September 2023

Doncaster paedophile jailed for sexually abusing children

A Doncaster paedophile who sexually abused multiple children, including a vulnerable boy with significant learning difficulties, has been jailed for over 14 years.

Nicholas Powers, 56, of Belmont Avenue, pleaded guilty to numerous offences spanning 20 years, including four counts of sexual activity with a child and three counts of indecent assault.

Powers was arrested in December 2021 after he picked up a teenage boy in his car and drove him to his home where he sexually assaulted him.

He made his victim, who he had met online, perform a sexual act on him and touch him inappropriately before driving him back home. Before he got out of the car, he warned the boy to stay quiet and said that if he told anyone he would “get done”.

His victim says he was left disgusted, ashamed and terrified by what had happened, and admitted he had experienced suicidal thoughts. That same evening, he told his mum who reported the incident to police after she found his phone in a bin.

Powers also admitted sexually abusing a teenage girl in September 2001 after plying her with alcohol. He gave her home brew wine before kissing her and sexually assaulting her.

His victim recalled how she also felt disgusted and Powers told her to not tell anyone. She began to self-harm after struggling to come to terms with the abuse she had been subjected to.

Powers also agreed to meet an online decoy posing as a 15-year-old boy after sending explicit messages on a mobile phone app.

As well as pleading guilty to three counts of indecent assault and four counts of sexual activity with a child, Powers also admitted two counts of making indecent photographs of a child as well as offences of attempting to communicate sexually with a child and attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.

Powers was sentenced to 14 years and five months in prison at Sheffield Crown Court on Thursday 31 August. He has also been put on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life and issued with a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) and a lifetime restraining order.