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Telford abuse murder victim's daughter in shock
after report on paedophile gangs
A woman who survived a fire started by her dad that killed her pregnant mum,
grandmother and aunt speaks out at 'disgusting and shocking' failure
by authorities to stop rape gangs targeting Telford girls
By Geraldine McKelvie, Investigations Editor,
Nick SommerladInvestigations Editor, Emer Scully
07:44, 17 Jul 2022
The daughter of a murdered Telford abuse victim last night revealed her shock at the contents of a bombshell report into the scandal.
Tasnim Lowe, 23, asked: “How can anyone in authority do this when they have their own daughters?”
Tasnim Lowe as a baby with her mum Lucy ( Image: Sunday Mirror)
Then just 16 months old, she only survived because he carried her out of the house and placed her under a tree in the garden.
Mehmood, a cabbie in Telford, was jailed following the fire in August 2000 for a minimum of 18 years for murdering Lucy and her family, and is still behind bars after being denied parole in 2020. But he has never faced sexual abuse charges despite meeting Lucy at 13 and getting her pregnant at 14.
Tasnim said: “The scale of abuse is disgusting and shocking. On my mum, the focus of the authorities was, ‘Why isn’t she in school?’ rather than, ‘Why is this child having babies?’ That’s what shocked me the most. How could you treat a person like that?”
Azhar Ali Mehmood killed Lucy Lowe, and her mum and sister in a fire at their home ( Image: Handout)
The Sunday Mirror revealed four years ago that Lucy’s murder was one of several deaths linked to a massive child sexual exploitation scandal spanning four decades.
We estimated there could be 1,000 victims in the Shropshire town and were told by the authorities we’d made the scale of abuse up. But inquiry chair Tom Crowther QC this week backed our findings.
He said: “Without the Mirror’s reporting, the truth about Telford would still be buried. It was fundamental in the process which led to this report.”
It found that the triple murder inquiry involving Lucy’s family was given a “raft of evidence” that she was being sexually exploited but officers “failed” her. The report also revealed that the council’s safeguarding team “took a non-interventionist role, and waited for the family to request help or actively seek intervention”.
Tom Crowther QC led the inquiry into child abuse in Telford
Yet police in Telford began to receive intelligence about girls being sexually assaulted from 1997 – around the time Lucy met Mehmood. In the months before she died, three files were passed to senior officers involving allegations 24 girls as young as 11 were being gang-raped and sold for sex, but no action was taken.
There was also no evidence that vital child protection procedures were followed by the council in Lucy’s case. Mr Crowther said “a formal assessment of Lucy could have been transformative in this case”. Damningly, he added: “Professionals were sympathetic to Lucy’s parents, but do not appear to be concerned for, or supportive of, Lucy.”
Tasnim said: “The report shows there were many, many times the police or council could have done something. Everything was so obvious. It was right in front of them, and people chose to look away.”
Along with a raft of professionals, Tasnim praised the Sunday Mirror investigation. “I’m so thankful,” she said. “I have found out so much and it’s given me so much closure. If it wasn’t for the Sunday Mirror, I’d have no answers or found out the truth.”
The retired officer who led the probe into the deaths of the Lowe family – DCI Clive Harding – refused to give evidence to the inquiry and did not respond to our requests for comment.
Football coach who made Premier League promises
abused young boy from age of 10
Kevan Tudor was given a further decade behind bars
By Nick Smith
Coventry Telegraph
05:00, 15 JUL 2022
A football coach who groomed a young boy with promises of trials with Premier League clubs has been jailed for a further 10 years. Kevan Tudor was already serving a nine-year sentence for his role in exploiting a vulnerable teenager and has now been punished further for sexual offences dating back to the 1980s.
He was locked up after being found guilty of arranging or facilitating child prostitution and two counts of penetrative sexual activity with a child in May 2016. He was one of 10 men jailed for their part in the historical exploitation and abuse of two teenage boys in 2002-2003 and 2009-2010.
One of those was former Warwickshire special constable, Ronald Potter, from Fillongley. He was jailed for indecently assaulting a homeless 15-year-old boy in 2002.
After seeing a newspaper article about Tudor’s conviction, another individual came forward in 2017 and reported that he had been abused by Tudor in the early 1980s when he was just 12 years old. After suffering mentally since his abuse, he did not feel strong enough to support an investigation and the case was filed, however in 2019 he felt stronger and, having spent his life plagued by doubt that anyone would believe him, he approached police again.
West Midlands Police's investigation stalled during the Covid pandemic as prison visits were not allowed in the lockdown and detectives were unable to interview Tudor, while other people needed to gather evidence were elderly and isolating.
The breakthrough came from an original handwritten football club statistic book from 1980-1986 with all teams, matches, goals and coach records meticulously kept by the then team manager of the club where Tudor coached. From this officers traced many of the team, now men in their 50s, secured witness accounts and identified further people who had suffered abuse.
The trail of Tudor’s career moved into private coaching and found another survivor, with no knowledge of the others, who he had abused from the age of 10.
Investigating officer Detective Constable Lisa Monahan said: "Tudor groomed the boy and his family into believing he could be a famous goalkeeper, with promises of football scouts and trials at Premier League clubs. Those dreams were used to secure complete freedom of access to the young boy with coaching sessions many times a week, where he was made to perform sexual acts on Tudor until he was 14 years old.
"Now in his 50s, he emotively describes the time, as a teenager, when he realised that he was not good enough at football to be professional and never was."
Tudor, now 61 and previously from Birmingham, was charged with 15 counts of indecent assault on a boy under 16 years of age and two counts of gross indecency against a boy under 14 years of age, against five victims.
He admitted the charges at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday (July 8) and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, reduced by five years for an early guilty plea. The other eight men who were convicted of abusing the boy in the 2016 trial at Warwick Crown Court were:
Alan Priest, then 63, of Mucklow Hill, Halesowen, was jailed for life with a minimum term of seven years after being convicted of two rapes and one count of sexual activity with a child.
Ashley Sherrington, then 25, of Dawlish Drive, Stoke-on-Trent, was imprisoned for nine years for two counts of rape.
Robert Bailey, then 27, of Watt Road, Erdington, Birmingham, was handed a seven-year sentence after being found guilty of arranging or facilitating child prostitution, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, sexual activity with a child, and making indecent photographs
Michael Godbold, then 57, of Uxbridge Road, Shepherd's Bush, London, got an 11-year custodial sentence after he was convicted of sexual activity with a child, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, arranging or facilitating child prostitution, and possession of controlled drugs.
Tahir Hussain, then 34, of St Josephs Road, Ward End, Birmingham, was jailed for seven years after being found guilty of two counts of sexual activity with a child.
Peter Joynes, then 59, of Canberra Way, Highgate, Birmingham, was given a four-year term for arranging or facilitating child prostitution and sexual activity with a child.
Stephen Kelly, 40, of Elm Road, Bournville, Birmingham, was jailed for eight years after being found guilty of two counts of arranging or facilitating child prostitution and one of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child.
Ian Prestleton, 54, of High Haden Road, Cradley Heath, received a three-year sentence after being convicted of sexual activity with a child. He was earlier cleared of rape.
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Scots pervert caught in second paedophile hunter sting
months after being freed from jail
David Meikle
15:16, 21 Jul 2022
The Scottish Sun
A TRUCKER was caught sending vile messages in a paedophile hunter sting just five months after being released from prison for similar offences.
Craig Edgeler, 52, struck up a conversation with an adult posing as a 12-year-old girl called 'Darcy'
but quickly turned the chat towards sex
The adult, (paedophile hunter) who worked as part of the Shatter The Silence group, aim to expose adults trying to meet children for sexual activity.
Edgeler sent a string of depraved messages before sending the female decoy explicit images.
Further messaging led to Edgeler asking to meet at his home and a supermarket.
Members of the vigilante group confronted the serial fiend at his flat in Shotts, Lanarkshire, and streamed it live on Facebook.
Police arrived and arrested Edgeler who told them: "I've been an idiot."
Edgeler appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and admitted sending sexual messages and images between September and October last year.
Depute fiscal Jennifer Cunningham said: "The witness, as part of her role as a volunteer for the online child protection vigilante group Shatter The Silence, created an online 'decoy' profile on the dating website application Jaumo and named herself Darcy, a 12-year-old female.
"On the 7th September 2021, the online profile Darcy was contacted by the user of another profile in the name of 'Craig31' and the accused sent a message.
"The accused then sent his number to Darcy and the conversation moved to WhatsApp.
"The conversation continued for a number of days and the accused asked about boyfriends, sexual experience and asked her to send images which he referred to as 'sex pics'.
"The witness sent a selfie style picture to the accused and he replied 'you look good, very sexy."
The prosecutor added: "When the messages turned sexual the witness informed another member of the vigilante group of the sexual conversation.
"The accused was confronted about his online activity at his flat before police were called.
"At the police station, he became highly emotional and was crying and freely stated 'I've been an idiot' and when asked to explain replied 'well I've got a phone'.
"The accused made reference to his belief that he was messaging a child and had also used WhatsApp to message the decoy and advised officers where they could find the device within his home address."
In April last year, Edgeler was jailed for two years after he admitted sending sexual messages and a sexual image to a girl he thought was 12.
The sentence was backdated to June 2020 meaning he was released in March 2021.
Sheriff Alasdair MacFadyen deferred sentence on Edgeler until next month for reports and remanded him in custody.
He was again placed on the sex offenders' register.
Prosecutors have asked for him to be given a sexual offences prevention order.
Greater Manchester Police detective, 45, charged with rape
and string of child sex offences
Holly Christodoulou
13:13, 20 Jul 2022, Updated: 15:40, 20 Jul 2022
The Scottish Sun
A DETECTIVE has been charged with rape and a string of child sex offences.
DC Stephen Hardy, 45, has been accused of multiple sexual offences.
A GMP detective has been charged with rape. Credit: PA:Press Association
The Greater Manchester Police officer is due to appear at Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court on August 10.
Hardy is charged with four counts of rape, five counts of sexual assault and three counts of assault by penetration.
What is the difference between rape and assault by penetration?
He is also accused of two counts of possession of extreme pornography, two counts of making/taking an indecent image of a child and two counts of causing/inciting a girl aged over 13 to engage in sexual activity.
The detective is further charged with one count of causing a girl aged over 13 to engage in sexual activity and one count of causing a child to watch an image of a sexual act.
Greater Manchester Police confirmed they first received a report relating to Hardy back in June 2020.
He has been suspended from the force while criminal proceedings continue.
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