Tag: sexual predators

Paedophile jailed for 25 years complains prison guards have lost his teddy bear

A convicted paedophile has complained from behind bars that prison guards have ‘lost’ his teddy bear.

Shane Medhurst was jailed for 25 years last June after being found guilty of 14 counts of child sex abuse.

Among the charges included two counts of sexually assaulting a child under the age of 13.

Medhurst, 58, was jailed at Reading Crown Court, and is currently serving his sentence at the 1,100-capacity HMP High Down jail in Surrey.

The jail has two dedicated wings sex offenders, with around 400 inmates convicted of sex offences.

Writing in the latest edition of prisoner publication Inside Time, Medhurst said he was really ‘into arts and crafts’ and had started making his own teddy bears.

One in particular, which he called Mr Bear – a bright yellow bear with a blue and white striped outfit and a hat – was his ‘favourite’ and had taken him three weeks to make.

He said other teddies that he made had been sent to family and friends, and had loaned Mr Bear to the library inside the prison – but three weeks later he’d vanished.

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Pride group founder, 42, who raped a 12-year-old boy he met on dating app Grindr is jailed alongside his partner

The founder of a Pride group who raped an ‘extremely vulnerable’ boy who he met on Grindr has been jailed for 24 years.

Stephen Ireland, 42, who co-founded Pride in Surrey in 2018, raped the child at the flat he shared with his then partner and co-defendant David Sutton, 27, in Addlestone on April 19, 2024.

Ireland had arranged for the 12-year-old boy, referred to in court as Child A, to meet him at his flat after messaging on dating app Grindr, the court heard.

The boy, who had been reported missing at the time, told police they had sex in the flat.

The boy said they also smoked a bong which was later found to have contained methamphetamine, and that pornography was played on a laptop.

Judge Patricia Lees, sentencing at Guildford Crown Court on Monday, told the hearing Ireland ‘took advantage’ of a vulnerable child.

She said: ‘Stephen Ireland is a man who prided himself on being versed in and highly alive to the vulnerabilities of young people linked to the Surrey Pride organisation he was at the time pivotal to.

‘A was quite obviously to any adult an extremely vulnerable child who was highly sexualised.

The court heard the boy had initially told Ireland he was aged 17 – but when he later claimed to be aged 13, Ireland replied: ‘OK – we just have to keep it a secret.’

‘Your response was telling,’ Judge Lees told Ireland, who sat in the dock dressed in a large red T-shirt and showed no emotions throughout the hearing.

‘Far from finding that repugnant, you found that exciting, and sought to do it again.’

In a Telegram chat that took place after their encounter, Ireland sent Child A a message in which he described his age as ‘naughty and kinky’, the court heard.

On the same day, Ireland asked the boy if he would have a threesome and sent the child pictures of himself and Sutton.

Jurors heard that Ireland sent a picture of Child A to Sutton, describing him as a ’14-year-old baby’ who ‘wants to play with men’s bodies’, and the pair exchanged messages about the child.

Ireland along with Sutton, who was a volunteer for Surrey Pride, were found guilty of a string of sexual offences against children including voyeurism, arranging commission of a child sex offence, and possession of prohibited images of children, after a trial at Guildford Crown Court earlier this year.

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Convicted sex offender from Kenya avoids deportation, lands state job

A Kenyan national convicted of sexually assaulting a sleeping woman in Minnesota wasn’t deported after his prison sentence — he was promoted.

Wilson Tindi holds a director position at the Minnesota Department of Education, where he audits taxpayer spending and oversees internal accountability.

Court records show Tindi was convicted in 2016 of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct after breaking into a woman’s home and assaulting her in bed where she slept. He pleaded guilty to the sex assault charge in exchange for prosecutors dropping a first-degree burglary charge.

Tindi was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to register as a predatory offender. His sentence was stayed for five years, but he was also sentenced to 210 days in the workhouse, records show.

However, despite the felony conviction and offender status, Tindi serves as Director of Internal Audit and Advisory Services at MDE, according to public records and his LinkedIn profile.

A former prosecutor with direct knowledge of Tindi’s case told Alpha News they were disturbed to learn he now holds a leadership role in state government.

“I don’t know how he would have passed a background check,” the attorney said. “He’s a felon and a registered sex offender—how is he employed?”

The attorney said that in addition to the 2016 conviction, Tindi was also accused of a similar crime in 2012, as court documents state. Although the case was never charged, prosecutors filed a Spreigl notice—a legal move to introduce evidence of prior misconduct—citing the 2012 allegation as evidence of a disturbing pattern.

“He is dangerous,” the attorney said. “He has no business being paid out of our taxpayer dollars and should be back with ICE.”

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Norwegian royal charged with rape; police say victim count in double digits

The eldest son of Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit and stepson of the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Haakon, Marius Borg Høiby is facing charges of multiple counts of rape, sexual assault and bodily harm.

The charges come after a month-long investigation following Høiby’s multiple arrests in 2024. Oslo Police Attorney Andreas Kruszewski confirmed that the number of victims is in the “double-digits.”

Kruszewski said the charges include one case of rape with intercourse, two cases of rape without intercourse, four cases of sexual assault and two cases of bodily harm, the Associated Press reported. Kruszewski also reportedly said that 28-year-old Høiby was cooperative during police questioning.

The Oslo Police District put out a statement saying that they carried out a “thorough investigation”, with a “large number of witness interviews, several searches and a review of extensive digital material,” according to a BBC translation.

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Pulitzer Winning Washington Post Journalist Busted For Child Porn

A Pulitzer-Prize winning Washington Post journalist was arrested and charged with possession of child porn, DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced Friday.

Thomas Pham LeGro, 48, was arrested on Thursday after FBI agents discovered 11 videos of child sexual abuse material on his work laptop during a raid, Pirro’s office says, adding that they also found fractured pieces of a hard drive in his hallway, and seized several electronic devices.

After examining LeGro’s work laptop, the FBI says it found a “folder that contained 11 videos depicting child sexual abuse material.”

LeGro, a veteran journalist who worked at WaPo for 18 years, made his first appearance in District Court of Washington DC on Friday, and has a detention hearing scheduled for next Wednesday, the NY Post reports. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted.

A heavily redacted FBI affidavit against LeGro claims the reporter was linked to multiple E-Gold accounts in 2005 and 2006.  

E-Gold was a digital payment service that ceased operations after the feds accused the company in 2007 of laundering money for child pornographers.

The affidavit notes that the FBI received court approval to monitor LeGro’s internet account in May. -NY Post

LeGro worked for the Post‘s sports department between 2000-2006, left to work as a reporter and producer for “PBS NewsHour”, and then returned to WaPo in 2013. At WaPo, he was part of a team of reporters who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for coverage of former Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore – who was the victim of a disinformation campaign funded by LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.

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British man charged over mock Disneyland wedding to child had been investigated by BBC

The British paedophile charged in connection with organising a “mock wedding” to a child in Disneyland Paris is Jacky Jhaj, who was found guilty of sexual activity with two 15-year-olds in 2016, the BBC understands.

Jhaj, 39, has been charged in connection with organising the fake ceremony on Saturday, in which a nine-year-old Ukrainian girl was due to feature as his bride.

He was arrested when police were called on Saturday morning by an actor who said he had been hired by Jhaj to play the father of the bride.

The BBC has previously investigated how Jhaj was able to hire hundreds of children to act as his fawning fans at a fake film premiere in London’s Leicester Square in 2023.

Some of the children, who had been hired from casting agencies, were as young as six.

Teenage girls told the BBC that they had been asked to scream for him and try to touch him, without being told his real identity by the agencies.

Then in June last year, Jhaj was seen giving gifts to children outside dance auditions for another production – he was recognised by a parent who had seen the BBC article.

Two months later, and following the BBC’s further investigation, Jhaj was filmed posing naked in front of a mocked-up BBC News lorry in London which had been set on fire.

For the mock wedding at Disneyland Paris, which was to be filmed by Jhaj’s team, around 100 French extras had been recruited to take part.

The BBC understands that he appeared in front of a judge in Meaux, north-east of Paris, on Monday and was charged with fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, and identity theft and placed in pretrial detention.

Preliminary findings also stated that he had allegedly been “made-up professionally so that his face appeared totally different from his own”, according to the French prosecutor.

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Slovakian paedophile who kidnapped and gang raped schoolgirl, 12, starred in rap video funded by British taxpayers

A Slovakian paedophile who kidnapped and repeatedly raped a 12-year-old schoolgirl previously appeared in a British taxpayer-funded rap video, MailOnline can reveal.

Ernest Gunar Jr, 27, lured his victim into a car with the promise of a cigarette at an Asda car park in Dover last August, alongside fellow Slovakians Kevin Horvath, 26, and 38-year-old Ivan Turtak.

The girl was raped in Horvath’s car, before being taken to Gunar’s squalid caravan on Arthur Street in Folkestone, Kent, where she was plied with illicit substances, subjected to further rapes and other degrading sexual acts.

The trio were last week convicted of all charges against them.

MailOnline can now reveal that, as a teenager, Gunar rapped about how a lack of ‘respect’ for different communities would result in ‘racism and crime‘ for a local project financed by the UK Government.

Showcased by ITV project Fixers, Gunar – who was 16 at the time – was funded by the Cabinet Office’s Youth Social Action Fund under then-Prime Minister David Cameron.

ITV’s Fixers worked with Gunar as part of the Cabinet Office’s ‘Step Up To Serve’ campaign – which was spearheaded by the then-Prince of Wales, King Charles III.

The sex offender said at the time: ‘It’s my view that young people can be quick to judge each other and don’t always show one another respect.

‘The result of this can be racism and crime and I believe that the barriers between different groups of young people need to be broken down.’

He created a rap song and video, accompanied by friends, many of whom also originally came from Eastern Europe, and said: ‘Some people will perhaps think they know one Slovak who is bad, so they consider us all to be the same.

‘But, we’re all humans and we shouldn’t judge others. We should respect them.’

The lyrics of the video focused on community and unity, with one line stating: ‘Magnify the world, different countries and religions. What we know and what we don’t, let’s mix-match our opinions’.

The music video showed Gunar and several other teenagers singing and rapping while having a barbeque.

King Charles was the royal patron of Step Up To Serve, an initiative which called on adults across the UK to volunteer to help double the level of participation of young people in helping others.

It was supported by the Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband.

Gunar was born in Košice, the second biggest city in Slovakia, but came to the UK with his parents when he was aged three or four.

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Former Baltimore Deputy Charged with Sexual Abuse of a Minor: Investigation Uncovers Disturbing Evidence

A former deputy of the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office is now behind bars, facing charges of sexual abuse of a minor. According to WBAL-TV, Jonathan Koritzer, 35, was apprehended on Friday by the Baltimore County Police Department’s Crimes Against Children Unit following an investigation into allegations about his conduct.

Detectives launched an investigation after receiving tips about an inappropriate relationship between Koritzer and a minor, spanning from May 2022 until November 2024. During this period, the victim was between 14 and 17 years old. Evidence secured from Koritzer’s phone, which included photographs and text messages, corroborated the allegations.

In one of the more disturbing details to emerge, charging documents allege that photos found on Koritzer’s phone depicted the victim dressed in his police uniform, complete with duty gun. Currently, Koritzer is being held without bond at the Baltimore County Detention Center.

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Nicholls Police Chief arrested on child sex crime charges

The Nicholls Police Department’s (NPD) Chief was arrested June 19 on charges including enticing a child for indecent purposes and criminal attempt to commit child molestation, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) announced on June 20.

NPD Chief Ashley Wilson, a 40-year-old from Broxton, is in custody at the Coffee County Jail, the GBI said.

Through their investigation, the GBI said they found that Wilson sent messages to a 15-year-old girl telling her he wanted to have a sexual relationship with her. Many of the messages were sent while Wilson was on duty as Chief of Police, the GBI said.

Now, Wilson is charged with the following, officials said:

  • Three counts of enticing a child
  • One count of violation of oath of office
  • One count of conspiracy to commit child molestation

Investigators said that the girl’s mother discovered text messages between her daughter and Wilson, so she reported the incident to NPD.

Wilson’s arrest comes after the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) got a report late June 18 alleging that an NPD officer was involved in an inappropriate relationship with a minor, according to the sheriff’s office. CCSO said they immediately dispatched a deputy to evaluate the situation, and they found that the allegations warranted a comprehensive investigation. CCSO then requested that the GBI investigate this case.

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Anti-ICE Activists in Colorado Help Criminal Alien and Child Rapist Escape Arrest

Anti-ICE activists in Denver, Colorado, helped a child rapist illegally residing in the US escape arrest on Friday morning.

Colorado Rapid Response tipped off the criminal alien and child rapist identified as Jose Reyes Leon-Deras and boasted about helping him evade arrest.

“ICE has left the neighborhood. No one was detained,” Colorado Rapid Response said after they stalked ICE agents surveilling Jose Reyes Leon-Deras near Longs Peak Venue and Martin St. Longmont.

“This morning ICE & @FBIDenver were attempting to arrest Jose Reyes Leon-Deras, a criminal alien from El Salvador who is convicted of and wanted for child rape in Italy. During our surveillance of Leon, members of Colorado Rapid Response arrived on scene and alerted him to law enforcements presence which allowed him to escape arrest,” Denver ICE said on Friday.

ICE asked tipsters for help capturing Jose Reyes Leon-Deras.

“Groups like this interfere with ICE’s ability to keep communities safe. If you know his whereabouts, do not approach, if seen, instead report all info to ICE at 1-866-347-2423,” ICE Denver said.

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