Predators Busted

A teenager cried in court after he walked free for ra**ng a young girl he met while drinking alcohol in a park in South Shields.

Owen Wilson, now 18, wiped away tears and smiled as Judge Penny Moreland handed him a two year suspended prison sentence at Newcastle Crown Court.

Wilson, of Grace Court, South Shields, must also complete 250 hours of unpaid work and 40 days of rehabilitation activity.

He was made subject to a 10 year restraining order and placed on the s*x offenders register for 10 years.

The court heard that Wilson, who was aged 15 at the time, was drinking with friends at a park in South Shields on the afternoon of August 19, 2023.

During the afternoon the group began speaking to younger girls who were also in the park

The court heard the victim started drinking with the group but as the day progressed she was left alone with Wilson.

The following day the victim told her friend that Wilson had r***d her.

She then informed a family member, who contacted police.

When officers interviewed Wilson, he gave a "no comment" interview before later pleading guilty to r**e at a plea and trial preparation hearing.

Sentencing Wilson, Judge Penny Moreland said she had to impose the sentence that would likely have been handed down at the time of the offence, when Wilson was 15.

Two men have been jailed for their roles in a Bradford kidnap.
Judge Ahmed Nadim told the men and their 17-year-old accomplice at Bradford Crown Court on Friday that it had been a serious, planned and prolonged kidnapping carried out by a group of up to five people.
Judge Nadim told the court the male victim was abducted from a public street, transported to a secondary location and subjected to repeated violence including deliberate burning.
He said: “Needless to say the offence was terrifying for the victim and has had a profound effect on him and his family."
The judge described how it had been a “targeted abduction” with the detention of the victim lasting at least two hours.
He said there had been extortion or blackmail-type demands for money and the detention had involved “torture style violence”.
Mohammad Samee, 21, of no fixed abode, was jailed for six years and six months after he admitted the kidnap charge.
His co-accused Zaid Khan, 20, of no fixed abode, also pleaded guilty to kidnap and received a prison sentence of three years and three months.
The teenager was sentenced to a 24-month detention and training order for his limited role in the kidnapping.
The trio had entered their guilty pleas on the day their trial was due to start in May.
All three defendants were made the subject of a 10-year restraining order which bans any contact with the complainant in the case.
Judge Nadim said all three defendants had caused a great deal of distress, shame and embarrassment to their own families.
He told the three: “Your family members invested hope and aspirations in your future. You have betrayed that investment. In each case I accept you regret your actions.”

A Cambridgeshire pa******le serving a 15-year sentence after ra**ng and abusing a primary school aged boy 'hundreds of times' died of respiratory failure, a new report has concluded.
Brian Heron, of London Road, Peterborough, was jailed on August 8 2019 for repeated s*xual offences after abusing an eight year old boy for five years from 1980.
The boy was also forced to perform s*x acts on Heron, who was 33 at the time.
Police were only informed about the abuse in 2014 and Heron denied all charges, but was found guilty of two counts of r**e and five counts of indecent assault on a boy under the age of 14, although the offences were estimated at hundreds
He was also placed on the S*x Offenders Register indefinitely.
He was serving his sentence at HMP Frankland, a high-security prison in County Durham, when he died aged 78
A report released by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) on June 26, 2026, reveals his death was attributed to respiratory failure resulting from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and underlying chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The report states that Heron received care at least equivalent to that provided in the community.
A clinical reviewer appointed by NHS England found that end-of-life care plans in Heron’s medical records were "excellent" and tailored to his needs.
The reviewer also concluded that his clinical treatment was of a reasonable standard.
Non-clinical aspects of his care were also investigated by the PPO, with no concerns or systemic failures identified.
Heron’s next of kin were contacted at the start of the investigation and raised no questions, though they asked to receive the final report.
A draft version was also shared with His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, healthcare provider Spectrum Community Health CIC, and Heron’s family.
No factual inaccuracies were reported by any party.
An inquest into Heron’s death took place on March 23, 2026 and the coroner concluded that he died of natural causes

A Moray s*x offender has been found with 302 hours of child s*xual abuse videos and more than 40,000 indecent images of children aged as young as one years old.
Mark Whitton told police “everything is over for me” when they executed a warrant at his home address in Elgin on October 2, 2025.
The 56-year-old peadophile, who had material with infants as young as one-year-old, told officers that he had three hard drives which contained images of children.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that one laptop and three hard drives were seized from his address.
Fiscal depute Emily Hood told Sheriff Ian Cruickshank that on the laptop there were 152 inaccessible images, alongside AI generated images. These were of boys and girls between one and 14 years of age.
The images featured children engaging in s*xual activity with adults and other children.
There was also videos “of women engaging in s*xual activity with animals, mostly dogs”.
And another further 142 videos of extreme po*******hy available, which again featured adults engaging in s*xual activity with animals.
In total Whitton had 41,077 images of child s*x abuse and 2316 videos.
The runtime of the videos equated to more than 302 hours — over 12 days worth.
He had a total of 418 images of extreme po*******hy and 985 videos, totalling a run time of more than 511 hours — over 21 days worth.
Whitton, formerly of Land Street, Elgin, pleaded guilty to taking or permitting to be taken or making indecent images of children.
He also admitted being in possession of indecent images of children. The offences took place over nearly five years, between November 21, 2019, and October 2, 2025.
He also pleaded guilty to being in possession of extreme pornographic images depicting, in an explicit and realistic way, be******ty.
Sheriff Cruickshank remanded Whitton in custody, and deferred sentencing until August 18 for background reports to be completed.

This man is Craig Nicholls, originally from Dover but living in Glasgow and he also has links to many other areas across Kent.
Back in May 2025, he was caught on camera carrying out a sickening attack on his black Labrador, Juke.
The footage shows him violently slamming the dog against a wall, then hitting and kicking him so hard that Juke was thrown against a door frame, spun around, and crashed his jaw heavily onto the floor.
Police Scotland were alerted and passed the case to the Scottish SPCA.
When Inspector Cannon attended, watched the footage and met Juke, it was clear the dog was absolutely terrified of Nicholls – he had suffered terrible physical harm and deep mental trauma.
When officers tried to take Juke to safety, Nicholls became aggressive. He later chose not to appeal the official notice ordering him to hand the dog over, so Juke was signed fully to the Scottish SPCA.
With time, care and patience, he has now happily settled into a loving forever home.
Inspector Cannon said: “It was heartbreaking to see how terrified this poor dog was. No animal should ever have to endure such brutality.
Removing him was the only way to stop more harm being done.
He was fined £470 and banned from owning, keeping or working with any animals for 4 years, until July 2030

Two asylum seekers who repeatedly r***d a woman on Brighton beach and a third who filmed the ‘predatory and callous attack’ have been jailed for more than 60 years.
Ibrahim Alshafe, 26, Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, and Karin Al-Danasurt, 21, targeted the woman after spotting her ‘staggering in the street’ in the early hours of October 4.
Alshafe and Ahmadi took the ‘incapacitated’ woman behind a beach hut in the seaside city where they r***d her while Al-Danasurt filmed the ordeal.
She later recalled being laughed at, spat on, kicked and her throat being grabbed during the attack.
At Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, the woman read a victim impact statement to the court, saying: ‘They destroyed my life that night, they took something from me nobody had the right to do so.
Sentencing the men, Judge Christine Henson KC said: ‘Each of you participated in an entirely predatory and callous attack on a female separated from her friends after what had been a fun night out for her.
‘You each treated her with contempt, and you each played a role in degrading her in the most appalling way.’
Egyptian national Alshafe and Iranian national Ahmadi were jailed for 21 years each, while Egyptian national Al-Danasurt was sentenced to 18 years and six months.
On November 25, 2024 Metro launched This Is Not Right, a campaign to address the relentless epidemic of violence against women.
Prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters KC described the men as ‘devoid of humanity’ and their treatment of the woman was ‘entirely predatory, callous and contemptuous’.
She described the impact on the woman as ‘extreme’.
In her victim impact statement, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, added: ‘They took something from me that night I’m afraid I will never get back. To not take accountability for their actions (is) like sticking a knife in and twisting it again.’
She told the court when she closes her eyes she sees the man filming it and them all ‘laughing at me’.
‘My skin crawls. No matter how hard I scrub it, I still feel dirty,’ she added.
Alshafe and Ahmadi were found guilty of two counts of r**e by jurors, while Al-Danasurt was found guilty of four counts of r**e as a secondary party by encouraging and filming the attack.
The three defendants knew each other were living at Home Office-approved hotel accommodation for asylum seekers in Lower Beeding, near Horsham, West Suss*x.
Ahmadi and Alshafe met on a small boat from France arriving in the UK on June 19, 2025, while Alshafe and Al-Danasurt, who arrived in the UK on October 11, 2024, were roommates at the hotel.
The three got ready at the hotel before getting a bus into Brighton on the night of October 3.
A Snapchat video shows them in front of a mirror at around 7.30pm at the hotel, with Ahmadi sorting a durag – a close-fitting cloth tied around the top of the head – on Al-Danasurt, who gestures to the camera and smiles, while being filmed by Alshafe.
During the night out, the friends went to a bar and nightclub on the beach where Alshafe chatted to a woman using Google Translate about his hopes to marry a woman and have children and get citizenship in the UK.
The prosecution suggested he had been a ‘nasty little predator’ that night who had been rejected by several women and was ‘on the prowl’ with the co-defendants.
After the attack, the men returned to their hotel by bus and had a barbecue later that evening, around the time the woman was waiting to be medically examined.
During the trial, all three men gave evidence through translators to deny the crimes.
Ms Llewellyn-Waters said their accounts provided ‘clear and chilling insight into a wholly warped mindset’ and a ‘total lack of remorse’.
Alshafe and Ahmadi claimed the encounter was consensual and that the woman had approached them on the seafront, kissed and touched them both, said something about s*x and took them both to the beach.
The court saw footage of the woman falling down while walking with Ahmadi and Alshafe on the seafront.
Al-Danasurt claimed to jurors that he had tried to stop the attack by filming it, which prosecutor Ms Llewellyn-Waters said was a ‘pack of lies’.
The videos shown to jurors showed Alshafe smiling and sticking his tongue out during the attack, as well as slapping the woman in the face.
Ministers have vowed to deport the men after they were sentenced.
On Wednesday the prosecution said the sentencing court should make its decision on the risk posed by the defendants ‘without regards to possibility that one day a defendant may be deported’.

AN NHS radiographer who was arrested at the hospital he worked at after being caught possessing a horror haul of 7000 child abuse images has avoided a jail sentence.
Gordon Truong was taken into custody after police officers went to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in relation to an investigation into the medic accessing the images.
Truong, 40, was subsequently found to have downloaded more than 7,000 still pictures and videos depicting the s*xual abuse of female children between 10 and 15-years-old.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told the shamed healthcare professional had accessed of hundreds of images categorised at Category A – the most depraved end of the spectrum.
Radiographers works alongside doctors and are responsible for producing high-quality diagnostic X-Ray images that aid in the diagnosis of various conditions and illnesses.
Truong pleaded guilty to charges of making or taking, and possessing indecent images of children over a near five year period when he appeared at the capital’s sheriff court on earlier this year.
He returned to the dock for sentencing on Wednesday when defence agent, Mark Harrower, said he had “a long career with the NHS and performed to a high standard”.
Sheriff Kenneth Campbell, KC, said: “All offences of this kind are serious and they are not offences without victims even that might not initially seem so.
“While this is a matter where the court is entitled to impose a custodial sentence I am going to make a community payback order for a period of 18 months.”
Truong was placed on a 18 month supervision order and told he must carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
He was also ordered to attend sessions with the s*xual offenders rehabilitation scheme CISSO and had his name added to the s*x offenders register for 18 months.
The sheriff also imposed a conduct requirement where Truong will have to adhere to computer and internet restrictions and is banned from having contact with anyone under the age of 18.
Following the hearing the disgraced former NHS employee left court building wearing a surgical mask, dark glasses and a baseball cap in an effort to disguise himself.
Previously the court heard police received intelligence a child abuse image had been uploaded to the internet and a warrant was granted to search Truong’s family home in Bonnyrigg, Midlothian.
Prosecutor Corey Laouadi said officers were allowed entry to the four-bedroom property and a laptop was seized during the raid on February 5 last year.
Mr Laouadi said: “Following further investigations by the police it was established Mr Truong was employed by NHS Scotland at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
“On February 7, 2025, detective constables attended at the royal infirmary where they traced Mr Truong and he was made aware of the police enquiry and he was subsequently arrested.”
The court was told three devices – a mobile phone, a laptop and a hard drive – belonging to Truong were examined during the investigation and thousands of abuse images were discovered.
Mr Laouadi said a total of 7,110 depraved pictures and 25 videos were found across all the devices including 444 at Category A – the most explicit end of the spectrum.
The court heard the material depicted female children aged between 10 and 15 years old involved in s*xual posing and penetrative s*xual activity.
Following his arrest Truong was suspended from his position within the NHS and later resigned.
After leaving his employment Truong set up a home removal and household and garden equipment repair business called J Home Services Ltd.
Truong pleaded guilty to charges of taking or making, and possessing indecent photographs of children at his home and Edinburgh Royal Infirmary between October 23, 2020 and February 7 last year.