June 2017

Bodybuilder, 36, who used his child as cover so he could secretly take ‘upskirt’ photos of women with his phone and a secret camera in his shoe

A bodybuilder who used his child as cover so he could secretly take ‘upskirt’ photos of women with his phone and a secret camera in his shoe has been jailed for 10 months.  

Alex Doodson, 36, filmed nearly 70 women, including a 15-year-old schoolgirl when she was buying sweets, over a 13 month period.

The father-of-one would take the photographs while out shopping with his daughter.

He targeted his victims in various retail outlets including a petrol station, a Clarins boutique and even a tanning salon where he slid his shoe into an adjacent cubicle to film women getting changed.

He was eventually caught in 2015 after a petrol station cashier noticed he was following a woman around a shop with his white mobile phone slanted before bending down beside her as she picked up groceries.

Greater Manchester Police later confiscated various electronic devices he had and found 86 indecent images showing 68 women.

Most victims were unaware they had been filmed and detectives delayed pressing charges in the hope of identifying them.

Inquiries revealed on one occasion, Doodson, of Rochdale, had approached the schoolgirl who was buying sweets and pretended to pick up some confectionery in order to take pictures of her.

Another victim was filmed in her garden and in a pub while a third who discovered she was on Doodson’s library of images said her first thought was to buy herself trousers so no one else could take similar pictures.

At Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, Doodson admitted four charges of voyeurism between November 2014 and December 2015, four charges of outraging public decency and one count of taking an indecent image of a child and was jailed for ten months.

He was banned from using online dating websites or social media platforms to contact women for ten years, and once out of jail must allow police to carry out random searches on electronic devices he has which are able to store images.

Prosecuting Miss Lisa Boocock said Doodson came under suspicion when the petrol station cashier saw him come into her shop on various occasions in 2015.

She said: ‘He was acting suspiciously, bending down to move items while he had something in his hand. When he next came into the petrol station on the 6 November she watched the defendant come in and was told that other members of staff knew of him too.

‘She began to follow him around the store and she saw he had a white mobile phone slanted and she could see that he was recording the shop floor. She saw him bend down next to a woman and the camera was angled towards her and made attempts to distract both him and the woman.

‘Unfortunately that didn’t work and she was concerned about him approaching children and doing something similar.’

Later the same cashier was dealing with a group of schoolchildren buying sweets when she spotted Doodson arrived and walk towards a 15-year old girl in a school uniform.

Miss Boocock said: ‘the defendant got between her and two boys and bent down to pick something up and return it to the rack to film up her skirt. The cashier contacted the police as what she feared would happen had happened..’

The schoolgirl was traced and she was shocked by Doodson’s behaviour and said she was ‘grateful’ she didn’t know it was happening at the time. The woman filmed earlier was also traced and she said she was ‘shocked and disgusted’ at Doodson ‘invading her personal space’ and said she ‘could not bear to think about it.’

Another victim was about to be asked out on a date by Doodson when she discovered she had been filmed. She said she ‘felt violated’ and changed jobs so he would not know where she worked.

Miss Boocock said: ‘He repeated this similar behaviour in a Clarins store in Bolton. There were 68 different women captured on the images with 86 images of them. On more than one occasion his young daughter was present with him. He also had images of the same female in her garden and also in a public house. It is clear that this woman was followed and selected in some way.

‘He went to a tanning salon as a customer and went into a cubicle. When inside the cubicle he attached a camera onto his shoe and slid it into an adjacent cubicle where a space was. Inside the cubicle he could see women getting dressed after using the sun bed. Four different women were photographed, three being fully naked and one being topless.’

Doodson told police the images had been taken for his own gratification and has since gone for counselling. He is no longer allowed to have unsupervised visits with his daughter.

Judge Andrew Hatton told Doodon: ‘One of the most disturbing aspects of this case of which there are many disturbing aspects was that your young daughter was with you on nine occasions when engaging in these activities.’

January 2021

Community Order handed to Royton made found with ‘extreme’ pornographic images

A Royton man has been handed a community order after being convicted of possessing extreme pornographic images and indecent images of a child.

David Pullen, 48, of Higginshaw Lane, pleaded guilty to the offences at Tameside Magistrates Court.

He was ordered to do 200 hours community work and must attend a Rehabilitation Activity Requirement of up to 30 days while the court ordered his mobile phone to be forfeited and destroyed.

Pullen, who must register with police under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for five years, was also ordered to pay £85 costs and an £85 surcharge to fund victim services.

May 2021

Pensioner hid USB stick with over 20,000 indecent pictures of children inside a shoe in his car

A pensioner was found with over 20,000 images of children after posting an indecent photograph on his Instagram account.

Ian Ryder, 67, kept a USB drive with thousands of images inside a shoe in his car, which was seized when police raided his house in July 2019.

Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard how Ryder had been flagged by the National Crime Agency after sharing an indecent picture on the social media site.

Following a search of his house on Lock Lane in Bolton, officers seized a number of electronic items, prosecutor Bob Sastry told the court.

“A USB device was found inside a shoe in the defendant’s car,” Mr Sastry said.

“The defendant said to the officer that there would be pictures of children on the devices.”

The court heard that police recovered two category A moving images – involving penetration, and one category B image – involving non-penetrative sexual activity.

A further 22,754 category C images – images of erotic posing, and 36 category C moving images were also found.

Police also seized a PDF document titled ‘privacy pursuit’ which contained a guide on using private networks and encryption so that search history could be wiped from the device.

Ryder’s barrister, Mark Shanks, told the court that his client is now retired and divorced, but had been ‘lonely’ in his marriage when the offences started.

“It started off looking at images that were not quite right and then it spiralled,” Mr Shanks said.

“Since this came to light he is absolutely disgusted at himself. To say he is remorseful doesn’t even cover it.

“His family and friends have disowned him. The only person who stood by him was his mother who passed away in October last year.

“It is something that has caused him great pain.

“He knows that is his fault and he has made his bed and is to accept the consequences.”

Ryder was jailed for two months suspended for two years after admitting three counts of possession of indecent images and one count of distributing an indecent image.

He was also ordered to complete 40 days of rehabilitation, made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and must sign the Sex Offenders register for seven years.

Sentencing, Judge Andrea Neild said: “It is extremely sad to see a man of your age and status brought before these courts for what your counsel described as disgusting offences.

“A phrase he used because of the instructions you gave to him.

“You have unofficially sentenced yourself in that your life has been severely impacted by the discovery of you viewing these images.

“It seems there is a real chance of rehabilitation and you have already started that process at your own cost.”

May 2021

Pensioner claimed he ‘didn’t know sickening child abuse images on his laptop were illegal’

A paedophile pensioner has escaped jail after police found more then a thousand pictures of extreme porn and sickening images of child abuse on his laptop.

Philip Sansby, 71, claimed he didn’t know the pictures were illegal

Following a tip-off, police raided his home in Hyde in September 2019 and, when officers suggested he had downloaded and shared indecent images of children, Sansby told them: “I downloaded it but I scrubbed it off.”

Officers seized his Toshiba laptop and a number of hard drives.

When he voluntarily attended a police station for an interview the following month, he admitted visiting porn websites and also downloading adult porn, prosecutor Nicola Carroll told Minshull Street Crown Court

However, he denied any sexual interest in children, insisting he had accidentally downloaded indecent images of kids on more than one occasion, the court was told.

Analysis of his laptop revealed ‘category A’ indecent images of children aged between 10 and 16 and one 23 minute video featuring an horrific sex act on a child aged under 16

The analysis also showed a series of files, which had been emptied of any pictures or videos, with names like ‘paedo real kids f******’.

Police found 1,099 images and a small number of videos of extreme pornography on his computer, some of it featuring animals.

Following the discoveries, Sansby went on to make ‘full admissions’ to police, sad Ms Carroll.

He told officers he didn’t know it was illegal to possess such images.

He confessed to visiting ‘pre-teen’ websites.

The judge said he was able to suspend the prison sentence after hearing about the ‘remorse’ of the defendant.

He said he hoped the defendant could get help to ‘cure you of this sickness’

Sansby, of Bradley Green Road in Hyde, was handed a suspended 12-month sentence after he had pleaded guilty to possessing indecent photographs of children and possessing extreme pornography.

He was also ordered to complete 20 days of rehabilitation activity and was placed on the sex offenders’ register for ten years.

Sansby was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order and was told to pay £510 towards prosecution costs.

May 2021

Paedophile businessman, 79, who served in the RAF jailed for horrific sex assaults on girls as young as seven

A wealthy retired businessman who served in the RAF has been jailed for for a series of indecent assaults committed against girls as young as seven.

Victor Ward, now 79, molested three girls, two of them while they were teenagers and one from the age of seven or eight, from the mid 1980s.

The former director of Warton Metals based in Ramsbtottom began his crimes when he was in his 40s but his victims only came to the police with their allegations from 2019.

Ward, who will turn 80 in one week, of Newcombe Road in Ramsbottom, showed no reaction when he was jailed for nine years at Minshull Street Crown Court.

He had denied six counts of indecent assault but a jury convicted him following a trial.

He molested his first victim when she was 17 in the mid 1980s, prosecutor Huw Edwards told the court.

“She said she wanted to scream, but the defendant put his hand over her mouth,” he said.

The victim, now an adult, only told her family about the incident when she was older and only recently went to the police, the court was told.

A few years later, in the late 1980s, he molested another girl when she was 13 or 14.

The victim described how bare-chested Ward knelt beside her, told her he wouldn’t hurt her and ordered her to unbutton her shirt.

She did as she was told and then Ward picked her up and held the teenager against him so her breasts were pushed against his bare chest.

The victim said she could feel her abuser was sexually aroused, the court was told.

Police were told about the attack only in 2019.

His third victim believes she was aged seven or eight when Ward began sexually abusing her, said Mr Edwards.

The court heard Ward removed her underwear and performed a sex act on her in a caravan park.

He also molested her on at least ten other occasions during her primary school years.

Ward would sit the girl on his knee and ask what knickers she was wearing before touching her intimately.

Judge John Potter said he took account of the defendant’s age and health difficulties and he acknowledged there had been ‘positive parts to your character displayed by service to this country in the RAF’.

The defendant had also established a ‘profitable business’ and had displayed ‘generosity’ to his employees and members of his family, said the judge.

But he went on that his crimes were so serious only a lengthy custodial sentence was appropriate.

Ward showed no reaction when he was jailed for nine years. He was told he could apply for parole two-thirds of the way through his sentence.

Ward was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.

None of his family members were in court to see him sentenced.