“From Little Things, Big Things Grow”

“From Little Things, Big Things Grow”

said Your Dishonor Judge Ian Dearden. You may have heard of this folk musician, civil libertarian scumbag who is now a District Judge in Queensland.

Your Dishonor had been an executive member of the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties – an Australian version of the ACLU – for 20 years and the president for 11, but when he was appointed to this position he became a victim and felt abused by “redneck letter writers” who didn’t feel it was appropriate for a man who didn’t believe in prison to be in a position of administering justice. He replied:

“Why should anybody be abused for advocating freedom?”

Yes, that’s what the Judge said. Of course he also said:

“there was certainly a need to regulate human conduct, a need on occasions for jail time and that the only debate was how much regulation and what penalties were required”

Let’s look at how he thinks human conduct should be “regulated”

A Queensland father who bashed a man caught molesting his 10-year-old son is facing a prison sentence, while the boy’s attacker walks free.

Shane Thomas Davidson was at the child’s house at Eagleby in June last year to watch the State of Origin match with the boy’s father and a few other people. After the game, Davidson went into the boy’s bedroom and began massaging the child’s penis under his clothes. When the boy woke up, Davidson asked the boy to show him his penis and offered to do the same. The child refused and went to tell his father what happened. The man then attacked Davidson, dragging him outside, throwing him on to a concrete path where he struck his head and repeatedly kicking him. Davidson later underwent extensive facial surgery in the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Your Dishonor Judge Ian Dearden said:

“There is no place in our community for a vigilante approach”

Shane Thomas Davidson was spared jail despite pleading guilty to molesting the boy on State Of Origin night last year. Judge Ian Dearden told Beenleigh District Court the sentence was reduced because the young victim’s father had wrongly taken action into his own hands and badly beaten Davidson.

In handing down his sentence on Monday, Justice Dearden said adult offenders who committed sex offences against children must serve actual jail time – unless exceptional circumstances were found to exist.

“This is one of those rare and exceptional cases,” he said. “When an individual takes the matter of punishment into their own hands, the offence committed by the person may be far, far more serious and, therefore, have far more serious consequences then the original offence.”

The boy’s father is facing life in prison. And the pedophile himself? He said

he regretted what he had done but didn’t think it was something he should go to jail for.

“As far as these sorts of offences go, it’s pretty minor.”

Your Dishonor agreed with the child molester that what he had done was minor. Your Dishonor didn’t feel this child deserved justice. This child who is now without the father who was protecting him……in his own home. But this isn’t the first time Your Dishonor has behaved so shamelessly and with such reckless disregard

A Brisbane man Brett Ashley Connor appeared before Judge Dearden charged with with possessing 90 child porn images. The judge sentenced Connor to nine months’ jail wholly suspended because of mitigating factors including Connor’s co-operation with authorities and the lack of apparent distribution of the images.

Brothers Shammi and Shamal Chand escaped jail in Dearden’s court after pleading guilty to savagely bashing an invalid pensioner with a baseball bat. Handing both brothers wholly suspended jail sentences, Judge Dearden said he took into account their own misery following the death of their father, the difficulties Shammi Chand faced supporting his extended family and Shamal Chand’s battle with drugs and mental illness.

And for another sexual abuse case, a teacher who also filmed his abuse of a student then threatened to “hurt her” if she told:

A Former north Queensland high school teacher has been jailed after a court overturned his suspended sentence for molesting a female student.

Steven Peter Quick, 29, of Varsity Lakes on the Gold Coast, originally avoided jail when Brisbane District Court Judge Ian Dearden sentenced him to a wholly suspended 18-month jail term and 12-month intensive correction order.

Justice de Jersey found that Judge Dearden didn’t take enough notice of the damage done to the victim, that he incorrectly regarded as relevant that she gave “some level of consent”, and that he did not give enough weight to Quick’s threats to harm the girl.

The chief justice also found that Quick’s remorse was only self-pitying and he lacked true insight into the damage he had done.

There are those paying attention to this type of behavior however. After the most recent ruling this shameful judge thought he’d get away with:

The case has sparked widespread community outrage and child safety campaigner Hetty Johnston described Davidson’s sentence as “woefully wrong”.

And yesterday Attorney-General Cameron Dick called for a transcript of the judge’s sentencing remarks to determine whether the state should appeal. He has 28 days from the June 15 date of sentencing to lodge an appeal.

Meanwhile, the Liberal National Party’s deputy leader Lawrence Springborg said the case highlighted the need for Queensland’s sentencing laws to be overhauled “to reflect community standards”.

Your Dishonor Judge Ian Dearden says

“There is no place in our community for a vigilante approach”

Society says “There is no place in our community for child molesters or their enabling judges”

The Dishonorable Judge Dearden – the folk musician feels a close affinity to these lyrics

Justice is a constant struggle
I’m struggling on
We are all struggling on.

But I don’t believe he even knows what justice is. He once titled a speech “From Little Things, Big Things Grow” – I don’t think it should be a struggle for him to know how the “little decisions” he makes today feed those who use and abuse children for sexual gratification. This Judge is a part of that cycle of abuse.

Please let your voice be heard and speak loudly about this horrendous injustice and demand that he be removed from a position which he has and continues to abuse in his personal mission of freedom for criminals. Demand he be removed. Demand justice for this boy.

Please write or phone the Beenleigh District Court at this address and in demanding justice let it be known that there is no place in any community for those who sexually abuse children or enable those who do.

Courthouse.beenleigh@justice.qld.gov.au

Cnr Kent and James Street
PO Box 383, Beenleigh 4207
Beenleigh Qld 4207

Telephone: (07) 3884 7512

Richard Valdemar wrote:

The critics of vigilantism say that the enforcement of laws is the job of the police and other government agencies. However, vigilantes are born when proper authorities fail to protect and serve, and government agencies became bloated and bureaucratic. So my advice to cities, counties, states, and federal authorities is; if you don’t want vigilantes – do your friggin’ jobs.

Courtesy of AbsoluteZeroUnited

New focus in pursuit of abuse by clergy

Five weeks after an Irish commission released a devastating report about abuse at Catholic children’s institutions there, a Waltham-based organization is starting an effort to compile evidence about what it believes was a similar pattern of abuse at Catholic institutions in the United States.

BishopAccountability.org, an organization that maintains an Internet-based archive about clergy sexual abuse, published on its website yesterday a list of twelve Catholic institutions whose faculty or staff have faced allegations of child sexual abuse.

Organizers are hoping to rapidly expand that list, including schools in and around Boston.

Many of the schools where the abuse allegedly took place were run by religious orders, not dioceses, and are no longer open. Many such allegations are already public through lawsuits or media coverage, but organizers of the new archive expect more accusers to emerge as a result of the effort.

“This was inspired by the Ireland report,’’ said Anne Barrett Doyle, codirector of BishopAccountability.org. “We realized that there has been no accounting here of the abuse of kids in minor seminaries, boarding schools, reform schools, and orphanages run by the church.’’

A spokeswoman for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, said, “Anyone abused in any US diocese, be it in a church or church institution, has been urged to come forward.

“As a result, many have received needed assistance,’’ she said. “The bishops have been relentless in addressing sexual abuse and continue to be.’’

There have been allegations of abuse at a number of institutions for young people in the Boston area.

For example, John Vellante, a 64-year-old Haverhill resident, says he was abused as a 13-year-old at a minor seminary run by the Stigmatine religious order in Wellesley in 1958 and 1959. Vellante’s alleged abuser, Leo P. Landry, was dismissed from the clergy in 1972 and pleaded guilty to abuse charges in 2004.

Vellante, a retired Boston Globe employee who contributes a sports column in the Globe North section, said he supports the BishopAccountability effort, “just to prove to people that it happened here, too.’’

“It’s not just in Ireland, and I’m sure it’s not just in the US,’’ he said. “I’m

sure you’re going to find it all over the world.’’

There are important differences between the Irish situation and that in the United States. The Irish institutions, for orphans and troubled children, were government-regulated but church-run, whereas the institutions in the United States were largely independent of the government and often of each other.

“Because of our system, which was scattershot and not systematic, it’s hard to hold anyone accountable,’’ Barrett Doyle said. “But there is a colossal hidden problem here.’

Jeremy "Jay" Semprebon – Repeat Sex Offender – Hid his status – and reoffended

Jeremy “Jay” Semprebon was in possession of more than a hundred images of child pornography when detectives raided his personal computer last fall, say police.

As a result, the 40-year-old former AIDS Response-Seacoast counselor and registered sex offender has been indicted by a Rockingham County grand jury on 17 new counts of possession of child pornography.

Semprebon has been incarcerated at the Rockingham County House of Corrections since his August 2008 arrest in which he was charged with and indicted on felony counts of “prohibition from child care services of persons convicted of certain offenses.”

Those charges allege Semprebon failed to disclose his sex-offender status before counseling minors at Seacoast Outright, while acting as an agent of AIDS Response Seacoast.

Police allege he had contact with minors during his course of employment with AIDS Response Seacoast, despite a court order to not have contact with children. He is alleged to have begun working as a youth coordinator for the nonprofit in the summer of 2007 and did not disclose his sex-offender status when he was hired.

As part of his job, Semprebon was sent to other nonprofits and worked with both adults and minors.

The former Rye resident is a registered sex offender on New Hampshire’s public list, having been convicted in 1995 in Strafford County of aggravated felonious sexual assault on a 5-year-old child.

The latest charges stem from a search warrant obtained by local police detectives during the course of investigation into his employment status last fall, according to Detective Kristyn Bernier.

Bernier said the investigation revealed that Semprebon had made his way onto various social networking sites and because of that police were concerned he was trying to look for more victims.

“We were concerned that there might be more victims out there,” said Bernier.

When detectives obtained a search warrant for his computer looking for his history on the social networking site, Bernier said they discovered some pictures deemed as “child sexual assault images.”

After obtaining an addendum to the search warrant, Bernier said detectives stumbled upon more than 100 images of prepubescent males undressed and exploited.

Bernier said although detectives were unable to pinpoint the exact identity of the victims, it was clear that many of them were of young boys. Some of the images were of the same children, while many of them were of a variety of different victims.

Authorities are unsure of the source of the images, but Bernier said they could have been downloaded by Semprebon, obtained through peer-to-peer networking, e-mailed or taken by himself.

The detective said police have forwarded the images to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for evaluation and in an effort to locate the children depicted.

An indictment is not an indication of guilt; rather it means a grand jury has found sufficient evidence to warrant a trial.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”
………Sarah Tofte

Kyle Fuchs – Repeat Sex Offender – Plead Down then became a Sick Twisted Internet Predator

The defendant had been charged once before, at age 17, on five counts of child rape involving a 15-year-old, although three of those charges were dismissed and two were reduced to the less-severe indecent assault and battery of a minor, according to court documents

Kyle Fuchs and his lawyer, Fred McAlary, say that what he did was a result of coming of age in a teenage culture that condones practices such as “sexting” and “hooking up” with “friends with benefits.”

But prosecutor Gregory Friedholm, who noted that Fuchs was on probation for another sexual assault at the time some of the offenses occurred, called Fuchs a predator who showed “absolute disregard for the personal integrity of others.”

And Salem Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead said Fuchs went well beyond the behavior of other teens. “This kind of behavior is an outgrowth of the sexting culture,” said the judge, who believes it “opens the door for predators to come in and exploit” teens.

A 20-year-old Massachusetts man has been sentenced to eight years in prison after an investigator with the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force identified him and one of his victims in child-pornography pictures.

Kyle Fuchs was sentenced June 8 for raping three girls and posting online photos of his victims, according to a news release from the Utah Attorney General’s Office.

In 2007, Steve Gamvroulas, an ICAC agent with the Utah Department of Public Safety, discovered 42 images of a victim that had been sent to a Utah man who was suspected of trading child pornography. A school cheerleading outfit, a New England Patriots jersey and a partial word on a sweatshirt were the only clues Gamvroulas had to work with to begin his investigation.

Over the course of time, Gamvroulas was able to use that information to identify the victim.

Massachusetts state police then seized Fuchs’ computer, and investigators found 5,000 more explicit images of underage girls, including 174 pictures where the girls could be identified, according to the attorney general’s office.

Fuchs had been having sex with a 14-year-old girl he had met on MySpace and posting explicit pictures of her on the social-networking Web site, the attorney general’s office said.

“The ICAC Task Force should be proud of stopping a monster,” says Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. “The persistence of the investigators to keep looking until they found this girl means that many more girls will not be abused.”

A relationship spawned on MySpace turned criminal, police said, when a 19-year-old man had sex with a 14-year-old Swampscott girl and posted explicit photos of her online.

State police learned of the victim’s nude photos from detectives in Utah and later alerted authorities in Swampscott, the prosecutor said. Taylor said she believed other jurisdictions, including Saugus, also would bring charges against Fuchs.

The defendant had been charged once before, at age 17, on five counts of child rape involving a 15-year-old, although three of those charges were dismissed and two were reduced to the less-severe indecent assault and battery of a minor, according to court documents

Fuchs had posted nude photos of the victim on MySpace, a popular social-networking Web site, which the girl had removed through the site administrator, the prosecutor said.

The defendant had also grown aggressive with her, once pushing the girl against a wall and later raising fears he was stalking her, Taylor said.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”
………Sarah Tofte

Fuchs came to the attention of authorities twice, the first time in the spring of 2006, when he was charged with raping a girl in Lynn. A plea agreement reduced the charges to indecent assault and battery, and he was given an 18-month suspended sentence.

All the while, investigators would later learn, Fuchs, then 17, was dating and having sex with a 14-year-old girl from Swampscott and taking explicit photos of her, even after being put on probation in the Lynn case.

In 2007, police in Utah contacted the Massachusetts State Police, after discovering what they believed were 42 images of child pornography sent by Fuchs to a person there. Some of the pictures were of Fuchs’ young girlfriend, who was later identified by police.

Police seized Fuchs’ computer and found more than 5,000 other images of underage girls in explicit poses, including 174 in which they could identify the girls.

Among those images was that of a Lynn girl, who was 15 when Fuchs took at least seven explicit pictures, and of a girl in Texas, who had, at Fuchs’ behest, taken photos of herself with signs reading “Kyle owns this” next to her nude body.

Another victim said Fuchs had invited her to watch television at his father’s house in October 2004, and while there, attacked her, pinning her to a bed and forcibly raping her.

A year after that, police learned, Fuchs, a football player, asked out a girl he met at a Salem High School football game. She said he took her to a secluded spot and forced her to perform sexual activity. Then, after he apologized, she agreed to go on a date to the Topsfield Fair. Afterward, he forcibly raped her.

Police also identified pictures of a girl who had dated Fuchs five years earlier, when both of them were 14.

Friedholm said Fuchs met most of the girls online.

He said Fuchs’ conduct shows a “nonchalance and lack of regard” for the girls, one of whom fell into a severe depression and was hospitalized.

“This defendant is showing a pattern of predatory conduct,” Friedholm said.

Louis Masino – Repeat Sex Offender – Handcuffs 4 year old

A 60-year-old Megan’s Law registrant who is forbidden from having unsupervised contact with children was found at his Washington Township home with a 4-year-old boy during a home visit by his parole officer, authorities said Friday.

Late Friday, authorities also filed child neglect charges against a 22-year-old Belvedere man who left the boy in the 60-year-old’s care — knowing he was a convicted sex offender.

The little boy, who is not related to defendant Louis Masino but was being cared for by him, told a Morris County Prosecutor’s Office detective that Masino handcuffed him behind his back and he took a nap with him without his clothes on, an arrest affidavit said. The child also stated that he was scared of Masino, the affidavit said.

A state parole officer on Thursday went to Masino’s Mission Road home for a visit because, as a convicted sex offender, Masino is subject to supervision or parole for life. The officer noticed Masino caring for the child with no other adults present, and that both Masino and the boy were dressed only in shorts with no shirts on.

As a condition of his lifetime supervision, Masino — who is employed as a stock clerk for an A&P Supermarket in Mount Arlington — is not allowed to have unsupervised contact with minors under the age of 18.

Washington Township police filed 4th-degree child abuse or neglect charges against Jesse Jay Shores, the child’s 22-year-old guardian, on Friday afternoon after he admitted knowing Masino was a sex offender when he left the boy in his care. Shores is being held in Morris County jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.

Masino, who previously has lived in Succasunna and Netcong, was accused in 1996 of molesting and endangering the welfare of a child, who was a family friend. For this offense, he was placed on probation for five years and ordered to register with police as a convicted sex offender under Megan’s Law in 2000. He failed to register his address with police in Netcong in 2002 and spent 30 days in the county jail, according to court records.

Once his regular probation period ended, his “community supervision” or parole began.

Detectives from the prosecutor’s office and Washington Township police department interviewed Masino on Thursday, and he allegedly admitted to being alone with the boy and having sexual urges toward him. The affidavit said he stated that he was laying down with the child and rubbed his groin against the boy’s buttocks and touched them with his hands.

Masino has been classified as a sex offender at moderate risk of re-offending, and he is among the Megan’s Law registrants posted on-line on the state’s sex offender registry.

Masino is being held in the Morris County jail on $225,000 bail, charged with two counts of sexual assault and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.

“This is just another example of interagency cooperation,” county Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi said. “I applaud the efforts of the New Jersey Division of Parole Senior Parole Officer Ricardo James for his investigative efforts as part of the community supervision for life program. This case underscores the significant importance of the program. More importantly, I credit the parole officers for identifying the violation and making the call to Morris County law enforcement.”

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”

………Sarah Tofte

Ronald G. Preston – Repeat Sex Offender – Day Care Molester

Jurors who will hear the case against a Heyworth man charged with predatory criminal sexual assault may hear evidence of his prior convictions for molesting children, a judge said Monday.

Ronald G. Preston, 51, faces life in prison if convicted of the charges stemming from allegations that he abused a girl for several years, starting when she was five years old. He is charged with two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault, three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and three counts of attempted predatory criminal sexual abuse.

Before jury selection began Monday, Judge Charles Reynard said Assistant State’s Attorney Suzanne Geller may not tell jurors in opening statements about Preston’s criminal record but the information may be used later in the trial.

Preston was convicted in 1987 of aggravated criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse in 1995. He was a registered sex offender when he allegedly molested the child in the most recent case.

Among the witnesses scheduled to testify at the trial is Preston’s wife, Susan, who cared for children at the couple’s home, according to prosecutors. The victim who is under 13 years old also is expected to testify. Reynard ruled that the child may bring a teddy bear to the witness stand with her for support.

Preston has been in jail on $100,000 since his arrest in September.

Jury selection will continue this afternoon.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”

………Sarah Tofte

Robert Kolibas – Repeat Sex Offender – Wasn’t on Public Registry

A Williston man convicted of sexually exploiting children in Florida is facing new charges in Vermont.

Police say this is a case where the sex offender registry in Florida provided no protection to the public, and now the police are trying to determine how many children may have been victimized in Vermont.

HE WASN’T ON VERMONT’S REGISTRY!

The investigation started last weekend in a Williston neighborhood. Police say a 13-year-old girl spending the night with a friend was molested by her friend’s father, 50-year-old Robert Kolibas.

Police who went to the house, confronted Kolibas, and quickly learned Kolibas is on Florida’s sex offender registry for disseminating pornography to a child in that state five years ago. But that crime did not qualify him to be on Vermont’s registry when he moved here.

But before police could arrest him, Kolibas fled only to be captured two days later in Maine near the Canadian border.

Police seized five computers from Kolibas home that are now being examined for evidence of other victims.

For now Kolibas is being held in Maine on $50,000 Bail awaiting extradition back to Vermont to face charges.

Police would like to hear from anyone else with information about any activities at the Kolibas home.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”

………Sarah Tofte

Adolfo Guardado – Lured 12 year old – Internet Predator

A man who allegedly struck up an Internet and phone relationship with a 12-year-old child has been accused of taking the child onto national forest land near Wolcott and sexually assaulting her.

Arrested was Adolfo Guardado, 24, who authorities said entered the United States illegally from Mexico.

According to investigators, Guardado of Edwards had been chatting online and phoning the girl for some time when the child asked him for a ride to school on May 18.

Guardado allegedly picked up the child and drove her to a remote cabin on national forest land 10 miles from Wolcott.

The child was sexually assaulted at the cabin and later released at the school, according to the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office.

The Sheriff’s Office, with the help of Avon police and the U.S. Forest Service, arrested Guardado.

According to authorities, Guardado has been cooperative, taking them to the remote, unoccupied cabin and confessing to assaulting the child.

Guardado is being held for investigation of sexual assault on a child, second-degree kidnapping and enticement of a child, all felonies.

He is being held in the Eagle County Detention Center on $15,000 bail. He also is being held on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer for being in the country illegally.

Shannon Cordingly, spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office, said authorities were able to identify Guardado with help from the victim’s family.

The Eagle County Sheriff’s Office said that one in five children on an Internet chat room is approached by a pedophile, and one in four is exposed to unwanted sexual material.

Robin Frampton – Repeat Sex Offender – Baby Raping Pedo tries to sue

A NOTORIOUS paedophile is suing police at taxpayers’ expense for alleged wrongful arrest. Here is a list of Robin Frampton’s convictions…

November 1980:

Sentenced in Doncaster to two years’ jail. While wearing women’s clothes, he grabbed two girls aged nine and ten, threatened them with a knife and attempted to rape at least one of them.

February 1989:

Sentenced at Winchester to eight years for forcing his way into the home of a 71 year-old woman and raping her.

July 1999:

Armed with a knife, he indecently assaulted a prostitute. Sentenced to one year in jail, the sentence was increased to three years at the Court of Appeal. Required to register for life on the sex offenders’ register.

July 2006:

Arrested and detained overnight in North Yorkshire for failing to comply with requirements of the sex offenders’ register. Gave false name and address. Prosecution offered no evidence and the case was dismissed in November 2006.

Robin Frampton, 53, who was put on the sex offenders’ register for life after an “appalling” indecent assault on a prostitute, was arrested in Selby in July 2006 for giving false details and failing to notify police of a change of address.

North Yorkshire Police feared he was about to commit an offence against a woman he had met through a telephone dating service, who was unaware of his sickening criminal past.

Frampton, who is also known as Robert Williams, was charged and kept in prison for almost four months before the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case.

With legal aid funded by the taxpayer he took the police force to Leeds County Court yesterday, claiming thousands of pounds in damages for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.

His barrister Rodney Ferm told the hearing: “All of us have rights, including the right not to be wrongly arrested, and we also have rights, provided by European legislation, for our private life not to be interfered with.

“In the case of a sex offender with an obligation to register, his rights are circumscribed by additional and quite onerous obligations.

“But if there is a breach of his rights, even within those restrictions, by the police, then there is no proper basis for treating him any differently to any other member of the community who could have, by definition, been arrested.

“No offence of any kind here was in fact committed by Mr Frampton.”

The court heard that Frampton had told his wife he was attending a barbecue at a friend’s house when he travelled from his Southampton home to North Yorkshire.

He went to a police station in Selby to inform them out of “courtesy” that he was staying in the area and showed officers a document which suggested his placement on the sex offenders’ register had expired. He also failed to give police the correct name and address of the woman he was visiting, but he told the court he got the details wrong because he had never met her.

Detectives, believing that he had committed an offence by failing to register his new address within three days, traced him to the Selby woman’s home and arrested him.

Peter Johnson, for the force, said: “These were officers with a genuine concern… they were simply doing their public duty.”

But Mr Ferm said officers could not be sure whether the three-day period had elapsed because they did not know precisely when Frampton had left Southampton.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”

………Sarah Tofte

Roy Pritchard – Repeat Sex Offender

A great grandfather accused of attempting to rape a 14-year-old girl in his sheltered housing flat is a convicted sex offender.

Roy Pritchard, 61, admitted sexually assaulting a supermarket worker at a Co-op store last February, Leeds Crown Court heard.

A jury was shown CCTV evidence of the attack when Pritchard grabbed the woman around her waist as she stacked shelves in January 2007.

She fled to another part of the store but Pritchard followed, picked her up and sexually assaulted her.

Pritchard is standing trial after allegedly luring a 14-year-old girl to his flat at Moorhaven Court, Moortown, Leeds and sexually abusing and attempting to rape her last December.

The girl told police she succumbed to Pritchard’s demands for sex after he held a bread knife to her face and threatened to stab and kill her.

She said: “I was thinking I don’t want to die.”

Giving evidence, Pritchard – who told the jury he is a great grandfather – said he thought the girl was aged 19 or 20 and comforted her with a kiss when he spotted her crying.

He said she came to his flat willingly and sat on his sofa and watched The Simpsons.

Pritchard told the jury: “She definitely wanted it to happen.”

He said he only stopped when she suddenly told him she was 14, and added: “I said ‘You are jail bait’ and I got off her. In my eyes she was 19 all the time.”

Pritchard denied threatening the girl with a knife or stopping her leaving his flat.

He said: “I will not have sex with anyone, regardless of their age, unless they want to have sex; it’s a two way thing with me.”

Forensic tests showed there was evidence of Pritchard’s saliva on the girl’s clothing.

Pritchard denies: false imprisonment; threats to kill; attempted rape; two charges of sexual assault and causing the girl to engage in sexual activity without consent.

“25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years”
………Sarah Tofte