March 2018

Indecent images photographer gets suspended sentence

A photographer who worked at a youth club has avoided going to jail after taking indecent photographs of a young relative.

63 year old Brian Stanley Mitchell of Woodbourne Road in Douglas admitted taking indecent photos of children and downloading images from the internet.

At Douglas Courthouse this week, Deputy High Bailiff Jayne Hughes said although the images were at the lower end of the scale his actions were a serious breach of trust.

She heard references sent by youth workers from the Department of Education, Sport and Culture – Mitchell had worked closely with Pulrose Youth Club and taken photos at Island schools.

Mrs Hughes imposed a 12-week prison term, suspended for two years and Mitchell will have to register as a sex offender for five years.

Update: Shimmin was handed a two year suspended sentence and was ordered to pay court costs

December 2020

Pervert caught by paedophile hunters

A 55-year-old man has admitted sending naked photos to what he believed was a 12-year-old girl.

Andrew John Shimmin of Viking Road, Douglas, Isle of Man was caught in a sting operation by paedophile hunters who were posing online as the young girl.

Shimmin told the ‘girl’ she was gorgeous and said he wanted to kiss her after sending her three pictures of his penis.

He will be sentenced on December 15th, but the court was told that he could not be sent to prison for the offences.

Prosecution said that a fake profile for the 12-year-old girl was set-up on Facebook by a group called Elite Solo Decoys.

On August 10th, Shimmin made contact with the fake profile and started a a Facebook messenger chat. 

He asked how old the girl was and she replied 12-years-old.

During the Facedbook conversation, he asked the ‘girl’ to exchange photos with him.

The paedophile hunters contacted police and handed over their evidence. However, the police told the team that due to current laws on the Isle of Man, Shimmin would not be arrested even though he posed a danger to children.

The team who were shocked at the inaction of the police decided to expose Shimmins online activity and publically shared the chatlog on Facebook.

Due to a public outcry, police on the island were forced to investigate.

Devices at his home were siezed and analysed. 

Police discovered that he had contacted several underage girls before and after being exposed. 

His living room was identifed as the location where the penis photos were taken. And his phone showed a history of the complete Facebook conversation, including penis pictures. 

When interviewed, Shimmin told police he lived with his wife, but they were not in a relationship.

He said he befriended females on Facebook but spoke only adults and swopped photos with them

He claimed he could not remember speaking to a 12-year-old girl and when shown a picture of the girl, he said ‘she looked about 13’

Shimmin has shown no remorse for his actions 

Shimmin pleaded guilty to an offence of sending an indecent message by telecommunications

High Baliff Jayne Hughes said the offences were not imprisonable 

Bail was granted in the sum of £500 with conditions that Shimmin live at his home address and not leave the island without court consent. 

The courthouse in Douglas on the Isle of Man has recently seen protests due to far too lenient sentences being handed down to those that abuse children. 

In September, Charles Cover, 66 was jailed following an appeal after he sexually assaulted a young girl as she slept. 

December 2020

Paedophile jailed for 9 years

A paedophile who abused his victim for over a decade has been jailed for nine years.

Joshua David Gray, aged 30, of School Road, Douglas but now of care of the Isle of Man Prison, has been sentenced after pleading guilty to two charges of indecent assault, two of gross indecency with a child under the age of 16 and two charges of rape.

Gray’s victim was aged between six and seven when the indecent assaults first began and stopped when she bravely reported him to the police in January of this year when she was still only 16.

Deemster Graeme Cook heard the indecent assault had begun as ’periodic sexual touching’.

The first charge of gross indecency related to a sex act which began when the victim was about 14 years old.

The second charge related to ’specific occasions of touching’. All of these offences ranged from June 2007 to March 2019.

Gray also pleaded guilty to two charges of rape, which the court heard occurred between June 2014 and March 2019.

Prosecutor Rachael Braidwood said when the abuse started Gray called it ’hugs’ when he was in fact touching her genitals.

Gray’s victim told police she had tried to ’disassociate’ herself from what he was doing to her.

She also told them that when the rapes started she was about 13 and that she thought ’if I do it once, it would stop’.

She decided to go to the police after Gray was drunk and threatened her. After this she had a panic attack and told her boyfriend of what had happened and he then encouraged her to report the abuse.

The girl said she was concerned about going to the police as she wasn’t sure she would be believed.

In her victim statement, she said: ’I want people to know what he did to me and how it’s affected my life and family.’

She added that the abuse suffered at the hands of Gray had left her unable to sleep at night and suffering from recurring nightmares.

’I no longer trust or even feel comfortable around men, even family members,’ she added.

Gray’s victim said she had also considered taking her own life, saying at one point she ’looked forward to it’.

When he was arrested, Gray made no comment to caution or during a police interview. While on police bail, he caused further concern after probation staff reported comments made by him while staying at Tromode House.

A psychiatric report on Gray said he is a ’sexual deviant’ and revealed he had been diagnosed with several mental health disorders.

Deemster Cook said Gray had ’at least had the good sense to plead guilty’. He added: ’These are extremely serious offences dating back a number of years.’

He said Gray’s actions, including searches for pornography on his computer, showed he ’clearly had an obsession with this type of offending’.

The Deemster reflected on the victim’s suicidal thoughts, saying they were disturbing to hear from a young woman.

Addressing Gray he said: ’She has the rest of her life ahead of her but the early part, the formative part, has been ruined by your acts.

’Based on what I have heard and read, she has suffered serious psychological problems as a result of your behaviour.’

He recognised that Gray had shown ’genuine remorse’ and has mental health issues but that it ’doesn’t excuse your behaviour’. And he also praised the victim for her bravery in being willing to testify against Gray had the matter gone to trial.

Deemster Cook sentenced Gray to nine years for the two rapes with concurrent sentences for the other offences of two years each.

Gray will also remain on licence for five years after he is released from prison and will remain on the sexual offenders’ register for the rest of his life.

February 2004

Man jailed for life for care home killings

A jobless former abattoir worker was today jailed for life, with a minimum of 20 years to be served before he can be considered for parole, for the murder of two vulnerable teenagers at a care home.

Peter Newbery strangled and stabbed 16-year-old friends Samantha Barton and George Green at the Leece Lodge halfway care house, on the Isle of Man, in February 2002.

The 23-year-old was found guilty of the two murders last December, following a six-week trial at the island’s court of justice in its capital, Douglas.

Sentencing him to life imprisonment, Simon Fawcus, the judge – known as a deemster on the Isle of Man – said that Newbery had shown “no remorse” for the killings.

Acting Deemster Fawcus said: “I have read the psychiatric and psychological reports on you, and they make sorry reading. There is nothing in them which serves as any form of mitigation for what you did.

“Their content gives a chilling insight into the sort of young man you are and how, leading a life of self-centredness and violence, you may have come to commit these, your most serious offences.

“You have shown not the slightest remorse for taking these young lives. And whatever lives they were leading, they did not deserve to be treated in the way you treated them or to be killed.”

Newbery showed no emotion as the verdict was passed down.

Newbery, from Willaston, Isle of Man, attacked the pair in a squabble over drugs.

The day before the murder, Barton had invited Green, Newbery and another friend back to her home to smoke cannabis, and had boasted about having a rock of crack cocaine.

Newbery, who was said by the prosecution to have wanted the crack cocaine, later returned to the house and attacked Barton and Green, stabbing them and strangling them with shoelaces.

He also sexually assaulted the victims, both before and after their deaths.

He left Barton’s body at Leece Lodge, and dumped Green’s in nearby scrubland. DNA bloodstains on the shoelaces linked him to the crimes.

Both victims had been known to social services and police on the island.

Barton was living a semi-independent life in her own flat at the Leece Lodge complex at the time of the killings. She had moved to the Isle of Man from Dublin when she was a young girl.

She suffered from spina bifida, and began having emotional difficulties at the age of seven, when her father left the family home and the island.

She was first taken into care at the age of 10, and by the age of 12 had been placed in the juvenile wing of the island’s adult prison following charges of assault and criminal damage.

The decision to put her in jail at such a young age was criticised by human rights campaigners. Following her spell in prison, she was taken to the UK mainland for specialist psychiatric and psychological treatment.

However, her teenage years continued to be troubled, and she was regularly in court for drug, assault and theft-related offences.

Green was branded a “one-man crimewave” by a magistrate on the island in 1999, when he was 13 years old. His offences included assault, robbery, burglary and criminal damage.

He spent time at the Eden Grove specialist residential school in Appleby, Cumbria, but left in December 2001 and refused to return.

Eden Grove principal Ian McCredy described him as a “popular young man who did very well while with us, and made considerable progress in both his work experience and academic work”.

Isle of Man authorities have since closed Leece Lodge and vowed that it will not be used as a care home again.

August 2020

Paedophile abused a child from the age of 6 for 12 years

A sexual predator has admitted six charges relating to sexually abusing a very young child for a period of 12 years

Joshua David Gray, aged 30, of School Road, Douglas, pleaded guilty to two charges of indecent assault, two of gross indecency with a child under the age of 16 and two charges of rape.

Gray’s victim was aged between just six and seven when the indecent assaults first began in 2007.

Deemster Graeme Cook heard the indecent assault had begun as ’periodic sexual touching’ when the victim was aged only six or seven years old.

Prosecutor James Robinson confirmed the prosecution was accepting the defence’s basis of plea.

The first charge of gross indecency related to a sex act which began when the victim was about 14 years old.

The second related to ’specific occasions of touching’.

All of these offences ranged from June 2007 to March 2019.

Gray also pleaded guilty to two charges of rape, which the court heard occurred between June 2014 and March 2019.

He had previously indicated no plea to these charges when he appeared before the lower courts earlier this year.

Deemster Cook confirmed that before sentencing Gray he wants a psychiatric report and a social enquiry report to be completed on him.

Gray will be remanded in custody until November 5 when he will be sentenced.