July 2001

Paedophile dies in jail

A ELDERLY paedophile who smuggled a ten-year-old boy into prison as a sick birthday present for a York child molester has died in jail.

Gerald Frank, 81, the stepfather of Stephen Carruthers, a child sex monster well know for abusing young boys in York in the 1980s, died in Frankland Prison, Durham, where he was sent last year.

Wheelchair-bound Frank was serving a five-year sentence for indecency after he entered into a grotesque pact with Carruthers, formerly of Wenlock Terrace, York, to smuggle the child into Strangeways jail, in Manchester, where he was molested under the noses of prison guards on Carruthers’ 40th birthday.

Frank, who had a history of heart and other medical problems, was seen by doctors at Frankland Prison on Thursday and was taken to the new university hospital in Durham for checks.

Durham Police said he was returned to the prison that evening, but then collapsed.

“Despite attempts by staff to revive him, he was confirmed dead at the jail,” a spokesman said.

Police said a post-mortem examination was still to be carried out, but there were no suspicious circumstances related to his death.

Frank, who lived in Manchester when he was jailed, has relatives in York and Leeds. They were told of his death on Thursday night.

Police said detectives from Durham City had also been informed.

The prison incident occurred in June 1998, when Frank fooled guards into believing the boy was Carruthers’ son. Carruthers was serving seven years for indecency at the time.

During police investigations it was discovered Carruthers, who fled York for Manchester shortly after he was beaten up by three men who suspected him of interfering with their children, had earlier taken both the boy and his brother off the street into his flat and seriously sexually assaulted them behind locked doors and nailed-down windows.

Frank joined in the abuse, molesting one of the youngsters in a bedroom while the victim’s unsuspecting mother was at the front door of their flat asking Carruthers if he knew where her son was.