Two more councils bar filming of nativity plays

A BAN on parents filming their children at nativity plays has spread to two other Scottish local authorities .

Education chiefs in Falkirk and East Lothian have introduced similar restrictions to those applied at 156 council-run schools in Edinburgh for the first time this year.

They require a parent of every child involved in a school production to give written consent for cameras to be allowed into the assembly hall where a play is being performed.

The mother of the murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne was among child safety campaigners who condemned the move yesterday as pressure mounted on the local authorities.

Sara Payne told ITV1's This Morning she did not believe family life should be destroyed by fears about the activities of a small number of paedophiles.
 

Church in clear over sex abuse

Murphy-O'Connor admits priest should not have returned to parish

THE Roman Catholic Church protected children and handled allegations of child abuse by priests correctly, the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, said yesterday.
The Cardinal disclosed the positive results of an independent inquiry into his handling of ten cases in the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton during his 22-year tenure. At a press conference he said, however, that one of
the cases should have been handled differently. An accused priest should not have been allowed to return to his parish for four months.

His focus now was to be more supportive of victims, he said, insisting that he would not resign.

The Cardinal called a press conference after The Times disclosed yesterday that Father Christopher Maxwell-Stewart was allowed back into his parish for four months even after an official church report into his alleged conduct concluded that he posed a risk to children. The report was ordered after a court case against him for allegedly abusing a nine-year-old girl collapsed in 1996 when she was unable to give evidence for health reasons.

The case of Father Maxwell-Stewart came two years after the Catholic Church published its first set of guidelines in 1994 on dealing with paedophile priests in response to growing concern about the issue. The working party report, Child Abuse: Pastoral and Procedural Guidelines, stated that a priest accused of child abuse should step aside from his parish while under investigation.

Father Maxwell-Stewart went on to breach an agreement with church authorities, who had later restricted his contact with Catholics to elderly nuns, by conducting Masses for families until eight weeks ago. He is in hiding after disappearing from an Italian monastery over the weekend. The priest yesterday telephoned his bishop and said he had returned to England, but refused to disclose his whereabouts.

The Cardinal's admission yesterday follows the case of Michael Hill, a convicted paedophile priest, who was given the chaplaincy at Gatwick in 1985 by the Cardinal despite three independent psychiatric reports stating that he was still a danger to children.

The Cardinal said yesterday that he had waited three weeks before answering the allegations against him in order to see the results of the 'independent assessment' into ten historic cases where there had been allegations of child abuse. The audit was carried out by a solicitor in Leeds and was commissioned by the Cardinal and by his successor in Arundel and Brighton, the Right Rev Kieran Conry.

Bishop Conry said: 'The findings were that all the cases were dealt with satisfactorily in terms of police and social services.' The Cardinal said that the report would not be made public.

The solicitor was given the diocese's files on ten cases where allegations of child abuse were made against priests. One was Father Maxwell-Stewart. Three of the priests are still in active ministry. Some are dead.

The Cardinal, who said that Catholics in England and Wales were happy with his leadership, said that in the case of Father Maxwell-Stewart he had followed the procedures at the time.

But he admitted that today the case would have been handled differently. 'I think now that for even the short time I let him back into the parish, I do not think that would have happened now. If these allegations had been
made now he would go straight for a risk assessment and would not be allowed, even for a short time, back in the parish.'

He added: 'I allowed him to go back to the parish immediately after the case was dropped because I told him to go to wind up his affairs there. The local police and social services were informed. We have a record of
that. I thought and I still think that the action I took was a fair action.'
 

Referring to last year's report by Lord Nolan into child abuse in the Catholic Church, he said: 'I think we have better guidelines now. Under the Nolan recommendations if this had happened the man would have been taken out of his parish immediately.'

When asked about the Archbishop of Boston, who resigned last week as the Church's most high-profile episcopal casualty in the paedophile crisis to date, he said: 'I do not want to talk about Cardinal (Bernard) Law.

'I walked down one day and saw the headlines that I should resign. I havenever thought of resigning. All these things that have been said about me, about negligence or covering up, I knew they were untrue.'

Asked about a teaching text in use at the time he was training for the priesthood in Rome that addressed the subject of paedophilia and its compulsive nature, the Cardinal said: 'I think I missed those lectures. The question of child abuse in my knowledge was never actually dealt with.'

Margaret Kennedy, of Ministry and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors, said: 'Cardinal Cormac always said he made mistakes, but what we don't know is the full picture of these mistakes; they are trickling out. We need all the files opened, as in Boston.
 

Catholic priest goes to ground as scandal breaks

THE Roman Catholic priest at the centre of the latest paedophile scandal is in hiding in Britain after going missing on the way back from a monastery in Italy.
As The Times disclosed yesterday, Father Christopher Maxwell-Stewart was sent to the Continent by the Catholic Church two weeks ago to avoid the media as stories about child-abuse priests began to break.

Although he was never convicted of abuse, he was charged in 1996 with molesting three children and the claims have refused to subside.

The Church now has to face questions over why it allowed him back into his parish in Leatherhead, Surrey, for at least four months despite reports that he was a risk to children. He was also conducting Mass for families
in Kent in breach of the Church's rules until two months ago.

Father Maxwell-Stewart was a young priest in the parish of Chichester when he met one of his alleged victims, a nine-year-old girl who attended church with her family. He allegedly assaulted her during a visit to her home.
'My very first thought was, 'what's he doing?' she said. 'I was aware I had done nothing to invite this behaviour. It was also very clear to me, even at such a young age, that he wasn't acting within church duties, it was an individual?s own bad behaviour, which is the reason why I am still sane.'

The alleged assault happened in the early 1980s, when Michael Hill, a parish priest in the same diocese of Arundel and Brighton, was preying on two young brothers who were altar boys at St Catherine's on the other side of the diocese in Heathfield, Sussex. The Church became aware of Hill's behaviour in 1981 and sent him for therapy to Stroud, Gloucestershire. Hill's victims came forward in 1995 and a police inquiry was started.

Father Maxwell-Stewart's alleged abuses surfaced during the Hill investigation. The nine-year-old alleged victim, now a young woman, went to a parish priest who already knew of another allegation of abuse against Father Maxwell-Stewart which had taken place before 1982. Little was done and she was forced to tell her parents, who arranged a meeting with the then Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, who is now the Archbishop of Westminster.

He referred the alleged victim's parents to the Catholic Children's Society.

The alleged victim?s father said he had asked the Cardinal at the meeting what procedures were in place for dealing with paedophile priests. The Cardinal allegedly said he did not know the condition was incurable. ?It astonished us that someone whose responsibility it was to deal with this type of offender should proclaim himself unaware of the incurable nature of the perversion, the girl's father said.

Ten years earlier, when the Cardinal had been Bishop for seven years, he had used the same explanation for installing Hill, a known paedophile, as chaplain at Gatwick. Despite having to deal with Hill?s abuse as early as
1981, he appeared to have learnt little. He claimed that little was known about paedophiles in the 1980s.

As a result of the 1995 meeting with the Cardinal, Terry Connor, head of the Catholic Children's Society, carried out a preliminary report into Father Maxwell-Stewart's alleged behaviour, which is believed to have identified
him as a risk to children.

The matter was left to the Catholic Children?s Society and Mr Connor informed the police. At the same time a second man, who had also allegedly been abused at a young age, came forward with a similar allegation.

Both children, now adults, were to be witnesses in the case against Father Maxwell-Stewart, which was due to come to court in 1996. Pending the hearing, the priest was required to step down from his parish in Leatherhead and sent to live with another priest. The case collapsed when one of the witnesses was taken ill.

Mr Connor was then asked to carry out a second assessment of Father Maxwell-Stewart in 1996, which led him to conclude that his behaviour towards children was 'compulsive and opportunistic'.

He concluded that this remained the case even after the court case had collapsed. Despite this, the Cardinal allowed Father Maxwell-Stewart to return to his parish. When the alleged victims discovered this and demanded another meeting with the Cardinal, they were told the priest was there 'temporarily to wind up his affairs'. Father Maxwell-Stewart was in the parish for at least four months, while no one in the deanery or local police had been warned of any danger he may have posed to children. The Church has admitted this was a
mistake.

He was removed and sent to a convent in Kent while arrangements were made for him to receive therapy in the United States. On his return in 1997, the Cardinal accepted him back, albeit on a restricted basis conducting
Mass for retired nuns in Deal, Kent.

For two years all seemed to be going well and the Arundel and Brighton Diocesan Fund, chaired by the Cardinal, began the process to buy him a £105,000 house near by.

The house, in Gluck Road, Deal, opposite a primary school, was purchased using diocese funds days before the Cardinal was appointed Archbishop of Westminster. Its purchase was kept a secret from the incoming Bishop, Kieron Conry, and only a handful of church insiders knew.

The alleged victims later alerted the Church that Father Maxwell-Stewart was breaching church rules. He would allegedly stand in for priests taking Mass at the Sacred Heart Church in Walmer, and then he was alleged to have helped out with children at St Ethelburga's nursery, connected to the convent.
When the diocese authorities began asking questions, the priest denied he was breaking the rules. At one point the nuns asked him to leave. He was ordered to retire to a monastery in Italy for a couple of weeks. Last weekend, after he was recalled to Britain, he disappeared en-route. He telephoned Bishop Conry, yesterday morning, almost a week after he first disappeared. He said that he was in the UK, but refused to say where.

The diocese says it is trying to find him but does not hold out much hope.
 

Dozens arrested in child pornography raids

Thirty-four men have been arrested in London as part of an ongoing operation targeting internet users who pay to access child pornography websites.

The arrests came after 45 warrants were executed across the capital by officers acting on information from US authorities. It brings the total number of arrests as part of the investigation, known as Operation Ore, across the UK to 1,300.

At a press conference at Scotland Yard, Jim Gamble, assistant chief constable of the National Crime Squad, said some 1,200 Britons had been identified as "category one or two" suspects, those who posed the greatest potential risk to children.

Of those arrested, 50 are police officers and eight of them have been charged. The remainder have been were bailed pending further inquiries.

Although 7,000 suspected users of "pay-per-view" child pornography sites based in the US were identified in Britain, Mr Gamble said the actual number of offenders is expected to be lower, partly due to duplicates.

Carole Howlett, the Met's Deputy Assistant Commissioner, has announced that the Home Office had agreed to allocate an extra £500,000 to support further action as part of Operation Ore.

She said the money would be used to provide extra training in computer forensics for officers across the country and to buy equipment to assist in analysing computers seized.
 

50 police arrested in child porn operation

Fifty police officers across the UK have been arrested as part of a crackdown on suspected paedophiles who pay to access child pornography websites.

The officers are among 1,300 people arrested on suspicion of accessing or downloading indecent images of children - some as young as five - from US-based internet sites.

Thirty-four men were arrested in London as part of the investigation - codenamed Operation Ore - following raids on 45 addresses across the capital.

Of the 50 policemen identified, eight have been charged to date and the remainder bailed pending further inquiries. Scotland Yard says none of those arrested today was a policeman.

Jim Gamble, assistant chief constable of the National Crime Squad, says he is not surprised at the number of police officers among the suspects.

"Fifty police officers have been identified and we are not hiding that fact. We want you to know about that to reassure you.

"Police officers are member of the communities that they serve and there will be good people and bad people in the police."

Mr Gamble says the 50 officers are among 1,200 Britons identified as "category one or two" suspects - those who posed the greatest potential risk to children.

In addition, 40 children nationwide - 28 of them in London - have been identified as being at risk of being abused and appropriate steps have been taken to ensure all the youngsters are safe.
 

59 arrested in swoop on paedophiles

FIFTY-NINE suspected paedophiles who allegedly downloaded obscene internet images of children have been arrested in North and West Yorkshire, police revealed today.

Both forces confirmed a nationwide investigation, codenamed Operation 0re, had uncovered a string of individuals in the region believed to have bought images of child sex abuse from American websites.
More than 1,300 people in the UK have been arrested since the start of the operation, which uses intelligence from an FBI investigation identifying more than 250,000 internet paedophiles around the world. Today the detectives leading the investigation in West Yorkshire pledged to continue their search for paedophiles downloading obscene pictures.
"This is a thorough and painstaking investigation" said a force spokesman. "But we are determined to track down anyone who may be involved in child pornography."
Police said 23 people in West Yorkshire and 35 people in North Yorkshire had been arrested and bailed over the past six weeks after detectives in both counties targeted users of pay-per-view websites based in the United States.
Detectives across the country are tracking down British suspects identified by US investigators who traced credit card details used to pay for downloading child porn.
 

Music teacher on child sex charges

A SCARBOROUGH music teacher has appeared in court charged with child sex offences.

Geoffrey Kitching (above), 48, of Scalby Road, Scarborough, appeared at Scarborough Magistrates' Court this morning to face 20 charges.

Kitching faces eight charges of indecent assault on boys under the age of 14, five charges of false imprisonment and seven charges of administering a stupefying drug, namely amyl nitrate.

The offences are alleged to have been committed between 1993 and 1996.
Dawn Birkett, prosecuting, outlined the charges.

Richard North, representing Kitching, made no application for bail on behalf of Kitching, who was remanded in custody until Saturday while the police continue their investigation.

Before the court case a spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said: "As a result of a joint investigation into child sex abuse by North Yorkshire Police and North York-shire County Council, a 48-year-old man was arrested yesterday in Scarborough."

Kitching came to Scarborough in 1977 to play a summer season with Max Jaffa at the Spa complex and returned in 1982 to become leader of Scarborough Orchestra.

Kitching a violinist who studied with a former leader of the London Symphony Orchestra has played with orchestras for the Scottish National Ballet and Scottish National Opera companies, the English National Opera North and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

A composer and conductor, Kitching was musical director of Dudes Independent Orchestra for young people in Scarborough.

The 30-strong orchestra was disbanded in 1998 after three years of performing at concerts and other events in the town.

Students achieved much success in exams and competitions but just one day after playing to a packed audience at St Catherine's Hospice Ball in May 1998 Kitching announced that the group was to fold.

Two weeks earlier four of its senior musicians had decided they would have to step down because of academic commitments. An emergency meeting was called by Kitching, who said that the orchestra would be weakened and could not go on.

Kitching continued private tuition to music students after the orchestra disbanded.
 

Danielle uncle is guilty

The uncle of missing schoolgirl Danielle Jones was today found guilty of her murder.

Builder Stuart Campbell (above), 44, shook his head as he was sentenced to life at Chelmsford Crown Court. The 15-year-old's body has never been found.

Campbell, who was addicted to internet porn and had an obsession with teenage girls, abducted Danielle to stop her revealing his sex secrets. Danielle disappeared shortly after she left home in East Tilbury, Essex, to catch the school bus in June 2000.

Danielle's parents Tony and Linda burst into tears as the unanimous verdict was returned after seven and a half hours' deliberations at the end of a 10-week trial.

Campbell had "groomed" Danielle for months and killed her when she threatened to tell her parents about his persistent demands for sex. Unknown to the jury he had even forced his 14-year-old daughter into posing for indecent photographs.

After the verdict Campbell was revealed as having a history of violence and indecency towards young teenage girls dating back to the Seventies.

Mr Justice McKinnon told Campbell: "You have done a thoroughly terrible thing, caused widespread horror and disbelief, and there is not a shred of mitigation in this case. You are no stranger to violence and started in crime at a young age... you merit the description 'dangerous'."

The judge said that Campbell's "particularly perverted interests were focused on schoolgirls of the 15- to 16-year-old bracket and you are quite unable to check your impulses." He added: "You have been a blatantly deceitful and thoroughly dishonest smooth operator over many years."

The judge said that only Campbell would know exactly what had happened on the day Danielle disappeared but that he had kidnapped her, taken her to his house and murdered her. Campbell, of Gray's, Essex, is married to the sister of Danielle's father.

The girl's DNA was discovered on bloodstained stockings in a bag of women's underwear in Campbell's loft. He used to approach young girls in the street and at school gates and lure them to his home to take photographs of them dressed in lingerie and school uniforms

Campbell would surf the internet for hours on end downloading images from paedophile websites. After disposing of Danielle's body Campbell kept her mobile phone and texted his own phone with messages saying: "You are the best uncle ever" in an attempt to show she was still alive and to deflect suspicion from himself.

He was trapped by the mobile phone records and the computer and photographic evidence of his own perversions.

When his house was searched police found a note with a Pin number for Danielle's mobile phone and the words "chloroform" and "tazer stun gun".

Detectives discovered Campbell had kept a diary listing his almost daily contact with Danielle and that he had bombarded her with text messages describing her as his "princess" and "sexy legs".

Twice-married Campbell has previous convictions for taking a child without lawful authority - a 14-year-old girl he abducted and photographed semi-naked in 1989 - and a vicious mugging of a girl aged 16 in 1976, which earned him a four-year prison sentence.

His indecency conviction came before the sex offenders' register was introduced to keep a trace of convicted paedophiles. There were also convictions for robberies, assaults and burglaries.

The search for Danielle, codenamed Operation Spinaker, is the biggest inquiry ever mounted by Essex Police at a cost of £1.7 million.

Police have targeted 1,500 potential sites in a vain attempt to find her remains.

Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Reynolds said: "I will seek to reinterview Campbell in an effort to ascertain where Danielle is.

"I will appeal to him to cooperate so that Tony and Linda can have a funeral and grieve properly."
 

A significant threat to young girls

A GRANDFATHER who molested young girls who called at his Lancashire home has been jailed for a total of five years.

Steven Tinkner was described by a judge as a significant threat to young girls, after Preston Crown Court heard that he had had previous convictions for sex offences.

The 53 year old of Dallam Avenue, Morecambe had denied five charges of indecent assault relating to two girls while he was living near Heysham.

He was convicted on unanimous verdicts.

The girls were aged 10 and 11 at the time.

Mr Nick Kennedy, prosecuting, said the defendant was at home in the daytime, though working through nights as a lorry driver.

The two girls got to know him and would do chores in return for sweets.

Other girls would also go round to his home because he was giving sweets and sometimes cigarettes.

Initially everything seemed okay and Tinker was perfectly pleasant.

But as time went by Tinker could not keep his hands to himself.

Before the start of the trial the defendant admitted three charges of supplying cannabis to girls ^ one of whom became the victim of his indecency.

He had encouraged the youngsters to take drags from a single cannabis joint.

In his evidence, Tinker told the jury nothing improper had happened and therefore the girls were lying.

The jury returned their unanimous verdicts following two hours of deliberations.

Afterwards, the court heard that in 1989 he received four years imprisonment for indecent assault and unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16.

Defence barrister, Mr Keith Thomas, said Tinker,s home life had been devastated by the jury,s verdicts.

Judge Stuart Baker told Tinker: "I must have regard to you as a man of mature years who presents a significant threat to young girls.

"Your conduct was clearly deliberate and it was persistent.

"You don,t show any degree of insight into or acceptance of your criminal conduct."

He directed that the defendants name be placed on the Sex Offender,s Register for an indefinite period.
 

Football coach jailed for molesting young boys

A former football coach who used his standing in the game to molest young boys has been jailed for six years by a judge who branded him a "predatory abuser".

George Ormond, who once worked part-time with Newcastle United developing the club's young talent, carried out a string of indecent assaults over almost 25 years.

One of his victims secretly taped a conversation between them more than a decade after the attacks. A jury at Newcastle Crown Court listened to the tape in which Ormond apparently apologised.

Ormond, 46, of Whickham View, Newcastle, had denied 15 counts of indecent assault on seven boys - five under the age of 16 and two older teenagers - between 1975 and 1999.

The jury heard how the highly-respected coach in youth circles used his standing in the game to bring youngsters under his power.

The court was told that Ormond carried out his attacks at various locations including youth club changing rooms, in his car and at the homes of some victims.

Michael Hodson, prosecuting, had told the jury how Ormond was "wholly preoccupied with sex".

Ormond was today convicted of 12 indecent assaults and one attempted indecent assault. He had earlier been cleared on the judge's directions of two other indecent assaults.

Judge Esmond Faulks told him: "The evidence demonstrates you were a predatory abuser of young boys. You used your position as a football coach to target vulnerable young children."

Ormond maintained throughout his trial he was the victim of a conspiracy between the men and had never abused them.
 

Perv playboy facing jail

MILLIONAIRE playboy Baron Bloom (above) was facing jail last night after being convicted of indecently assaulting a girl of 15.

But Bloom, 28, was saved from Christmas behind bars awaiting sentence when his tycoon dad Desmond put up £30,000 bail.

The Lamborghini-driving ex-model showed no emotion as the Old Bailey jury found him guilty.

During the five-day trial the court heard how he dazzled the girl with his jet-set lifestyle.

He was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register within two weeks.

Tycoon Bloom was also charged with molesting a girl of 14 at his flat in Kensington, London.

But the jury failed to reach a verdict.

He will learn if he will face a retrial when he appears in court again on January 27.
 

Sally Army sex perv jailed

A SALVATION Army youth leader was jailed for four years yesterday for sex attacks on girls.

Mark Elson (above), 26, had sex with one 12-year-old he befriended and kissed and touched other children in his care on church “sleep-overs”.

The bespectacled bachelor, son of devout Christian parents, committed 12 indecent assaults on four girls aged 12 to 14 in four years, Coventry Crown Court heard.
Judge Parrick

Eccles told him: “You betrayed trust. None of the assaults involved violence but it was extremely distressing for the girls.”

Elson, of Wellingborough, Northants, was convicted at another court after denying all offences.

Juliann Manson, defending, said yesterday: “He was very immature for his age.”
 

Child porn DVD bought in Dixons
A police investigation has been launched after a high street retailer sold a DVD disk containing child pornography to a Birmingham family.

Ray Dickson found hundreds of "horrific" video clippings on the disk given away free with a DVD rewriter he bought for £200 from Dixons at The Fort shopping complex in Erdington.

He contacted police after seeing the images which included children under ten being abused. Officers have taken the player and the disk for tests.

Mr Dickson, aged 47, from Moseley, said he was sickened and concerned the images could have been seen by his young son.

"When I saw the clips I was totally appalled. It had files showing torture, rapes and all sorts of horrendous things," he said.

"My nine-year-old son uses the computer for his homework and could have seen these things. I dread to think what could have happened if he did."

He said: "Although the package had been opened before, I had been assured in the shop it would be alright, but it wasn't.

"I am very angry with Dixons."

A spokesman for Dixons said: "This is an extremely serious incident and we are conducting an urgent investigation.

"We deeply regret the distress that this episode has caused and will do all that we can to identify the source."

Sgt Bob Wiltshire, of Belgrave Road police station, said: "Officers are investigating an allegation that paedophile images are contained in some DVD equipment allegedly bought by a man at a Birmingham store."
 

Judge allows naming of kidnapping schoolboy

A judge has allowed the name of a schoolboy who kidnapped a six-year-old girl and tried to rape and murder her to be published because his crime was so serious.

Phillip Hodges, 16, was jailed for life for what the judge described as an "evil" crime last week after being found guilty of trying to rape and strangle the girl.

Usually as a juvenile he would be protected from publicity but the judge decided that because the crime was so severe he could be named.

Cardiff Crown court heard that Hodges was playing in the street on Jubilee weekend with a group of children when he dragged the girl off into dense woodland where he tried to strangle her by squeezing and stamping on her neck.

He then tried to rape her and believing she was dead attempted to bury her half-naked body.

The jury was told Hodges turned up at the girl's family home half an hour after the attack, saying he lost her as they played in the woods at Malpas, Newport, South Wales.

A party of relatives and neighbours searched the woods for an hour before finding the girl partly covered by leaves and earth and virtually unrecognisable.

Hodges was found guilty of attempted murder, attempted rape and kidnapping. He was sentenced to life custody last Thursday - the day after his 16th birthday.
 

Attacker rapes girl at youth club

Police today appealed for information following the rape of a 12-year-old girl at knifepoint in Wolverhampton.

She was dragged to the rear of a youth club in Ward Grove, Lanesfield, by her attacker.

The victim, from the Wolverhampton area, was approached by the man as she walked along the street.

She was attacked between 5pm and 5.15pm, at a time when there would have been people in the area, police have said.

Dc Neil Lloyd, of Bilston CID, described the incident as a "nasty attack on a vulnerable person".

"You would feel that you were safe outside a community centre," he said.

"Somebody must know this person from the description and we would urge anyone with any information to come forward."

The attacker is believed to drag his right foot when he walks.

He is described as black, aged 40 to 50-years-old, about 5ft 5ins tall and of a fat stocky build.

He was wearing a black hooded top, black baggy trousers and cowboy-style pointed shoes or boots.

The offender was also carrying a material shopping bag.

The attack is alleged to have taken place on November 6, last year, but police only released details today.

Officers have been following a number of lines of inquiry since the incident was reported to them on December 4.

They now need the public's help, added Dc Lloyd.

Anyone with information can call CID officers at Bilston police station on 0845 113 5000 or 01902 649104.

Alternatively, details can be left in confidence on the Crimestoppers line which is 0800 555 111.
 

Choirmaster jailed for sex assault

A choirmaster has been jailed for sexually assaulting a boy and downloading pornographic images of youngsters from the internet.

Sean Jennings, from Somerset, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to seven counts of indecent assault on a male.

He also pleaded guilty to three counts of indecency with a child, six counts of making indecent photos of a child and six counts of possessing an indecent photo of a child.

Judge Rupert Bursell QC at Bristol Crown Court told Jennings: "You groomed and then seduced a young boy, the seduction culminating when he was 12 and going on until he was 15."

The judge heard how Jennings, of Sixty Acres, Failand, North Somerset, "encouraged" the young boy, buying him gifts including a mobile phone, which he telephoned and text messaged him on.

He was told how the boy later described how sexual contact had developed between Jennings and himself, including sexual acts which took place in a car and while walking in a park.

The boy eventually told his mother what was happening and Jennings was arrested last July. In his police interview Jennings had denied any sexual misconduct.

Police searching the address where he was living at the time found a computer with more than 10,000 images of naked boys, around 500 of whom were thought to be aged under 16, Mr Fitton added.

Sentencing Jennings, the judge ordered his name be placed on the sex offenders' register and that the computer and images be destroyed.

Jennings was found not guilty of one charge of buggery after pleading not guilty. Three other charges which he denied were ordered to lie on file.
 

The Beast is back
Threats force Ulster child sex perv to flee Scotland

ONE of Ulster's worst paedophiles, who fled the province after being released from jail, is back on his old stomping ground.

Sunday Life can reveal evil Darren Boyd returned to his native Belfast this week, after receiving death threats in Scotland.

It is understood the sex beast is staying at a hostel for perverts in Belfast city centre, after ending his self-imposed exile.

It is believed he received the threats from Scottish supporters of loyalist paramilitaries.

A senior police service source told us the pervert - who walked free from jail on Christmas Eve, after serving more than six years of a 12-year term for repulsive sex attacks on two young boys - had returned to the province.

Said the source: "People should remember that this is a very smart and shrewd man, who is still a danger to kids.

"When it didn't work out for him in Scotland, he had no other option but to return to his home town.

"He obviously couldn't go home because the paramilitaries are still after him, and he had no other option but to go to a hostel.

"He's also a computer wizard, who used his computer to lure two young victims to his home, and there's every danger he could do this again.

"We don't know how long he will be staying in the hostel because he always tends to move around, and he constantly changes his appearance."

Boyd, 26, fled to Scotland shortly after being released from Magilligan Prison.

The sex fiend was jailed in 1996 at Downpatrick Crown Court on a catalogue of sex charges - including two counts of buggery - against his young victims, aged just five and nine years.

Sicko Boyd had befriended the two boys while he lived in the Abbot's estate, in Newtownards in the mid-1990s.

Boyd had earlier been shot six times in the knees, elbows and wrists by paramilitaries, after earlier allegations of abuse against young children.

And it was only when the mother of one of his two victims heard about his kneecapping that she quizzed her son, and details of the grim abuse meted out by Boyd emerged.

When the young boys were interviewed by police, they revealed how Boyd would chain each of them up in turn, and force them to watch him abuse the other.

They also revealed that Boyd would video the torture sessions, and force the boys to pose for photographs.

None of the recordings or pictures was ever recovered.

In total, he was given two 12-year sentences for buggery, four years each on two charges of indecent assault, and two years for gross indecency.
 

Prison chief arrested in child porn probe

A prison governor has been arrested by police investigating child pornography on the Internet.

Terry McLaren, 47, the deputy head of Bullingdon Prison, near Bicester in Oxfordshire, was bailed by police.

The arrest was understood to be part of Operation Ore, Scotland Yard's transatlantic investigation into paedophile material on the Internet.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "On January 8 officers from the Met Child Protection Command arrested a 47-year-old man at an address near Banbury in Oxfordshire in connection with alleged possession of indecent images of children.

"He was taken to a police station in Oxfordshire and later bailed to return pending further inquiries to a date to be set."

A Prison Service spokesman said: "An individual from Bullingdon has been suspended." He added that the man was suspended around six weeks ago.

Bullingdon is a local category B training prison for men, which opened in 1992.

Operation Ore centres on allegations that illegal images were downloaded from internet sites by paedophiles who had given credit card details to the pay-per-view site.

Who guitarist Pete Townshend was also arrested and bailed in connection with the inquiry.

A civil servant with the London Assembly has also been arrested as part of the inquiry. The 39-year-old, named in London's Evening Standard as Yusef Azad, was arrested at his home in Brixton, south London, and his computer equipment seized by child protection officers.
 

London civil servant held over child porn

A civil servant with the London Assembly has been arrested as part of the Operation Ore child pornography inquiry.

The 39-year-old, named in London's Evening Standard as Yusef Azad, was arrested at his home in Brixton, south London, and his computer equipment seized by child protection officers.

He was taken to an unnamed police station in south-west London and later released on bail to return to the police station next month.

The arrest of Azad is understood to have been part of Operation Ore, Scotland Yard's transatlantic investigation into paedophile material on the internet.

Pete Townshend, guitarist with The Who, has also been arrested and bailed in connection with the inquiry, while two police officers who worked on the Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman murder inquiry are facing charges.

The inquiry, headed by Scotland Yard's anti-paedophile unit, centres on allegations that illegal images were downloaded from websites by suspected paedophiles who had given credit card details to the pay-per-view site.

Mr Azad, an independent watchdog on London Mayor Ken Livingstone's activities, was unavailable for comment.

He was arrested on Dec 5 on suspicion of possessing and making indecent images of children and incitement to distribute the images.

He reportedly told the Evening Standard: "I am still employed by the Greater London Authority. I have no further comment to make. I don't know what you are talking about."

A spokesman for the Greater London Authority said: "The GLA can confirm that a member of staff has been arrested and released on police bail.

"But for legal reasons the GLA cannot discuss the identity of the individual or any further details. The Authority cannot provide any further information. This is now a police matter."
 

Kelly arrested for alleged sex abuse

Television presenter Matthew Kelly has been arrested by Surrey police over allegations of sexual abuse against underage boys. The 52-year-old Stars in Their Eyes host was arrested by Surrey police in Birmingham and was tonight being held in connection with "historic allegations" of sexual abuse against boys under 16. A second man, aged in his late 50s, was also arrested in connection with the same allegations at his home in Edinburgh. A spokeswoman for Granada, the company that makes Stars In Their Eyes, said: "Granada is not making any comment or statement on this issue this evening." A police spokesman said: "Two men have been arrested this evening by Surrey Police in a co-ordinated operation in connection with historic allegations of sexual abuse against boys under the age of 16-years-old. "A 52-year-old man from Chiswick, London, was arrested in Birmingham. A man in his late 50s was arrested at his home address in Edinburgh. "One man has been taken to a Surrey Police station where he will be held overnight and is due to be questioned tomorrow. The second man is being held in a police station local to his address overnight and will be questioned tomorrow. "A number of addresses are being searched in connection with the arrests."

Surrey police say it is not part of the anti-paedophile operation during which rock star Pete Townshend was arrested on Monday.
 

TV star quizzed in abuse inquiry

Matthew Kelly is most famous for Stars in their Eyes

Stars in their Eyes presenter Matthew Kelly is to be questioned by police, after being arrested as part of an inquiry into sexual abuse against young boys.
The 52-year-old, from Chiswick, west London, was arrested by Surrey Police in Birmingham on Wednesday.

He was held overnight in Surrey in connection with "historic allegations" of sexual abuse against boys under 16, and will be questioned on Thursday.

 A number of addresses are being
 searched in connection with the arrests
                                      Surrey Police
 

The former manager of 1970s pop band The Bay City Rollers, Tam Paton, has been arrested in connection with the same inquiry.

Mr Paton, in his late 50s, was arrested in Edinburgh.

Both men are being held as part of the sex abuse inquiry that jailed pop mogul Jonathan King in 2001.

A police spokesman said the arrests were not part of Operation Ore, the investigation into users of a US child pornography website.

It is believed the accusations all date from the 1970s, and that the inquiry has been ongoing for several months.

Kelly has been playing
Captain Hook on stage

Mr Kelly was understood to have been arrested at 1800 GMT at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, where he has been appearing as Captain Hook in a production of Peter Pan.

In a statement on Thursday, the theatre said the show would continue without him.

The star - who is married with two grown-up children - has also appeared recently in a touring production of Of Mice and Men.

Granada, which makes Kelly's hit ITV1 show Stars In Their Eyes, has refused to comment.

There are no new editions of Stars in their Eyes currently scheduled for ITV1.

'Historic allegations'

A police spokesman said on Wednesday: "Two men have been arrested this evening by Surrey Police in a coordinated operation in connection with historic allegations of sexual abuse against boys under the age of 16-years-old.

Tam Paton, former manager
    of the Bay City Rollers,
       was also arrested
"A 52-year-old man from Chiswick, London, was arrested in Birmingham. A man in his late 50s was arrested at his home address in Edinburgh.

"One man has been taken to a Surrey Police station where he will be held overnight and is due to be questioned tomorrow.

"The second man is being held in a police station local to his address overnight and will be questioned on Thursday.

"A number of addresses are being searched in connection with the arrests."
 

The babysitter who posed as a friend of the Blairs

When Mark Tann set up a babysitting service he appeared to have impeccable credentials.

He was a charity fundraiser and church-goer, advertising himself as a Christian childminder. He was also a member of the Labour Party and proudly showed potential customers a picture of himself with Tony and Cherie Blair.

But all his efforts to portray himself as a respectable member of the community were a sick charade. The true purpose of his babysitting business was to be a front for him to rape and abuse young children.

The burly paedophile was jailed for 15 years yesterday after admitting 24 sexual offences - including two counts of raping a four-year-old girl and another of indecently assaulting both her and a nine-year-old girl.

As well as abusing those in his care, 29-year-old Tann offered to trade indecent pictures on the Internet and handed out advice to other perverts on the web about how to groom and sexually assault children.

Sentencing Tann, Judge Anthony Webb told him: 'You advertised yourself as "registered", and told people you were a Christian childminder.

'One mother had the view that you had dedicated your life to children. The reality is that you are a paedophile who gained the trust of parents in order to abuse their children.' Eleanor Laws, prosecuting at Canterbury
Crown Court, told how Tann set up his babysitting service and advertised in shops and through two websites boasting of more than ten years of childminding experience.

During the hearing, Miss Laws read out a letter from the mother of the four-year-old revealing the torment she is still suffering from the knowledge that her child had been raped.

The mother wrote:'I am writing this having been woken from another nightmare and going downstairs to vomit.
'I am physically shaking, my heart is pounding, my body feels like jelly, my brain is shell-shocked and consumed with the worst of fears for my daughter's well-being and damage that may have been done to her Sexually,
psychologically and physically.' The court heard that Tann also used the Internet to contact paedophiles and boast of his sickening conquests.

'He sent a series of e-mails which in effect gave explicit instructions as to how to groom and sexually abuse
children,' added Miss Laws.

Police were alerted to him by the mother of his nine-year-old victim and by the service provider for an official Labour Party website who found he had used the site to send a disgusting picture of a baby.

When police searched Tann's computer at his home in Whitstable, Kent, they found more than 700 indecent pictures.

The four-year-old's mother told police that she met Tann in the summer of 2001 and he then baby sat from November of that year until the following March. It was then her daughter said that Tann had done 'rude things' to her.

As well as the sex attacks, Tum also pleaded guilty to taking indecent photographs of children and making and distributing indecent 'pseudo-photos' of children.

He further admitted three charges of theft.

The court heard how, after befriending a woman, he stole nine cheques from her husband who was dying of cancer in hospital - to pay satellite TV and telephone bill arrears. It was also told that Tann had been described as 'devious and probably dangerous' in a psychiatric report on him when he was 17.

The paedophile was also placed on the sex offenders' register for life and told by the judge that he will never be allowed near children again.

Last night a police source said: 'The photo of him with the Blairs was his proud claim to credibility and respectability. He still has it pinned to his cell wall.'
 

JAIL FOR KID SEX INTERNET PERVERT

AN Internet pervert who tried to lure girls as young as 10 for sex has been jailed

Cops swooped on Richard Evans after our investigators handed them a dossier of the outwardly respectable accountant's paedophile lust.

Evans, 26, a semi-pro soccer player with a girlfriend, posted Internet adverts saying: "Daddy is looking for you. Are you a girl aged 10 to 16? If so I would like to hear from you if you like older guys."

Using the alias Dickieboy, he appealed for mums to contact him if they were prepared to "offer me your daughter" - and offered to swap child porn pictures.

A People investigator, posing as "Jennifer" with a 12-year-old daughter, was bombarded with emails from Evans for three months. She met him in a park near his office and taped him as he described his twisted desires.

Police swooped after we exposed Evans, of Waltham Cross, Herts, last April.

They seized his computer and found pictures involving children as young as six, St Albans Crown Court heard last week.

Evans, who earned £30,000 a year, was jailed for nine months after admitting possessing indecent images of children and publishing an article advertising indecent photographs of a child.

Det Sgt Andy Dixon said: "Another paedophile is off the streets."
 

Briton held in Thailand over child porn

Wood was about to board a flight to Dubai

A 24-year-old Briton is facing charges of child molestation and internet paedophilia after being arrested at Bangkok airport in Thailand.
Robert Wood, from Manchester, was stopped after attempting to fly to Dubai, police said on Wednesday.

Mr Wood was charged with molesting and disseminating photographs of boys aged under 15.

His arrest followed a tip-off from British police.

Mr Wood is said to have entered Thailand as a tourist and shortly after rented an apartment in the capital Bangkok.

Police allege he used the flat as a base to lure young boys, whom he sexually abused and then photographed.

Cameras and computer equipment from Mr Wood's hotel room have also been seized, a police spokesman told the news agency AP.

Mr Wood, who is being held in police detention prior to a court appearance, faces a maximum 15 years in prison if found guilty.

He was arrested on Tuesday at Bangkok's Don Muang airport as he was about to board a midnight flight for Dubai.

Mr Wood's arrest comes as police in Britain working on Operation Ore trawl through the credit card details of 6,000 people - including rock star Pete Townshend - flagged up as part of a crackdown by the United States Postal Inspection Service.

It is not known if Mr Wood's arrest is connected in any way with Operation Ore.
 

Net closes in child porn probe

THE arrests of two Calderdale men as part of a national probe into internet child porn are the first of what could be a "ticking time bomb" for dozens more people across the region.

Police said two Halifax men were arrested in connection with Operation Ore, the largest UK police investigation of internet paedophilia.

A total of 26 people from West Yorkshire have been held as part of the probe.

U.S. officials handed a dossier listing 7,000 UK subscribers to child porn websites to the National Crime Squad and National Criminal Intelligence Service almost a year ago.

So far 1,300 people have been arrested, including a senior teacher at a public school, a number of social workers, two hospital consultants, several magistrates and 50 police officers.

Of the 26 West Yorkshire arrests most are from Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield. Others are from Huddersfield, Normanton, Baildon, Ossett, Pontefract and two from Halifax.

A 30-year-old Normanton man and a 34-year-old Pontefract man have been charged.

A Leeds man is still being quizzed and the rest have been released on police bail pending further inquiries.

West Yorkshire Police gave brief details of the Halifax men who had been arrested. One, a 35-year-old man, was held on November 18, and another, a 52-year-old man, was arrested on December 9, in connection with Operation Ore.

Rock star Pete Townshend is one of the most high profile names to have come out of the dossier so far.

Police arrested him and quizzed him last night after he admitted paying to look at child porn on the internet. He was released on bail to appear at a future date.

A West Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said the first arrests under the operation were made in May last year, but most were quizzed in November and December.

"We have executed warrants as part of a nationwide operation," she said."It is a major operation against individuals suspected of purchasing paedophile material. The investigation is ongoing."

Mr Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers said a large number of those charged had no previous convictions.

Police split the list of 7,000 people into three categories.

Category one includes anyone with access to children, those with a previous conviction or on the sex offenders' register.

Category two are those who hold positions of authority.

And category three includes those who police believe are a lesser risk or who do not have direct access to youngsters.

Calderdale Council health and social care director Philip Lewer said the council has had no involvement in the operation so far.
 

Ex-priest jailed for assaulting schoolboys

A former Irish Roman Catholic priest has been jailed for a year, after being convicted of assaulting two schoolboys.

John Molloy, 44, sexually assaulted a boy who was under the age of six, at the curate's house in the parish where he was ministering in 1985.

Six years later he carried out a similar offence against a 10-year-old in a parish to which he had been transferred.

Judge Kevin Haugh, sitting at Westport, Co Mayo, heard Molloy, who resigned from the priesthood in 1995, had intimately fondled the two boys.

One of the victims told the court the ex-priest had stolen his innocence. He said his life had been destroyed by some of the comments made by people in his home town.

He said he had held his father's gun up to his head at times since the incident and there were occasions when he felt he was going to kill himself.

The judge paid tribute to the victim who had given evidence and said he hoped "those small minded people" who had abused him on the streets of his hometown would see fit to apologise to "this young man who had the courage to stick his chin out and make a complaint".

Michael Neary, the Archbishop of Tuam, the diocese in which Molloy served, said he was saddened by the crimes committed by the former priest.

He said Molloy had been withdrawn from the ministry in 1995. The archbishop added: "To those who have suffered abuse as children in this case I offer my most sincere sympathy and support.

"I offer them, furthermore, a profound apology on behalf of the Archdiocese of Tuam."
 

Porn teacher walks free
 
A primary school teacher who claimed he downloaded child pornography from the Internet only because he was curious walked free from court.

Ronald Smith, a film buff and a regular contestant on TV quiz shows including The Weakest Link, supplied his credit card details to a US-based company to access photographs of child sex abuse.

Smith, who claimed he had been revolted by the images, was placed on probation and ordered to register as a sex offender after admitting making indecent images.

But an MP who has campaigned for children’s rights condemned the “light sentence” and criticised the Wolverhampton Crown Court judge who decided not to jail Smith.

Debra Shipley (Lab Stour-bridge), who sponsored the Protection of Children Act in 1999 and works closely with the NSPCC, said: “I am appalled that this man has been let off with such a light sentence.

“It is not good enough that his barrister tells the court he was only curious. This man was a primary school teacher in a position of trust. Parents have left their children with him.”

Smith (50), formerly of Baxter Road, Brierley Hill, was caught as a result of Operation Ore, the investigation sparked by an FBI inquiry which identified 250,000 people from across the world who subscribed to a child pornography website.

It is believed to be one of the first convictions in this country to result from the operation, which has also led to the arrest of rock legend Pete Townshend on suspicion of downloading and possessing child pornography. Townshend claimed he had downloaded images as part of his research while writing his autobiography.

Smith was working at Char-lemont Primary School in West Bromwich, when his home was raided by police last September. He was suspended and later offered his resignation, a spokesman for Sandwell Council said.

The charges did not relate to work at the school.

At an earlier hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court, Smith had admitted 12 specimen counts of making indecent images.

Yesterday he was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to register as a sex offender for five years. He was also ordered to pay £595 in costs.

Judge John Wait said the sentence would allow control and supervision of the defendant over a longer period than a jail term.

Michael Grey, defending, said: “His life has been ruined by that half an hour of curiosity. He has lost his job, he has spent 18 days in custody (on remand) and also spent three months in a bail hostel.

“He has lost his career and his reputation.”

Mr Grey added that Smith had also been forced to put his home, which boasts an eight-seat cinema, up for sale.

After the case, it emerged that while on remand at a bail hostel in Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent, Smith claimed he felt he was the victim of a “witch-hunt” by police.

The teacher, who also took the opportunity to bemoan the impending sale of his “pride and joy“, his home cinema, wrote: “I was curious to find out what ‘child pornography’ on the Internet actually entailed.

“The images I saw horrified and disgusted me. I continued to look at the website in question for a time until I had more than enough insight into the kind of sickening abuse which was being peddled.”