February 2017

‘She’s a pure evil psychopath’: The Accused viewers blast a mother found GUILTY of cruelty against her seven-week-old baby

Viewers were left horrified after a mother accused of child cruelty was found guilty, in a groundbreaking programme – the first of its kind on UK TV.

Kenzey, 23, allowed Channel 5 cameras to follow her as she prepared for her trial and the jury’s verdict after she was charged with two serious offences for failing to protect her seven-week-old daughter. 

The former charity worker was arrested in November 2014, after her baby was found with a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain, and severe eye damage.

Kenzey had left her child with her boyfriend Kyle who she knew could be violent. She also failed to call an ambulance urgently when she could see her daughter was in pain and distressed. 

Viewers watched as Kenzey spent months defending her innocence and that of  Kyle, the father of her baby – before they were both convicted.

They were appalled that Kenzey showed more concern for her boyfriend than her daughter who has been left brain damaged and branded the pair ‘evil’. They blasted their sentences as lenient.

Kyle had a history of violence and had previously received a police caution for attacking Kenzey – just weeks after she gave birth to their daughter (who cannot be named for legal reasons) because he was jealous of the attention the baby was being given. 

In dramatic scenes aired on Monday night Kenzey was convicted and sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison – while her boyfriend Kyle was jailed for 18.

Before the verdict, Kenzey protested: ‘That does not make me an abusive person, ’cause I’m not. If they think that, then they think we’re monsters.’

Filmmaker Rob McCabe said he wanted to expose what goes through the minds of those who have committed serious crimes.  

Viewers were invited to form their own judgement before the verdicts were read out, while Kenzey was questioned by her legal team.

Kenzey was eventually found guilty of child cruelty, for not calling the emergency services quickly enough once it was clear the baby was unwell. 

Meanwhile Kyle was found guilty of two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, with a sentence of 18 years. 

Kenzey had denied seeing her boyfriend Kyle shake their baby daughter and stuck by him throughout, even after he was charged.

It was her unwavering belief that contributed to her conviction, according to her lawyer Ronnie Manek. 

‘Kyle professed his innocence saying “it wasn’t me” and I think she believed her boyfriend and didn’t want to be seen to attack his character,’ Ronnie explained following the verdicts. 

‘And her misguided loyalty to him is what caused her to be convicted.

Kenzey was so adamant of her innocence that she claimed: ‘I don’t feel like a human being. 

Chillingly, just four weeks before the pair were arrested Kyle sent a text message to Kenzey in which he confessed his daughter was not safe in his care. 

He wrote: ‘She isn’t safe with me and doesn’t deserve to be in danger from someone as terrible as me.’

Kenzey said: ‘I know you don’t want to hurt our baby or lose her so changes need to be made before its too late and something even more serious happens.’ 

Despite these red flags Kenzey still left their daughter in her boyfriend’s care on the night she was attacked. She told her lawyers she had been in the kitchen with the door closed.

She admitted she heard a ‘sound’ that sounded like crying but brushed off her doubts once Kyle told her everything was fine.

It was only later when her daughter appeared to be struggling to cry that Kenzey phoned NHS 111 for advice. It was the operator who sent an ambulance to the family home.

The infant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found with a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain, and severe damage to her eye, injuries which medical experts said were caused deliberately. 

The following day Kyle and Kenzey, whose surnames cannot be published for legal reasons, were arrested. 

October 2017

Sex beast released early from life sentence moved to France and raped two girls 10 and 13

A serial sex attacker who had his life sentence quashed in Britain has been jailed in France after raping two schoolgirls.

Francis Kelly was described as a danger to females by a psychiatrist when he was locked up for serious sex crimes in 1999.

Despite Prof David Cooke’s report saying he was likely to reoffend, three judges cut his sentence a year later

It allowed Kelly, 47, to breach parole conditions and travel to France where he targeted two girls.

He raped the 13-year-old daughter of a French woman he married and raped another girl, aged 10, within a year of moving and has now been sentenced to 16 years for the brutal crimes.

The mother of one of his victims criticised the sentencing decisions of the three judges, Lord Justice General Rodger, Lord Allanbridge and Lord Caplan.

The woman, a former wife of Kelly who can be named only as Camille, said: “The judges who reduced Francis’ sentence made a terrible mistake.

“If he had been serving a life sentence, he would not have been able to come to France and commit crimes here.”

The 43-year-old from the French town of Ardeche, added: “I did not know he had been given a life sentence. Had I known this, I would have thought about him differently.

“I would have considered him a danger.”

Kelly had been jailed for life in 1999 and ordered to serve at least three-and-a-half years – but could only be considered for release when a parole board no longer considered him a threat.

The judges who reduced Kelly’s life sentence to seven years have all died since they made the decision at Edinburgh’s Court of Appeal in 2000.

Now Kelly has been jailed again and banned from all French terrority after being convivted of the rapes he committed there while out on licence.

He had originally been jailed for life at the High Court in Edinburgh for two offences against women in Dundee in 1998.

Kelly admitted committing a breach of the peace and an indecent assault within minutes of each other.

Professor Cooke, who was based at Glasgow Caledonian University, said Kelly was a high risk and was concerned he would reoffend in a serious sexual manner.

It was while in prison, Kelly contacted Camille after getting her name from a list of penpals.

Once released in 2003, he moved to France a year later and the pair married.

The fact he left the country and missed appointments with social workers meant he breached his parole conditions.

He was extradited back to Scotland to serve the rest of his sentence.

It was then that Camille discovered she had been living with a predator.

The allegations about sex attacks on her daughter Astree, who has waived her right to anonymity, and another girl who cannot be named, emerged.

The abuse is believed to have started in 2005 and only stopped when he was traced by Scottish authorities and extradited back in 2007.

Kelly was sent back to France June 2016 and held in Avignon prison prior to his trial at court in Privas earlier this month.

He was jailed for 16 years and is expected to be transferred to a Scottish prison within months.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: “The victims are right to feel let down by the legal system.

“I can’t imagine what the families and victims are feeling and the best thing to do for them is to make changes so that it never happens to another family.”

Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr said: “This is a very concerning case.

“This vile individual clearly still posed a threat to society, and he shouldn’t have been released as early as he was.

“Had he still been in prison these two victims would not have suffered this horrendous attack.”

Had Kelly not re-offended, his behaviour would only have been monitored until 2017 – not for the rest of his life as would have been the case under the original sentence.

Within months of leaving Scotland and moving to the south of France, the predator raped one of his new girlfriends daughters, aged 13, and another girl, aged 10.

He went on to marry the woman before she realised the full shocking reality of his crimes.

The serial sex offender was jailed for 16 years earlier this month after being convicted of attacking the girls.

British ex-pat travelled 100s of miles to UK from his French home hoping to abuse eight-year-old twin girls

A depraved ex-pat Brit who travelled hundreds of miles to the UK from his home in The Provence in the sick hope of sexually abusing twin girls aged eight has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Married 52-year-old Richard Chapman was caught in a police sting.

He engaged in online communications with a female officer in the false belief she was the youngsters’ mother and told her they were the “perfect age” for his sordid plan.

Chapman also described himself as a “terrible pervert” and said children were “a forbidden thing but a massive turn-on” for him.

Even more shockingly, he told the undercover officer he knew as Jen it was “a shame” his wife could not have children as it would have given him “more opportunities”.

Chapman was arrested in July after he arranged to travel from his home in Molleges, in Bouches-du-Rhône, in the South of France and met Jen in a pub in Wimbledon, London.

At Maidstone Crown Court in Kent on Friday a judge said Chapman was dangerous in the legal sense and that an extended sentence of imprisonment was necessary to protect the public.

Chapman must serve two-thirds of the jail term before becoming eligible for parole. Upon release, he will serve the remainder of that sentence on licence, plus a further five-and-a-half years on licence.

Chapman admitted two offences of arranging or facilitating a child sex offence and four of distributing indecent images of children.

He also asked for two charges in relation to possessing and making child sexual abuse images to be taken into consideration.

The court heard he became embroiled in sick internet chatroom conversations after moving to France and finding it difficult to make friends.

A lack of interest in sex with his wife also led to him indulging in the depraved virtual world, where his barrister said he became ‘desensitised’ to the harmful reality of child abuse and traded indecent images.

These depicted abuse categorised by police as covering all three levels of seriousness and were also sent to the undercover officer.

Jailing Chapman, Judge Philip St.John-Stevens said he had a clear intention of meeting the twin girls, albeit they were fictional, and performing sex acts with them.

He added that Chapman also used the pornographic images as ‘currency’ with others and as part of the build-up in his plan to abuse the girls.

Prosecutor Donna East said Chapman began communicating with the covert police operation in June and continued until his arrest a month later.

She told the court he revealed his sexual interest in children spanned many years, starting when he was about 20.

‘He described previous attempts to abuse children and indicated that he preferred young children between the ages of three and seven but also liked children between seven and 12.

‘He also solicited images of the eight-year-old twins and requested details of Jen’s sexual activity with her daughters and said how great it was to involve her daughters in her sex life which he described as great and very healthy.’

Chapman also told Jen his wife worked away and was unaware of his perverted desires.

The court heard he said he had never physically met anyone who ‘shared his hobby’ and suggested meeting Jen so they could ‘flirt, giggle and find common ground’.

In other online chats Chapman claimed to have French kissed a teenage girl, performed a sex act on an 11-year-old and wished to go ‘a little further’, said Miss East.

He also expressed his plan with Jen’s daughters.

‘He referred to them as being the perfect age,’ added the prosecutor.

Chapman sent the officer 19 child abuse images, including one movie clip, before meeting in the pub on July 12.

Their conversation was recorded and Miss East told the court he claimed he first began abusing children after a trip to an open-air swimming pool.

‘He stated he had done some crazy things, including masturbating near young girls, and that he would tell Jen more about it when he knew her well.

‘He also said his wife couldn’t have children which was a shame because it would have given him more opportunities.

‘He described himself as a terrible pervert, always looking up skirts and down tops of young girls and trying to take photographs but this was too risky.

‘He said children were a forbidden thing but a massive turn on for him.’

After his arrest, Chapman claimed a lot of what he had told Jen was “fabricated”.

Police later found a total of 1,855 still and movie clips of child abuse on his computer at his home in France. Again, they covered all levels of seriousness.

The court heard Chapman’s “solitary” life after moving to France led to him becoming embroiled in an activity which “escalated out of his control”.

November 2016

Sailor found with indecent images after taking snaps of his penis

A high-ranking sailor was found with child abuse pictures when he was caught taking photos of his penis in the ladies’ toilets of a busy airport.

Tor Mikalsen, a Norwegian chief officer on a ship, used his laptop to take the snaps of his genitals while in a cubicle in the loos at Newcastle Airport, a court heard.

But suspicions were roused when a young girl in the cubicle next door spotted his computer on the floor and reported it to her dad, who subsequently told staff.

Security officers found the married 50-year-old and immediately seized his laptop, where they found photographs of his penis, Newcastle Crown Court was told.

On a further search, police also found two indecent pseudo images of children, one a sketch of child abuse and one a computer-generated image.

Now, Mikalsen, a Norwegian who had been on his way home after working in the UK for three weeks, has been jailed after admitting making the pseudo images.

Neil Pallister, prosecuting, said the offence happened on August 21 this year.

He said: “A man and his family were in Newcastle Airport waiting to go on holiday. His eight-year-old daughter went to use the lavatories.

“While in the cubicle, she became aware of a laptop coming through the partition. She became upset and distressed and she left the cubicle and told her father.

“Her father then spoke to a member of airport staff, who went into the ladies’ toilets and went up to the cubicle door and the door was shut.

“They knocked and a male opened the door who was this defendant.”

Mr Pallister said Mikalsen, who gave his address as no fixed abode, told staff he was there by mistake before he was escorted out the toilets.

On a subsequent search of his laptop, the indecent pseudo pictures and the photos of his genitals were found.

Neither of the indecent images were of the girl in the next door toilet cubicle.

Mikalsen said he’d intended to go into the toilets to take a snap of his penis and send it to a woman on Facebook but that he had become confused because he suffered from diabetes and had gone into the wrong loos.

Sentencing him to three months in prison, Recorder of Newcastle Judge Paul Sloan QC said: “You’re a highly qualified individual, who will quickly find work upon your release.

“You married and 50 years old. At the time, it would seem you were going through a difficult period. You were not in the best of health and you were drinking to excess.

“These were pseudo images. You didn’t actually make images of an actual victim.”

Mikalsen was also made subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for 10 years.

October 2016

Seaman caught with child abuse pictures after scaring girl, eight, in ladies’ toilets at airport

A seaman was caught with child abuse pictures after photographing his own privates in the female toilets of a North East airport.

Chief Officer Tor Mikalsen told the authorities he was using his laptop in the ladies’ loo at Newcastle Airport to take illicit shots he had planned to send to a woman over Facebook.

When the married 50-year-old’s computer was examined, police found two downloaded images – one a sketch drawing and one a computer-generated picture – of child abuse.

Mikalsen, who had been working on a ship in Scotland for three weeks, had been heading home to Norway when he was collared. At Newcastle Crown Court today, he pleaded guilty to making pseudo photographs of children and was jailed for three months, with a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.

Mikalsen came to the authorities’ attention on August 21 when an eight-year-old girl using an adjacent cubicle in the toilet spotted his laptop and thought he was taking a picture of her. When the upset child informed her family, who were due to fly on holiday, the police were called.

Prosecutor Neil Pallister told the court: “Officers viewed the laptop and immediately saw a picture of the defendant, the defendant’s penis. “

He told officers he was going to send that picture to a female he had been talking to on Facebook. “

Police then looked through the laptop further and saw two indecent images of young children, of a sexual nature.”

Mikalsen told police he had gone into the wrong toilet accidentally after becoming unwell and confused due to diabetes.

He claimed he used the child abuse images to “trap paedophiles”, an excuse Judge Paul Sloan QC said he was sceptical about.

The judge said Mikalsen was a “highly qualified” individual who had been going through a “difficult period” and drinking too much, resulting in three UK court appearances over the summer for vandalism, public order and burglary.