Dragons' Den contestant jailed for 'appalling' child sex offences had thousands of indecent pictures
A search made on Richard Hazell's computer said 'can you be found guilty for downloading child porn if the files are deleted on your computer?'
BY NARBEH MINASSIAN
A Dragons' Den contestant found guilty of 'appalling' child sex offences (7th story on link) had nearly 3,000 indecent images of children on laptops and computers, a court heard.
A search made on Richard Hazell's computer asked if you can be found guilty for downloading child abuse images if the files are deleted on your computer, a court was told.
The 48-year-old, from Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, has been sentenced to five years in prison at St Albans Crown Court.
The allegations against him related to four different girls, the Hertfordshire Mercury reports.
Hazell appeared on the BBC show Dragons' Den in 2007 asking for a £10,000 investment for a diamond drill bit he has invented, but he was turned down.
Self-employed and running his business 365 Drills from home, Hazell was arrested on Monday, August 22 last year for sexual offences committed against a young girl on August 19. The girl's father complained to social services on Saturday, August 20 and police visited Hazell's home the next day to interview him and his wife, who is divorcing him.
Prosecuting, Tim Forster read out the details of a search made on Hazell's computer on August 30 last year, relating to deleting child abuse images.
This search was entered on the only laptop police had not seized on his arrest on August 22 last year, when only one allegation was made, relating to an incident at his house on August 19 when he allegedly touched a primary school-aged girl inappropriately.
Asked why he entered this search, Hazell said: "I did search that, I was worried about what the police might think instead of what actually happened." Mr Forster responded: "You have typed your own confession."
Images included two pictures taken of two young girls on a beach in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on October 24, 2015, where he was on holiday.
These images had been cropped to zoom into one of the girl's private parts, which were visible as she wore no underwear. Another image shows Hazell's face superimposed onto a naked man's body holding the hand of a young girl with no clothes on.
Hazell claimed the image was made as a practical joke by someone he knows after a group of friends went on holiday in Jamaica in April last year and found out they were staying next to a nudist beach. He refused to reveal the practical joker's identity.
Hazell maintained he had no knowledge of any indecent photo of children on any of his devices. The court heard he had 2,957 indecent images of children on his various computers.
He was convicted of 13 charges; two of sexual assault on a child under 13; two of sexual assault; one of taking indecent photos of children; seven of making (downloading) indecent photos of children; one of making an indecent pseudo photo of a child.
He was sentenced to a total of 57 months in prison, of which he will serve at least half. And he was cleared of two offences of sexual assault on a child under 13.
Deputy Circuit Judge William Kennedy dismissed Rebecca Lee's attempt to mitigate on the basis Hazell showed a willingness to engage in therapy. He said: "I find remorse difficult when sexual abuse of a child has taken place. There is one category of crime that appalls everyone, and that is the sexual abuse of children."
"To rob a child of their trust in adults is a truly appalling offence. These offences do not last a day, or a month, or a year but throughout their life. For that reason these sentences are rightly regarded as so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence is appropriate."
Hoddesdon, UK
Child sex abuser's victim ended up
turning to alcohol to cope
Historic allegations referred to victim who was aged just nine
when abuse began
A 63-year-old man convicted of historic sex abuse has been jailed for nine and a half years.
Harold Hamilton had been convicted of 10 sex offences involving a boy who was aged between nine and 11-years-old.
Hamilton, of Park Avenue, Weaverham in Northwich, had denied the allegations but was convicted after a trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
Jailing the defendant, who appeared via video link from Walton prison, Judge Norman Wright said he had repeatedly abused the victim “for your own personal sexual gratification”. He said the most serious offences involved him simulating sexual intercourse with the boy which “fell just on the other side of attempted penetration”.
The judge said his behaviour had had “a corrosive affect on the victim who had then yet to obtain and realise his own sexuality”.
He said it was clear the victim had put it to the back of his mind and “blanked it from his life”. It came back to the fore and he made a disclosure about it in 2004 but took no action about it.
However, “it clawed its way back into his consciousness” and the only way he was able to cope was with the excessive consumption of alcohol. Eventually he felt he had to come forward and he went to the police last year.
Hamilton was found guilty of seven offences of indecent assault and three offences of indecency. He was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life.
Owen Edwards, defending, said Hamilton “is a broken man in ill health. His shame is now a very public shame”. - As it should be!
Chelmsford sex offender who admitted he was going to download child abuse images jailed for 2 years
By Essex Chronicle | By Hannah Kane
A convicted sex offender was sentenced to two years in prison after admitting he was intending to download child abuse images of young girls.
Matteo Manfredi, 30, who was staying at a hostel in Chelmsford, was sentenced on Wednesday (August 30) at Chelmsford Crown Court, following three breaches of a sexual harm prevention order.
The 30-year-old was previously convicted for downloading 665 indecent images of children in October 2016, after police discovered that Manfredi searched for websites containing pre-teen pornography.
He avoided jail, but ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work within three years and 75 days of rehabilitation.
Ban child sex dolls: British charity
LONDON: Recent criminal convictions prove a strong link between people who use lifelike child sex dolls and child abuse, a leading British charity said on Tuesday (Aug 29), calling for ownership of the "grotesque" dolls to be outlawed.
Britain should close a legal loophole which allows people to own child sex dolls even though it is illegal to import them, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) said, amid a surge in seizures on its borders.
"Early evidence shows that those using these grotesque dolls are already harming children through their other online activities," NSPCC spokesman, Tony Stower, said.
"Six of the seven men who have been charged in the past year with importing child sex dolls also had indecent images of children," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
A British man was convicted in July of importing a child sex doll in a landmark case in the fight againt a new form of sex crime against children.
Police found more than 34,000 indecent images of children aged three to 16 on computers and hard drives in his home.
"The UK has some of the toughest powers in the world to deal with sex offenders and we are committed to ensuring that the system is as robust as it can be," a Home Office spokeswoman said.
"We continue to work with the police and other law enforcement agencies to ensure that the right powers are available for the authorities to tackle sexual crimes."
Opinion is divided over the use of sex dolls, which have the appearance, weight and anatomy of real children.
A Welsh charity said this month that the dolls should be made available on prescription to help prevent people who are sexually attracted to young children acting on their desires.
Paedophilia is a psychiatric disorder. Most treatment focuses on therapy, mentoring and supervision to help paedophiles control their behaviour.
Critics say sex dolls can be dangerous proxies to act out fantasies like rape or child abuse.
Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) has stepped up investigations into sex dolls since border officials noticed an increase in imports of child sex dolls in 2016 from Hong Kong and China using parcel carriers.
The surge in seizures led investigators to identify dozens of previously unknown suspected paedophiles, it said. — Reuters
Certainly, more research needs to be done on whether these dolls reduce a pedophiles use of online child porn, or whether it increases the likelihood of them offending in person.
It's just sickening that we need to have this conversation at all. It's sickening that there are people in China and elsewhere who design and create such perverted toys. And it's sickening that there is an extraordinary demand for them.
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