June 2021

Music teacher downloaded over 1,000 child sex abuse images

A music teacher printed and passed on indecent images of children and exchanged messages expressing an interest in taking part in sex acts with a local 14-year-old.

But Walton Cliffe escaped being jailed when he appeared at Warwick Crown Court to face the music for his repeated offending over a period of 15 years.

Cliffe, 69, of Elsee Road, pleaded guilty at the court to three charges of distributing indecent images of children, three of making indecent images of children and three of possessing such images.

He also admitted possessing a prohibited image of a child, two charges of possessing extreme pornography and two of publishing an obscene article.

Those pleas were accepted by prosecutor Andrew Warner who offered no evidence on two further charges of arranging a child sex offence, which Cliffe had denied.

Cliffe, who was formally found not guilty of those two charges, was sentenced to 20 months in prison suspended for two years, with a 7pm-7am curfew for 50 days, and was ordered to take part in a rehabilitation activity.

He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order banning him from having unsupervised contact with children without the consent of both the child’s parent and Social Services.

Mr Warner said that in March last year the police had intelligence that Cliffe, a self-employed music teacher, had uploaded an indecent image of a child onto an internet site.

In July officers went to his home where they found 70 indecent pictures of children which Cliffe had printed.

He was arrested and various devices including his phone and a computer were seized, but when he was initially questioned he made no comment apart from denying taking any of the images.

On the devices officers found evidence of Cliffe having distributed two images of children in the most serious category A, and ten other indecent images of children.

In addition there were 1,502 images of children, both girls and boys, he had downloaded from the internet, including 83 in the most serious category.

They also found 190 pages of ‘extremely unsavoury’ chat messages Cliffe had been exchanging with two other people in relation to sexual activity with children, said Mr Warner.

Among the exchanges were references to a named local girl aged 14, in which Cliffe expressed an interest in meeting her and offered money for more pictures of her and a pair of her knickers.

When he was interviewed again after the damning evidence had been uncovered, he said he was ashamed at the content of the chat, but said it was ‘pure fantasy,’ and that he never intended to carry out the acts he had spoken about.

Sentencing Cliffe, Recorder John Steel QC told him: “You have pleaded guilty to a number of offences concerning the publishing of obscene articles and, the most serious offences, distributing indecent photographs of children.

“This took place on a number of occasions over a long period of time from January 2005 until the date of your arrest.

“But there is mitigation; your clear remorse and shame in this regard, your family situation, and that you have submitted yourself to rehabilitation already.

“It is clear you wish to kick this dreadful habit which you have had in the shadows for many years. It is now in the open.

“The probation service recommend that rehabilitation of you is not available if you were to go to prison. That being the case, it is right that the sentence be suspended.”

May 2021

Rugby man who downloaded thousands of child abuse images avoids jail sentence

A pervert from Rugby who escaped being jailed for downloading indecent pictures of children has been warned by a judge not to blow the chance he had been given.

Gary Goodman had initially tried to blame a friend after police found an indecent image of a child he had printed and thousands more on his computer.

But Goodman, 60, of Millers Dale Close, Rugby, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to three charges of making indecent images of children and one of possessing extreme pornography.

He was sentenced to nine months in jail suspended for two years and ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work and to take part in a rehabilitation activity.

Recorder Charles Foster, who also ordered Goodman to register as a sex offender for ten years, told him: “You have been lucky. Don’t blow this opportunity.”

Prosecutor Glyn Samuel said that in March 2019 the police turned up at Goodman’s flat at seven in the morning to execute a search warrant.

Officers, who described the flat as ‘dirty, dusty and cluttered,’ found a printed indecent image featuring a pre-pubescent child.

Goodman was arrested, and his computer tower, another computer, an external hard drive and a USB stick were seized, along with two other damaged devices.

On them were 82 still images and three videos in the most serious category A, and 66 category B stills of children.

There were also a further 3,546 still images of children in naked or indecent poses and two stills of a woman involved in acts of bestiality.

When he was interviewed, Goodman was shown the printed image and suggested it could have been left there by one of his mates who had visited the flat.

He also suggested a friend, who he did not identify, may have used some of his devices.

Mr Samuel pointed out that the images had been stored in various folders identifying their contents, including ‘girls partly dressed’ and ‘naked girls.’

And there was also evidence that Goodman, who had been convicted of indecently assaulting a five-year-old girl when he was in his teens, had carried out searches for subjects including ‘Lolita porn.’

May 2021

Pervert who had sex with vulnerable 14-year-old branded a danger to teenage girls

A pervert who had sex with a vulnerable 14-year-old after taking drugs and alcohol with her has been branded a danger to teenage girls.

Grzeorz Herman had eventually pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to two charges of sexual activity with a child, having originally denied the charges.

Herman, 26, from Rugby but of no fixed address, was handed an extended sentence of six years and three months, with an additional two years on licence.

He will have to serve at least four years and two months of the prison term, but will only be released before serving the full period if the Parole Board considers it safe to do so.

Herman will then be on licence, and subject to being recalled to prison, for the rest of the sentence and for a further two years – and will have to register as a sex offender for life.

Prosecutor Michael Shaw said Herman met the 14-year-old girl, who was ‘vulnerable for a variety of reasons,’ in a park in Rugby in the summer of 2017.

“She was invited back to an address with the defendant, and they both took drugs and alcohol, and an intimate relationship began.”

They had intercourse on a number of occasions on that day, and Mr Shaw said: “It continued through the school holidays, as did the ingestion of drugs and alcohol.”

But the relationship ended as a result of the girl finding out Herman was also in relationships with other people, and after she told someone, the police were informed.

When he was arrested Herman denied the offences, but was interviewed again after a picture was found on the girl’s phone of the two of them together in bed.

Shown the picture, Herman’s reaction was to comment that he was in trouble – but he then declined to answer any further questions and pleaded not guilty when he first appeared in court.

It was only at a pre-trial hearing that he finally changed his pleas on the two charges to guilty – and other charges including supplying drugs were left to lie on the file.

But Mr Shaw pointed out: “It is common ground between the prosecution and defence that drugs were involved.

Jailing Herman, Recorder Charles Foster told him: “I have to deal with you for two counts of sexual activity with a child.

“She was a vulnerable person. You exploited that vulnerability, and you seduced her. You had unprotected sex with her, you abused her violently, you coerced her, you controlled her.

“You plainly knew her age. She was still at school, as you knew, and drugs and alcohol were used.

“You have a pattern of violent behaviour, particularly towards females you have a relationship with, and you have a particular interest in pre-pubescent females.

“I have no doubt you pose a significant risk of committing further specified offences and of causing serious physical or psychological harm.”