight spot' and 'lying'. Mr Siva said the defendant's abuse of his daughter, which included the use of a vibrator, had become 'habitual' and that he was worried his 'big secret' would come out.
However, Matthew Barnes, defending, asked the jury if it made any sense that the alleged victim continued staying with her dad between five and seven nights a week at the time she said he was abusing her.
He also said there had been the complete absence of any earlier complaint against her father. "She was no shrinking violet" he said of the alleged victim.
Mr Barnes mentioned the alleged victim sending a sarcastic text to her dad because he had not invited her out with other members of her family. "Is that consistent with her effectively being a sex slave?"
He described the defendant as hard working with only two 'minor brushes with the law'.
The trial continues.
Author threatened with rape and violence by online abusers says NZ police indifferent
Matt Stewart
Samoan author Lani Wendt Young claims police have ignored her complaints about a torrent of online abuse.
After being targeted by an ongoing avalanche of online abuse Samoan writer Lani Wendt Young claims police told her there was nothing to be done and that "even the FBI can't make Facebook do anything".
I thought threatening was a crime?
Young, who lives in Auckland and Samoa, is the author of nine books including the young adult series Telesa.
She has taken to Twitter to express her concern about a torrent of cyberbullying including threats to rape her, harm her children and family, chop her into pieces and burn her house down.
She also claims when giving her advice on internet safety police suggested she stop writing about topics that made online abusers angry and to stop "calling out" her abusers by not naming them or showing their messages to police because it would only incite them further.
While not addressing Wendt Young's specific criticisms, a police a spokeswoman said anyone who made a complaint to police had a right to privacy. "There are always challenges in investigating online offending and the introduction of more technology and mobile applications means this is continually changing."
However, under the Harmful Digital Communications act police had a number of avenues to prosecute, which had triggered a clear increase in prosecutions since the act was introduced. "We are seeing more and more people coming forward and making a complaint to police in regards to this type of offending," she said.
Speaking from Samoa on Saturday, Wendt Young said her understanding of the act was that it was most effective when an abuser was known, such as an ex-partner. But in her case, the abuse had been from a 'pack' "where many different people pile on with abuse in response to a defamatory/abusive post made by an anonymous writer/blogger".
She said the abuse began after she testified before the National Commission of Inquiry into Family Violence in Samoa last year. Her testimony was about being a survivor of child sexual abuse and recommendations for how to prevent it in Samoa.
She also wrote articles expressing her sadness and anger about her church's policy on not blessing or baptising children with gay parents or in a same sex marriage. "There was lots of hate after that."
In January she criticised the tactics of an anonymous Facebook page that 'exposed' people in government "by accusing them of affairs, murder, arson, paedophilia, and generally shaming them and their children".
"They retaliated by writing several posts about me and my family. The followers got into it with threats and harassment and they haven't really stopped since."
"I had hoped that because so many of them are using their real profiles, police would be able to track them and stop them, or at least issue them with a warning or something."
She had also hoped police would be able to get Facebook to either take down the abusive pages, or reveal the abusers' identities so she could then file a complaint against them.
"But I was told this isn't possible. Not under the current legislation, and not in my situation anyway."
* People are urged to contact police immediately if they believe they, or someone they know, are a victim. Netsafe offers a free service for people in New Zealand to help with online bullying, harassment and abuse – it is available seven days a week on 0508 NETSAFE (058 638 723).
The couple who locked their child away to abuse her must lead to a change in home-schooling, says politician
Wales Online
Home-schooled children are at risk of becoming "invisible" to local authorities, politicians have warned, following the "horrific" case of a young Welsh girl locked away from the world and abused.
Calls have been made for children taught at home to receive visits to make sure basic health and education needs are being met.
In a series of hearings covering several months, Swansea Crown Court heard how a husband and wife kept their young daughter locked away from the world in their west Wales home and subjected her to years of rapes and sexual abuse.
During her time at home - in a normal-looking house on a quiet street - she was subject to years of abuse by her parents, much of which was photographed by the pair.
The child was never allowed out to play, never sent to school, and had no friends.
On Friday, WalesOnline reported that when officers raided the couple's home they found sex toys, pornographic magazines, and newspaper cutting about young girls, along with home schooling books they had used to teach their daughter.
On the mother's phone officers found 76 indecent images of the couple's daughter being raped by her father, and sexually assaulted by her mother.
The name of the abusers and the specific location of their property cannot be reported to protect the identity of the child, who is now in foster care, but the man is in his 50s and the woman in her 20s.
The court heard the man had effectively sexually groomed his younger wife after spotting and exploiting her vulnerabilities.
The couple met in a pub in England when the woman was aged just 16 - within months she was pregnant. They moved to Wales later.
Robin Rouch, prosecuting, had previously told the court that the family did not socialise with neighbours, the daughter was home-schooled, the garden gate was kept padlocked, and curtains at the windows closed.
The male also controlled his wife's mental health medication and contact with doctors, cut her off from her family, and would not allow her to go shopping.
Mr Rouch said he defendant deliberately created the secluded and tightly controlled home environment "in order to systematically and regularly abuse" his daughter without being discovered.
The prosecutor said it appeared the youngster had become "conditioned to see the abuse as normal".
The abuse eventually came to light when the husband and wife's relationship broke down and she told police.
Judge Geraint Walters said the husband had "psychopathic tendencies" and a "devious, wicked and flawed personality" - that combined with his wife's flawed personality and vulnerabilities was the "chemistry" that allowed the abuse of the little girl to happen.
The judge said that their daughter had been kept locked up at home and cut off from the outside world, that she had never seen a playground, a cat or a dog, or gone on a bus.
He said: "She is so damaged that it is hard to see how she will ever recover from it. Every day brings new challenges for her. "She will remain forever vulnerable to future abusive relationships. She will carry the serious psychological scars for the rest of her life."
The husband was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 12 years after pleading guilty to 16 counts of rape, sexual assault, and causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, the charges involving both his daughters.
The wife was convicted of 11 counts of sexual assault, causing a child to engage in sexual activity, cruelty by neglect, and taking indecent images after pleading not guilty due to duress.
She was given a 10-year sentence with an extended licence period of one year, and was ordered to by detained in a hospital for psychiatric treatment.
Renewed calls for actions have now been made, proposing both inspections of home-schooled children and a stronger legal foundation underpinning a compulsory register for children who are educated at home.
The NSPCC argued such a compulsory register was essential to make sure children receive the safeguarding and support from local authorities. The Welsh Government's current plans only propose a voluntary register.
Dylan Seabridge
Concerns were first raised following the death of a home-educated 11-year-old called Dylan Seabridge in 2011. Dylan, died suddenly of scurvy - an "easily preventable disease" - caused by a chronic vitamin C deficiency.
Glynn and Julie Seabridge were cleared of child neglect after their eight-year-old son Dyland died of suspected scurvy.During an inquest into his death, the court heard that Dylan had failed to attend development checks with a childcare team in 2006. Attempts by health care workers to rearrange the appointment were declined by his parents. Although Dylan was registered as a patient at Newport doctors surgery, there was no record of him being seen as a patient or any appointments being made for him.
On Sunday Mid and West Wales AM Helen Mary Jones said checks should be made by local authorities to ensure home-educated children are receiving basic medical and educational needs. She said: "Parents have an absolute right to home-school their children and you can get great outcomes but I do think that children should be in regular contact with health care experts.
"Children in schools would receive these checks anyway and advice can be given to make sure the basic needs of a child are met. The whole point of homes schooling is not to enforce what is being taught but children have a right to be able to read, write and have basic mathematical skills.
"While parents have a role of responsibility for their children the whole community have responsibility for those children too."
Carmarthen and Pembroke AM Angela Burns has called for the issue to be examined (Image: Angela Burns)
The Carmarthen West and South Pembroke AM said: "Thankfully these extreme cases are rare but I have dealt with other families where kids run feral, schooling is minimal and 'outsiders' are not welcome.
"I have also dealt with cases where families have chosen to home school their child because the child has been bullied or has special needs not met in a state school setting.
"We do have to examine this issue very carefully and the Welsh Government should involve the responsible home schooling community and local authorities to see how we can strike the right balance between empowering parents and children by enabling choice and protecting children who can easily be marginalised and left without protection.
"There is a world of difference between loving parents, home schooling their child for any number of valid reasons and neglectful parents looking for an off-grid lifestyle where the child is left to its own devices at best or seriously neglected and abused leading to harm and even death.”
In January Welsh Government education Secretary Kirsty Williams said councils will have to create a database to identify children not on a school register.
The NSPCC have urged Cabinet secretary for Education Kirsty Williams to create a compulsory register for children being home-schooled (Image: Walesonline)
However, the database will not force parents to register their child, and will instead invite parents to submit their details.
Figures show there are around 2,000 electively home educated children in Wales, although figures could be higher as parents do not have to register them.
NSPCC Cymru said keeping children from school had been used to cover abuse in a "minority of cases".
A NSPCC spokesman said: "Every family has a right to educate their child as they choose, but children being home schooled should receive the same protection wherever they are taught.
"We know that in a minority of cases keeping children at home has been used as a cover to abuse children out of sight of the authorities. We are concerned by the ease at which a child can become invisible to their local authority and hence denied the basic support and protection available to other children.
“It is therefore vital that councils are able to identify home schooled children in their area and ensure they receive the education, safeguarding and support they need. A compulsory register would help to ensure this is the case for every single home-educated child."
A Welsh Government spokeswoman said: “Earlier this year the Education Secretary announced plans to consult on regulations that will require local authorities to establish a database to identify children not on a school register.”
“The safeguarding of children in Wales has been strengthened through the introduction of legislation and the establishment of regional and national safeguarding boards.
"We are also reviewing and updating national protection procedures to examine how social services and education practitioners can work together and share information to ensure children who are home-schooled get the support they need.”
In the week a judge throws out a third historic abuse case against pop mogul Jonathan King convicted of molesting boys
Police severely criticised
By DAVID ROSE FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAYThe child sex abuse case that saw pop mogul Jonathan King handed a seven-year jail sentence has been reopened in the light of fresh evidence – including documents which dramatically undermine the testimony of a star witness at his 2001 trial.
Fresh evidence is being considered by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which will decide whether to order a new appeal. It emerged as a result of King’s trial this year on separate, though related, charges of ‘historic’ sex abuse, some dating back to 1970.
That case was brought to an end last week when the judge issued a damning ruling, accusing Surrey Police of failing to disclose critical evidence and misleading the court.
Child sex abuse case that saw pop mogul Jonathan King handed a seven-year jail sentence has been reopened
Judge Deborah Taylor told Southwark Crown Court that it would be impossible for King to get a fair trial because ‘the integrity of the criminal justice system and processes have been undermined publicly in a fundamental way by disclosure failures and persistent misleading of the court’.
She added: ‘A trial has been aborted due to the failures. The time of the court and public money have been wasted, in a time of scarce resources… Continuation would undermine public confidence in the administration of justice.’
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the fresh evidence to be considered by the CCRC includes:
Witness A – one of five underage victims King was convicted of abusing in 2001 – who gave a long, unpublished interview to the News of the World four years before he spoke to the police, in which he revealed a very different story from his trial testimony. This newspaper has established he told the reporter in 1997 that he met King when he was with a friend at an amusement arcade, and was not assaulted until weeks later;
In 2001, Witness A said former DJ King first approached him when he was alone at a market stall, drove him in his Rolls-Royce to a ‘peep show’ and, later that same day, took him to his home, where he assaulted him. The police knew of these discrepancies seven months before the 2001 trial, but allegedly did not disclose the 1997 account to the defence team;
As the MoS first revealed in 2016, an investigation by the author Bob Woffinden, who died earlier this year, shows that another boy King was convicted of abusing was not in the same country as the music mogul throughout the period when he claimed he was certain the alleged abuse took place. He was in England, but tickets, receipts and credit card bills unearthed by Woffinden show that King was in America;
A 2014 report by Merseyside police on Operation Arundel, the original 2001 Surrey investigation, was only disclosed to King’s lawyers shortly before the 2018 case finally collapsed. The report, triggered by Surrey’s widely criticised investigation of allegations against Jimmy Savile before his death, made sweeping criticisms of the way Arundel officers took statements from alleged victims, saying the method they used ‘increases the possibility of error’, and ‘the integrity of any statement taken in this manner is open to question’;
The report says officers failed to tape the questions they asked during interviews, while victims’ statements were written up and signed ‘days if not weeks’ afterwards from short ‘trigger notes’, instead of immediately. The CCRC will now decide whether this casts doubt on all the evidence that convicted King in 2001;
The first Arundel detective to take a statement from an alleged victim of King was Mark Williams-Thomas, now a TV presenter. According to Judge Taylor’s ruling, after Williams-Thomas left the force, police found ‘a document on his computer offering for sale names and introductions to victims of Mr King’. The judge also said that when he left, Williams-Thomas took his police notebooks concerning King with him. The prosecution said he should not have done this because they were force property;
In 2018, though not in 2001, King was charged with abusing Witness B, the alleged victim interviewed by Williams-Thomas. Witness B could not have testified in person because illness had destroyed his ability to speak: the jury would have been asked to convict King on the basis of his 2001 statement. Witness B’s medical records, which showed he had been in numerous mental institutions and had been a drug addict, were only disclosed in June, shortly before the trial collapsed.
Yesterday, King, 73, told this newspaper in an exclusive interview: ‘I’m naturally delighted by the outcome, but my real hope is to protect others in future, and to let the many teachers, care workers and others who have also been wrongly convicted of so-called historic sexual abuse to have their cases reopened too.
‘There needs to be change at all levels. But as Judge Taylor has done, we must start with the behaviour of the police.’
He said that Surrey Chief Constable Nick Ephgrave, the man ultimately responsible, should resign.
King’s long career in pop began in 1965 when he had a top five hit while still a Cambridge student. He went on to write, perform and produce many more, while also discovering bands such as Genesis.
His contacts were also impeccable. In 2001, Simon Cowell stood him bail, and when he was arrested, King had been offered the chairmanship of recording giant EMI on an annual £5 million salary. Other famous friends included former Page 3 model Samantha Fox.
He admits the sexual opportunities that success gave him were endless, and some might find his promiscuous behaviour reprehensible. But he says he never made any secret of it, and was always clear he was not interested in settling down. In a recent video, he ironically described himself as a ‘vile pervert’.
‘I’m bisexual,’ he said, ‘and I had sex with hundreds of people. About 40 per cent were women.
‘But I found it absurd that in the 1970s and 1980s, I could legally have sex with a 16-year-old girl but not with a boy the same age because the age of consent for gay sex was 21.
‘So I deliberately broke the law with young men who were over 16, and who wanted to have sex with me.’
King insisted he went to elaborate lengths to ensure he never slept with anyone under 16, adding: ‘I was very good at seduction. I’m sorry if some people have come to regret having sex with me in later life. But if anyone said no, I accepted it. I knew some of those who made allegations, but I didn’t have sex with any of them.’
In all, King has faced four trials.
The first – in which he was convicted of abusing boys aged 14 and 15, with offences ranging from buggery to touching inappropriately – led to his seven-year jail sentence, of which he served three and a half years.
The four cases against him
CASE ONE
King was convicted at the Old Bailey in September 2001 of four counts of indecent assault, one of buggery and one attempted buggery on five boys aged 14 and 15 when the crimes took place in the eighties. He has protested his innocence ever since, but was jailed for seven years. He served half his sentence. This case has now been reopened because of fresh evidence.
CASE TWO
Two months later, in November 2001, he was found not guilty of sexually assaulting two other underage boys, after one admitted in court he might have been over 16 at the time of the alleged offence.
CASE THREE
He has been due to face further charges in late 2001, but the prosecution decided not to go ahead with the trial. The charges were ‘left on file’ – and King was told by his lawyers this meant they would never be revived.
CASE FOUR
In what legal experts say was a highly unusual move, two of the ‘on file’ charges were revived in 2015. King was also charged with crimes reported to police in 2001, but where they had taken no action. Facing claims he had abused a total of 10 further underage boys, he was found not guilty of two of the revived charges in June 2018. The whole case was aborted last week after the judge found the police had ‘misled’ her and so ‘undermined the integrity’ of the criminal justice system.
In the second, in November 2001, he was accused of abusing two boys but found not guilty on all counts. A third trial due after that was dropped by the prosecution. The charges he would have faced then were ‘left on file’. But King was assured by his lawyers that they would never be revived.
Legal experts say it is highly unusual for charges of this kind to be tried years later. However, this is what happened in King’s fourth trial, which ended last week.
Of the ten alleged victims, seven – including Witness B – had first made statements in 2001, when their claims were either left on file or did not lead to charges.
The other three came forward after King was arrested in 2015 amid huge publicity.
The 2001 trial started in June. In April, King’s defence, led by solicitor Steven Bird and Henry Blaxland QC, had tried to get the case stopped as an ‘abuse of process’, arguing it was unfair to revive the old allegations.
At that stage, the judge disagreed. But then, following pressure from King’s defence, further documents were disclosed, including the Merseyside report on Operation Arundel and Witness B’s extensive medical records.
The prosecution, acting on information from the police, had wrongly told the court these documents contained ‘nothing of relevance’, and that there was no ‘final version’ of the Merseyside report – when, in fact, there was, and Surrey Police had a copy in their files.
King was found not guilty on the two charges which had lain on file, including the claim he abused Witness B. Then the case was aborted.
Meanwhile, a long statement to police by the News of the World reporter describing his interview with Witness A in 1997, with its many discrepancies from his 2001 evidence, had also come to light.
Judge Deborah Taylor told Southwark Crown Court that it would be impossible for King to get a fair trial
It had been sent to King’s office as part of a package of ‘unused material’ in October 2001 but he never examined it because by then he had been convicted, and was in Belmarsh prison.
King said he was sure that the reporter’s statement had not been disclosed before his trial, and if it had been, his barrister, Ron Thwaites QC, who had a formidable reputation, would have used it to undermine Witness A’s allegations.
The 2018 prosecution lawyers said ‘it is not possible to say’ if the reporter’s statement was disclosed before the 2001 trial or not, but admitted that the information it contained was ‘not in any statement made by [Witness A] himself’.
‘I was misled,’ Judge Taylor said at the end of last week’s ruling.
She added that, whether the misleading was deliberate or not, to allow this ‘would give rise to a belief that in this type of case, where there are sexual allegations against figures in the public eye, the courts are prepared to sanction the end justifying the means’.
Perhaps most astonishingly of all, she also suggested that the 2018 case had ‘not been driven by complainants’ allegations’, but ‘by concerns about reputational damage to Surrey Police in the wake of the Savile case and the consequent Merseyside investigation’.
Last night the CCRC confirmed that it had reopened the 2001 case. A spokesman said: ‘We will examine whatever material there may be which is relevant. Anything that concerns witnesses’ credibility will have a bearing.’
Williams-Thomas said he ‘not been given any opportunity to defend myself’ before the judge issued her ruling, saying that he should have been. He said he left the police with an ‘exemplary record’ and only kept his notebooks because he was advised to do so.
As to the document the judge said was found on his computer offering to sell details of King’s alleged victims, he said: ‘After two investigations, no action was taken against me.
‘It must follow that no offences were disclosed. I categorically deny any wrongdoing here or in relation to any of the other criticisms… I pride myself on my ability to protect victims of such crimes.’
A Surrey Police spokesman said: ‘We recognise there were serious organisational failings in the investigation, particularly in relation to disclosure.’
The force ‘deeply regret we did not meet the required standards to ensure a fair trial. For this we wholeheartedly apologise.’
The spokesman added that the force had commissioned an ‘independent review’ and a formal complaint by King was now being investigated. However, Chief Constable Nick Ephgrave had ‘no intention of resigning’.
Southwark, London
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