November 2019

Photographer found with indecent images of children asks to keep life-long photo collection

A photographer appealed to a judge to keep his life-long collection of photos after he faced losing them for downloading indecent images of children.

Barry Ward, 65, was found to have downloaded 40 indecent images of children after police seized 12 devices, Norwich Crown Court heard.

Duncan O’Donnell, prosecuting, said eight of the images downloaded were in the most serious category and one featured a child as young as three to five years old.

He said the search history on his devices showed that Ward made systematic searches for indecent material.

Ward admitted downloading indecent images of children, but his barrister Jonathan Goodman said although Ward accepted his devices would be confiscated and destroyed, he asked if he could have some of the hundreds of innocuous, lawful, images which were also on his devices returned, as they represented his life’s work as a photographer.

Mr Goodman said: “He is a photographer and there are 40 years worth of images, which is essentially his life’s work.”

He asked if an expert on behalf of Ward, whose address was not given, but who the court heard had been staying with his sister in Dereham, could identify the photographs in the collection before they were all destroyed, so that they could be returned to him.

Judge Andrew Shaw allowed Ward 14 days to agree with police what images he could keep as they represented a lifetime’s work, however he said he did not expect police resources to be tied up sorting it out.

Judge Shaw sentenced Ward to 16 months suspended for two years and ordered that he get one-to-one help with probation.

He warned Ward that by looking at indecent images of children he was driving the market for sexual abuse of children and said: “For every indecent image of a child, there is a victim.”

He said the number of images were at the lower end and accepted that Ward had mental health problems.

Judge Shaw also made Ward subject to a sexual harm prevention order which will monitor his computer use, and he was placed on the sex offender’s register for 10 years.

He warned Ward that regular checks would be made as he said Ward was someone who was skilled and knowledgeable on computers.

November 2019

Teen download indecent images of children

A teenager said he downloaded indecent images of children because he wanted to know “how messed up people were”.

Luke Chapman, 18, of Spirketts Lane, Harleston, appeared at Norwich Magistrates Court on Friday, November 8 charged with two counts of making indecent pictures of a child.

It came after more than 1,000 pictures and videos of children aged between two and 13 were found in his procession.

Ashley Petchey, prosecuting, said that Chapman had used the Tor network, a browser used for accessing the dark web, to search for pornographic images because he was interested to see how easy it would have been to access them and to see how “messed up people were”.

Chapman was reported to police on June 5 this year after he attempted to upload images he had downloaded from Tor using a Google email address.

Officers were able to track the email address back to Chapman and attended his address.

The student, who lives with his parents, had been at school at the time of the call but officers were able to carry out a search warrant confiscating electronic devices.

Chapman was visited at school by officers who seized his mobile phone where the images and videos were discovered.

The court heard how in the past year he had become addicted to downloading the images but he did not gain any sexual pleasure from doing so.

He admitted to sending the pictures to some others but only did so because he did not want to be friends with them anymore.

Chapman’s defence, Damien Moore, said the charges fell beyond magistrates’ powers and must be sent to crown court.

Chapman pleaded guilty to the charges and will be sentenced at Norwich Crown Court.

He has also been added to the sexual offenders register.

October 2019

Dangerous rapist given 22 year sentence for sex attack on woman

A young woman has been left with depression and anxiety after she was raped in an alleyway by a “dangerous career criminal”, a court has heard.

Gareth Thorpe, 39, attacked the woman, who was walking alone after an argument with her boyfriend, and raped her in an alleyway near Highgate Infant School, on Gaywood Road.

The young woman, who was in her early 20s, could not fully recall what happened as she had been drinking, but said Thorpe had pulled her tights down and raped her, leaving her with cuts and a broken tooth, Norwich Crown Court heard.

Marc Brown, prosecuting, said the victim, who chose not to attend the sentencing hearing, says she now suffers from a loss of confidence, depression and anxiety and had also lost her job as a result of the sex attack.

Thorpe, of James Scott Close, Downham Market, had denied raping the woman in the early hours of January 27 last year, but was convicted following a six-day trial.

He appeared for sentence via video link from Peterborough jail.

The court heard Thorpe had 52 convictions for 116 offences going back to 1995, which included offences of violence, including a nine-year sentence for causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Judge Andrew Shaw described Thorpe as a “violent and dishonest” man and imposed an extended 22-year sentence made up of 14 years custody with eight years on licence.

He said: “You are a dangerous career criminal.”

He said Thorpe had targeted a vulnerable victim, who was incapable of consenting at the time, and said the rape had a devastating effect.

He said, during the trial, he had seen that Thorpe at times acted in an unpredictable way.

During the trial, the court heard Thorpe had been a complete stranger to the victim and despite being told a number of times to leave her alone he had gone on to rape her.

She managed to run away and Thorpe was arrested near the scene and tried to claim he had done nothing wrong and that the sex was consensual.

October 2019

Prolific sex offender jailed for three more years after touching teenage victim

A prolific sex offender has had an extra three years added to his jail sentence for stroking a woman’s thigh on a train to London.

Clifford Hayes sat next to the teenage victim in a virtually empty carriage on Wednesday 12 June.

He put a coat over his lap and began touching himself, then stretched out and started touching her thigh.

The teenage victim was so traumatised when she left the train that she burst into tears – she was helped by a member of the public who advised her to contact British Transport Police.

The 59-year-old from Drayton Road, Norwich, pleaded guilty to sexual assault and breaching a sexual harm prevention order and was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on Thursday 10 October.

When this incident was brought to court, Hayes was already a serving a two-year sentence for a sexual offence committed on Friday 14 June.

The circumstances were very similar, with Hayes touching himself beneath his coat in front of a woman on a train to London.

The victim, aged in her 30s, said he sat close enough for her to smell him, and he made “intense, aroused and contorted” facial expressions during the act.

Hayes had been released from prison 11 days before the offences. He had been serving a three-year sentence for previous sexual offending.

Update: His medical cause of death was recorded as bile duct cancer.

November 2019: He began serving his sentence at HMP Norwich in mid-September and died at the prison on November 24.

An inquest into Haynes’ death was opened at Norfolk Coroner’s Court on Wednesday, December 4. It heard that his body was identified by a nurse at HMP Norwich.

His medical cause of death was given as cholangiocarcinoma of the biliary tract, or bile duct cancer, due to sclerosing cholangitis and metastatic malignant melanoma.

September 2019

No ‘get out of jail’ card for seriously ill sex offender found with 300,000 indecent images

A convicted sex offender found with more than 300,000 indecent images has been jailed, despite a court hearing about his “depressing” diagnosis from doctors treating him for serious illness.

Roger Haynes, 71, from Church Lane, Gorleston, who is on the sex offender’s register, was found with the huge collection of indecent images and videos of children when police checked on him in 2017, Norwich Crown Court heard.