Ex-chairman of Starbeck Bowling Club admits stealing £3,334

The former chairman of Starbeck Bowling Club has pleaded guilty to stealing more than £3,000 from the organisation.

Donald Palmer, 70, of Eleanor Drive, Harrogate, volunteered to carry out work on footpaths at the club in 2019.

He was given multiple signed, blank cheques to buy materials but used them for his own benefit.

At Harrogate Magistrates Court yesterday, Palmer admitted stealing £3,334 between November 15 and December 13, 2019.

He was ordered to pay back the sum at a rate of £140 a month and escaped further punishment.

Solicitor David Dedman, representing Palmer, said his client had taken “advantage” of the club’s trust and was sorry for his actions. He said:

“This is a tricky case for a number of reasons. Mr Palmer voluntarily did the works at the club. He agrees he took the money, he was given blank, signed cheques and took advantage of this. The club benefitted and lost as a result of his actions.

“He is 70, has never been in trouble and lives off his state pension. I would ask we deal with this here rather than going to crown court.”

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Magistrate Christopher Harrison agreed it was difficult to reach a verdict. He told Pamler:

“We’ve taken into account your guilty plea, good character and that you have no criminal history and the probability of you troubling a court again is unlikely. We are going to give you a compensation order to pay the £3,334.51 back to the club.”

‘A shame it came to this’

Club secretary Steve Day told the Stray Ferret after the hearing he noticed funds had “dwindled” when he received a bank statement.

He said when the money wasn’t reimbursed, the club decided to take action.

Mr Day added:

“We are pleased it has been resolved, it was just a shame it had to come to this. Mr Palmer was chairman and first team captain and was always very supportive of the club.”

The club, situated next to Starbeck Baths, dates back to 1920 and has eight league teams.

Knaresborough man charged with murder

A man from Knaresborough has been charged with murder following a fight on Friday evening at the Pier Hotel pub in Withernsea, East Yorkshire.

Police were called at around 11.30pm after reports of an altercation involving a group of people at the pub on Seaside Road.

The victim has been named as Darron Bower. He was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency services.

Darren Moverley, 44, of Withernsea, and Dean Kilkenny, 46, of Knaresborough, have both been charged with murder and they appeared at Hull Magistrates Court this morning.

Humberside Police believe that lots of people were in the area when the incident took place. It says anyone with information who has not already spoken to them should call 101 and quote log 594.

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Couple jailed after Bower Road brothel reveals modern slavery in Harrogate

A married couple were jailed today for sexually exploiting seven vulnerable women in what amounted to modern day slavery in Harrogate.

Fabiani Alvez De Souza, 42, and Gareth Derby, 53, were both sentenced to five years’ imprisonment at Leeds Crown Court, having been found guilty following a two-week trial in December.

De Souza was charged with eight offences contrary to the Sexual Offences Act 2003 of controlling prostitution for gain, along with seven offences contrary to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 for arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation.

Derby faced two charges in relation to controlling prostitution for gain and arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation.

Both these offences involved the same woman who was the first to work as a sex worker in the rented flat in Harrogate.

They were handed slavery and trafficking orders that will last for 10 years following their release from prison.

The seven victims involved in the case are from Brazil, Portugal and Spain and aged between 26 and 60.

The convictions followed a four-year investigation by North Yorkshire Police’s Organised Crime Unit.

Harrogate sex workers

In January 2017, North Yorkshire Police launched Operation Oasis, which involved police officers conducting harm reduction visits to identify and support vulnerable sex workers in North Yorkshire.

Between October 2017 and May 2018, officers attended the same location on Bower Road, Harrogate, on six separate occasions during which they spoke to five women who were sex workers.

After the third visit in December 2017, it became clear that a brothel was being operated from the flat and that another woman was facilitating the travel of the women working at the premise to the UK and that she was also involved in the management of their activities.

These concerns were passed to Detective Inspector Fionna McEwan in North Yorkshire Police’s Organised Crime Unit. Her team began an in-depth investigation led by the officer in the case, Detective Constable Leah Kitchen.

It was established that De Souza was the person who was renting the flat on Bower Road in Harrogate and that she had created, posted and paid for the adverts on an adult website under “Escorts and Massages” in Yorkshire and the Humber with a partial Harrogate post code.

At the same time, she also paid for similar adverts in the South Wooton/PE30 area which related to another rented address on Nelson Street in Kings Lynn.

Rented flats in Harrogate and Norfolk

The investigators were able to establish a pattern of activity of De Souza or Derby paying for flights from locations such as Lisbon, Amsterdam and Brussels to Manchester and Stansted airports, as well as train and road travel within the UK including from these airports to the rented flats in Harrogate and Kings Lynn.

The first time this occurred, on 27 September 2017, is a perfect illustration of how the pair, from Upwell in Norfolk, operated their illegal enterprise.

Evidence showed that De Souza and Derby had travelled from their home address to Manchester Airport that evening in Derby’s work van.

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They collected a woman who had flown in from Amsterdam and they drove her to the flat in Harrogate.

At 6.28am the next day, financial enquiries confirmed that an advert was uploaded to an adult website paid for by De Souza.

Evidence again confirmed that De Souza and Derby left Harrogate to return to Kings Lynn shortly after the advert went live.

Cash deposits

Between 30 September and 13 October 2017, three cash deposits were made in Harrogate to De Souza’s bank account of £163, £600 and £1,045.

During this period neither De Souza nor Derby were in Harrogate.

When the first harm reduction visit at the flat was carried out by North Yorkshire Police on 8 October 2017, officers were able to establish that it was the same woman who had been collected from Manchester Airport by De Souza and Derby.

 

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De Souza and Derby clearing the flat out in Harrogate.

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The investigation showed that De Souza was controlling this woman’s activities. Between 25 and 30 October, two further cash deposits were made into De Souza’s bank account in Harrogate of £500 and £600 respectively, again during this period De Souza and Derby were in Norfolk.

Financial records showed that De Souza then paid £70.98 for an EasyJet flight for the same woman who flew from London Stansted to Amsterdam on 29 October.

On 8 August 2018, North Yorkshire Police and Norfolk Constabulary attended the couple’s then home address at Walpole St Andrew. Upon entering the property officers found one woman who had previously been encountered at the Harrogate flat.

Officers then had to force their way into the garage which had been converted into a small flat where they found another woman who was involved in prostitution.

De Souza was arrested and taken into custody for questioning. Derby was working out of the country at that time but was arrested on his return.

A detailed financial examination showed that the couple had spent several thousands of pounds setting up the business, including paying for the adult website adverts and travel and accommodation for the woman who worked as prostitutes.

However, cash deposits totalling more than £40,000 were found to have been paid into their bank accounts during this six-month period.

‘Controlling prostitution for gain’

Detective Constable Leah Kitchen, of the Organised Crime Unit, said:

“De Souza claimed throughout the investigation that she was just helping friends of hers who were working as prostitutes, while Derby repeatedly told the police that he was unaware of what was going on.

“The truth of the matter is that they, together, were operating an illegal business involving human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain.

“Among the considerable evidence we were able to recover were WhatsApp messages in which De Souza refers to herself as ‘the boss’.

“Tellingly, WhatsApp messages from De Souza to Derby in June 2017 included the following:

‘Let me tell you something…the first month was an experience, but there are still a lot of adjustments to make so we can actually make money.

‘At this point we have more than 10 women interested in working for us, but we need to have other conditions for our business to work. Try to find another apartment…or we’ll both try to find to make our business more profitable.’

“It is clear from these messages alone that they were determined to expand their business. They had invested thousands of pounds, but they had profited by more than £40,000 during this six-month period.

“This considerable sum of cash was gained through the exploitation of seven vulnerable women in what amounted to modern day slavery.

“I’m very proud that North Yorkshire Police, with assistance from Norfolk Constabulary, have rooted out this activity and brought the offenders to justice.”

DC Kitchen added:

“This is an important case as it is a victimless prosecution for a human trafficking and controlling prostitution investigation, which is unusual and more difficult to progress to court.

“It has also shown the importance of a safeguarding approach to policing, because if it wasn’t for the sex worker harm reduction visits carried out in Harrogate under Operation Oasis, this fledgling international sex trafficking business may have grown significantly without coming to the attention of the police.”

 

Ex-Harrogate hospital IT worker who downloaded 750,000 indecent images of children jailed again

Warning: some readers may find aspects of this article distressing

A former Harrogate hospital IT worker was labelled a danger to children as he was jailed yet again for downloading images of children.

Martin Richard Shepherd, 50, from Harrogate, was already under lifetime curbs on his internet use after being convicted of downloading three-quarters of a million indecent images of children in 2017.

But when police officers paid him an impromptu visit in September 2020, they found he had been deleting “vast” amounts of data on his computer, York Crown Court heard.

Analysis of his devices revealed that the computer buff had downloaded hundreds more images – including videos featuring child rape – while on prison licence and subject to a lifetime sexual-harm prevention order to stop him trawling the web for illicit material.

Shepherd, who had “curated” the images according to their levels of depravity, told officers he found “irresistible” the urge to view images of children being sexually abused.

He admitted possessing indecent images and appeared for sentence via video link on Thursday.

Jailed for five years in 2017

The court heard he was working as an IT expert at Harrogate District Hospital at the time of his original offences in 2016, when police found about 750,000 indecent images of children on his computer devices.

This led to a five-year jail sentence in 2017 for possessing and distributing indecent images, as well as two counts of voyeurism and computer misuse in relation to his work at the hospital.

Shepherd, described as a loner, served half of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence in July 2019.

In September 2020, police monitoring officers made an unannounced visit to his home in Harrogate and found he had been deleting a “vast amount” of data from an Android tablet, in breach of the sexual-harm prevention order. This resulted in a further two-year jail sentence in January last year for four breaches of the order.

However, no illegal images were found at the time and it was not until later that a further police investigation unearthed yet more images of children which Shepherd had stored on five memory sticks.

Deleting images

Prosecutor Jonathan Foy said that Shepherd, formerly of Chatsworth Grove, had started deleting the images – about 125 gigabytes in total – within six months of being released from prison. Mr Foy said:

“When interviewed, he admitted that as soon as he was released from custody, his temptation to (view) pornographic images of children was something he found irresistible.”

Analysis of the devices revealed that Shepherd had downloaded hundreds of indecent images of all levels of seriousness, including 148 photos and videos rated Category A – the worst kind of such material. They included images of girls aged between four and 11 years of age being raped by adult men. One of the children in the depraved movie clips was unconscious.

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Mr Foy said:

“He troubles himself not only to obtain (the indecent images), but to separately save them (on USB sticks), curate them (in terms of) highest quality”

There were a “large number” of young victims featured in the scenes.

Downloading indecent images since 2002

The court heard that Shepherd, who worked in the hospital’s IT department for 22 years, had been downloading indecent images of children since 2002, but his computer skills enabled him to encrypt the huge stash of material and avoid detection for 14 years.

In 2016, police cyber-crime detectives finally snared him and found that he had amassed about three-quarters of a million indecent images of children.

They found a “massive library collection” of images featuring the serious sexual abuse of “very young” children including 12-month-old babies and youngsters who had been drugged or plied with alcohol.

Shepherd had painstakingly catalogued the images in 22 encrypted volumes and used an “extremely-complex” system of passwords to hide them. He also distributed about 20 depraved videos on a paedophilic file-sharing site.

His previous conviction for voyeurism related to two young women whom he secretly filmed getting undressed and walking around naked at a property in Harrogate after setting up covert video equipment. Those offences occurred between 2005 and 2012.

The previous offence of computer misuse, or gaining unauthorised access to private computer files, occurred at Harrogate District Hospital where Shepherd, who was working in the IT department, had somehow “abstracted” photos from a family computer of a young girl in her underwear, bikini and school uniform.

Resigned from hospital in 2016

Ashleigh Metcalfe, mitigating, said Shepherd had been on custodial remand for over a year and had been working in Hull Prison’s upholstery department.

However, a probation report noted that since being forced to resign from his hospital job in 2016 following his arrest for the original offences, Shepherd had spent much of his time searching for indecent images of children.

Judge Simon Hickey said the discovery of even more indecent images “reinforced” his opinion that Shepherd was a dangerous offender “and that he will simply continue to reoffend”.

He said he had noted the “extremely young” ages of the children featuring in the sordid videos.

He told Shepherd:

“You admitted (to police) that you can’t stop yourself finding children of this age irresistible. You were downloading a vast amount of material. The children depicted are clearly vulnerable and visibly distressed.”

Shepherd, described as intelligent, was jailed for 12 months. He will be released from jail halfway through that sentence but will then have to serve an extended two-year period on prison licence.

Mr Hickey also added 10 new prohibitions to the sexual-harm prevention order for the protection of the public, namely young girls. Shepherd will remain on the sex-offenders’ register for life.

Harrogate police officer pleads not guilty to alleged sexual assault

A Harrogate police officer has pleaded not guilty after being charged with sexually assaulting a woman while on duty.

Christopher Ryan Hudson, 31, appeared before Leeds Crown Court for a preliminary hearing today where he entered his plea.

The alleged offence is said to have taken place at Stonefall Cemetery on Wetherby Road, Harrogate, on February 8.

He is accused of sexually touching the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, while he was on duty.

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Mr Hudson, of Hollin Terrace, Huddersfield, spoke to confirm his name and that he understood his bail conditions, which include no contact with the alleged victim.

Judge Simon Batiste imposed the new conditions before adjourning the case for a trial on February 20, 2023. He blamed the delay on a “considerable backlog in the courts”.

North Yorkshire Police said in a statement that Mr Hudson was based in Harrogate at the time of the allegation and was currently suspended.

Harrogate police officer denies sexual assault while on duty

A Harrogate police officer appeared in court today charged with sexually assaulting a woman.

Christopher Ryan Hudson, 30, who was suspended by North Yorkshire Police after the allegation was made, appeared at York Magistrates’ Court on Thursday when he denied one count of sexual assault.

The alleged offence is said to have occurred at Stonefall Cemetery on Wetherby Road, Harrogate, on February 8.

Hudson, who was based in the Harrogate police division at the time of the alleged offence, was dressed in a smart black suit, white shirt and tie when he appeared before district judge Adrian Lower.

He is accused of sexually touching the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, during working hours and in a “relatively remote location”.

Prosecutor Charles Macrae said it was alleged that Mr Hudson sexually touched the woman while she “repeatedly told him she didn’t want him to”. Mr Macrae added:

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“There was a suggestion that there was a degree of planning (to the alleged offence).”

Matthew Savage, for Hudson, said he had no submissions to make at this stage.

Judge Mr Lower sent the case to Leeds Crown Court where Mr Hudson, of Hollin Terrace, Huddersfield, will appear on January 6 for a preliminary hearing. He was released on unconditional bail.

North Yorkshire Police said in a statement that Hudson was based in Harrogate at the time of the allegation and was currently suspended.

Harrogate addict jailed after stamping on head of ‘defenceless’ victim

A mature student has been jailed after repeatedly kicking and stamping on the head of a man at his home in Harrogate, knocking him unconscious and breaking his jaw.

Matthew Childs, 39, a heroin addict and heavy drinker, kicked and stamped on the victim about 12 times, York Crown Court heard.

The victim was just leaving his friend’s flat when he bumped into Childs and told him: “Mind where you’re going, mate.”

This enraged Childs, who followed the victim to his home in Grove Avenue a short distance away, said prosecutor Gareth Henderson-Moore.

When the victim reached his front door and was about to put his key in the lock, Childs attacked him from behind and pushed him across the threshold.

The victim tripped over a step and fell to the ground in the communal hallway whereupon Childs began kicking and stamping on his head and body “repeatedly”.

Fractured jaw

A neighbour came to the aid of the unconscious victim and an ambulance was called. He was taken to hospital with a fractured jaw, multiple bruises to his head and body, extremely sore ribs and black eyes.

He discharged himself from hospital because it was the height of the covid pandemic and “he thought others would need hospital more than him, and he wasn’t thinking straight”.

Childs, of Dalby Avenue, Harrogate, was arrested and admitted causing grievous bodily harm. He appeared for sentence on Wednesday.

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Mr Henderson-Moore said the victim had been drinking at a friend’s house just before the attack at about 10pm in June last year.

The victim, who only had a passing acquaintance with Childs, said:

“I was laid on my back and without warning I was kicked and stamped on. I believe it was about 12 times.”

He said the kicks were “very forceful” and “repeated over and over”.

“I didn’t think he was going to stop.”

He said he had been in “a lot of pain” since the attack and struggled to walk and do activities with his daughter.

He said he remembered coming round when his neighbour came to his aid and then ending up in hospital.

The court heard that Childs had 10 previous convictions for offences including violence.

Troubled childhood

Philip Standfast, mitigating, said there was “clearly a long history of drink and drug abuse arising from (Childs’) troubled childhood and adolescence”.

He said Childs had recently started a course at Askham Bryan College in York but had not re-enrolled for the coming academic term due to these court proceedings.

Judge Simon Hickey said:

“This was a prolonged and persistent assault on that man on the floor when he was defenceless.”

Jailing Childs for 16 months, he said that only an immediate prison term could be merited for “attacking a man without warning and without provocation when he’s on the floor”.

Childs will serve half of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.

Court approves emergency closure of ‘filthy’ Ripon takeaway

A court has approved the emergency closure of a Chinese takeaway in Ripon which hygiene officers found to be filthy.

Harrogate Borough Council served the Dragon Inn Chinese Restaurant with a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Order last week and took the owners to court.

Leeds Magistrates Court has now approved the closure and ordered the takeaway to pay the council’s costs of £1967.10 within 28 days.

The court heard how the council’s environmental health team found a series of potentially dangerous hygiene issues.

Officers found the Dragon Inn was filthy throughout, had very poor structural conditions, with the kitchen and other food preparation areas in a dirty state.

The basement with toilets was also dirty with no handwashing facilities. Staff were also seen to not wash their hands after handling raw food.

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We tried to contact the owner but found a notice at the door which said the business is closed until September 8 at the earliest.

The takeaway will only be allowed to reopen once the council is satisfied it no longer poses a risk to public health.

Dragon Inn has received ‘good’ four out of five food hygiene ratings in the past five years from the council with the last inspection in January 2020.

It is the second food venue to be closed by the council under a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Order in as many weeks.

Harrogate Borough Council believes that standards at some businesses have dropped since the UK has come out of the coronavirus lockdown.

Cllr Mike Chambers, Harrogate Borough Council’s cabinet member for housing and safer communities, said:

“Since we came out of the lockdown periods the council is finding that hygiene standards have deteriorated significantly in some premises.

“It is imperative that food businesses maintain hygiene and food safety at all times, even more so during the currently covid-19 pandemic.

“Council offers work hard to provide guidance and advice for businesses so that they can operate safely.

“Any businesses who fail to act upon this advice, and the resulting inspection identifies a risk to public health, then we have no option but to consider formal action.”

Former Coach and Horses landlord John Nelson admits breaching driving ban

The former landlord of the Coach and Horses pub in Harrogate has admitted breaching a driving ban issued for driving while under the influence of drugs.

John Nelson, who held the licence at the Coach and Horses for 33 years until last summer, appeared at Harrogate Justice Centre today.

He pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified and driving without insurance on Burn Bridge Lane in Burn Bridge on July 13.

The court adjourned the case for another hearing on August 27.

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Nelson was banned from driving for 18 months on May 7 after police pulled him over with cocaine in his system and Class A drugs in his jacket.

He had 30 micrograms of cocaine per litre of blood in his system. The legal limit is 10 micrograms. Officers also found three bottles of methadone in his car.

Nelson lost his pub licence after North Yorkshire Police found customers drinking outside the Coach and Horses and not observing social distancing during the weekend of May 30, 2020.

Customers of the pub launched a petition to grant the licence to his daughter Samantha Nelson, which Harrogate Borough Council did in October last year.

Ms Nelson said she would refurbish and reopen the pub but it remains closed.

 

Employee stole from Harrogate garden centre for more than a year

A former employee of a garden centre in Harrogate who stole cash from it for more than a year has been ordered to pay back a sum of money.

Michael Stuart, 64, of Swarcliffe Road, Harrogate, took cash from Crimple Hall on Leeds Road in Pannal between July 2019 and October 2020.

North Yorkshire Magistrates Court, sitting at Harrogate Justice Centre last week, ordered Stuart to pay £500 in compensation to Graham Watson, the managing director of Crimple Hall.

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The court also gave Stuart until June 2022 to complete 100 hours of supervised unpaid work.

Crimple Hall condemned its former employee in posts on its social media channels.

The posts said:

“Please meet a Mr Michael Stuart a once trusted and well-paid employee who repaid that benevolence by systematically stealing over a long period of time from Crimple Hall garden centre.”

The company also tweeted that it was taking action to reclaim money that had been stolen.