October 2016

Convicted paedophile jailed after being caught with picture of girl

A pensioner and serial offender has been jailed for four months after being found in Bushy Park with an image of a girl; a breach of his sexual offences prevention order.

Edward Prior, 80, admitted breaching the order Tuesday, September 27, and was sentenced at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court.

Prior, of Fulwell Road, Teddington was told only a custodial sentence could be justified because it was the second breach of the order.

In 2014 he was jailed for 18 months after sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy on a bus, when he showed him a photograph of a naked woman and squeezed the boy’s leg.

Prior has previously committed a number of similar offences and was found guilty of indecently assaulting two young boys in Bushy Park in 2008, but escaped a prison sentence in favour of a community order.

He failed to comply with this order and was given a jail term in 2012 after being found guilty of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old boy.

Prior was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £115 and £85 to the Crown Prosecution Service.

September 2014

Convicted Teddington paedophile jailed for touching boy on bus

A pensioner and serial offender who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy on a bus will serve an 18-month jail sentence.

Upon his arrest, Edward Prior, 78, of Fulwell Road, Teddington told police: “Oh God, not again.”

Prior has previously committed a number of similar offences and was found guilty of indecently assaulting two young boys in Bushy Park in 2008, but escaped a prison sentence in favour of a community order.

He failed to comply with this order and was given a jail term in 2012 after being found guilty of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old boy.

Judge Paul Dodgson ruled at Kingston Crown Court on Wednesday, September 3 that Prior represented “a significant risk to the public”, and that he would serve a jail term in addition to an extended sentence.

Upon hearing his sentence, Prior exclaimed to the judge: “I honestly believe I will not do anything like this again, and am not a danger to the public.”

Judge Dodgson replied: “I disagree.”

February 2012

Pensioner jailed for molesting boys in Bushy Park

A serial sex offender who molested three young boys in Bushy Park has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Edward Prior, 76, was allowed to walk free from court in 2008 after he was convicted of touching a nine-year-old and an 11-year-old in the park in February that year.

The judge at the time told Prior he believed prison was “not the best way of protecting young people from you” and put him on a sex offender programme – but the paedophile went on to grope an eight-year-old boy’s genitals as he cycled through Duke’s Head Passage in September last year.

Speaking at Kingston Crown Court on Tuesday, February 14, Judge Fergus Mitchell said putting Prior behind bars was the only way to protect children.

He said: “The only way to deal with offenders like you, who carry out further offences and can’t unfortunately restrain themselves because of a trait, which, I suppose, is in-built in you and cannot be removed, is a period of custody.

“What is paramount in this case is the protection of young children and unless I sentence you to a substantial period of imprisonment, there is no other way that children who wish to go into Bushy Park can be protected from people like you.

“You remain, in my view, a danger to young children.”

The court heard the eight-year-old victim had been swimming with his mother and sister at Hampton Pool and was cycling ahead as they returned home through Bushy Park at about 5.30pm, in September last year. Prior spotted the boy and followed the youngster before groping his genitals through his clothing.

The sex offender fled but the boy told his mother and police arrested Prior at his home, in Fulwell Road, Teddington, later that night. Officers discovered he had a notebook with pictures of naked children along with a plastic bag containing similar photos.

Prior had denied touching the boy until the first day of his trial in January, when he pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault.

The court heard the pensioner also groped an 11-year-old through his shorts as the youngster went to the park for rugby training in February 2008. He went on to fondle a nine-year-old who was at his brother’s football practice just a fortnight later.

Police later arrested him as he came out of a changing room used by young boys. Officers found he was carrying a photograph showing a used condom and three naked children.

Prior, who lives with his 82-year-old brother, was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to a three-year community order in August 2008 but was later jailed for six months after he failed to comply with it. He described the sex offenders programme as “useless”.

Elizabeth Smaller, defending Prior at the 2008 hearing, questioned whether the pensioner would benefit from the group sessions.

But Darren Flick, defending Prior this week, said the pensioner had difficulty coming to terms with his urges to touch young boys and wanted treatment.

Judge Mitchell said Prior caused his eight-year-old victim unnecessary suffering by denying he groped him until the start of his trial.

He said: “He was a fairly innocent child, but that innocence was to a certain extent removed by you. Every child has a right to that innocence.”