JAILED THIS WEEK: Child abuser, nuisance caller and drug dealers

Richard Wyllie, 56, indecently assaulted the terrified ten-year-old at a house in Bradford around 20 years ago and went on to molest him over the next two years.

He had already been convicted of four counts of indecently assaulting two boys under 14 when he began abusing the youngster, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Wyllie was convicted by a jury of two charges of indecently assaulting the boy and a count of indecency with a child.

Prosecutor Gerald Hendron said Wyllie’s victim had struggled to disclose the abuse and now had issues with trust.

Giving evidence in the trial had made matters worse for him. Now he felt he could move on from that and put the ordeal behind him.

Mr Hendron said the first indecent assault, committed when the child was ten, would nowadays be charged as oral rape. It was a violent attack in which the boy was punched and pinned to the ground by Wyllie’s knees.

The following counts were each multiple charges, reflecting a pattern of abuse over two years in which the boy was touched indecently and forced to touch Wyllie’s penis.

The court heard that Wyllie had moved up from London to Bradford when the offences began.

Allison Summers, Wyllie’s barrister, said he had not seen the boy since, and had committed no similar offences.

He was homeless when he was arrested in Somerset.

Because Wyllie was being sentenced as an offender of particular concern, he would not automatically be released halfway through his sentence. He would stay behind bars until the Parole Board deemed it safe to let him out him, Miss Summers said.

He would then be closely monitored on an extended licence period.

Miss Summers said there was one incident of “oral rape” and the rest of the charges reflected short-lived instances of sexual touching.

Wyllie committed all his offences against the boys in a five-year period.

He had been addicted to drugs and alcohol and had mental health problems. Judge Colin Burn said Wyllie had used physical violence on the boy, punching him to the floor and pinning him down to abuse him when he was ten.

He isolated the child and either groomed him or imposed himself on him by intimidation.

Wyllie was jailed for eight years for the first offence and for four years to run consecutively for the two multiple counts.

He was ordered to sign on the sex offender for an indefinite period.

After the case, Detective Constable Olivia Rowling, of the Bradford District Safeguarding Unit, said: “We are pleased with the sentence Wyllie has received and hope this will be of some comfort to the victim.

“We also hope it will encourage other victims to come forward and speak with our specially trained officers, who will support them throughout the process of bringing perpetrators to justice.”

A NUISANCE caller who rang the ambulance service on 82 occasions, wasting more than eight hours of vital response time, was jailed for two years.

Donald McKean persistently dialled 999 from Bradford city centre, which he

was excluded from by a Criminal Behaviour Order.

McKean, 57, had a long history of wasting police time and making menacing and time-wasting phone calls, Bradford Crown Court heard.

In 2016, he was imprisoned for sexually assaulting a female paramedic in the back of an ambulance and making nuisance calls to the emergency services.

McKean, of no fixed address, was sentenced on a video link to Leeds Prison after admitting two breaches of the Criminal Behaviour Order (CRIMBO) and breach of the sex offender notification requirements.

Prosecutor Paul Nicholson said that McKean had 86 previous convictions for 140 offences and had received a string of prison sentences throughout the country for similar offences.

Between August 8 and 19 last year, he made 82 calls to the ambulance service, wasting 500 minutes of vital airtime for people in genuine need.

The court heard that McKean was barred from contacting the service by the CRIMBO and he made the calls from Bradford city centre, which the order excluded him from.

He had also flouted the order by going into the Royal Bank of Scotland on Bank Street in Bradford on September 6.

McKean breached the sexual offender notification rules by failing to tell the police he had moved out of The New Beehive Inn on Westgate, Bradford, in November, meaning they did not know where he was.

When question by the police, he denied making the 999 calls and said he was thrown out of his accommodation.

The court heard that McKean was jailed for 39 months in 2016 after he sexually assaulted a paramedic while he was being taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary.

He called the ambulance from Market Street and was found to be very drink and doubly incontinent. On the way to the hospital, he grabbed the paramedic’s breast and touched her leg.

He was ordered to sign on the sexual offender register for ten years and given a seven-year CRIMBO.

He had persistently breached the order, the court heard.

McKean’s barrister, Robin Frieze, conceded that a prison sentence was inevitable.

His client went into the bank because he needed to open an account to get his benefits paid into.

“It’s difficult for him because he can’t access any services without being in breach of the requirements of the order,” Mr Frieze said.

McKean had suffered with epilepsy all his life and he had low cognitive skills and Tourette syndrome. He found prison life very difficult and had been bullied, the court was told.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, warned McKean that if he continued to waste the ambulance service’s time with nuisance calls he would be looking at four years behind bars.

FOUR men and a woman were jailed for a total of more than 17 years as part of the Operation Errantdance police crackdown on “ring and bring” mobile drug dealers in Bradford.

The defendants were involved with the Tommy Line, that “shamelessly” dealt drugs outside the city’s magistrates court, and the Was Line, that tried to recruit an undercover police officer to drive for it for £500 a week.

Ammaar Arif, 30, of Cecil Avenue, Great Horton, Bradford, and Ziarat Ali, 36, of Glendare Terrace, Lidget Green, Bradford, were involved in the Tommy Line, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Arif was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to two offences of supplying heroin in March last year and two of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs on October 9.

Ali was locked up for three years and four months after admitting three charges of supplying Class A drugs in March.

Prosecutor Philip Adams said Arif and Ali dealt drugs to test purchase officer “Emily” from a Nissan Micra after directing her to Bradford University.

Ali then sold drugs to Emily outside Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court in Bradford city centre.

Police seized around £11,500 worth of drugs from Arif’s home on October 9, including £8,944 of crack cocaine and £2,551 of heroin.

There was also £655 in cash on his bed, Mr Adams said.

He told the court that Ali was in charge of the Tommy Line phone while Arif stored the drugs.

Andrew Dallas, for Arif, said he was orphaned as a child and fell into bad company. He had worked in a factory making sponge cakes and was planning a new life away from Bradford.

Ian Howard, for Ali, said he was pressed into dealing after running up a debt to buy household goods. He was a father of four who worked as a baker.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, said the pair were “blatantly street dealing,” including outside the city’s magistrates court.

“How shameless can you be?” he asked.

Four more defendants then appeared in the dock to be sentenced for their roles in the Was Line.

Waseem Akhtar, who ran the line, was jailed for four years and eight months.

Akhtar, 33, of Beacon Street, Wibsey, Bradford, admitted 12 offences of Class A drug trafficking and two of possession with intent to supply.

Connor McCarthy, 27, of Swinnow Lane, Bramley, was imprisoned for three years after pleading guilty to eight counts of supplying Class A drugs.

Saira Hussan, 30, of Saxton Street, Liversedge, was jailed for two and a half years. She drove for the Was Line and admitted ten offences of supplying Class A drugs and two of possession with intent.

Raza Shah, 21, of Gain Lane, Thornbury, Bradford, was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with 300 hours of unpaid work and a six month curfew order.

He was in the back of the car on one occasion when the Was Line was dealing and he stored £3,300 worth of drugs at his home. He admitted one offence of drug dealing and two of possession with intent.

Shah was of previous good character and enticed into the drugs ring, the court heard.

Mr Dallas, Shah’s barrister, said: “There has been an element of grooming in his case.”

“You have dipped your toe in this, I expect you have learned your lesson,” Judge Durham Hall told Shah.

He said Hussain’s was “a sad case.” She had no previous convictions and acted out of misplaced loyalty to her former partner, Akhtar.

McCarthy had a skilled job until he became addicted to crack cocaine, needing up to 15 wraps a day, and running up a £1,500 debt. He stopped dealing when he had paid back the money, his barrister, Frances Pencheon, said.

Mr Adams said that law enforcement officer Emily was offered a job as a driver by Akhtar during a drug deal.

He said she would earn £500 a week for a 12 hour day, expanding the Was Line into the Leeds area.

Akhtar, who had 100 wraps of drugs with him in the car, said he preferred female drivers to “lads that drove like idiots.”

He also told Emily he had been drug dealing in the area for ten to 15 years.

Judge Durham Hall said the defendants were from “impeccable” families who were distressed and disturbed by their offending.

He said street drug peddling was “an evil trade that is killing people in their hundreds.”

Operation Errantdance snared dozens of street dealers in Bradford East in the first half of last year. Undercover police officers posing as addicts lured the different supply lines to meeting points in the area where other users were often waiting.

Covert photos were then taken of the dealers and drivers who were then later arrested.

A DRUG dealer wanted on warrant was jailed for three years and four months for peddling heroin for the Ali Fiva Line in Bradford city centre.

Usman Ali, a former computer studies student, was another defendant locked up as part of Operation Errantdance.

Ali, 26, of St Mary’s Road, Manningham, Bradford, pleaded guilty to five counts of supplying heroin, between February 13 and April 1 last year.

Prosecutor Austin Newman told Bradford Crown Court that Ali was arrested on a warrant on January 23 after failing to turn up at court.

He was snared by Operation Errantdance, a police test purchase sting that ran in Bradford between January and July 2019.

Ali drove a grey Audi for the Ali Fiva Line, delivering drugs to customers waiting in Midland Road three times in February and once each in March and April.

His barrister, James Littlehales, said Ali was addicted to cocaine from the age of 18.

His dealer then injected him with heroin to manage the addiction and he became hooked on that drug instead.

Ali ran up a debt and was pushed into dealing to pay it off.

He drove for the Ali Fiva Line on five occasions, Mr Littlehales said.

The probation report said Ali had insight into his offending and had shown remorse.

He was a young man with ability, having dropped out in his second year of studying for a degree in computing when personal difficulties became too much for him.

Ali was ashamed of his drug dealing and intended to use his time in prison to free himself from illegal substances and to study for new qualifications.

“He was supplying a drug to which he is addicted and he had pressure put upon him,” Mr Littlehales said.

Ali had no previous convictions for supplying drugs, although the court heard he had committed offences of dishonesty.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, said Ali had failed to attend his plea and trial preparation hearing at the crown court.

A warrant not backed for bail was issued and he was held in custody after admitting the five counts of supplying Class A drugs.

Judge Durham Hall said that being a drug addict pressured into dealing was not an acceptable excuse for peddling heroin on the streets.

“As an addict, you know the scale of the problem and the wickedness of it,” he told Ali.

The sentencing was one of a string of jail terms dealt out to street dealers arrested as part of Operation Errantdance. The crackdown targeted mobile drug lines working in Bradford East between Barkerend and the city centre.