March 2019

Oxford Brookes worker avoids jail after being found with indecent images

March 2019

GUILTY: Oxford Brookes employee caught with indecent images

A former Oxford Brookes employee who denied making indecent images of children has been convicted.

Michael Smith was working for the university’s IT team when police raided his All Saints Road house on the morning of August 30, 2016.

Despite the 54-year old refusing to give any comment to police at interview analysts later found a suspected stash of banned pictures on two of his devices.

Smith, who now lives in Winforton, Hereford, was caught with 60 images on one machine and 23 photographs of children on another, but went on to deny two counts of making indecent images on or before August 29, 2016.

As his trial at Oxford Crown Court came to an end today jurors took just two hours and 43 minutes to find him guilty on both counts with a unanimous verdict.

Smith showed no emotion and stared straight ahead as the verdicts were given.

After he had been found guilty his defence barrister Lucy Tapper asked that his sentencing hearing be adjourned while a pre-sentence report is prepared by the National Probation Service to explore sentencing options.

Presiding Judge Zoe Smith agreed to postpone the matter and she thanked the jury panel for their assistance in the case before they were released.

Read again: Man who threatened trial witness is spared jail

The trial began at the same court last week.

Jurors were told how, after police analysed the machines and found what they believed to be evidence of accessing indecent images, Smith was interviewed a second time.

During that interview, prosecutors said, Smith accepted accessing pornography but said that any child images found on his computers were there by mistake.

Jurors were told that in his prepared statement to police Smith said: “I accept that I have come into contact with child pornography through my internet use.

Read again: Police find bag of cannabis in East Oxford

“However this was entirely accidental and caused me to delete the material as soon as I became aware of its existence.”

Smith stuck to this account when he took to the witness box during the trial and told the court that although he was ‘obsessed’ with pornography he had no sexual interest in children.

He went on to say that he had never knowingly downloaded an indecent image of a child but accepted using search terms for legal pornography including ‘Lolita’.

Speaking to police of the use of that term, the court heard, he said: “I don’t accept that this automatically equates to searching for child pornography.”

He will now be sentenced at the same court on Friday, March 22, and was released on bail until then.

March 2019

Man jailed for child sex offences

A Hereford man has been jailed for 10 years for non-recent child sexual offences.

Shawn Shellam, 30, of Nolan Road, Hereford, was today sentenced at Worcester Crown Court to 10 years in jail for non-recent of child sexual offences that took place in Leominster.

Shellam pleaded guilty to one count of gross indecency with a child under 14 years old and 13 counts of indecent assault of a child under 14 years old at Worcester Crown Court on February 27.

The sentencing comes following a West Mercia Police investigation into allegations of sexual offences that happened between 2000 and 2002 when the two victims were aged between four and six, and the defendant was aged 12 to 14.

February 2019

Sex predator admits a string of indecent assault on girls aged four to six years

A sexual predator from Hereford has admitted a string of indecent assaults against two young girls and has been told by a judge he faces an ‘inevitable’ jail sentence.

Shawn Shellam, now 30, carried out the indecent assaults when he was himself a youth between 2000 and 2002.

The girls were said to have been between four and six years old when Shellam committed the offences which include penetrative sexual activity and sexual touching.

Shellam of Nolan Road, Moorfields, was arraigned at Worcester Crown Court on Wednesday, admitting 13 child sex offences.

There was one charge of indecency with a child committed between September 20, 2000 and September 24, 2002 and 12 charges of indecent assault over that period.

He denied a single charge of rape September 25, 2000 and September 24, 2002.

The prosecution is not seeking a trial on this count and the next hearing is listed for sentence.

Because the defendant was under 18 at the time of the offences the maximum sentence the court can impose is one of 10 years.

Judge Jim Tindal adjourned the case for a pre-sentence report because he said it would be ‘useful to get an updated assessment in relation to dangerousness’.

The court heard that Shellam had already served a long custodial sentence in the past, including an extended sentence for public protection.

The judge listed the case for a one hour long sentencing hearing on March 19. Judge Tindal said: “I’m sure you will have been advised that a long custodial sentence is inevitable in your case.”

He added: “It is important that the court has an up-to-date picture of the risk you currently pose – that’s the reason I’m adjourning for a report not because there’s any any alternative to immediate custody.”

January 2019: Back living in Bromyard very near a primary school

July 2016: Released after serving six years – On licence until November 2019

Update: Sentence reduced by Royal Court of Justice to nine years imprisonment 

December 2010

Paedophile sentenced for horrendous abuse of young girl

A paedophile has been sentenced after committing horrendous sexual and physical abuse against a young girl over a number of years

Robert John Craddock, 47 of Bromyard appeared at court where he was found guilty of 12 offences including:

• Attempted rape of a female child aged under 13

• Indecent assault of a female child aged under 13

• Sexual activity with a female child aged under 13

• Child cruelty against a female child aged under 13

• Assault of a female child aged under 13

The court was told that Craddock began to abuse the young girl in 2000 and the abuse continued for a further eight years.

The victim was aged just seven when Craddock first indecently assaulted the girl. 

Over the course of the following years, the abuse was repeated and escalated with Craddock being violent towards the child.

In one incident, Craddock punched the girl on the jaw for refusing sexual contact. In another incident the pervert attempted to strangle the then 12 year old girl with her own hooded top.

Other abuse included, demanding the girl to engage in oral sex, molestation and violent sexual attacks including attempted rape

The abuse finally ended when the girl spoke out against her abuser. 

Craddock worked at his fathers shop. He fixed washing machines and helped to deliver furniture into customers homes

The judge sentenced Craddock to eleven years imprisonment minus time spent on remand.

He was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order ‘SOPO’ and was old that he must register as a sex offender for life

March 2002

Man, 21, faces jail for sex assault

A carpenter who had sex with a drunken 14-year-old schoolgirl in a tent near a Hereford park has been warned to expect a prison sentence.

Gavin Cooper admitted groping the top half of the victim’s body but claimed alcohol affected his recollection of what happened afterwards.

The girl awoke to hear one of four other girls – also in the two-man tent – branding 21-year-old Cooper a child molester for his behaviour, Worcester Crown Court heard.

A jury found Cooper, of Hereford, guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse.

He admitted indecent assault before the trial began.

Remanding him on bail for a pre-sentence report, Judge David McEvoy QC said its findings would determine the length of the jail term.

“I regard this as a serious matter when a girl is in that state of drunkenness,” he told the defendant.

The judge added that Cooper was lucky he had not been charged with rape.

Adam Western, prosecuting, told how a gang of girls began drinking on Saturday, June 2 last year in the Hampton Park area.

They were joined by Cooper and other youths.

The victim ended up “legless” on vodka and whisky and Cooper carried her over a fence and a stream to the tent.

She told the jury by video link that Cooper boasted he would give her “the best orgasm of my life”.

Another girl saw his naked bottom bobbing up and down as he had sex.

Mr Western said his police interview amounted to a complete confession.

Cooper told officers he believed he had sex, but was so drunk it was only a vague memory.

He was arrested at his mother’s home, and confessed he was aware the girl was only 14.

The victim told police that Cooper lay on top of her and had sex.

Afterwards she burst into tears.

She was still tipsy at 4am. When Cooper began stroking her hair, she told him to leave her alone.