Update: Released and living in a bail hostel in Doncaster

September 2017

Sexual predator who groomed teens for sex and plied them with drink and drugs finally jailed

A “cynical sexual predator” who groomed teenage girls for sex by plying them with drugs and alcohol has been jailed.

Benjamin Lumby, 28, of Bridlington, groomed teenage girls and became the first person in the Humberside Police area to be subject to a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) while not being a convicted sex offender.

The order was issued by magistrates in March 2016 and restricted him from accessing and contacting girls aged 16 and under until 2021.

However, after a trial at Teesside Crown Court, it was found he breached that order and perverted the course of justice which, among other offences, led to him being jailed.

The full list of his crimes included breaching a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO), a non-molestation order and failing to comply with two sets of notification requirements.

Lumby, of Bessingby Gate, groomed girls on Facebook before taking them out in his Vauxhall Corsa and having sex with them after plying them with food, alcohol and cannabis.

In October, he applied to Hull Crown Court to have the order overturned as he claimed he was not a sex offender and it was based on “inadequate evidence.”

However, this was rejected by Judge Simon Jack, who went on to grant a police request for the order to be extended to include females aged 18 and under.

Delivering his judgement in October after a three-day hearing at Hull Crown Court, Judge Jack said: “The appellant has had sex with a succession of 16-year-old girls, and there is evidence that he was in the habit of meeting them, having brief sexual relationships with them, and then moving on to the next one.

“We take the view that these are vulnerable young girls; impressionable, perhaps, impressed by the attention, and we take the view that they need to be protected from what we regard as abuse and exploitation by a cynical sexual predator.”

During the October hearing, it emerged that Lumby deliberately targeted vulnerable girls as young as 14 in the Bridlington and Driffield areas.

Some of the complaints against him included allegations of rape.

The court heard Lumby would groom the girls with the intention, often realised, of having sex with them.

One girl who had sex with him also had sex with a friend of Lumby’s, who is a sex offender.

Judge Jack said two texts in particular Lumby sent the friend revealed his attitude to the girls.

Referring to the girl they both had sex with, Lumby texted: “Lasses like that get in the way because one of us ends up getting too close to her.

“Like her for what she’s best for, a f***, that’s how it should be lad.”

Another sent later that day to the same recipient said: “You shouldn’t get attached lad. You know how it is. Bros before hoes.”

Lumby was sentenced to a total of 30 months in jail for all the listed offences.

October 2016

Twisted sex attacker ‘abused string of teen girls as part of a seaside DOGGING scene’

A VIOLENT sex fiend who abused teenage girls as part of a seaside dogging scene claims HE is the victim – after a judge refused to lift an order that bans him from meeting girls under the age of 18.

A court heard that 27-year-old perv Benjamin Lumby was notorious for targeting a McDonald’s drive-thru opposite a school in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, where he would try to meet young girls driving his blue Vauxhall Corsa.

Once he’d lured them into the car he would take them to the nearby Carnaby Industrial Estate to have sex as part of dogging scene with other pals in cars.

As a result cops asked magistrates in Beverley to slap him with a Sexual Harm Prevention order back in March – banning him from living or associating with girls under the age of 16.

It also banned him from seeing his former best friend and entering school grounds to pick up pre-16-year-old girls. He also had to sign on the National Sex Offenders’ Register.

In a national first – the order was granted despite Lumby having no previous convictions for sexual offences.

The jobless dad-of-two would allegedly pick up girls who were 15 and 16 and refer to them as their “car whores.”

Hull Crown Court heard that one text he wrote to a friend read: “Hey what you up to tonight? You want to meet **** or *****? I’ll meet whichever one.” “Do you think ***** will be up for a three way?”

“Got ***** in the car, if you want me to keep her out to meet you.”

He said he watched as his mate had sex with his favourite girl next to his car by pulling up next to his car window. He later texted him saying: “They get in the way. Keep her for what she is best for. A f***. That is how it should be lad. Lol.”

When the order was made a series of girls were called to give evidence against him.

The court heard Lumby pushed one girl out of a moving car, spat at her and stabbed her with a key after an argument about her wearing makeup, her hair down, and jeans for college.

A different girl has been sent 500 miles away from him as a ward of court amid allegations he has been having sex with her since she was 14 taking her for lifts in his car.

Police took action against Lumby, formerly of Tennyson Avenue, Bridlington, after the girls made complaints but then withdrew them allegedly under his emotional pressure. One victim said he needed to be stopped before he killed.

Unhappy with the ban however Lumby appealed the court’s decision at a four day hearing held at Hull Crown Court this week.

Despite the order having been in place for just six months, Limby admitted he has bedded three new girls he has met who are 16. He told a judge group sex is part of modern life for many women he knows in Bridlington.

He insisted: “I know a lot of women in my area who have had multiple threesomes. I know some women who talk about 40 odd plus.”

Lumby admitted he probably did organise girls for his best-friend and sent sleazy texts about “get her ***** lad” and “bros before hoes.” He denied calling the girls he met regularly at the Bridlington McDonald’s car park his “car whores.”

He told the court: “I don’t want the label as a sex offender. Since this was done, I have had my car smashed up, my mum’s windows smashed. I have had people attack me. I am not a sex offender. I have written a letter about how this has affected me. I have actually thought of committing suicide over it.”

The dad-of-two claimed he was the victim of a police and social services “plot to get him” with exaggerated evidence from two former girlfriends who were bitter at him after he split up.

Despite having one previous conviction for ABH and two for battery Lumby insisted he was in normal relationships.

Crown barrister Phillipa Hildyard told Lumby: “You meet them on Facebook. You impress them, you take them all out in your car. You buy them cigarettes, alcohol and cannabis.

“You groom them, sleep with them and exploit them. You control them, they become withdrawn, their families become concerned and you isolate them from their friends and families.

“You control their clothing and their make-up. Then the abuse starts when you become insecure and start accusing them of sleeping with other men. The women describe sexual violence and examinations. That is your process. That is what you do to girls.”

The court heard that some of the five alleged victims had claim Lumby had deleted all their mobile phone numbers, blocked all of their male friends on Facebook, and punched and kicked them daily.

One even claimed he punched her five months into her pregnancy while another said she was raped.

Barrister Ms Hildyard said Lumby attacked a girl he had groomed since she was 14 in December 2015.

She accused Lumby: “You smashed her phone, threw it out of the car window. You punched her right arm, right hand ribs and top of her right leg. You took her to Carnaby Industrial estate pulled her out of the car by her hair and abandoned her. She had to be taken home by her dad.”

She said in a further incident he punched the girl in the ribs and left arm and threatened to “fire her grandma’s house and put pigs on the door.”

Defence barrister Katherine Kioko-Gillighan said he had no historic offence of sexual assault and a large proportion of evidence against him was hearsay.

She said: “These girls are both desperate to make his life difficult. It is submitted this is far reaching order. He concedes he has behaved poorly to previous partners. He concedes his behaviour to be abhorrent, however, does a promiscuous lifestyle mean he is paedophile? This is a method of punishing him in a criminal way for breaching social convention.”

Judge Simon Jack, sitting with two magistrates, told Lumby he was not only refusing his appeal but was making it more onerous to protect the 16 year old girls he was now seeing – increasing the age to 18.

“We take the view he is a violent man who is prepared to get into relationships with girls under 16 and manipulate and abuse them so that they do not give evidence against them,” said Judge Jack. He said the court had heard evidence that since the order was made he had had sex with a string of 16-year-old girls which the court took the view were vulnerable and being exploited by a 27-year-old man.

The judge added: “He has written us an impassioned letter. It is all about the affect this order has had on his life. He cares for nobody except himself. He must appreciate the only reason we are making this order is because of the harmful effect he has had on other people’s lives. This court has no sympathy at all for him. This courts sympathy rests with the girls who need to be protected.”

The court ordered Lumby should pay £1,600 towards the legal costs of the case