BishopAccountability.org

These are the faces of some of the worst sex offenders Wales has ever seen

By Liz Day
WalesOnLine.com
June 01, 2019

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/faces-worst-sex-offenders-wales-16356410

Ian Watkins

Mark Bridger

Claire Semmens and Aaron Hughes

David Hayes

Mark Sewell

Peter and Avril Griffiths

Colin Batley

Ajaz Butt (left) and Sajid Butt (right)

Mohammed Sadiq

"Depravity" is a word that has been used by many of the judges dealing with sexual predators for their horrendous crimes.

Figures released last year suggested the number of registered sex offenders living in Wales was rising rapidly.

The statistics from the Ministry of Justice, Prison and Probation Service showed there were just over 4,700 registered sex offenders living in Wales at the end of March, 2018.

That represents an increase of 60% compared to eight years ago and is the equivalent of one sex offender for every 844 people aged 10 and over.

Here are some of the most shocking sexual offence cases seen in Wales:

Ian Watkins

Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins was jailed for 29 years for sexually abusing children.

He pleaded guilty in November 2013 to 13 counts of sex abuse - including the attempted rape of a baby.

A judge told him he had "plumbed new depths of depravity", before jailing him.

He was also given an extended licence of six years, meaning a total sentence of 35 years.

The people jailed for various crimes in the month of May:

Cardiff Crown Court heard how Watkins described his child sex abuse as "megalolz", even as he sat in prison.

The judge said Watkins showed "evident delight" in abusing children and showed an "almost complete lack of remorse" for his behaviour.

He added: "You are a sexual predator. You are dangerous. The public and, in particular, young females and children need protection from you."

Mark Bridger

Mark Bridger was told he would die behind bars after being jailed for life for the murder of April Jones.

Bridger was given the sentence in May, 2013, after a jury at Mold Crown Court found him guilty of abducting and murdering five-year-old April before disposing of her remains.

Handing Bridger a whole life tariff, Mr Justice Griffith Williams branded him a "pathological liar" and a "paedophile".

The judge said: “There is no doubt in my mind that you are a paedophile, who has for some time harboured sexual and morbid fantasies about young girls.”

He added that Bridger had stored on his laptop "not only images of pre-pubescent and pubescent girls but foul pornography of the gross sexual abuse of young children.

Bridger became just the 32nd person in UK history to be handed a whole life tariff after being found guilty of murder.

Aaron Hughes and Claire Semmens

A babysitter was jailed for 16 years for giving a three-year-old boy to a known paedophile who drugged and raped him as he slept.

Claire Semmens handed the little boy to depraved Aaron Hughes, who was jailed for life in May, 2014, for the sex attacks on the sedated toddler.

Hughes, 32, filmed the rapes on his mobile phone so he could watch them over and over again on his computer.

He was caught when police did a routine check on his computer because they believed he had breached a court order by downloading child pornography.

The court heard horrified officers found Hughes had filmed himself raping a child twice at the home of Semmens while she was babysitting children.

Semmens, of Roath, Cardiff, admitted two charges of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and possessing indecent images. She was jailed for 16 years and barred from ever working with children again and must sign on the sex offenders register for life.

Hughes, of Roath, admitted two charges of rape, possessing indecent images and breaching the terms of his sex offenders prevention order.

He was jailed for life and told he would not be considered for parole until he served 12 years in prison.

Hughes will also be on licence for life and barred from ever working with children and must sign on to the sex offenders register for life.

Judge Phillip Richards told the pair: "These were genuinely horrendous offences which include the rape of a young child who was three years old.

"It almost defies belief that any human being would do such a thing to such an innocent young child.

"Each of you are going to spend a long time in prison before you see the light of day."

David Hayes

A sex offender found guilty of raping and abusing children was jailed for 23 years.

David Hayes went on the run for more than two years before being arrested in Spain where he was working as an English teacher.

The former press officer at Bangor City Football Club had denied 12 charges including child rape, sexually assaulting children aged 10 or under, and inciting them to engage in sexual acts.

But Hayes, who tried to evade justice by fleeing abroad, was found guilty by a jury in February, 2019.

Hayes, of Bridge Street in Llanrwst, carried out the abuse over a three-year period.

Judge Rhys Rowlands said he remained a "high risk to children".

At Mold Crown Court, he sentenced Hayes to three concurrent extended sentences of 15 years for two rapes and an oral rape.

He was given a consecutive extended term of eight years for another serious sexual assault.

He was also given an extended licence of two years in total, meaning he will serve 23 years in jail, plus two years on licence.

Judge Rowlands described Hayes as "a pretty inadequate individual with a distorted view of life", saying the offences against two young children were of the "most appalling depravity".

Mark Sewell

A depraved Jehovah's Witness church elder who raped a fellow worshipper and abused vulnerable schoolgirls was jailed for 14 years.

"Predator" Mark Sewell showed "not a shred of remorse" for his crimes, said the judge who sent him down.

The disgraced businessman was convicted in July, 2014, of eight historic sex charges against four women following a three-week trial at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court.

The court heard how respected Jehovah’s Witness Sewell used his “position of power” as an elder in the Barry congregation to “exploit and abuse” women and children.

Former Butlins holiday camp driver Sewell was locked up for a total of 14 years.

He was found guilty by a jury of six sexual assaults against two young girls in the 120-strong Barry congregation more than 20 years ago.

Sewell was also convicted of raping a fellow churchgoer in an attack which left her knickers "shredded" and saw her become pregnant.

Jurors found him guilty of indecently assaulting another woman by rubbing his groin against her bottom as she made a cup of tea.

He must sign the sex offenders register for life and will be banned from ever working with children.

Avril and Peter Griffiths

A husband and wife described as the “Fred and Rosemary West of Barry” were jailed after grooming and raping teenage girls in their hometown.

Peter Griffiths and Avril Griffiths repeatedly abused the girls in a number of locations including at a sex party on a boat.

The charges related to three female victims between 1978 and 1993.

At Cardiff Crown Court in October, 2018, Peter Griffiths was sentenced to 21 years in jail for eight counts of rape, three of indecent assault, and two of taking an indecent photograph of a child.

His wife Avril Griffiths was sentenced to 15 years in jail for five counts of rape, two of taking an indecent photograph of a child, and two of indecent assault.

Judge Jeremy Jenkins referred to the “devastating impact” of the offending on each of the complainants.

Colin Batley

Colin Batley ran a satanic sex cult from his home in the seaside town of Kidwelly.

The former Tesco security guard established a depraved cult which saw children and young adults intimidated into having sex in the most horrific circumstances.

As ordinary, law-abiding families went about their daily lives in the dozens of homes in Clos yr Onnen, Batley and three of his neighbours established an occult-inspired sex ring which stole the childhoods of its victims.

The full, shocking scale of the abuse perpetrated by the cult came finally came to light when they were jailed for a total of 36 years in 2011 – with “quasi-religious” sect leader Batley warned he may never be freed.

Cult members would dress in hooded robes during occult rituals which usually took place before group sex.

Batley, who was 48 when he stood trial over five weeks at Swansea Crown Court in the early part of 2011, was said to have used the cult as a form of brainwashing to justify abuse to his victims.

The self-styled "high priest" of the cult grew up in Shoreditch, London.

He was convicted of 35 offences including 11 rapes and numerous child sex crimes.

Sentencing him to an indeterminate prison term on public protection grounds and ordering him to serve at least 11 years before being eligible for parole, Judge Paul Thomas QC told him: “When this case was opened to the jury you Colin Batley were described as evil.

“That in my view is an accurate statement of your character. You set yourself up as the ruler of a sick little kingdom surrounded by three women who danced as your willing attendants regarding you as their master.

“You left your victims psychologically scarred and treated them as sexual playthings.”

Ajaz and Sajid Butt

Amer Hussain was sexually assaulted more than 100 times as a boy.

He was abused in his bedroom by his uncle when he was six, raped at a family funeral at the age of 12 and, while still in primary school, endured six months of assaults every night.

Not only did he have to endure horrific sexual abuse over many years, he also had to deal with the reaction of his community when he brought his abusers to court.

Ajaz Butt was sentenced to nine years in prison for six counts of indecent assault at Swansea Crown Court on October 12, 2018.

Sajid Butt admitted three counts of indecent assault, one count of buggery and one count of attempted buggery. He was sentenced to six years under a Mental Health Act hybrid order, which means he will serve some of the sentence detained in hospital.

Mohammed Sadiq

Mosque teacher Mohammed Sadiq sexually assaulted young girls as they read to him in Koran studies at a mosque in Cardiff.

A trial at Cardiff Crown Court heard the defendant taught at the Madina Mosque, then in Woodville Road in Cathays, for more than 30 years.

The charges involved four victims and related to the period between 1996 and 2006.

Opening the case, prosecutor Suzanne Thomas said: “It was while he was teaching at the mosque, the prosecution say, that the defendant took advantage of his position.”

Sentencing Judge Stephen Hopkins QC told him: “You have not and you are still not showing any remorse at all for what you did.

“You appear to have no understanding of the harm and humiliation you inflicted on four young children, as they were.”

Sadiq, then 81, from Lake Road East in Cyncoed, was jailed in July, 2017, for 13 years after being found guilty of six counts of indecent assault and eight counts of sexual assault.

Later that year his jail term was cut on appeal to nine years.




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