Trevor Lockwood – Tamworth/Welwyn Garden City

30 Sunday May 2021

Posted by Author in Hertfordshire, Jehovah's Witnesses, Staffordshire

≈ Comments Off on Trevor Lockwood – Tamworth/Welwyn Garden City

May 2021

Paedophile jailed for child sex offences

A former Welwyn Garden City man has been jailed for 10 years for child sex offences against two young girls in the 1970s and 80s.

Trevor Lockwood, aged 77, of Ryton in Tamworth, Staffordshire, appeared at St Albans Crown Court after being found guilty yesterday of five counts of indecent assault and one count of gross indecency against the two female victims.

The court heard that Lockwood – who was living as a Jehovah’s Witness in Welwyn Garden City at the time – abused the girls, who were both under the age of 10, over the course of several years between the late 1970s and late 1980s.

He threatened one of his victims, saying that God was watching and that if she told anyone about what he had done, she or her loved ones would die.

Herts police’s Historic Child Abuse Investigation Unit was first made aware of Lockwood’s offending in 2018, when both victims bravely disclosed the abuse they had suffered as children.

Lockwood – who had by then moved to Staffordshire – was arrested and interviewed, but maintained his innocence before pleading not guilty, leading to a trial.

Dennis Anyon – Ellesmere Port/Pensby

06 Friday Nov 2020

Posted by Author in Cheshire, Jehovah's Witnesses

≈ Comments Off on Dennis Anyon – Ellesmere Port/Pensby

November 2020

Sex predator jailed

A man who sexually assaulted three young boys in Ellesmere Port was jailed.

Dennis Anyon was convicted of two counts of buggery and seven counts of indecent assault following a six day trial at Chester Crown Courtwhich concluded on Monday, November 2.

Anyon’s offending began in 1983, when he was 13-years-old, and continued through to 1989 when he was 19

He met his three victims, who were aged just four to 11-year-olds, at the Jehovah Witness former Kingdom Hall on Rostherne Avenue in Ellesmere Port.

Much of the abuse took place at the church, where Anyon would inappropriately touch his victims in the toilets; he also abused all of his victims in his bedroom at his Ellesmere Port home.

The 48-year-old, of Fairview Way, Pensby, was sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison.

He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

Mark Longshaw – Kidsgrove

08 Saturday Aug 2020

Posted by Author in Jehovah's Witnesses, Staffordshire

≈ Comments Off on Mark Longshaw – Kidsgrove

August 2020

North Staffordshire sex beast finally jailed

Sex beast Mark Longshaw has finally been jailed for inappropriately touching two children – more than three decades after his crimes were ‘brushed under the carpet’ by Jehovah’s Witness elders.

The incidents – dating back to the 1970s and 1980s – were reported to a branch of the Jehovah’s Witness at the time of the offences.

But no action was taken by the authorities – until now.

Now the 63-year-old, of Diamond Avenue, Kidsgrove, has been jailed for four years and eight months after he admitted four indecent assault charges.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard he inappropriately touched two children and made them touch him. Elders became aware of the incidents and helped the defendant to ‘cover it up’.

In a statement, one of the victims, said: “I know what was done was swept away. Over the years I’ve tried to block out the abuse.

“I am emotionally damaged and mentally scarred. It has had irreparable damage on my life.”

The second victim added: “It has been hard to get through my life. I remember it as clear as yesterday.”

Judge Paul Glenn told the court that he had no option but to jail Longshaw.

He told him: “Your past has finally caught up with you.”

Gordon Dunn – Southampton

10 Tuesday Dec 2019

Posted by Author in Hampshire, Jehovah's Witnesses

≈ Comments Off on Gordon Dunn – Southampton

December 2019

90-year-old found guilty of sexually abusing young boy

A pensioner, 90, found guilty of sexually abusing a young boy, has been told he is likely to die in prison.

Gordon Dunn “groomed” and abused his victim over a six year period between 2012 and 2018.

He denied abusing the boy, but was found guilty following a trial at Southampton Crown Court.

He was jailed for a total of eight years.

The jury found Dunn guilty of one multiple count, of at least five occasions, of sexual assault on a child and two counts of sexual activity with a child.

He was found not guilty of a second count of sexual assault and not guilty of one count of sexual activity with a child.

Mitigating for Dunn, barrister Bernice Mulvanny said her client, a lifelong Jehovah’s Witness, was likely to die in prison.

She said: “The reality of the situation is that no-matter how long he is given in prison it is likely he will not serve the full period.

“It is likely he will die in prison.

“He asks through me if at all possible that you make it as short as you possibly can in the circumstances. One that gives him a glimmer of hope of seeing the outside world”

Ms Mulvanny said Dunn has been disfellowshipped by his Jehovah’s Witness group.

Dunn, of Merton Road, Southampton, was given an aggregated eight year sentence by Judge Peter Henry, who said Dunn’s age could not be used as a way to lower the sentence.

Judge Henry said: “Of course I am aware you are 90 years old but age itself is not a mitigating factor.

“You are elderly, but it is not mitigating to say that you might die in prison.

“There are serious matters… and they must be met with a commensurate sentence.”

Thomas Jenkins – Redditch

19 Tuesday Feb 2019

Posted by Author in Jehovah's Witnesses, Worcestershire

≈ Comments Off on Thomas Jenkins – Redditch

November 2018

Jehovah’s Witness elder abused young girl while taking her round to preach the bible

An elder member of a Jehovah’s Witness congregation has been jailed for subjecting a girl to years of sexual abuse.

Thomas Brian Jenkins, 74, denied repeatedly indecently assaulting the girl in the 1970s but was found guilty by a jury at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court after an hour’s deliberation.

The court heard the abuse began when the girl was 12 years old and continued until she was 14 when she would make excuses to avoid him.

But she claimed after reporting Jenkins’ behaviour to other elders in the congregation, including a former policeman, they “laughed” in her face.

Giving evidence during the trial the woman, who is now in her 50s, said Jenkins would take her and her brother on “door-to-door” missions to rural properties in the Powys countryside.

After parking at the end of a lane or driveway Jenkins would send her brother to “preach the faith” so he could force his hands up the schoolgirl’s skirt – taking advantage of the religion’s ban on women wearing trousers.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Jenkins, of Landor Road, Redditch, Worcester, would also would try to get his fingers inside her costume under the water at Brecon swimming pool during group outings.

Sentencing the former builder, judge Daniel Williams described Jenkins’ “breathtaking arrogance” compared to the “courage” of his victim.

He said: “You would contrive events as to be alone with [the girl] in the car.

“On other occasions members of the congregation would go swimming in the public baths in Brecon.

“There you made a beeline for [the girl]. It would of course seem to others that you would be innocently playing with [her].

“[She] lives with the consequences of your actions every day of her life.

“The contrast between her courage giving evidence and your breathtaking arrogance could not have been greater.”

In a personal impact statement summarised in court the woman said Jenkins’ actions had left her with a fear of social events and public swimming pools.

She said: “I suffer, I always will, as I cannot un-know what I know.

“No-one would listen to me, much less believe or support me.

“I cannot go swimming in public pools as the sounds, the smells, everything, transports me back.

“I end up cancelling more social events than I actually attend.”

She added: “I am not what he did to me – it should not dictate who I am but it does dictate how I am.

“I cannot take anti-depressants as they make me feel worse. I have no choice but to live with it.”

During her evidence the woman criticised the religion’s governing bodies for dealing with sexual abuse “in house”.

She said: “I’m angry at Jehovah’s Witness elders and the governing body for the lack of protection they provide to children.

“There is no safeguarding. They do not report it to the authorities because they want to deal with it in house.”

Summarising Jenkins’ evidence, Judge Williams said the elder had denied abusing the girl and denied attending the swimming pool used for Jehovah’s Witness outings.

When asked if he had taken her for door-to-door missions, he said: “For the life of me I cannot remember even one occasion.

“There is so much fabrication.

“[The woman] has a complete grudge against Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

The court heard Jenkins was previously convicted of a series of sex offences against three girls at Worcester Crown Court in 1990.

Addressing his past conviction, he said: “I had a nervous breakdown. I was not aware of what I was doing.

“I knew what I was doing was wrong but I had no control over it.”

Jenkins was initially charged with 20 counts of indecent assault but they were reduced to six counts on the third day of his trial.

He was found guilty of all six charges.

Judge Williams sentenced to five years imprisonment. Jenkins will remain on the sex offenders’ register for life.

May 2021

Paedophile jailed for child sex offences

A former Welwyn Garden City man has been jailed for 10 years for child sex offences against two young girls in the 1970s and 80s.

Trevor Lockwood, aged 77, of Ryton in Tamworth, Staffordshire, appeared at St Albans Crown Court after being found guilty yesterday of five counts of indecent assault and one count of gross indecency against the two female victims.

The court heard that Lockwood – who was living as a Jehovah’s Witness in Welwyn Garden City at the time – abused the girls, who were both under the age of 10, over the course of several years between the late 1970s and late 1980s.

He threatened one of his victims, saying that God was watching and that if she told anyone about what he had done, she or her loved ones would die.

Herts police’s Historic Child Abuse Investigation Unit was first made aware of Lockwood’s offending in 2018, when both victims bravely disclosed the abuse they had suffered as children.

Lockwood – who had by then moved to Staffordshire – was arrested and interviewed, but maintained his innocence before pleading not guilty, leading to a trial.

Share this:

Like this:

November 2020

Sex predator jailed

A man who sexually assaulted three young boys in Ellesmere Port was jailed.

Dennis Anyon was convicted of two counts of buggery and seven counts of indecent assault following a six day trial at Chester Crown Courtwhich concluded on Monday, November 2.

Anyon’s offending began in 1983, when he was 13-years-old, and continued through to 1989 when he was 19

He met his three victims, who were aged just four to 11-year-olds, at the Jehovah Witness former Kingdom Hall on Rostherne Avenue in Ellesmere Port.

Much of the abuse took place at the church, where Anyon would inappropriately touch his victims in the toilets; he also abused all of his victims in his bedroom at his Ellesmere Port home.

The 48-year-old, of Fairview Way, Pensby, was sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison.

He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

Share this:

Like this:

August 2020

North Staffordshire sex beast finally jailed

Sex beast Mark Longshaw has finally been jailed for inappropriately touching two children – more than three decades after his crimes were ‘brushed under the carpet’ by Jehovah’s Witness elders.

The incidents – dating back to the 1970s and 1980s – were reported to a branch of the Jehovah’s Witness at the time of the offences.

But no action was taken by the authorities – until now.

Now the 63-year-old, of Diamond Avenue, Kidsgrove, has been jailed for four years and eight months after he admitted four indecent assault charges.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard he inappropriately touched two children and made them touch him. Elders became aware of the incidents and helped the defendant to ‘cover it up’.

In a statement, one of the victims, said: “I know what was done was swept away. Over the years I’ve tried to block out the abuse.

“I am emotionally damaged and mentally scarred. It has had irreparable damage on my life.”

The second victim added: “It has been hard to get through my life. I remember it as clear as yesterday.”

Judge Paul Glenn told the court that he had no option but to jail Longshaw.

He told him: “Your past has finally caught up with you.”

Share this:

Like this:

December 2019

90-year-old found guilty of sexually abusing young boy

A pensioner, 90, found guilty of sexually abusing a young boy, has been told he is likely to die in prison.

Gordon Dunn “groomed” and abused his victim over a six year period between 2012 and 2018.

He denied abusing the boy, but was found guilty following a trial at Southampton Crown Court.

He was jailed for a total of eight years.

The jury found Dunn guilty of one multiple count, of at least five occasions, of sexual assault on a child and two counts of sexual activity with a child.

He was found not guilty of a second count of sexual assault and not guilty of one count of sexual activity with a child.

Mitigating for Dunn, barrister Bernice Mulvanny said her client, a lifelong Jehovah’s Witness, was likely to die in prison.

She said: “The reality of the situation is that no-matter how long he is given in prison it is likely he will not serve the full period.

“It is likely he will die in prison.

“He asks through me if at all possible that you make it as short as you possibly can in the circumstances. One that gives him a glimmer of hope of seeing the outside world”

Ms Mulvanny said Dunn has been disfellowshipped by his Jehovah’s Witness group.

Dunn, of Merton Road, Southampton, was given an aggregated eight year sentence by Judge Peter Henry, who said Dunn’s age could not be used as a way to lower the sentence.

Judge Henry said: “Of course I am aware you are 90 years old but age itself is not a mitigating factor.

“You are elderly, but it is not mitigating to say that you might die in prison.

“There are serious matters… and they must be met with a commensurate sentence.”

Share this:

Like this:

November 2018

Jehovah’s Witness elder abused young girl while taking her round to preach the bible

An elder member of a Jehovah’s Witness congregation has been jailed for subjecting a girl to years of sexual abuse.

Thomas Brian Jenkins, 74, denied repeatedly indecently assaulting the girl in the 1970s but was found guilty by a jury at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court after an hour’s deliberation.

The court heard the abuse began when the girl was 12 years old and continued until she was 14 when she would make excuses to avoid him.

But she claimed after reporting Jenkins’ behaviour to other elders in the congregation, including a former policeman, they “laughed” in her face.

Giving evidence during the trial the woman, who is now in her 50s, said Jenkins would take her and her brother on “door-to-door” missions to rural properties in the Powys countryside.

After parking at the end of a lane or driveway Jenkins would send her brother to “preach the faith” so he could force his hands up the schoolgirl’s skirt – taking advantage of the religion’s ban on women wearing trousers.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Jenkins, of Landor Road, Redditch, Worcester, would also would try to get his fingers inside her costume under the water at Brecon swimming pool during group outings.

Sentencing the former builder, judge Daniel Williams described Jenkins’ “breathtaking arrogance” compared to the “courage” of his victim.

He said: “You would contrive events as to be alone with [the girl] in the car.

“On other occasions members of the congregation would go swimming in the public baths in Brecon.

“There you made a beeline for [the girl]. It would of course seem to others that you would be innocently playing with [her].

“[She] lives with the consequences of your actions every day of her life.

“The contrast between her courage giving evidence and your breathtaking arrogance could not have been greater.”

In a personal impact statement summarised in court the woman said Jenkins’ actions had left her with a fear of social events and public swimming pools.

She said: “I suffer, I always will, as I cannot un-know what I know.

“No-one would listen to me, much less believe or support me.

“I cannot go swimming in public pools as the sounds, the smells, everything, transports me back.

“I end up cancelling more social events than I actually attend.”

She added: “I am not what he did to me – it should not dictate who I am but it does dictate how I am.

“I cannot take anti-depressants as they make me feel worse. I have no choice but to live with it.”

During her evidence the woman criticised the religion’s governing bodies for dealing with sexual abuse “in house”.

She said: “I’m angry at Jehovah’s Witness elders and the governing body for the lack of protection they provide to children.

“There is no safeguarding. They do not report it to the authorities because they want to deal with it in house.”

Summarising Jenkins’ evidence, Judge Williams said the elder had denied abusing the girl and denied attending the swimming pool used for Jehovah’s Witness outings.