December 2020

Paedophile sentenced to two and a half years in prison

A paedophile from Jersey cried in the dock as he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for making indecent images of children and placed on the sex offenders register for seven years.

Daniel Heaney, aged 34, made 268 indecent images of children.

Seven of those images were assessed as category A, the most serious category.

Twenty nine were moving images.

Heaney denied five counts of making indecent images of children but was found guilty by a jury in October.

He was sentenced at the Royal Count today (4 December).

Jersey Police first became aware of Heaney when a UK force contacted them about an email address linked to Heaney which had been involved in indecent images of children.

In June 2019, officers went to his home and seized two laptops, a hard drive and two mobile phones.

In total, 268 indecent images were found on devices belonging to Heaney.

He was also found to be in contact with other people wanting to trade indecent images of children and analysis of Heaney’s internet history suggested a proclivity for child sexual abuse imagery

Heaney blamed an ‘unknown hacker’ for the images and denied sexual interest in children.

To date, he still has not admitted his crimes.

However during his trial, forensic experts said the skill set and resources needed to hack his devices in the manner suggested is usually only seen in state-sponsored hackers working for geo-political intelligence reasons.

Heaney wept as he was handed his sentence.

May 2019

Pervert admits making indecent images of children

A  man has admittd making almost 160 indecent photographs of children and is due to face sentencing before the Royal Court later this year.

Daniel Thomas Leigh (25) pleaded ‘guilty’ to three counts relating to a total of 159 images in the Royal Court this morning.

Jersey-born Leigh was represented by Advocate Nicholas Mière, who indicated his client’s ‘guilty’ pleas to the charges. 

Crown Advocate Conrad Yates appeared for the prosecution. 

The three charges indicate that Leigh’s offending took place between 2017 and 2018.

The 25-year-old will return to Court on 19 July to face sentencing.

May 2020

Man who sexually touched strangers in street jailed for five years

A pervert who sexually touched four strangers in the street on Christmas Day has been sentenced to five years and three months in prison.

Adrian Florinel Dumitrache (31) appeared in the Royal Court on Wednesday (27 May) and was also recommended for deportation to Romania after serving his term in jail.

He also pleaded guilty to single counts of grave and criminal assault, common assault and causing an outrage of public decency.

Detective Inspector Christina MacLenna, the senior investigating officer who dealt with the case, said: ‘It is extremely rare that we are faced with such a prolific sex offender committing acts against complete strangers.

‘Thanks to the bravery of the victims and a number of witnesses we were able to catch him quickly and bring this dangerous individual to justice.’

The offences happened between 8 and 25 December with the first complaints being made to police on Christmas Day.

Dumitrache was subsequently arrested on New Year’s Day and has remained in custody ever since.

May 2019

Farm workers abducted teenager and filmed themselves gang raping her in car park

Five men who gang raped a woman in a car park have each been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Jersey’s Royal Court heard how the 19-year-old victim feared she was going to die during the attack on 16 December.

Two of the men were found to have video clips of the rape on their phones.

Romanian nationals Florin Calin, 20, Dorel Diaconu, 23, Marius Dobrin, 24, and 18-year-olds Oprea Dobre and Alexandru Dobrin all pleaded guilty to two charges of rape.

The court heard how one of the men, Marius Dobrin, followed the victim around the Havana nightclub in St Helier and started dancing with her.

They kissed but did not talk much because he only spoke limited English.

At the end of the night, the victim’s level of intoxication could be seen on CCTV footage, with Marius Dobrin remaining close to her.

The other defendants, all aged between 18 and 24, could also be seen lingering nearby.

The victim was then led away and driven to a car park at Les Platons, where she was raped by the men.

After being driven back St Helier, she was heard crying and screaming outside a flat. She was brought inside and the police were called.

In a personal statement, the victim, who is is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the attack, said: “I thought I was going to be murdered. I was terrified. It felt like a lifetime.”

November 2019

Pair guilty of raping teen girl at St. Aubin’s Fort

Two men have been found guilty of raping a teenage girl decades ago at St. Aubin’s Fort following jury deliberations lasting seven-and-a-half hours.

Ian Pryor was found guilty of two counts of rape, while Anthony John Quant was found guilty of one count of rape, and one count of indecent assault.

Both men had maintained their innocence throughout the trial but were found guilty of a majority verdict of nine to two on each count.

The victim, who was a teen and a virgin at the time, said she had been raped twice by Pryor and once by Quant – who had then gone on to indecently assault her, whilst she was being raped by Pryor for the second time.  

Crown Advocate Emma Hollywood, who was leading the prosecution, said the offences had been committed decades ago and that the two men had abused the girl’s “vulnerability and trust” as well as her body, “in the worst way possible”.

The woman said she had been asked to give Pryor a massage so that she could watch a video in one of the classrooms at the Fort.

She was then passed a clear bottle which contained a small amount of clear liquid. She said that while she didn’t remember drinking, she knew she had. “It seemed to be part of what was happening,” she explained.

Breaking down in tears in court, the woman said the next thing she remembered was lying on the floor completely straight, with her arms by her side. “I didn’t want to be there,” she said.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Mr Pryor. She was on the floor on her back and he was on top of her. She told the jury she kept thinking: “Why won’t you just stop? I didn’t do anything to make you do it, I didn’t speak to you.”

The woman said she didn’t speak at first and just cried. “I just wished someone would come and find me,” she said. 

“I was a virgin,” she said, “I couldn’t do anything… There was nothing I could do to make it stop.”

The jury also heard from her friend and a man who saw her the day after the alleged incident. Both described her as being in a state of distress. 

The jury were also read the transcript of Pryor and Quant’s first interviews with Police.

Pryor’s lawyer called his client’s former wife and one of his brothers to give evidence as part of the defence case. 

The jury of five women and six men retired yesterday just before 15:00 to consider their verdict, after hearing the closing speeches of Crown Advocate Hollywood and both defence lawyers. 

They took just over seven hours and 30 minutes before returning their verdict this afternoon at 14:45. 

As a result of his conviction, Pryor has been remanded in custody. He has also been added to the Sex Offenders’ Register and Court will decide at a later date how long he should remain on it.

Quant was already in prison for separate sexual offences.

The two men will be sentenced before the Superior Number – a panel that only assembles for the most serious cases – on 6 February.

Concluding the proceedings, Royal Court Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith thanked them for carrying out their duty and giving “careful consideration” to the verdict.

He also thanked all counsel for being “most helpful” throughout the week-long trial.