Lincolnshire Reporter

A pensioner who admitted a series of historic sex offences against young girls has been jailed for ten and a half years at Lincoln Crown Court.

John Baldwin was told he had caused “immense harm” to his two victims.

Judge John Pini QC, passing sentence, told him: “Your conduct was appalling and disgraceful.

“It is clear that you have done immense harm. The fact that you have to serve a prison sentence now is the inevitable consequence of the fact that you escaped justice for so long.”

John Baldwin, 78, of Money Bridge Lane, Pinchbeck, pleaded guilty at Lincoln Crown Court to eight charges of indecent assault on a young girl and a further charge of indecency with a child between December 1987 and December 1995.

He also admitted four charges of sexual assault on a girl under the age of 13 between February 2006 and February 2007.

Baldwin was placed on the sex offenders’ register for life and given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

Sarah Knight, prosecuting, told the court that the offences came to light in 2018 when the most recent victim messaged her mother telling of how she had been sexually abused when she was 10 years old.

Subsequently a second victim made a complaint that Baldwin had sexually abused her when she was aged between 8 and 15.

Miss Knight said that Baldwin sexually abused both of the girls in a brazen way.

In an impact statement the older victim told the court: “I lost my life from the day it started. I’ve had to live with it for 33 years.”

She said that as a result of the abuse she suffered as a child she had been unable to sustain a long-lasting relationship with a man.

She added that she had been unable to have children out of fear that they would suffer similar abuse and she would be unable to protect them.

The younger victim said she had wanted to die as a teenager because she felt unable to live with the memories of what she had suffered.

Tim Brown, in mitigation, said Baldwin had no previous convictions and had pleaded guilty to the offences.

He added that Baldwin had originally been due to be sentenced at the end of March but the hearing was put off because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Mr Baldwin apologises to both the complainants. He says he is sorry.”

A sheep farmer from Lincolnshire has been found guilty of contaminating baby food with metal as part of a £1.4 million bitcoin scheme where he tried blackmailing Tesco.

Nigel Wright, 45, of Market Rasen, was convicted of two counts of food contamination and three counts of blackmail aimed at supermarket chain Tesco when he appeared at The Old Bailey.

In 2018, he placed shards of metal inside three jars of baby food which ended up in two Tesco stores, and demanded bitcoin from the chain to reveal where the dangerous jars were placed.

The jury was told that he sent dozens of threatening letters and emails to Tesco to try and gain the £1.4m bitcoin he asked for.

One draft note read: “Imagine a baby’s mouth cut open and blood pouring out, or the inside of their bellies cut and bleeding. You pay, you save them.”

Tesco then recalled the product, taking back around 42,000 jars of baby food, though no further evidence was found of any more contamination.

Wright was then convicted of another blackmail charge after he demanded £150,000 worth of bitcoin from a woman he had a road rage argument with.

Police officers also recovered £100,000 of the cryptocurrency which had been sent to Wright by undercover officers during the investigation.

The court heard two cases where mothers were moments away from feeding their children contaminated baby food.

The 45-year-old claimed he was forced to do it by travellers who had threatened to rape his wife and hang his children from the trees.

After a psychiatric report, the court heard that Nigel Wright “appears to be mentally disordered.”

Wright will face sentencing on September 28, with the judge warning him that he may face a lengthy custodial sentence.

The judge told him that punishments for his type of offence can range between eight and 17 years in prison.