April 2011

Jail for man who groomed and abused teenagers

A PREDATORY paedophile who befriended and sexually abused two teenage boys at his Rugby home has been jailed for a total of five years.

And Michael Redhead will be subject to an extended period on licence after his release after a Judge described him as a danger to vulnerable young people.

He had pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to four charges of indecently assaulting a 16-year-old boy, four charges of sexual activity with a 15-year-old and two charges of causing that boy to engage in sexual activity.

Redhead, 49, of Rugby Road, Barby, had also admitted 11 charges of making indecent images of children while living in Derbyshire and seven more after his return to Rugby, together with two offences of possessing indecent images and one of distributing an image.

Prosecutor Steven Bailey said: “His behaviour over the years is of a persistent predatory paedophile.”

In the early past of the last decade, Redhead befriended a 16-year-old boy who he invited to his flat where he would kiss him, sexually abuse him and carry out sex acts on himself in front of the boy who he also photographed naked.

The boy, described as vulnerable and confused, never challenged Redhead about what he was doing, and no-one in authority was told about what was going on at the time.

At around the same time Redhead targeted a 15-year-old boy, and his grooming of that youngster followed a similar pattern to the way he had befriended the older boy. Redhead subjected the boy to various forms of abuse at the flat.

There were also two female complainants, one around the same time as the boys and the other last year, but those charges were not pursued by the prosecution after he had entered his guilty pleas.

Matters only began to come to light after Redhead moved to the village of Cromford in Derbyshire in 2007 to run the Bell pub which had a ‘kiddies corner’ selling sweets.

He developed an interest in a 14-year-old girl who he began sending inappropriate messages to as he tried to groom her before inviting her to his flat over the pub.

But instead of taking up his offer, she went to the police who questioned him in April 2008 and seized his laptop computer which he had used to go onto chat sites and on which they found 18 indecent images of children.

But while he was on bail the two boys and the other two girls came forward with their allegations, and he was arrested again by the police in November 2009.

They also found illegal material on his new computer.

Alan Langdale, defending, said Redhead had suffered violence and abuse as a child, and had begun drinking heavily after the break-up of relationships.

Jailing Redhead, Judge Richard Griffith-Jones told him

“You have damaged them. They will never forget what you did, and will have to cope with the memories of it.”