March 2019

Convicted sex offender caught by paedophile hunting 

A three time convicted sex offender has been sentenced after he was caught by paedophile hunting team ‘Catching Online Predators’

Ashley Mart, 29 of Dunsop Bridge near Clitheroe, Lancashire pleaded guilty to sexual communications with what he believed was an 13 year old girl.

The court was told that Mart had contacted the online profile of who he believed belonged to a 13 year old schoolgirl. He sent highly sexually explicit messages with the clear intent of engaging the child into sexual activity

However, the child did not exist and was instead a member of paedophile hunting team ‘Catching Online Predators’, who pose online as children to snare perverts who target children online

Mart instigated the communication just days after his release from prison after serving part of a 27 month custodial sentence for exposing himself to 15 year old schoolgirl after he had followed her

The pervert was also sentenced in 2014, after he exposed himself to two young girls as they walked in a Clitheroe street. He was laughing while he performed a sex act in front of the 10 and 11 year olds. On that occasion he was handed a suspended prison sentence

Mart was arrested at family business on 29th January 2019

• The judge handed Mart 42 months Imprisonment

• Ten years on Sexual Offenders Register

• Ten years Sexual Harm Prevention Orders

December 2017

Flasher from Dunsop Bridge jailed for exposing himself to a terrified schoolgirl

A JUDGE has jailed a serial ‘flasher’ after he exposed himself to a terrified schoolgirl and followed her down a path.

Bradford Crown Court heard the 15-year-old, who cannot be identified, was frightened that she might be attacked by 28-year-old Ashley Mart during the incident in September.

“She was scared of what he might do as there was no one else around at the time,” said prosecutor Robert Stevenson.

The teenager eventually met up with her mum as two other younger schoolgirls turned up saying that they had also seen a man with his trousers round his knees exposing himself in Skipton.

The teenage victim said she had heard a noise coming from the woods off Gargrave Road that afternoon and had seen Mart standing there performing a sex act.

Police officers were called and Mart was found hiding behind a tree.

After his arrest he replied:”What exposure? My grandad has just died. I’ve been done for exposure before.”

The court heard that Mart, of Whitewell Road, Dunsop Bridge, had been jailed twice before for similar offending and at the time of the latest incident he was already undergoing a sex offender treatment programme.

He had also been made the subject of a sexual offences protection order back in 2014 which restricted his contact with under 16s.

Mart pleaded guilty to charges of outraging public decency and breaching his SOPO and the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall, sentenced him to a total of 27 months behind bars.

July 2014

East Lancs man who flashed at schoolgirls was ‘sexually frustrated’

A 24-YEAR-OLD man exposed himself to two young girls as they walked in a Clitheroe street.

A court heard how ‘sexually frustrated’ Ashley Mart was laughing while he performed a sex act in front of the 10 and 11 year olds in Salthill Road.

The judge was also told how the following day, the defendant, of Whitewell Road, Dunsop Bridge, beckoned a woman to walk towards him in Lincoln Way before exposing himself again.

She took a photograph of his van and he was arrested soon after, prosecutors said.

Mart’s own barrister told the court his client’s behaviour was “very odd and disturbing”.

The defendant pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity in front of a child and another of indecent exposure.

Judge Heather Lloyd, sitting at Preston Crown Court, sentenced him to 18 months imprisonment suspended for two years.

She told him he must work with probation officers to prevent him from committing another sexual offence again.

The judge told Mart: “Although no-one was hurt, it is of grave concern to me that you had the sexual urge to behave the way you did.

“You did it for sexual excitement and regardless of the effect upon those children and that lady, all of them were frightened.

“You must be sexually attracted to young girls to do this.

“There must be concerns that you will vent your frustrations somewhere else. This deviant behaviour may escalate.”

Defending, Richard Prew said: “We are dealing with a young man of 24 who has shown no propensity for offences of this nature before and to his utmost credit, he pleaded guilty , providing instructions to me that he really did not want to put the victims of his crimes through any greater distress than they had already suffered at his hands.

“It was very odd and disturbing behaviour exhibited by the defendant.”