Category Archives: Devon

Jayden McCarthy – Paignton

28 Friday May 2021

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July 2021

‘Dangerous’ paedophile who abused nursery children in Torquay given lengthy jail term

A nursery apprentice who abused nine toddlers in his care has been jailed for 11-and-a-half years.

Teenager Jayden McCarthy was described as a dangerous sexual offender who poses a risk to the public by a judge at Exeter Crown Court.

He was 16 and an apprentice at a nursery in Torquay in July 2019 when he forced a girl to have oral sex with him.

Analysis of CCTV from the previous month showed him carrying out a series of less serious sexual assaults on toddlers.

McCarthy had previously raped a boy of eight or nine in a completely unrelated case, several years earlier.

Judge David Evans told him: ”These offences were aggravated by the extreme youth of the children, the breach of trust and the presence of other children, as is clear from the footage.

“I judge you as posing a high level of risk based on the way in which you could barely contain your sexual impulses in the images from the nursery, when you were aged 16, and the way you abused the boy earlier.

“It seems that sexual offending may be in your nature and a great deal of work may be necessary to work it out

“I cannot ignore the very great deal of distress and psychological disturbance that you caused directly to the victims and indirectly to those who care for them.

“You had obtained a job at the nursery and received safeguarding training. Whatever immaturity you exhibited, you clearly understood the importance of safeguarding and the need to protect the young and vulnerable children in your care.”

McCarthy, now aged 18, of South Devon, denied one count of rape and 13 of sexual assault at the nursery and was found guilty of all these offences and the two rapes of the boy.

He was jailed for a total of 11-and-a-half years with a three year extended licence. The sentence means he will serve eight years and three months before he will become eligible for parole.

He will thereafter be liable to recall to prison if he fails to comply with his licence until the full 14 years and six months has expired. The judge put him on the sex offenders’ register for life.

McCarthy had been working at the nursery for four months when a three-year-old girl went home and told her mother that he had made her take part in a sex act in a toilet area.

A massive police operation was launched on July 29, 2019, when the girl told her mother that ‘Jayden had been naughty’ in a toilet at the nursery.

Officers studied 265 hours of CCTV footage which revealed the other offences, in which he put his hand up the skirts of girls or touched them while pretending to play or apply sun cream.

One clip showed him looking around furtively as he slid his hand inside a little girl’s clothing as she took a nap on a mattress on the floor with other children asleep all around her.

The CCTV footage also showed that he had been alone in the toilet area with the three-year-old for around nine minutes on the day he assaulted her.

Her dress had got drenched while she was in a wet pay area and he was ostensibly changing it for a dry one which she kept in her rucksack.

McCarthy was in care and living in a children’s home at the time while also working part time as a waiter at a pub in Kingsteignton.

He had been working at the nursery since March, having passed two interviews and been vetted

May 2021

Nursery apprentice who sexually assaulted nine children is under 24-hour supervision at Somerset location

A teenager who abused nine toddlers at a nursery is under 24-hour supervision at an isolated location in Somerset.

Nursery apprentice Jayden McCarthy of Paignton was found guilty of the offences at the end of a trial at Exeter Crown Court.

He was 16 in July 2019 when a three-year-old girl went home and told her mother he had made her take part in a sex act in a toilet area of the nursery in Torbay.

CCTV from the previous ten days revealed he had carried out 13 sexual assaults on seven girls and one boy.

A teenage boy also came forward to police to disclose that McCarthy had raped him repeatedly when he was aged about eight.

Judge David Evans adjourned the case until July 14 for sentence and allowed McCarthy to remain on bail until then.

He is currently in council care and under 24-hour supervision in Somerset and will remain there until sentence.

The judge ordered a psychiatric and pre-sentence reports and told McCarthy to expect a lengthy sentence of youth custody.

The judge told him:”You have been found guilty on the clearest possible evidence of grave sexual offences against young and very young children at a time when you were yourself a youth.

“You face a substantial sentence of custodial detention.

“However, I cannot sentence you now.

“I need to give those affected to record the effect on the children in personal statements which will be before me when I sentence.

“I also need to give the lawyers time to construct submissions about sentence, which they will put into writing.

“Given your age, and the age you were at the time, and the seriousness of the offending and your lack of previous convictions, I am allowing time to arrange a psychiatric assessment by someone with forensic experience and a full pre-sentence report to be prepared by the probation service.

“That will address all relevant matters, including dangerousness.”

The judge told McCarthy he will have to sign on the Sex Offenders’ Register immediately and will be prevented from working with children again by the Declaration and Barring Service.

McCarthy, now 18, of South Devon, denied one count of rape and 13 of sexual assault at the nursery and was found guilty by unanimous verdict of each offence.

He also denied two rapes in relation to the earlier assaults on the eight-year-old boy and was found guilty of those by majority verdicts.

A massive police operation was launched on July 29, 2019 when the three-year-old girl told her mother that ‘Jayden had been naughty’ in a toilet at the nursery.

Officers studied 265 hours of CCTV footage which revealed the other offences, in which he put his hand up the skirts of girl or touched them while pretending to play or apply sun cream.

One clip showed him looking around furtively as he slid his hand inside a little girl’s clothing as she took a nap on a mattress on the floor with other children asleep all around her.

The CCTV footage also showed that he had been alone in the toilet area with the three-year-old for around nine minutes on the day he assaulted her.

Her dress had got drenched while she was in a wet play area and he was ostensibly changing it for a dry one which she kept in her rucksack.

McCarthy was in care and living in a children’s home at the time while also working part time as a waiter at a pub in Kingsteignton.

He had been working at the nursery since March, having passed two interviews and been vetted.

He had received training in safeguarding during his employment.

The jury at Exeter Crown Court was shown 13 CCTV clips taken in July 2019 which showed him touching eight children inappropriately.

McCarthy was also found guilty of two counts of rape in a separate incident.

Brian Greenslade – Barnstaple

24 Monday May 2021

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May 2021

Sex pest former Devon council leader jailed

A former Devon council leader with a ‘dark side’ has been jailed for sexually assaulting three women.

Brian Greenslade, 72, a long-time leader of Devon County Council, assaulted two of his victims while on council business.

He lunged at one of the women, trying to kiss her, and put his hands down her trousers while she tried to push him away. He groped and fondled the other women’s breasts.

Greenslade, who led the council for 16 years and was also chairman of the Devon and Cornwall Police Authority, denied any of the incidents ever happened and suggested one of the women had been ‘put up to it’ for political reasons.

But the jury agreed with the prosecution that he was ‘completely driven by ego and self importance’.

A judge sentencing him said he had abused his position of power and status when committing the offences.

Judge Timothy Rose said: “You’ve lived a long life in the service of your local community, particularly in the county of Devon.

“It seems to me throughout a large part of that period you had a dark side to you that you couldn’t control yourself in the presence of women.”

Greenslade, of Marwood, Barnstaple, was found guilty of two charges of indecent assault and one sexual assault dating back to the 1990s and mid 2000s.

He was jailed for 16 months.

The first incident happened when Greenslade was alone with the woman on council business. He suddenly lunged at her, grabbing both her arms and tried to kiss her. He then put his hand down the front of her trousers. She tried to resist and pull away but he was too strong for her.

The woman drove off in shock and disbelief at what had happened.

In a victim statement read to the court she said: “He was in a privileged position which he abused. I was completely embarrassed, ashamed and angry.

“I asked myself why he thought he could do that.

“This was a period when men had mistresses and men thought they could do as they liked.”

The second victim said she was assaulted by Greenslade during a function at the County Hall.

The leader of the council approached her and spoke to her before putting his arm around her and fondling her breast. She told him to move his hand or she would break his fingers.

She said she did not report the assault at the time because she thought she would get into trouble.

“It was a shocking experience and still shocks me now,” she said. It was only recently she had come to the conclusion that she had done nothing wrong and that Greenslade had acted in an outrageous way

The third incident happened in the 1990s when Greenslade was working as an accountant.

He stood behind a woman in an office and reached over to grab her breast. She could recall feeling sick and shaking while he just grinned. She said she had been terrified by the incident.

The process of coming back to court to relive the event in the witness box had given her a panic attack. She too had felt guilty for not reporting the incident sooner.

The court wass told that Greenslade could not ‘control himself’ in the presence of women.

The three women came forward with their allegations in 2018. It followed a public censure of Greenslade by the county council on the grounds of his harassment of members of staff.

Diesel Gaskell – Torquay

22 Saturday May 2021

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May 2021

Torquay man, 18, admits series of sexual offences against a child

A Torquay man has admitted a series of sexual offences against a very young child.

Diesel Gaskell, 18, of Thurlow Road in Torquay, appeared at Exeter Crown Court

He pleaded guilty to four offences, including sexual activity with a child under 13, causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and committing a series of acts intending to pervert the course of public justice.

Mr Barry White, defending, asked the judge to order a pre-sentence report.

Judge Peter Johnson agreed and set a date for sentence of August 3.

Gaskell, who spoke only to confirm his name and enter pleas during the short hearing, appeared via video link from custody.

Judge Johnson adjourned the case and remanded him in custody until the sentencing hearing.

He said Gaskell would be given appropriate credit for his guilty pleas and reports would be prepared to assist the sentencing judge in August.

Colin Brooks – Brixham

20 Thursday May 2021

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May 2021

Victim of paedophile former Surrey head teacher says abuse ‘ended my childhood’ as he’s jailed

A former Surrey head teacher has been jailed after justice was finally served more than 30 years after he sexually abused a girl on multiple occasions.

Over a period of three years during the 1980s, Colin Brooks, now 77, took advantage of the girl’s vulnerability to exploit her sexually, forcing her to perform sex acts on him at “every opportunity” according to the judge who sentenced him.

He has been sentenced to 28 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to seven counts of indecent assault on the female victim, having initially accused her of making up the abuse.

The defendant, who had since moved to Brixham, in Devon, previously worked as a teacher and headmaster at various educational establishments across the South East of England.

He became the head teacher at The Grove School in Hindhead during the 1980s. The school is now known as The Royal School.

A sentencing hearing on Monday (May 17) at Guildford Crown Court heard the sexual abuse began in the 1980s when the victim was a teenager, with the first offence taking place during a car journey.

Prosecutor Adrian Fleming said: “[Brooks] put his hand on hers to keep it on his leg. He then moved her hand up to near his groin. She became aware that he had an erection.”

He added that Brooks “pulled the car over, stopped, unzipped his flies” and placed her hand on his privates, before driving on. He only removed it near the end of the journey, “and for the first time of many, he told her ‘this is our secret, don’t tell anyone’.”

The court heard how Brooks made “more serious threats” to enforce her silence, including that if she told her mother, she would be sent away or placed into the care system.

The abuse continued over a three-year period, during which he kissed her and felt her breasts and she was forced to perform oral sex and other acts on him.

Mr Fleming said Brooks visited the victim’s house and went into her bedroom “under the pretence of saying goodnight”. He said he “showed her how to give him the most pleasure”.

The victim, who appeared at Guildford Crown Court for the sentencing hearing, read aloud an emotional impact statement to the court, detailing her “most painful memories”.

She said: “The evening when things began not only shook me to the core, but effectively ended my childhood. I was fairly grown up for my age, but this was on an altogether different scale.

“It meant I grew up far more quickly than I should have done and I also learned to be an efficient liar.”

After the abuse ended, the victim said she “learned to live with the after-effects of what happened” and hoped to put the past behind her.

However, she was forced to disclose the sexual abuse to police years later when one of her former partners made allegations which implicated the wrong man.

She completed a video interview on November 14, 2018, and Brooks was arrested and interviewed on January 4, 2019, the court heard.

In that interview, he denied all the offences, claiming they were “fabrications of the worst kind”.

He was interviewed a second time on November 28, 2019 and “persisted in those denials”. He was later charged and pleaded guilty to all seven counts of indecent assault.

Shane Turner – Tavistock

16 Sunday May 2021

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May 2021

Serial flasher drove around naked and kept blow up doll in his car

A serial flasher drove around Devon towns with an inflatable sex doll in the passenger seat of his car

Shane Turner, aged 50, was wearing a little black dress when he passed a man in Tavistock.

The same man later saw Turner drive past in a Ford Ka wearing nothing at all.

He was part of a group of men and women who saw the naked man turn into a school car park on a January night, Plymouth Crown Court heard.

A jury found that Turner was in breach of a court order imposed five years ago for a terrifying campaign of exposing himself to lone female at night in Exeter – sometimes by a graveyard.

Turner, of Mary Tavy near Tavistock, went on trial after denying that he broke the terms of the Sexual Harm Prevention Order from 2016.

He is banned from exposing his genitals in public.

But a jury found him guilty by a unanimous verdict after a four-day trial.

The conviction relates to the second incident outside Tavistock Primary and Nursery School on January 9 last year.

He was not charged in connection with driving about the inflatable doll, which the witness said happened some time before Christmas 2019.

Recorder David Shepherd released Turner on bail for a probation report before sentencing on June 11.

The judge said it was an unusual case.

He told the defendant: “You have been convicted by the jury of a single offence. I do not know what I am going to do when it comes to sentence.

“I make it clear to you that all options are open, including custody. This is a serious offence in breach of a court order for previous serious offences.

“Be in no doubt of how seriously I take it.”

The prosecution’s main witness told the jury that a Ford Ka turned into the primary school car park at about 7.20pm that January night.

He said he was few feet away on the driver’s side with other men and women nearby with torches.

The man said: “He did not appear to be wearing anything. That is what caught my attention.

“I could see his head, shoulders, body, lap and genitals.”

The witness said that his group carried on to the adjoining car park at Tavistock Community College, where they saw the same car being driven around a few minutes later.

He added that he recalled seeing the man in a similar car a few weeks before in nearby Pixon Lane.

The man said: “What attracted my attention is that he had an inflatable sex doll on the passenger side of the car. He appeared to be wearing a little black dress.

“It did make me stop and wonder. It was quite an unusual sight.”

The witness said that he Googled “Tavistock flasher” and found a Daily Mirror story about Shane Turner with a picture from 2016. He added that it was the same man he had seen.

The court heard that he also later picked out an image of Turner from a video identification procedure.

The witness, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said that he later saw the man fully clothed at the tills of Morrisons in Tavistock.

He followed him to the car park and saw him get into a Ford Ka, making a note of the registration.

Turner tried to claim that he had been wearing a flesh-coloured woman’s strappy top near the school, holding the garment up in the dock.

But the witness insisted he had been naked.

Turner was locked up five years ago for a campaign of exposing himself in Exeter.

He lurked around alleys near a graveyard and continued to expose himself to terrified victims.

Turner was caught after a brave mother caught him on mobile phone footage.

She spotted him naked from the waist down in Exeter at 3am one morning, asking: “Excuse me, mate, why do you keep walking around naked?”

Police said he was finally brought to justice when officers mounted a special operation in Cowick Street and waited beside his BMX bike for him to pick it up.

Turner was handed the Sexual Harm Prevention Order to curb his perverted antics.

He has breached it once already by having a video or audio recording device without informing the police keeping an eye on him.

The offence from last year makes his latest conviction even more serious.