August 2019

Sex offender who was on the run for nearly two years has been jailed

A sex offender who was on the run for nearly two years has been jailed after he was found hiding in a homeless shelter in Brighton.

Ian Campbell, 40, was found after a Facebook appeal which led police to one of the double decker buses in Brighton used to house the homeless.

A member of the public recognised him and alerted police.

He was arrested on April 24 at his hideout.

Campbell, of Mountain Ash, Wales, was one of South Wales Police’s (SWP) most wanted paedophiles.

He absconded after he was released by the courts on probation in June 2017.

He had been living under the false name, John Morgan, and was caught with two mobile phones, a tablet and a laptop which had indecent images of children under the age of 18 – breaching his Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Jim Deans, of Sussex Homeless Support said he remembers Campbell coming to stay on one of the homeless shelter buses.

“He was using a different name at the time, but he was with us for about a month in the end,” he said.

“There was trace of him using the day centres as well in Brighton, I suspect he was in the city for about a month.

“They never check up on people’s identification at these day centres because more often than not the people that use these services don’t have a passport or a driving lisence.”

Mr Deans said South Wales Police sent him a photo of Campbell after a member of the public said he was on one of the bus shelters.

They immediately recognised him and reported him to the police.

“The homeless guys handed over all his tablets and phones that he had hidden in the bus,” he said.

“He’s lucky he was arrested because if the guys saw what he was up to it might have been a different story.

“No one should ever tolerate that sort of behaviour, and these guys on the bus certainly would not have had any of it happening.”

Mr Deans said he was moved when SWP offered homeless people in the shelter support in case they had been a victim of abuse.

He said: “The officers interviewed those on the bus and just made sure they had the support they needed after this arrest.”

Ian Campbell pleaded guilty to being unlawfully at large after being recalled to prison, failing to comply with notification requirements, possessing indecent images, and fraud offences and jailed at Merthyr Crown Court.

April 2019

Police hunt sex offender from Rhondda Cynon Taf who has been on the run for two years

Ian Campbell, 40, from Rhondda Cynon Taf, was jailed in 2016 for possessing indecent images of children

He was released from prison in 2017 but failed to comply with his licence conditions.

April 2019

Man who raped teenager jailed

An NHS worker who took a £90 taxi from a night out in Cardiff to Swansea where he raped an underage girl has been jailed for seven years.

Paul Ceri Clement was told by Judge Peter Heywood that his actions on May 24, 2017, “clearly had a significant effect” on his victim, who had given evidence against the 39-year-old from the dock of Swansea Crown Court.

The NHS employee, of Richard Street in Maerdy, Rhondda, had denied a count of rape and two counts of sexual assault but was found guilty by a jury last month.

The court had been told his co-accused had travelled with Clement after the pair had spent a night out in Cardiff where they had been to a number of pubs and a casino.

They left the city at around 2am to travel to Swansea, having exchanged messages with two girls on a social media app.

During the trial the court heard the two men met up with the two teenage girls who led them into the grounds of a school.

The jury heard he was described as “being pushy” by asking one of the girls to perform a number of sex acts on him. He exposed himself to her and attempted to force her to perform a sex act but the girl “refused to get involved in anything sexual with a man considerably older than her”.

Clement’s teenage victim had told police after the incident how Clement had pinned her arms back prompting her eventually to “give up”.

She said: “It was going to happen – there is no point in trying to stop it now.

“He had already decided that ‘No’ was not the answer for him so what was the point?”

Prosecutor Andrew Davies told the court that Clement had said: “Come on. She (the alleged victim’s friend) promised and she is not doing anything.

“You can’t do that as well. That is not fair. We have come all the way down here and spent £90 on a taxi and it is for nothing.”

The court heard the girl then went for a walk with Clement at which point he raped her.

During a police interview following his arrest Clement told officers he could not remember what messages had been exchanged between himself and the girls but admitted “it must have been something sexual to leave Cardiff and go to Swansea”.

He also added in his interview: “I thought my luck was in… I asked William to come with me. I did not want to go on my own. It is a long way to go on your own.

“It was the early hours of the morning, it could have been a set-up, someone trying to get me there, trying to mug me, beat me up or whatever, so I did not go on my own.”

Clement was jailed for seven years on Monday.

He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register and was disqualified from working with children and vulnerable adults and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order.

March 2019

Man got £90 taxi from Cardiff to Swansea before raping underage girl

A man on a night out got a £90 taxi from Cardiff to Swansea to meet two underage girls before raping one of them.

February 2019

Girl ‘robbed of her childhood’ after abuser repeatedly sexually assaulted her

A sexual abuser whose years of offending “robbed [his victim] of her childhood” threatened to kill her when the offences came to light.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was left feeling suicidal and started to misuse alcohol and drugs as she tried to cope with what Dafydd Clack had done to her.

Jailing Clack at Cardiff Crown Court, Judge Timothy Petts said he had been responsible for a “horrific pattern of abuse” which occurred over a prolonged period.

Heath Edwards, prosecuting, referred to the victim’s personal statement and said: “The abuse she suffered at the hands of [the defendant] robbed her of her childhood.”

The court heard her friends and teachers thought she was shy and quiet but that was not naturally her personality. “She was trapped in a constant state of fear and self-disgust,” said Mr Edwards.

The woman explained she struggled to cope with everyday life as a result of the offending and had very low self-esteem.

She later started to drink heavily and smoke cannabis – looking for an escape – and began to have thoughts about killing herself. Mr Edwards told the court she was in “a pattern of self-destruction” but has since managed to turn her life around.

The victim said Clack’s offending had a big impact on her ability to form relationships with other people.

Mr Edwards added: “She has suffered from night terrors for as long as she can remember. She has vivid images of the abuse she suffered.”

The woman said she hoped seeing Clack sentenced will help her to find the strength to confront the difficulties she has experienced as a result of his offending.

Judge Petts noted Clack had 66 previous offences on his criminal record although these convictions were the first for sexual offending.

Clack must now register as a sex offender:

Clack, 31, of Abercerdin Road in Gilfach Goch, was found guilty of nine counts of sexual intercourse with a girl and two counts of indecent assault.

The jury also convicted him of one count of raping a child and one count of making a threat to kill, which happened when the offences came to light.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Petts said: “What you did to her over the years has had a lasting impact upon her. It is clear that her memories are still very painful.”

Clack was jailed for 10 years and must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. An indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order was made.

The judge added: “No sentence that I pass can make good the damage you did. I express my best wishes to [the victim] for the future.”

September 2011

Teen guilty of attempted sexual attack on girl, 12

A teenager has been found guilty of attempting to sexually assault a 12-year-old girl.

Rhys Bevan Christopher, 18, of Bonvilston Road, Trallwn, denied two counts of sexual assault of a child under 13 and one of assaulting a child under the age of 13 by penetration, between October 31, 2010 and January 17, 2011.

The jury of six men and six women at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court found him not guilty of all three counts but found him guilty of attempted sexual assault of a child under 13, the alternative to sexual assault of a child under 13.

Suzanne Thomas, prosecuting, said the 12-year-old girl had alleged she had been the victim of the teenager’s sexual advances in a campaign of alleged physical and sexual abuse.

The court was told how Christopher had sent the youngster explicit and inappropriate sexual messages, one of which was discovered by her mother.

Christopher denied all the offences and told the jury that the explicit and sexually suggestive messaging – which the prosecution said indicated things that had already happened – had been “a joke” because he knew it would never come to anything.

He added that the messages had been sent in response to the girl sending messages to him.

When questioned by Ms Thomas of the inappropriateness of his messaging to the girl, Christopher repeatedly said: “I didn’t do it. It was all a joke. I knew nothing would come of it.”

Christopher was told he will have to sign as a sex offender