December 2012

Pair face prison for sex offences against children

TWO men convicted of child abuse are facing prison sentences.

Former joke shop owner Joseph Devotee (pic above) denied five charges of indecency with a child and two other serious sexual assaults, relating to two complainants.

He insisted to a jury at Bristol Crown Court that he did not commit the offences both at the shop he ran on Christmas Steps and at his then home in Ashley Down Road.

Female impersonator Herbert Burrowes, 59, (pic above) also known as Sapphire or Patrick Mclean, of Barclay Road in Bishopston, denied indecency with a child and a serous sexual assault on one boy.

Judge Carol Hagen directed the jury to return a not guilty verdict on one indecency charge faced by Devotee, 80, who now lives in Weymouth, Dorset.

The jury found both men guilty of all further charges, in Burrowes’ case by a majority of ten to two.

The men were bailed pending sentencing on a date to be fixed in the New Year.