A ‘MONSTER’ who sexually abused three boys, leaving two of them wishing they were dead, was jailed for more than 11 years.
Stuart Alexander made one of his young victims feel numb, shocked and powerless, Bradford Crown Court heard.
“I was a piece of meat trapped in a cage like an animal,” he said in his victim impact statement.
Alexander, 56, of Red Bank Road, Blackpool, pleaded guilty to 14 child sexual offences committed when he lived in Calderdale. They included indecent assaults, engaging in sexual activity in front of a child, possession of an indecent photograph and a child and communicating with a child in an attempt to commit a sexual offence.
Prosecutor Heather Gilmore said he failed to attend an earlier court hearing and was arrested and remanded in custody.
The first victim said he was initially in complete shock. He was traumatised and suffered flashbacks and nightmares. At one time, he was so numb that he felt the only way was death, he stated.
He was on anti-depressants and had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
He labelled Alexander ‘a monster’ and said he hoped to get justice for all his victims.
The second male said he was suffering emotionally. He cried a lot and had wished that he was dead.
The third victim was left scared and cautious. He said he was very angry that part of his childhood had been taken away.
Ian Howard said in mitigation that Alexander offered his sincere and heartfelt apologies to his three victims. He had tried to take his life on three occasions and his remorse was genuine and significant. He had pleaded not guilty to the abuse at first but then admitted all the offences.
He sat in the booth at Leeds Prison with his head buried in his hands and wept throughout Mr Howard’s mitigation.
Judge Ahmed Nadim said he had insidiously exploited his victims, who were left scared and confused. All had been severely damaged; speaking in their impact statements of a robbed childhood, impaired mental health and disturbed sleep.
Alexander was sentenced to a total of 11 years and six months in prison. He will serve two thirds of it behind bars and then be on licence and liable to recall if he commits any further offences.
He must register as a sex offender for life and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order was made, also for life.
Judge Ahmed Nadim said the court was indebted and grateful to each of the complainants.
“It must have taken an enormous amount of courage and fortitude for them to come forward and assist the criminal justice system in the way that they have,” he said.
“It is hoped that the delivery of justice better enables them to overcome the challenges that have been presented to each of them by the defendant’s conduct.”
LEE CHAPMAN
A VIOLENT domestic abuser who beat up his ex-partner and then sent threatening letters to her from prison was labelled a public danger and jailed for four years.
Lee Chapman was given a five-year extended sentence at Bradford Crown Court by Judge Andrew Hatton who said he was manipulative and posed a significant risk to women in the future.
Chapman, 34, was convicted this month after a trial of assaulting his victim causing her actual bodily harm on July 29 and witness intimidation by trying to frighten her into dropping the case against him.
Judge Hatton said he was found guilty ‘on compelling evidence.’ Chapman, of Albemarle Crescent, Scarborough, had told the jury he loved the woman.
“If that is so, you have a strange way of showing it,” the judge told him.
The court heard that she had complained to the police about Chapman before but he was always granted bail. He returned to her address in Bradford and persuaded her to drop the charges.
He was on bail again when he attacked her in July after he had been on a fishing trip.
He returned to her home at 5pm and punched and kicked her causing a nasty black eye and bruising her arms.
Judge Hatton said a number of blows were struck leaving the woman dazed and in excruciating pain.
When the police came round the following day, she denied she had been assaulted because Chapman was hiding upstairs.
Then she had the strength of character to tell them what had happened and Chapman was remanded into custody.While behind bars on remand, he sent the woman many letters that were threatening and intimidating.
“It was a sustained course of conduct to get her to drop the case against you,” Judge Hatton said.
Chapman had taken the matters to trial but the jury had seen through the ‘smokescreen’ he put up when he told lies about his victim.
He had previous convictions for racially aggravated harassment, inflicting grievous bodily harm, criminal damage, assault by beating an emergency worker and resisting a constable.
In her victim impact statement, the woman said she had been left feeling anxious and depressed, not sleeping or eating. She had fled her address and was homeless for some time afterwards.She was very concerned that Chapman would get out and find her and hurt her.
In mitigation, it was stated that he knew the relationship was over and would never contact the woman again.
Judge Hatton said he was overwhelmingly satisfied that Chapman posed a risk of serious harm to the public.
“Any future partner of yours is at significant risk,” he said.
Chapman’s five-year extended sentence comprises a four-year prison term with a 12-month licence period.
He must spend at least two thirds of the custodial term behind bars and then The Parole Board will decide if it’s safe to release him.
Judge Hatton warned him that he might spend all of the four years in prison.
An indefinite restraining order prevents Chapman from contacting the woman again directly or through a third party.
RICKY CAVANAGH
A CONVICTED paedophile brazenly deleted apps off his phone in front of a police officer after he had been discussing child sexual abuse with a like-minded pervert, Bradford Crown Court heard.
Ricky Cavanagh had ‘plumbed the very depths of depravity’ when he was given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) in 2016 for 14 offences, Judge Ahmed Nadim said.
He breached the order on March 18 this year when he was caught with Snapchat and WhatsApp on his iPhone.
Prosecutor Zarreen Alam-Cheetham said Cavanagh had raised numerous concerns that he was being evasive and accessing prohibited social media sites.
After the police seized his phone in Halifax town centre, he was found to have been talking on the internet to another registered sex offender about the abuse of children.
The court heard that Cavanagh, 38, whose address was given as HMP Leeds, had installed and then deleted Snapchat up to nine times.
He was considered to be a high risk sex offender whose convictions at Leeds Crown Court in September, 2016, included making and distributing indecent images of children, possessing prohibited images, breach of a SHPO and multiple counts of attempting to incite a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity.
He pleaded guilty to breaching the SHPO by deleting his internet history.
His prison licence was revoked and he was put back behind bars.
Cavanagh, who was still remanded in custody and represented himself in court, was asked by Judge Nadim if he wanted to say anything.
“I’m happy with everything. I’m happy to proceed,” he replied.
The judge told him: “You are a man capable of plumbing the very depths of depravity.”
He had acted on his perverted fantasies by trying to engage a child under 13 in sexual activity.
Cavanagh was regarded as a high risk offender and his behaviour in the community had caused considerable concern.
He had installed and uninstalled Snapchat on nine occasions. It was a very persistent breach of the order.
Judge Nadim said that in defiance of the SHPO, Cavanagh had deleted history of his usage of social media sights in front of a public protection officer. He was then seen to have been engaged in conversation with a registered sex offender to discuss the sexual abuse of children.
Cavanagh was a Category 1A offender whose offending was aggravated by his past breaches of court orders, Judge Nadim said.
He was jailed for two years and four months and warned that the SHPO was in place without limit of time.
NEIL WONG
A ‘SELFISH and cruel’ drug addict who targeted an elderly man to steal his television set after committing a spate of shop thefts on bail was jailed for more than three years.
Prolific thief Neil Wong, with 71 crimes on his record, mocked his vulnerable victim by offering to swap the plundered TV with another in the flat that had a smaller screen, Bradford Crown Court heard.
Wong, 42, of Bankfield Walk, Braithwaite, Keighley, was sentenced to 38 months imprisonment for a total of nine offences.
Judge Jonathan Rose said the burglary was ‘an utterly dreadful offence’ in which Wong stole the pensioner’s £300 television set and £40 worth of scratch cards from next to his bed late at night.
The court heard that Wong and another man went to the man’s Keighley home on the evening of September 3 this year. The victim lives alone and is intermittently bedbound.
Wong, who was on bail and a community order, asked to borrow the TV and he said no.
He returned at 11pm and stole it along with the winning scratch cards, prosecutor Lauren Smith said.
Wong was also sentenced for a string of shoplifting offences in Keighley and using threatening behaviour with fear of violence to a store manager and his colleague.
Miss Smith said that the first shop theft took place on August 29 last year, just days after Wong was sentenced to a community order for shoplifting and battery.
He stole £60 worth of electric toothbrushes from Boots in Keighley and then went on to steal from stores in the town on September 10 and 11 last year.
On October 30, 2021, Wong entered Farm Foods in the Airedale Shopping Centre although he was banned from the store. He picked up two jars of coffee to steal but was challenged and detained by the manager who told him he was ‘sick of him coming in and helping himself.’ But Wong struggled, saying: ‘Not today. I’m not getting lifted.’ In the scuffle a Swiss Army Knife fell from his pocket.
Wong was pushed out of the shop by the manager because there were children present, Miss Smith said.
He stayed outside for some time shouting threats at the manager and his colleague.
“I’ll meet you after work and stab you up,” he said.
Shila Whitehead said in mitigation that Wong had a history of drug addiction. He was remorseful and sorry that he had targeted the elderly man.
He knew he was going to prison and he had already been remanded in HMP Doncaster for three weeks. Judge Rose labelled Wong ‘a selfish and cruel man,’ who had committed ‘a mean and cruel offence’ of burglary.
ELVIS ABEDIN
A KEY conspirator in a cunning plot that saw homes excavated and loft hatches concealed to hide a network of sophisticated cannabis farms was jailed for three years.
Elvis Abedin, 27, helped to set up and manage drugs factories concealed in rented properties in the Bradford area and South Yorkshire.
Houses were rented using false identity documents and factories set up in hidden spaces dug out underground and in lofts accessed through wardrobe doors, Bradford Crown Court heard.
Abedin, of Kellett Lane, Lower Wortley, Leeds, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cultivate cannabis between December, 2020, and July last year.
Judge Ahmed Nadim issued a warrant not backed for bail for his co-accused, Mario Tafa, 22, of the same address, who failed to turn up for the court hearing.
Prosecutor Camille Morland said that Abedin was directly involved with a cannabis farm in Tern Street, Little Horton, Bradford, after renting the address using a false name.
The loft hatch was painted over and a door led to the attic from the wardrobe. Mature cannabis plants were found up there, with more in the basement to restock the grow when it had been harvested.
Another cannabis farm was busted at Kellet Lane, hidden in the loft and concealed in a similar way. More plants were through a hole in the ground accessed via a kitchen cupboard. Miss Morland said there were 64 mature cannabis plants, and harvested cannabis, at the house. The total value of the drugs was £88,651.
Judge Nadim said it was a sophisticated conspiracy that spanned almost two years. There was every reason to believe it would have continued if the law enforcement agencies hadn’t busted it.
Money had been invested by the criminals in the growing equipment and in making the structural changes to the properties. The ground had been excavated beneath some of the houses and sophisticated equipment installed.
Abedin rented one of the properties and attended at others to further the conspiracy. His role was integral to the plot.
In September, Judge Nadim jailed five men for their roles in the conspiracy. The longest sentence was meted out to a manager and director of the £500,000 drugs ring, Klesti Gorcellari, 24, of Sundown Avenue, Great Horton, Bradford, who was jailed for seven and a half years.
He was convicted of conspiracy to produce cannabis and possession of false identity documents after a trial at Bradford Crown Court.
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