A 67-year-old man pleaded not guilty in court today to performing a sexual act in Valley Gardens.

Kevin Payne, from Ling Park Avenue, Bingley, was charged with outraging public decency and breaching a sexual harm prevention order.

A member of the public reported seeing a man carrying out a sexual act on Sunday afternoon at the popular family venue.

North Yorkshire Police subsequently arrested Mr Payne and charged him with the two offences.

Appearing at York Magistrates Court this morning, he pleaded not guilty to both charges and was sent for trial at York Crown Court on July 11.

He will remain in custody until the hearing.

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Police have arrested a man on suspicion of indecent exposure in Harrogate’s Valley Gardens.

Officers were alerted to the incident, which happened in the gardens on Sunday (June 12).

A 67-year-old man from Bradford was arrested on suspicion of outraging public decency and breaching a sexual harm prevention order.

North Yorkshire Police added in a statement:

“Officers would like to thank the quick-thinking members of the public who alerted us to the man and helped detain him.

“He remains in police custody whilst enquiries continue.”

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A Harrogate police officer pleaded not guilty in court today after being charged with sexually assaulting a woman.

Joseph McCabe, 27, of Starbeck, is currently suspended from duty as a North Yorkshire Police officer based in Harrogate.

The officer appeared before York Magistrates Court this morning charged with sexual assault by touching. The case concerns an alleged incident at a North Yorkshire property last summer.

Prosecutor Charlotte Dangerfield said Mr McCabe, was allegedly “trying to stroke” the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

It was also alleged that he was pulling at her hair, added Ms Dangerfield. She alleged that Mr McCabe was trying to have sex with the woman who was unwilling.

The defendant’s solicitor, Mr Hague, claimed the incident was “not sexual in nature” and added:

“He [Mr McCabe] thought there was going to be sexual interaction (but) she rejected it and he respected that”.

The magistrate questioned Mr Hague about the relationship between the defendant and the woman. Mr Hague responded and said:

“It had been a friendship for sometime with regular friendly communication, just a typical workplace relationship.”

Mr McCabe is set to appear before York Magistrates Court again on October 11 and has been released on unconditional bail.

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A Harrogate police officer is to appear in court this week charged with sexual assault.

Joseph McCabe, of Kingsley Park Road, Starbeck, will appear at York Magistrates Court on Thursday.

He is accused of touching without consent at Scotch Corner Services, near Richmond, in August last year.

The 27-year-old officer is a serving North Yorkshire Police officer based at Harrogate police station.

He is currently suspended from duty.

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A Harrogate guest house owner who played the role of “facilitator” in a half-a-million-pound cannabis racket has sacked her legal team as she pursues plans to appeal her conviction.

Yoko Banks, 74, rented out her properties to an Albanian drug gang for “industrial” cannabis production “in the expectation of significant profit”, Leeds Crown Court heard.

The pensioner, of Scargill Road, was jailed for three-and-a-half years in August last year after she admitted three counts of being concerned in the production of cannabis. 

Her six co-conspirators, Visar Sellaj, 33, Kujtim Brahaj, 50, Indrit Brahaj, 27, Bledar Elezaj, 36, Andi Kokaj, 23, and 31-year-old Erblin Elezaj, an illegal immigrant, were jailed for a combined 22 years for various offences including drug supply and production of skunk cannabis.

Banks, who owns properties across Harrogate, was back in court today to face financial confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

But they were postponed once again after the court heard she was still intent on appealing her conviction and wanted to leave her legal team in favour of another firm of solicitors.

Prosecutor Michael Bosomworth said there was also an issue with a statement provided by one of Banks’s co-defendants, the gang’s ringleader Sellaj, who claimed that some of the money in his bank account had been transferred to him by relatives in Albania. 

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He added, however, that the major sticking point involved Banks and her “complicated accounts and property empire”.

Mr Bosomworth said Banks was now claiming “she only understands Japanese” – although she spoke in English in the dock and appeared to understand everything that was put to her. 

Matters have been further complicated by Banks initially telling her legal team she didn’t wish to appeal, but then changing her mind.

She had pursued the appeal “notwithstanding she told (her solicitors) she wasn’t pursuing it” and was now in the process of transferring legal aid to a new team of solicitors.

If her legal aid application is granted, it would mean her costs being covered at least partly by public money.

Banks has “messed everyone around” for 18 months

Mr Bosomworth said there had been an issue between Banks and her present solicitors and she was “awaiting legal aid to be transferred”.

He said it was the Crown’s case that Banks had “messed everyone around for the last 18 months” and that the prosecution would “invite the court to consider the matter on the basis she is just not co-operating”. 

He added that any order made today in terms of benefit and confiscation amount would “inevitably” be challenged by Banks who, as things stood, did not have any legal representation.

Mr Bosomworth said it was incumbent on Banks to submit a statement to the court showing her assets and “what the issues are”, but she had not yet served one.

When Recorder Mr Baird asked Banks if she understood what had been said and that she must submit a statement, she said she did and that she had “messed up quite a lot” during the legal case.

At the previous hearing in January, the Crown said it was not yet in a position to make a financial confiscation ruling because Banks’s defence team needed more time to delve into her “complicated” accounts and extensive “property empire”.

Leeds Crown Court. Picture: the Stray Ferret.

Banks’s then defence counsel said that a forensic accountant had been instructed to scrutinise her accounts and the “considerable amount” of properties and other assets she owned. 

Mr Recorder Baird adjourned the confiscation proceedings until July 29. 

He said: 

“These are important matters for Mrs Banks. There’s a lot of money at stake here and I take the view that she should be legally represented.”

Banks was ‘facilitator’ in cannabis racket

At the sentence hearing in August 2021, the court heard that the “professional”, London-based gang had invested tens of thousands of pounds into three cannabis factories at Banks’s properties on Alexandra Road, Woodlands Road and Somerset Road near Harrogate town centre.

The criminals had even dug a trench outside the three-storey Edwardian villa on Alexandra Road through which they fed electricity cables to the house to power the “highly sophisticated” cultivation system and bypass the electricity grid.

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Their plot finally unravelled when police were called to the five-bedroom villa on September 26, 2020, after reports of a “disturbance” in the street involving what appeared to be two rival gangs vying for the cannabis farm.

Banks had rented her properties to the Albanians through an “unidentified individual who goes by the name of Francesco”, who sub-let the houses to the gang’s ringleader Sellaj.

The total potential yield of the cannabis factories was valued at up to £456,000, not including previous harvests.

Although Banks was not involved in the cultivation, she had played a “facilitating” or advisory role in the plot and was constantly “pressing (the gang) be paid by them”.

Banks – who had previous convictions for health-and-safety offences through her work – was due to be paid at least £12,000 a month in rent for the three properties and was also receiving “high” deposits.  

Pinewoods Conservation Group has urged people to report anti-social behaviour after rough sleepers and drugs were found in the woodland.

Pictures seen by the Stray Ferret show Harrogate Borough Council staff moving a tent, which had been set up in the woods.

Inside the tents were drug paraphernalia and rubbish left in the woodland, including food and sleeping bags.

Other pictures showed graffiti defacing the Pinewoods map.

The graffiti on the Pinewoods map.

The borough council and North Yorkshire Police were both alerted to the rough sleepers this month.

The tents were later moved, however the Stray Ferret understands the process took longer than expected due to the availability of council street cleansing teams.

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A man in the 96-acre woodland was detained by police last week after residents reported gunshots being fired. But he was later released without charge.

A spokesperson for the Pinewoods Conservation Group said it had reported a number of anti-social behaviour incidents in recent months.

They said:

“Whilst the recent reported incident fortunately didn’t materialise into anything serious we are still asking our members and visitors to report anything suspicious and any anti-social behaviour to the police via 101, or 999 if an emergency, and Harrogate council customer services. 

“We have reported a number of incidents in recent months from graffiti, illegal campers, groups congregating and setting fires plus clear evidence of drug use. It is only with the help of others we can continue to keep the Pinewoods a safe and enjoyable area for the community.”

A council spokesperson said: 

“We have accommodation and support available for all rough sleepers.

“Once we are made aware of someone sleeping rough in the Harrogate district, our housing options team work in partnership with the police and partner agencies in an attempt to persuade them to accept support.

“We have hostels in Harrogate, Ripon and Knaresborough and have most recently opened Fern House in Starbeck, our purpose-built temporary accommodation with 19 self-contained bedrooms. Additional to this, we can offer a complete support package for individuals who are homeless which includes health and wellbeing, support for any mental health issues, financial guidance as well as any further advice or information they may require.

“As a result of this holistic approach it means that we can try to identify the cause of each individual’s circumstances in a bid to help them find permanent secure accommodation.”

North Yorkshire Police has released CCTV images of a man thought to have information about a burglary at a home in Harrogate.

The burglary took place on Fawcett Drive in Harrogate at about 2am on Friday, May 6.

A man is reported to have entered a property and removed a wallet and cash. No further details have been released.

Police are asking members of the public to get in touch if they recognise the man in the images as they believe he could have information that will help the investigation.

Further CCTV images released by police of the man they want to talk to.

You can call North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2 and ask for PC 950 Fitzsimons or email leah.fitzsimons@northyorkshire.police.uk.

If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

The crime reference number 12220076667.

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Thieves attempted to break into the Harrogate Marks & Spencer store on Cambridge Street on Friday night.

It follows other town centre businesses reporting similar incidents to the police in recent months.

Burglars raided Browns jewellers in January, which is close to M&S on nearby Beulah Street.

Last week, the antiques shop 27 West Park was also targeted over night, but thieves left empty-handed after they failed to get in.

An M&S spokesperson said:

“We are supporting the police with their investigations into an attempted break-in at our Harrogate store on Friday night.”

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North Yorkshire Police has arrested two teenage males after it published an appeal yesterday about a robbery on Harrogate’s Hookstone Chase.

The two males are also being questioned about a further alleged robbery that took place on Wentworth Drive in Harrogate on the same night.

The first alleged incident, on Hookstone Chase, is said to have happened at around 6pm on Tuesday, May 17. The Wentworth Drive incident followed at 10.30pm.

The two males are in custody. Police said they are assisting officers with their enquiries.

Yesterday, police published an appeal for two teenage white males wearing grey tracksuits.

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A North Yorkshire Police officer pleaded guilty today to making 8,707 indecent images of children over seven years.

Christopher Groom was charged with making the Category C indecent photographs over a seven-year period between December, 3 2014 and November, 14 2021.

Groom, who was a serving officer at the time, was suspended and arrested on December 16, 2021, and had his computer and phone examined.

At today’s hearing at Leeds Magistrates’ Court, prosecutor Angela Terenzini said there was no evidence he had distributed the images.

Groom, of Main Street, Claxton, Malton, will be sentenced on June 14. He received unconditional bail.

North Yorkshire Police has said it will make a formal response when the case is concluded.

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