August 2006

Man jailed for campaign of abuse

A 19-year-old who subjected a woman and her children to a campaign of abuse on Teesside has been jailed for life.

Dean Dodsworth from Middlesbrough made the children fight each other, raped the woman and set his rottweiler dog on the youngsters.

He had admitted rape, threats to kill, five cruelty offences, actual bodily harm and theft at a previous hearing.

Judge George Moorhouse jailed him for life at Teesside Crown Court on Friday with a minimum of three years before he is eligible for parole.

The monster even forced the mother to beat her children in a sadistic ploy to stop her from telling anyone.

Dodsworth, raped the 28-year-old mum and threatened to split open her head while holding a machete between her eyes.

He targeted her six-year-old son, repeatedly burning his feet with cigarettes as well as hitting, kicking and BITING him.

He put a noose around her ten-year-old son’s neck and threatened to push him off a landing while the other children “begged him to stop”. He forced the kids to fight, set his Rottweiler dog on them and tied the dog lead around the neck of the eight-year-old daughter.

He will never be allowed to work with children, must not be alone with anyone under 18 for the next 10 years and was placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.

Made noose

The judge told him: “Your behaviour was appalling, it was some of the worst I have ever heard in relation to cruelty to children.”

Simon Reevell, prosecuting, said the defendant was 18 at the time of the offences.

He forced his dog to bite one of the children, burnt the child’s feet with cigarettes and hit and kicked him. He also bit the boy himself once.

Mr Reevell said: “The most frightening incident occurred when he made a noose from three ties and placed them around the boy’s neck and, standing him on the banister at the top of the stairs, said to all the other children that he intended to push him over.

“He was kept there for 30 minutes as the other children screamed and begged for him to stop.”

The woman, who was not in court, explained in a victim impact assessment that she could no longer trust men and felt she would never have another relationship. She said the children had lost their confidence and sense of fun.

Katherine Dunn, defending, said the teenager had been abused in a similar way when he was growing up.