December 28, 2018 12.50 pm This story is over 62 months old

Paedophiles jailed in Lincolnshire in 2018

They committed a range of horrific offences

A man who carried out sex attacks on young boys, a former deputy headmaster, a hospital worker and men caught by paedophile hunters were among the sex offenders jailed in 2018.

Judges in the county handed out jail sentences to over 30 paedophiles this year, ranging from eight months to life imprisonment with a minimum of 12 and a half years.

Here’s a summary of notable court reports from 2018 with sentences in ascending order. Note police do not release photos of sex offenders who are jailed for less than two years.


Thomas Callow

A married man who downloaded indecent images of children onto his laptop over a five year period was jailed for eight months.

The material downloaded by Thomas Callow, 68, of Clay Bank, South Kyme included images of babies and toddlers being abused.

Callow admitted six charges of making indecent images of children on dates between 2012 and 2017 and a further charge of possession of extreme pornography.

He was given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

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Peter Storr

Peter Storr, 62, of Market Rasen Road, Dunholme, near Lincoln, was jailed for nine months after admitting to downloading and distributing incident images of children.

He was caught after police received information that a computer based at his address was being used to upload indecent images of children onto the internet.

Storr pleaded guilty at Lincoln Crown Court to three charges of making a total of 186 indecent images of children on dates between March 10 2014 and February 23 2017. The images include 41 which are in the most serious category.

Storr also admitted two charges of distributing a total of 20 indecent images of children between January 10 and February 23 2017. He was given a five year sexual harm prevention order. He was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

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Michael Austin

Michael Austin, 58, of Sea Dyke Way in Marshchapel was jailed for 10 months after admitting to downloading indecent images of children on his home computer.

He was caught with a “significant volume” of illegal child sex abuse images after police raided his home. The images included a small number of movies and some of “pre-teen” children.

He admitted three charges of making indecent images of children and one charge of possessing extreme pornography over a ten year period.

He must also register as a sex offender for ten years. He was also made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order which will last for five years.

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Peter Johnson

Peter Johnson was jailed for 16 months.

Peter Johnson, 55, of Willoughby Road, Alford, was jailed for 16 months after he downloaded pornographic photographs of children as young as two years old.

The computer repair worker was arrested after police raided his home in May 2016 and found computer equipment containing illicit images and films.

He admitted four charges at a hearing this year and was given a 10 year sexual harm prevention order. He was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

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Andrew Gilbert

Andrew Gilbert was jailed for 18 months.

Andrew Gilbert, 58, of Boultham Park Road, Lincoln, was jailed for 18 months after he admitted taking indecent photographs of a young girl.

He took the photographs a decade ago when he was living in Mablethorpe but the offences only came to light in 2014. A complaint was made to police and an investigation revealed that the photographs had been downloaded to the girl’s computer.

He admitted two charges of taking an incident photograph of a child between April 17, 2005, and April 18, 2008. He also pleaded guilty to a third charge of making incident photographs of a child by creating a DVD containing incident images between the same dates.

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Michael Terry

Michael Terry, 43, was jailed for 20 months. Photo: Lincolnshire Police

A convicted sex offender who came in to contact with children after becoming “Head of Security” for a community group that monitors online predators, was jailed for 20 months.

Michael Terry, 43, used “great deceit” to join the Lincolnshire-based ‘Guardian Angels’ despite being subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order which banned him from staying overnight at the same address as children.

On several occasions he stayed overnight at the home of the Guardian Angels director, Mandy Bradley, despite her having three children aged under 13. He was eventually caught after she became suspicious and checked his background.

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Samuel Warner

Samuel Warner from Lincoln was jailed for two years. Photo: Lincolnshire Police

Samuel Warner, 46, from Lincoln was jailed for two years for offences against minors after being filmed by a group of so-called paedophile hunters.

‘Hunter group’ Justice4Kids claimed to have posed as young girls in order to bait Warner online.

A video in which a group appear to confront him near to the Lincoln city centre police station has been viewed more than 26,000 times on Facebook.

In the video, Warner is accused of arranging to meet with what he believed to be a minor and sending images. He tells them he “doesn’t know why” he exchanged messages.

Warner will also be subject to a 10 year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and have to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.

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Roger Laughton

Roger Laughton was jailed for two years. Photo: Lincolnshire Police

Roger Laughton, 33, of Chestnut Grove, Grantham was jailed for two years after a sex attack on a five-year-old girl left his victim suffering from nightmares as a result of the ordeal.

He was also given a 10 year sexual harm prevention order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

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Ashleigh Buttery

Ashleigh Buttery was jailed for two years.

Ashleigh Buttery, 24, of St Catherine’s Grove in Lincoln was jailed for two years after being caught out by paedophile hunters.

Buttery thought he was grooming a 12-year-old girl over the internet before arranging to meet her. He first encountered what he believed to be Vicky Payne in an internet chat room.

He quickly turned their chats to sexual matters and asked her to perform a sex act. He also sent her an indecent video of himself and then arranged to meet her.

Buttery turned up only to find he had been caught in a “honeytrap” and the person he believed was a 12-year-old was actually an adult. He was filmed by the people confronting him and police were called resulting in his arrest.

Buttery was found guilty by a jury after he denied charges including attempting to meet a child after grooming and attempting to incite a child to commit a sexual act.

He was given a 10 year sexual harm prevention order. Buttery was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

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Gordon Frow

Gordon Frow was jailed for showing an indecent picture of himself to a nine-year-old girl. Photo: Lincolnshire Police

Gordon Frow, 37, whose address was given as c/o College Close, Lincoln, was jailed for two years after showing an indecent photograph of himself to a nine-year-old girl.

Frow visited the girl’s home at an address in the south of Lincoln when he produced his phone and showed the girl the image.

Lincoln Crown Court was told that the still photograph showed Frow performing a sex act. The girl’s reaction was to cover her eyes and to tell him to get the photograph off the screen.

Frow denied a charge of causing a child to watch a sexual act as a result of the incident in November 2016 but was found guilty by a jury after a trial. He was cleared of sexually assaulting the young girl.

Frow was placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years. He was also banned from driving for three years.

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Thomas Hutson

Thomas Hutson was jailed for two years.

Thomas Hutson, 26, of Bert Allen Drive, Old Leake, was jailed for two years after he was found with a paedophile manual giving details of how to sexually abuse young children.

He was arrested in February 2017 after police raided his home and discovered hundreds of photographs and films on his computer depicting children being sexually abused.

Checks on his computer revealed he had been distributing the illegal images to other people using Skype and file sharing sites.

In total 1,860 indecent photographs of children were found on his computer together with 311 films with footage lasting 17 hours. The images included 331 photographs and 179 moving images which were in the most serious category.

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Zachary Selby

Zachary Selby has been jailed for sex attacks on young children.

A rapist convicted of sex attacks on two six-year-olds, carried out when he himself was a minor, was jailed for three years.

Zachary Selby, 23, carried out his first attack when he was just 11-years-old  when he raped a young girl. Four years later he carried out a number of sex attacks on a six-year-old boy who he also raped.

Both victims were warned by Selby not to tell anyone about their ordeal but the offences came to light later which led to Selby being charged.

Selby, of River Lane, Anwick, near Sleaford, denied rape and sexual assault of the young girl. He also denied rape of the boy but was convicted of all charges following a jury trial.

Selby was jailed for three years and placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.

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Fred Edwards

A former teacher who sexually assaulted an eight-year-old girl over 30 years ago was jailed for three years.

Fred Edwards, 69, of Priory Drive in Fiskerton was found guilty of the offence, which happened in 1984 when he was a teacher at a Leicestershire school.

His young victim was taking part in a camping trip when she was abused while away from her tent.

He had denied one count of indecently assaulting a girl under the age of 14, but was found guilty following a trial. He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life.

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Christopher Hart

Christopher Hart was jailed for for three and half years. Photo: Lincolnshire Police

Christopher Hart, 72, now of Robinson Place in Brant Broughton, was jailed for three and a half years after being caught with over 85,000 unlawful images of children as young as two.

Hart, who suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), accumulated the moving and still images over a 13 year period.

He used sophisticated encryption software to hide much of the material which he catalogued with obsessive detail.

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Bryan Lockwood

Bryan Lockwood was jailed for offences against a 12-year-old boy. Photo: Lincolnshire Police

Former RAF veteran Bryan Lockwood, 71, from Legsby near Market Rasen, was jailed for four years after admitting sexually assaulting a young boy on two occasions.

He was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.

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Andrew Hudson

Andrew Hunsdon, 56, was jailed for four years. Photo: Lincolnshire Police

Andrew Hunsdon, 56, who has physical and mental health problems and was recently living in a psychiatric unit, was jailed for four years after admitting sexually assaulting a young girl.

He was initially arrested after police suspected he was downloading indecent images of young children. When police raided his home at Amber Hill near Boston they discovered photographs he had taken of a 12-year-old girl.

The girl was subsequently traced by officers and revealed she had also been sexually abused by Hunsdon.

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Robert Margerum

Margerum was already being monitored by authorities for sex offences.

Convicted sex offender Robert Margerum, 30, formerly of Castlegate, Grantham, was jailed for five years after asking an eight-year-old boy to send him an indecent photograph.

He contacted the boy and his nine-year-old brother online claiming to be an 11-year-old.

He asked the younger boy to send a photograph of his genitals and got them to play a game of truth or dare – in which he asked one of the boys to take off his top.

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Neil Amess

Neil Amess was jailed for five years.

Neil Amess, 34, of Gaunt Close in Spalding was jailed for five years for committing sex offences against two 15-year-old girls.

He pleaded guilty to charges involving one of the girls of sexual activity with a child, meeting a child following sexual grooming and sexual communication with a child.

He sent sexually explicit messages to the girls and met up with them. He went on to give them alcohol after taking them back to his flat in Spalding and subsequently had sex with one of them. He also admitted a charge of sexual communication with the second 15-year-old girl.

He was given an extended licence which means he will be at risk of being returned to prison for five further years after his initial sentence expires. He was placed on the sex offenders’ register for life and given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

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Scott Rudge

Scott Rudge was jailed for five years. Photo: Lincolnshire Police

A former child photographer who admitted sexually touching a young boy was jailed for five years.

Scott Rudge, 29, of no fixed address, admitted sexually touching a child and making indecent images of children. The offences occurred over a nine year period.

He was also found to have downloaded almost 50,000 indecent images of children from the internet.

His activity came to the attention of police in May this year when they carried out a search at an address in a village near Lincoln. The court was told some of the images were of children aged between just two and three years old.

Rudge was also ordered to register as a Sex Offender for life and made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

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Joshua Perreau

A paedophile described as “a devious monster” filmed himself sexually abusing a young girl and then posted the footage on the internet.

Joshua Perreau, 20, of Pitwines Close, Poole, Dorset admitted sexual assault of a child under 13 and was jailed for five years.

He also took indecent photographs of two other young children which he posted via a chat platform and he was caught after police in the USA discovered he was involved in uploading illegal images of children.

A number of the offences were committed when Perreau was staying with a girlfriend in Skegness. Other offences were carried out at times when he was living in Leicestershire.

He was given a two year licence extension and placed on the sex offenders’ register for life and given a seven year sexual harm prevention order.

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Roy Griffiths

Roy Griffiths was jailed for six years.

A former deputy headmaster at Lincoln Cathedral School was jailed for six years and seven months after admitting historical sex charges involving the abuse of young boys almost 50 years ago.

Roy Griffiths, 82, who was in charge of boys who boarded at the school, left his post in the summer of 1970 following a complaint made about his behaviour.

Lincoln Crown Court was told that neither the school nor the Lincoln Diocese passed the matter onto the police at the time.

An investigation only began into Griffiths’ conduct after a new safeguarding officer employed by the diocese carried out a review of historic cases which led to Lincolnshire Police setting up Operation Redstone in 2015.

Griffiths, 82, of South Street, Sherborne, Dorset, admitted six charges of indecent assault earlier this year on the day he was due to stand trial in front of a jury.

The charges related to offences involved six different young boys during the period between January 1963 and July 1970 when Griffiths was deputy head as well as housemaster and choirmaster at the school.

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Paul Parsons

Parsons ,56, of Laurel Close, Lincoln has bee jailed for six years and eight months.

A dangerous paedophile was caught by vigilantes after he tried to contact young girls over the internet.

Paul Parsons, 56, of Laurel Close, Lincoln was jailed for a total of six years and eight months including a two-and-a-half year prison licence extension.

Parsons, who has convictions for 37 previous sexual offences starting from when he was a teenager in the 1970s, believed he was chatting to the girls on Internet forums. In fact, he was actually in conversation with paedophile hunters pretending to be young girls.

He admitted a charge of attempting to meet a child following grooming. He also admitted four charges of attempted sexual communication with a child, a further charge of attempting to incite sexual activity with a child and breach of a sexual offences prevention order.

He was given a life long sexual harm prevention order and was placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.

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Anthony Hayward

Hayward, pictured, has been jailed for six years. Photo: Lincolnshire Police

Anthony Hayward, 33, of Princess Street, Lincoln was jailed for six years after encouraging a 12-year-old boy to strip whilst pretending to be a female university student during their online conversations.

He also admitted taking 27 photographs of another young boy, whose mother told the court she believed her son’s “innocence had been taken away.”

The images were found after police raided Hayward’s then home in Woodhall Drive, Lincoln, during March last year.

Six devices, a hard drive and various discs were recovered, all containing incident images. In the main they were still images, with some videos, and were of boys aged between one and seven. In some they were clearly distressed and tied up.

Hayward pleaded guilty to inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, one charge of taking Category C photos of a child, two charges of distributing indecent images of children, three charges of possessing indecent images of children, and one charge of possessing extreme pornography.

He will also have to register as a Sex Offender for life and was made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

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Alex Hepburn

Alex Hepburn was jailed for eight years for sexually abusing young boys. Photo: Lincolnshire Police

Hospital worker Alex Hepburn, 28, of Garfield View, Ermine West, Lincoln, was jailed for eight years after being convicted of sex attacks on young boys.

He was found guilty of a total of six charges of sexual assault of a child

The offences came to light after he was arrested over a separate matter which was not subsequently pursued.

Checks were carried out on Hepburn’s computer revealed a stash of over 2,500 pornographic images of children including 401 in the most serious category.

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Martin Moon

Former teaching assistant Martin Moon, 32, was jailed for eight years after causing a teenager to engage in sexual activity. Photo: Lincolnshire Police

Former teaching assistant Martin Moon, 32 of Bridgewater Lane in Pinchbeck, was jailed for eight years after causing a 15-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity.

He also sent the girl sexual videos of himself and repeatedly asked her to send him sexual pictures.

Moon had previously been jailed for 30 months in January 2011 for sexual activity with a different 15-year-old girl.

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Mark Heyes

Mark Heyes has been jailed.

Mark Heyes, 51, of Festival Avenue, Ingoldmells, was jailed for nine years after he sexually abused a 13-year-old boy.

Heyes, who had twice previously been jailed for sexual assaults on boys, targeted his victim after the lad advertised items for sale on an internet site.

He was given a nine year custodial sentence with a five year licence extension. He was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for life and given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

He admitted causing a child to engage in sexual activity, two charges of breach of a previous sexual offences prevention order and a further two charges of failing to notify the authorities of details as required as part of his sex offenders’ registration.

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Ethan Brown

Ethan Brown was sentenced to 10 years and two months in jail. Photo: Lincolnshire Police

A 20-year-old man was jailed for over 10 years after being found guilty of posing as a teenage girl online to entice boys to send him sexual images and perform sex acts on themselves.

Ethan Brown, of Station Road in Waddington, was 16 at the time of the offences, using Facebook and other social media to target the boys, who were between 8 and 17.

Working with the National Crime Agency, Lincolnshire Police identified 75 boys from across the UK over eight months.

Evidence relating to the offences was recovered from his devices as well as evidence linking his address to the Facebook activity.

A total of 25 prosecutions were brought against Brown, who was charged with Causing and Inciting Children to Child Sexual Exploitation and Possession of Indecent Images Of A Child.

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Daniel Thomas

Daniel Thomas, formerly of Long Row, Newark-on-Trent, was jailed for 11 years

Daniel Thomas, 21, was jailed for 11 year after he tried to rape a 12-year-old girl as well as a 48-year-old woman on the same day — after he consumed alcohol, drugs and watched child porn.

Police found Thomas, formerly of Long Row, Newark-on-Trent, hiding in the garden of a house after a lengthy foot chase involving numerous officers and a police dog.

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Joshua Probert

Grimsby man Joshua Probert, 22, pleaded guilty to 66 offences including blackmail and causing a child to engage in sexual activity. Photo: Merseyside Police

A 22-year-old man from Grimsby was jailed for 12 years for systematically blackmailing young women and at least one child into sending sexual pictures and videos online.

Joshua Probert, of Portland Avenue in Grimsby, pleaded guilty to 66 offences including blackmail and causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

Officers from Titan, the North West regional organised crime unit, and Merseyside Police conducted a joint investigation to identify him.

A complex cyber investigation commenced as a result and in November 2017, Titan officers obtained a search warrant and travelled to Grimsby where they arrested Probert.

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Gary Skinner

Gary Skinner was jailed for 12 years. Photo: Leicestershire Police

Gary Skinner, 45, of Simpson Court in Ingoldmells, was jailed for 12 years after subjecting three young girls to sexual abuse a between 1998 and 2009.

Skinner was found guilty of incident assault on a girl under the age of 14. He was also found guilty of five counts of assault by touching on a girl under the age of 13.

The court heard how Skinner sexually abused three young girls in Leicester between 1998 and 2009.

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Paul Mercer

Child rapist Paul Mercer was sentenced at Lincoln Crown Court.

Paul Mercer, 51, of Old Main Road, East Heckington was jailed for 12 years and nine months after raping his victim twice when she was 12-years-old and on further occasions when she turned 13.

Mercer admitted four charges of rape and was placed on the sex offenders’ register for life and given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

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Darren Barnes

Darren Barnes was jailed for 12 years. Photo: Lincolnshire Police

Darren Barnes, 47, from Tydd Gote was jailed for 12 years for sexually abusing a young girl on frequent occasions.

He obtained his victim’s silence by telling her that “God would not forgive her”. He repeatedly abused the girl, who can not be named, while she was aged between 8 and 11.

The abuse started with touching over the girl’s clothing and progressed to more serious incidents where he asked her to remove her clothes.

The abuse included one incident of oral rape and came to an end when the girl reached puberty and asked for it to stop.

Barnes admitted 11 sexual offences including indecent assault, indecency with a child, sexual assault of a child under 13 and one offence of rape of a child under 13. He also admitted three further charges of making indecent images of children.

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Trevor Elley

Trevor Elley has been jailed for life. Photo: Lincolnshire Police

A predatory paedophile who carried out sex attacks against young boys spread over 25 years was jailed for life.

Trevor Elley, 65, of Queen Street in Lincoln, was found guilty of two offences of rape of a child under the age of 13, two offences of sexually assaulting a child under 13, seven offences of indecent assault on a male and a further charge of attempted buggery.

Elley, described as having sexually abused young boys for virtually his entire adult life, was ordered to serve a minimum of 12 and a half years before he can be considered for parole.

The court heard he had a number of past convictions for offences against young boys and has previously served jail sentences.

Elley had denied offences against three boys but was found guilty by a jury following a trial in September of this year before being sentenced in December.

One of the boys was aged just seven years old when Elley began abusing him. The boy, who was very vulnerable, was then repeatedly sexually assaulted before being raped.

Two other boys were subjected to a series of sexual assaults starting when they were both 12. All three victims were badly affected by the abuse.

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