Febuary 2002

Child sex fiend jailed

Angry parents today told how they feared a paedophile who had condemned their children to “life sentences” could walk free from prison in less than five years.

They were furious that Phillip Gallagher – who had filmed himself abusing boys as young as nine – was able to ‘play the system’, having carried out similar attacks over a 25-year period.

The evil dad-of-two had been free to prey on children because his last conviction came in 1994 – three years before the Sexual Offenders’ Register was introduced to ensure known paedophiles are closely monitored.

Yesterday, at Bradford Crown Court, the 52-year-old vehicle-recovery driver admitted 14 indecent assaults between June and September last year.

Gallagher, pictured, of St Mary’s Road, Manningham, also pleaded to guilty to making and possessing indecent video films and was jailed for seven years. He was placed on the Sexual Offenders’ Register for life and put on licence for 10 years after his release.

But immediately after the case, the mother of one of his victim’s, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said her son and the other boys had been traumatised by their ordeal.

“It is a life sentence for them. I don’t think they ever will get over it. It will only get worse as they get older,” she said.

The court was told how Gallagher had befriended a 13-year-old boy, initially inviting him along on a drive to Rotherham to pick up a car.

Mark Fletton, prosecuting, said: “On the way back he talked about massaging his own son to loosen his muscles.”

The boy went to Gallagher’s home to play on his computer but was soon asked if he could be massaged.

Mr Fletton said: “Some days after that journey to Rotherham, he took him to a rear bedroom where he had set up a video camera.”

There Gallagher indecently assaulted the boy, afterwards giving him a £5 “fee”. Some days later the boy returned again, lured by the money.

Mr Fletton told how the youngster later introduced four other boys – one just nine years old – to Gallagher and they were indecently assaulted, some being shown pornographic videos beforehand.

On one occasion, four of the boys wanted to buy a computer game and so went to Gallagher’s house where they knew cash was available.

TThe court heard that the boys began ‘making excuses to stop the massaging prematurely”.

Gallagher was eventually arrested when some parents became suspicious about their children having too much money and contact the police.

Mr Fletton said that when he was questioned, Gallagher told police that the nine-year-old was a “bit young” and that “boys from 13 to 16 were more his thing”.

The court heard Gallagher had convictions for 12 sexual offences stretching from 1976 to 1994. In 1978 he was jailed for seven years for six serious attacks.

Ian Howard, mitigating for Gallagher, said although he “fitted the pattern of a paedophile” he had not gone out actively looking for young children.

He said there had been long periods time – up to 11-and-a-half years – when Gallagher was involved in relationships with women, including two marriages, when he “had not involved himself in teenage boys.”

“He is not a ticking time bomb that could go off at any time.”

Sentencing him to a total of seven years, Judge Peter Charlesworth said he was clearly a “homosexual paedophile” who would have committed worse offences if the police had not intervened.

“It was made so much worse by your premeditated filming of what you were doing.”