March 2015

Vile and depraved paedophile jailed after abusing young girl

A vile and depraved paedophile that raped a young girl hundreds of times has been jailed

Groundwork contractor Martin William Colwell, 46 of St Weonards appeared at Hereford Crown Court, where he pleaded not guilty to the following charges:

• Eleven ‘specimen counts’ of rape of a female child aged under 13

• Indecent assault on a female child

However, the jury saw through his lies and found him guilty of all of the offences.

The court was told that the victim was just 11 years old when former taxi driver Colwell began abusing her. 

The victim told the court that over the course of five years, Colwell repeatedly raped her hundreds of times. She stated the abuse took place on a monthly basis.

The underage schoolgirl became pregnant through one of the rapes and a DNA test later proved that he was the father and confirmed she was 15-years-old at the time of conception

The judge sentenced him to 17 years – of which a minimum of eight years must be spent in prison before possible release

He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life

May 2018

Paedophile preyed on eight-year-old girl

A paedophile who used a girl of eight as his ‘plaything’ and ‘like a piece of meat’ is now behind bars.

Mark Nuttall encouraged the girl to carry out sexual acts upon him while she wore gloves and asked her to pretend to be his nurse, using her doctor and nurse toys.

The 58-year-old also made her lie on top of him while they watched pornography.

The judge praised the girl’s courage for speaking out about her abuse to police after he passed sentence at Worcester Crown Court last Wednesday.

Nuttall of Preston Wynne, near Hereford, admitted two counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, one of causing a child to watch a sexual act and three counts of making indecent images of children.

The three indecent images counts each reflect making images at various levels, category A (the most serious), category B and category C.

The offences against the girl happened when she was between eight and nine years old.

Giles Nelson, prosecuting, said the defendant showed her pornographic films and ‘involved her in his own sexual fantasies’.

When she said she did not want to touch him, he suggested she wear gloves.

He was arrested and interviewed on January 11 last year where he denied he was ‘a sex tourist’, providing passwords to his electronic devices, including a laptop.

Police examined two electronic devices which contained images of penetrative sexual activity involving children as young as five years. There were 454 images at category A, the most serious kind.

Judge Jim Tindal said: “You are 58 and you have never really been in trouble before apart from a couple of minor convictions.

“I can see that you are well thought of by those that know you. But there is another side to you. That’s why we’re here.

“You used her as a sexual plaything over a considerable period of time to indulge in all sorts of fantasies even though she was only eight or nine.

“The effect on her has been dramatic. The scars you left her with by using her will stay with her for the rest of her life.

“You kept using her again and again like a piece of meat.”

He said of the indecent images: “Every image of a child sexually abused is a child out there somewhere in the world being abused, often time and time again.”

The judge said it was an aggravating feature that Nuttall carried out some of the offences under the influence of alcohol.

He jailed him for five years on count one (inciting a child) and imposed concurrent sentences of five years, two years and 12 months for the remaining counts, making a total sentence of five years in custody.

A sexual harm prevention order was also made which will place restrictions on the defendant’s ability to travel overseas. He must sign the sex offender register for life.

The judge asked a message to be passed onto the complainant saying she was ‘a very brave person indeed’ and that ‘none of this was her fault’.

He added: “The person whose fault it was is going to prison.”

January 2018

‘Paedophile hunter’ ordered to sign sex offenders register

A MAN who claimed to be using indecent images of children to snare paedophiles has been ordered to sign the sex offender register for five years.

Christopher Daniel Smith, 27, of Coldstone Cross, Kingstone, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to making four category C indecent images of children aged around 14-years-old.

Kriss Ewing, prosecuting at Hereford Magistrates Court, said that on July 27, police acting on intelligence attended the address linked to the defendant after he had uploaded an indecent image onto Facebook.

Police took Smith’s phone from him and found four indecent images of children.

“The images were Category C so not the most serious images of children around 14-years-old,” said Mrs Ewing.

“If you open or download an image it means you have made it. The four photographs were in a gallery on his phone.”

Smith told police that he had been ‘paedophile hunting’ and somebody had sent these images to him.

“Searches on his phone were also questionable and included 14-year-olds and teens,” added Mrs Ewing.

When questioned about this, Smith said that the 14-year-olds search was ‘probably a typo’ and the teen search was relating to his interest in 18 and 19-year-olds.

Marilena Di Vitantonio, mitigating, said that Smith had been trying to set-up a website similar to that of ‘H Division’ and had approached people for advice.

“He then sent images to potential paedophiles but should have then contacted police immediately and let them deal with it,” said Miss Di Vitantonio.

“Unfortunately he didn’t and the images were retained on his phone.”

At Hereford Magistrates Court on Friday, Smith was handed a sexual harm prevention order for five years and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for five years.

He was also ordered to pay £185 costs and an £85 victim surcharge.