A serial sex offender from Harrogate has been sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment for twice subjecting a young girl to indecent assault in Northallerton during the 1990s.

John William Marshall, 68, of Fairfax Avenue, was sentenced at York Crown Court yesterday after being found guilty of offences at a trial in August.

He has also been made subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

A North Yorkshire Police media release today said the bravery of the victim ensured Marshall faced justice, despite the number of years that have passed.

The victim made contact with police in 2019 following publicity surrounding the conviction of Marshall for possession of more than 24,000 indecent images of children, for which he served a custodial sentence and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order. which was due to expire.

Marshall had previously been described publicly by a judge as a “dangerous paedophile”.

The court heard that Marshall had befriended the victim’s family, offering help with their newly acquired computer.

He was subsequently trusted to look after the girl when her parents went shopping.

It was during these times that Marshall sexually assaulted her.

The victim’s parents reported it to police and social services at the time, but no further criminal action was taken due to a series of complications.

Victim thought she would not be believed

Now an adult, the victim’s life had been overshadowed by the thought that she was not believed.

Adam Harland, cold case review manager at North Yorkshire Police, said:

“In coming forward, the victim has now had her voice heard, her evidence believed by a jury, and she has obtained the conviction of the man who had grossly and indecently abused her as a child.

“Sadly, we believe there could be further victims of Marshall out there. We urge them to get in touch, just like the courageous victim in this case has.

“As you can see, time is no barrier to getting justice for victims of child sexual abuse.

“If you have been the victim of sexual abuse, whether it is happening now or in the past, please contact the police.”

Mr Harland added:

“We appreciate that telling the police what has happened takes immense courage and it is never easy reliving extremely distressing experiences.

“We understand this and that’s why we have specially trained officers who will guide you every step of the way and provide access to the full range of professional support services that are readily available.

“In coming forward, we can get you the help you need and ensure offenders like Marshall cannot go on to hurt anyone else.”

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A man who made thousands of indecent images of children told police he had downloaded the photos to try to “trap” another paedophile.

David Michael Rochford, 35, was arrested after police searched his home in Harrogate and seized several computer devices, York Crown Court heard.

Rochford told officers they would find indecent images on the devices but later claimed he had downloaded them to “lure” someone he believed to be a paedophile and that he had not viewed the illicit material, said prosecutor Brooke Morrison.

He maintained this pretence until he was sentenced yesterday for downloading more than 9,600 indecent images over a five-year period.

Some of the images, which included videos as well as photos, were rated Category A – the worst kind of such material involving the serious sexual abuse of children.

Ms Morrison said that Rochford, of Poplar Grove, told police he was “accessing (the images) because he wanted to trap somebody else who was a paedophile”.

Rochford told a probation officer the same thing after he admitted the offences, but the prosecution never accepted his claim due to the length of time he had been downloading the material and the sheer number of images involved.

When Rochford appeared for sentence, his barrister Daniel Ingham said his client was still “standing by” his dubious claim as to why the images were found on his computer.

But after Recorder Simon Jackson KC advised Rochford that he should reconsider his claim and confer with his counsel during a short adjournment, Mr Ingham said that Rochford now resiled from his far-fetched story and was prepared to be sentenced on the full facts as set out by the prosecution.

Rochford had already admitted three counts of making indecent images, including 147 rated Category A. In total, he downloaded 9,631 illicit images between 2014 and 2019.

The Crown moved straight to sentence and duly dismissed Rochford’s initial claim that he was engaging in a “scheme of entrapment”.

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Ms Morrison said that police raided Rochford’s home in June 2019. They seized a “large number” of devices including three laptops, a computer tower, hard drives and memory cards.

They found indecent images on seven of the devices, forensic analysis of which showed that Rochford had used “peer-to-peer” software as part of his online activities.

“He was interviewed and admitted having the material (but) said this was in order to lure a person he suspected of being a paedophile,” said Ms Morrison.

She said that Rochford had four previous convictions including for violence but nothing of a sexual nature.

Mr Ingham, for Rochford, said his client was a full-time carer for his mother, who was seriously ill and with whom he lived.

She said he had a past alcohol problem for which he was getting help and mental-health problems.

Recorder Mr Jackson KC said Rochford had initially admitted the offences “on the false premise that this was to trap another paedophile”.

He said the sheer number of images and the years-long period of offending showed there was “plainly a sustained pattern of downloading sexual images for your own sexual gratification”.

However, he said he had to bear in mind the delay in the case reaching court and Rochford’s caring responsibilities for his mother.

He said it was for those reasons that he could suspend the inevitable jail term.

Rochford was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence and placed on the sex-offenders’ register for 10 years.

He was also given a 10-year sexual-harm prevention order, mainly to curb his internet activities, and ordered to take part in a sex-offenders’ programme, complete a 20-day rehabilitation course and carry out  40 hours of unpaid work.

A serial sex offender has been jailed for over three years for sexually assaulting an infant girl after “luring” her into an enclosed space.

Kenneth Stephen Fowler, 64, a drifter and heavily convicted paedophile from Knaresborough, assaulted and then performed a lewd act in front of the youngster, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Richard Herrmann said that Fowler had over 100 previous criminal convictions, of which 18 were child-sex offences.

Fowler’s last such conviction was almost 30 years ago, but on August 6 this year, when heavily drunk, he lured the young girl into a public enclosed space, put his arms around her and began touching her “excessively”.

He then tried to remove her clothing before taking off his own clothes to reveal an intimate part of his body. He then performed a lewd act in front of her.

Mr Herrmann said:

“(The victim) said he didn’t say anything (and that) she felt scared and she froze.”

She then moved “very quickly” away from the enclosed area, after which an adult witness saw Fowler buckling up his trousers.

Fowler told the witness, in an “aggressive manner”, that he was “about to set fire to the place”.

Matters were ultimately reported to police who searched Fowler’s flat in Knaresborough and found among his clothes a pair of girl’s knickers.

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Homeless drifter

Fowler, a homeless drifter, was arrested and charged with indecent exposure, sexual assault of a child under 13 and sexual activity in the presence of a child.

He initially denied the offences but ultimately admitted the latter two charges. The Crown ultimately quashed the exposure charge.

He appeared for sentence via video link today after being remanded in custody.

Mr Herrmann said Fowler’s wicked behaviour had caused “great distress” to the girl and her family.

The girl’s mother said her daughter had since had nightmares about Fowler and her horrifying experience:

“She has been very quiet since it happened (and) doesn’t want to talk about it anymore.”

Fowler, originally from Scotland, had 104 previous convictions for 223 offences dating back over 50 years. Eighteen of those were sexual offences, including many for indecently exposing himself in front of children.

In the 1980s, he was jailed on multiple occasions for indecent exposure with intent to sexually assault a female, and another offence of unlawful intercourse with an under-age girl. In one incident in 1988, he exposed himself to a 13-year-old girl and performed a lewd act in front of two young boys.

His last exposure offence was in 1994 but he continued to regularly appear before the courts for offences such as shoplifting and being drunk and disorderly.

Set Harrogate charity store on fire

In October 2019, he received a 16-month jail sentence at York Crown Court for arson and damaging property.

That offence, described as a “revenge” attack, occurred in August 2018 when he torched a charity clothes store for the homeless at the Wesley Centre in Harrogate run by Harrogate Homeless Project, which had helped him get back on his feet after years of living rough.

Fowler, who was again drunk and had some kind of “grudge” against the charity, also smashed a window with a hammer, causing nearly £1,500 damage.

The charity relied completely on donations such as clothes and the damage had resulted in severe disruption to the organisation.

Defence barrister Brian Russell said that after a 30-year gap in his sexual offending, Fowler had “for an inexplicable reason…suddenly reverted to entrenched behaviour which he had managed to avoid for almost (three decades)”.

‘Unhealthy interest in young girls’

Judge Simon Hickey told Fowler:

“At the age of 64, you are still interfering with children…and were touching again an extremely young child.

“While heavily intoxicated, you were to lure this child into the public (enclosed space). She was scared; she froze.”

He said the child was clearly “in very great distress” and told Fowler:

“I find you a worrying and dangerous individual.

“This has changed the little girl’s life and she even…stuffs toys under her bed (for fear of) someone like yourself being under (there).”

The judge said Fowler clearly had an “unhealthy interest in young girls”.

Fowler was jailed for three years and four months. He was told he must serve two-thirds of that sentence behind bars and would only be released when the Parole Board deemed it safe to do so.

Due to the judge’s finding of dangerousness, Fowler was told he would have to serve an extended three years on prison licence once he was released from jail, for the protection of young girls.

Warning: this article contains details some readers may find disturbing

A Harrogate paedophile is facing a long prison sentence for the systematic sexual abuse of a young girl.

Neil Michael Stubbs, 26, was convicted of 13 separate offences this week following a four-day trial at York Crown Court.

The jury heard that Stubbs, of Kingsley Park Road, Starbeck, groomed and sexually abused the youngster over a prolonged period.

They found him guilty of all 13 charges, including one count of attempted rape of a child under 13 years of age, two counts of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, sexual assault, possessing indecent images and several counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Prosecutor Paul Newcombe said that some of the offences — including engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, sexual assault and causing a child to engage in sexual activity — were “specimen counts”, meaning they happened on multiple occasions.

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He said that Stubbs would perform lewd acts on himself in front of the girl and got her to perform sexual acts on him on at least six occasions.

Stubbs also “pestered” her to send him naked photos of herself, added Mr Newcombe.

Following his arrest, police seized Stubbs’s phone on which they found indecent images of children, including some naked photos of the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Some of the other images were rated Category A – the worst kind of such material.

Mr Newcombe said it showed that Stubbs had an “unhealthy obsession” with children.

The jury returned their verdicts yesterday (Thursday, April 28). Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, adjourned sentence to August 15.

A registered sex offender from Ripon has been jailed for possessing videos showing girls as young as six being raped.

Andrew Burt, a former maintenance worker at Newby Hall, was on a strict court order which banned him from possessing any internet-enabled device without informing police, York Crown Court heard.

But when his monitoring officers turned up at his home in Skelton-on-Ure, which is between Ripon and Boroughbridge, they found two new devices which he hadn’t disclosed to police.

Police seized the devices, one of which was an LG mobile phone on which they found five video clips featuring the rape of young girls.

Burt was charged with possessing indecent images of children and two breaches of a sexual-harm prevention order which had been imposed in November 2017 for inciting an under-age ‘girl’ to engage in sexual activity.  He appeared for sentence on Thursday after admitting all three charges.

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Prosecutor Ms Hajba-Ward said Burt was a registered sex offender and still subject to the 10-year order when police called at his home earlier this month.

They found two unregistered devices including the mobile and a tablet of which police had not been notified.

The videos found on the phone were rated Category A – the worst kind of such material depicting the rape of pre-pubescent children.

Burt told police he had downloaded the images at a guest house “while drinking a lot of Strongbow (cider)”.

Caught by a vigilante

In 2017, Burt was jailed for 20 months after being caught by an online vigilante posing as a 14-year-old girl.

The adult decoy told police she had been chatting to a man on the internet who had used a false name and said he worked at Newby Hall.

Burt had sent her naked pictures of himself and a video of himself performing a lewd act.

He was ultimately identified by photos which showed that he was indeed a maintenance worker on the country estate.

The sexual-harm prevention order was imposed to prevent Burt cruising chatrooms and refusing a polygraph test.

Richard Reed, for Burt, said his client accepted he had a sexual interest in children and wanted help for his problem.

Judge Sean Morris jailed Burt for 32 months, of which he will serve half behind bars before being released on prison licence.

Mr Morris made a new sexual-harm prevention order for life. Burt will remain on the sex-offenders’ register, also for an indefinite period.

Warning: this article includes graphic details that may cause distress

A Ripon man received a 14-year sentence today after being convicted of nine child sex offences.

John Noble, 36, of North Street, was jailed for 10 years and sentenced to a further four years on licence at York Crown Court today after pleading guilty on May 1.

The offences included arranging to rape a child, sexual assault on a child, arranging to use a sex toy on a child, and arranging for a child to urinate in a glass for his own sexual gratification and consumption.

The court heard how Noble had engaged online between March and April 2021 and made arrangements to meet with the intention to rape a four-year-old girl.

He attended the pre-arranged meeting location in Ripon on April 30, where he was arrested by officers from North Yorkshire Police’s online abuse and exploitation team, which acted in collaboration with Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit.

During the investigation, there was never a real-life victim and no children were ever in any danger.

Noble was also charged with breaching conditions of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order by trying to arrange for the four-year-old girl and a baby to stay over at his home.

The order was issued by York Crown Court on September 19, 2019 for indecent images of children, inciting or causing children to perform sexual acts and sexual communication with a child offences.

‘Particularly distressing case’

Detective Sergeant Lee Allenby, of the online abuse and exploitation team, said:

“This was a particularly distressing case where Noble, a man who had already been caught by the police and put before the courts just a couple of years ago, had purchased items for a baby as well as sexual items to facilitate the abuse on the four-year-old girl.

“Noble simply could not resist acting on his sexual deviancy towards children. It is frightening to think that he was actively arranging to rape a child.

“It also showed the lengths of depravity that Noble would go to conduct child sex abuse.

“A long custodial sentence is a pleasing outcome in this case, and it sends a stark warning to other paedophiles who think they can operate with impunity online.”

Detective Inspector Marie Bulmer, from YHROCU, said:

“This forms part of our continued priority to protect children from sexual exploitation from those who seek to do them harm.

“Law enforcement operates across the internet, and we will relentlessly seek to bring to justice individuals who use the web to facilitate the abuse of children.

DI Bulmer urged victims of child sexual abuse to call 101 and report incidents. She added:

“We will always follow up allegations of abuse, no matter when they occurred. Victims can talk in confidence to experienced investigators and we can also help them get access to a range of other support services.”

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Harrogate man Ricky Clench has been sentenced to 15 years in jail for child sex offences, including the rape of a child under 13.

Clench was sentenced following a series of offences starting in August 2017 until September 2018 when one of his victims came forward to the police.

At the time Clench was living in Northallerton.

On Tuesday he appeared at Teesside Crown Court and was found guilty of raping a child under 13, assaulting a child under 13 by penetration and of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Clench denied all offences throughout the police investigation and court hearings.

As well as the 15-year sentence he was issued with an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and was placed on the sex offenders register for life.

Detective Constable Jason Roper, of Northallerton CID, said:

“The significant sentence handed to Ricky Clench reflects the gravity of the offences he has committed. He is a predatory and manipulative paedophile who has shown no consideration for his victim throughout the investigation and the court proceedings.

“Thankfully he is now behind bars for a very long time and has been made subject to two lifetime protection orders, preventing him from inflicting harm on any other innocent victims.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the victim for their bravery and courage in coming forward to report such a harrowing experience, and also to their family for the support they have shown throughout the investigation.”

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A paedophile who downloaded images of young boys being raped has been spared jail because he was taking steps to address his amphetamine problem.

Daniel James Barnes, 31, of Montpellier Road, Harrogate, handed himself in to police and told them he had become “obsessed” with downloading and watching indecent images of children, York Crown Court heard.

He said he had handed himself in as a way of “punishing himself”, said prosecutor Helen Towers. 

Police searched his home and seized a laptop on which they found a “collection” of photos and videos featuring children between the ages of six and 14.

Some of the images showed boys as young as six being raped by men, she added.

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Barnes admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and appeared for sentence on Monday.

Ms Chapman said Barnes turned up at Harrogate Police Station in December 2019 and said he had been watching child pornography.

During the subsequent search of his home, officers seized some amphetamine as well as his laptop. A forensic examination of the computer revealed downloads of all levels of seriousness including 73 category A images, 35 category B and four category C. The downloads included both photos and move clips.

High on drugs

Ms Chapman said police found “relevant” internet search terms used by Barnes and it appeared that one such search had occurred just a few hours before he handed himself in.

She said Barnes’ first police interview had to be aborted because he appeared to be “hallucinating” and high on drugs. 

In a second interview in March last year, he told police that watching indecent images of children had become an “obsession”.

Ms Towers said:

“He accepted he had a sexual interest in children.”

Barnes subsequently saw a psychiatrist and was diagnosed with various mental-health conditions, partly induced by drug use. 

He had two previous convictions for assaulting an emergency worker. One of these occurred at the point of his arrest for the illegal images, when he attacked a police officer. The other occurred 10 months later.

Andrew Stranex, representing Barnes, said his client acknowledged that he needed help, primarily for drug abuse.

Sex offenders register

Recorder Anthony Hawks said he could spare Barnes jail because he had a “number of difficulties that are being addressed”.

But he warned Barnes:

“If you are caught watching any more child pornography you are going to go to prison for a considerable period of time.

“I don’t know why you derive pleasure from watching six-year-old boys being raped by adult men.”

Mr Hawks described the images as “filth” but said it would be better for Barnes to serve his punishment in the community where he could continue to get help from Horizons drug support agency.

Barnes was given a three-year community order under the auspices of the Probation Service and ordered to complete a sexual offenders’ treatment programme, along with a 30-day rehabilitation course. 

He was ordered to sign on the sex offenders register for five years and made subject to a five-year sexual-harm prevention order to curb his internet activities.