A pervert lorry driver who was given nine life sentences for abusing young girls has lost an appeal against his sentence and conviction.
Mike Taylor, who became a Pied Piper figure to children but used his 30 aid missions to the former Yugoslavia as a front for his paedophile activities, engineered opportunities to groom “very, very young girls”.
At the Appeal Court in London yesterday, Mr William Andreae-Jones, for the defendant, said the trial judge at the trial was “somewhat dismissive of the defence case”.
“This was a particularly complex paedophile case and the defendant was entitled to more help than he received at the hands of the learned judge,” he told the court.
Taylor (58), of Masons Place, Newport, Shropshire, was given nine life sentences in May last year at Derby Crown Court after he was convicted of eight charges of rape, eight of indecent assault, two involving serious sexual offences, and one attempted ra pe involving six young girls.
Mr Andreae-Jones told the appeal hearing that at the original trial, Judge Andrew Morrison had failed to draw to the jury’s attention a number of positive inferences which could have been drawn from some of the evidence.
There was no scientific support of the allegations made against Taylor, despite the fact that a search was carried out at his home, and no photographs of children were discovered by police.
But Lord Justice Brooke dismissed the appeal, saying that the case for the Crown was very strong.
