Our round up of the year in Oxfordshire's courts begins with sex offence cases which you can read below.
Visit the website over the festive period for further coverage of the year in crime.
Pensioner sexually abused underage girl
Barton pensioner Reginald Warry, 86, was jailed for 12 years in January after he was found guilty late last year of eight counts of sexual assault.
He touched the girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, over several years starting when she was eight.
In a victim personal statement summarised to the court by prosecutor Abigail Husbands, the youngster said she had nightmares about what happened to her and found it difficult to go to sleep.
READ MORE: Pervert jailed for 12 years for abusing girl
‘Am I banned from Blackwell’s?’
Convicted child molester Oliver Fitzroy seemed more worried about being banned from Blackwell’s bookshop than going to prison.
The 68-year-old landed up in court after approaching a ‘vulnerable’ teen in the Oxford bookshop and asked if he liked music.
Under the terms of a sexual harm prevention order he is banned from interacting with children.
Canny Fitzroy went to the police station a week later, on April 30, to ask if anyone had made a complaint about him.
The bizarre comment eventually led detectives to Blackwell’s, where CCTV showed Fitzroy had spoken to the boy in breach of his order.
Jailing him for two years in January, Recorder John Hardy KC told the defendant: “You have an unfortunate history.”
At the end of the hearing, Fitzroy asked the judge if he could say something.
Recorder Hardy advised against it, but the defendant pressed on: “I just want to know if I’m barred from Blackwell’s.”
The judge responded: “There is no bar from anywhere. There is a bar on the conduct you keep exhibiting.”
READ MORE: Pervert asks if he’s banned from bookshop
‘He’s not a sex offender’
A supporter of child rapist Clayton Moiloa shouted "you lot are d***heads" as the 27-year-old was jailed for four-and-a-half years.
Moiloa had denied raping the girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, when he was in his early teens in the late 2000s.
But jurors at Oxford Crown Court found him guilty of two counts of rape in January. He was acquitted of other, similar, charges.
In March, as Judge Maria Lamb told Moiloa "you are a sex offender" and would remain on the sex offender register for the rest of his life, a man in the public gallery was heard to snort and respond "he’s not".
“All you lot are d***heads,” he said. “He’s not a sex offender. He’s not.”
READ MORE: Child rapist ‘isn’t a sex offender’, supporter claims
ATIK nightclub pervert
Suranga Wijethunga groped an exchanged student on the dancefloor at ATIK nightclub in Oxford then thrust his privates into another young woman’s back.
Fighting the case to trial, Wijethunga claimed that he had been drunk and had his genitals exposed as he was urinating – on the dancefloor.
The jury rejected his defence, convicting him of sexual assault and exposure.
Jailing the 36-year-old for 13 months in March, Recorder David Mayall said: “You deny this offence. You do not think you did anything wrong on that occasion, which in my judgment must lessen the prospect of rehabilitation.”
READ MORE: Oxford man exposed himself and sexually assaulted dancers
Rapist's vile request caught on mic
Child rapist Ian Bailey was recorded on his works van dash cam asking his victim if he could "take a picture", a court heard.
The 56-year-old molested his victim – a pre-teen girl – while taking her out in his works van.
He groomed her, promising her money or meals at McDonald's in exchange for sex.
His vile behaviour was discovered when his boss looked at footage from the van’s dash cam.
Bailey could be heard asking a girl, speaking in what sounded like a child’s voice, if he could ‘take a picture’ of her private parts.
Jailing him for 19 years and ordering he serve an extended six years on licence in April, Judge Nigel Daly said: “In my judgement what you did was to take away this girl’s childhood and you’ve also destroyed her adult life as well.
"All to satisfy your deviant sexual interest.”
READ MORE: Sick child rapist promised girl McDonald's meals in exchange for sex
Spy cams captured abuse in house of horrors
'Malign’ paedophile Bernard Moore filmed his sexual abuse of underage boys on ‘spy cams’ hidden in his house of horrors – then uploaded the footage to the internet.
The 57-year-old gave the films titles that hinted at their sick content. One of the films uploaded to a Russia-based pornographic site contained the words "teen boy spy cam" while another was "spy cam: he’s at it again".
His twisted behaviour was unmasked late last year when Australian police stumbled across the videos online.
The films had been uploaded by someone whose website username contained Moore’s date of birth, Oxford Crown Court heard.
Jailing Moore for 13 years and four months in April, Judge Maria Lamb described the balded pervert as an "utterly malign influence" in his young victims' lives.
"You used each of them for your own sexual gratification," she added.
READ MORE: Abuse videos uploaded to Russian website
Masturbating pensioner in court again
Onanist pensioner Harold Gerrard swerved an immediate jail term after his barrister said that, with his health conditions, it would ‘effectively be a death sentence’ for the repeat offender.
The 74-year-old was caught behind the wheel of his car on Warneford Lane, Oxford, touching himself - just yards from a children’s play area.
He has previous convictions for masturbating in his car and is subject to a court order banning him from having his pants down behind the wheel.
He admitted to the police that he was attracted to young women.
Imposing 16 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years in April, Judge Nigel Daly said: “I appreciate you are not a well man. I appreciate you may not have many years to live. I am suspending the sentence with that knowledge.
“However, if you continue to behave in this way then effectively you are sending yourself to prison and it may mean you will spend a significant part of the remainder of your life in prison.”
READ MORE: Masturbating pensioner caught near children’s play area
‘Consummate liar’
Joshua de Banks was called a ‘consummate liar’ as he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in May for repeatedly breaching a court order aimed at limiting his access to the internet.
The 24-year-old was originally given the order in 2019 for sexual messages he sent to a child.
He has since spent time behind bars either for breaching the order or on remand awaiting trial on allegations he assaulted a prison guard.
Released from prison late last year, police visited his home in January and found an unregistered smartphone stashed beneath an oven.
The phone did not have security software installed on it that would have allowed the police to monitor his online activities.
De Banks admitted that breach of his sexual harm prevention order as well as a number of other breaches.
READ MORE: 'Consummate liar' had unregistered smartphone hidden beneath oven
‘No remorse’
Dad-of-two Martin Holmes, 36, was more than twice his victim’s age when he began abusing his nine-year-old victim in the mid-2000s.
The abuse, which began with the then teenager touching his younger victim, escalated until the boy was in his mid-teens.
Holmes had denied molesting the boy but was found guilty last month of 14 offences, including sexual assault of a child under-13 by penetration and sexual activity with a child.
Jailing him for 15 years in May, Judge Michael Gledhill KC said: “You have denied the offences from the moment you were confronted with them until this very day.
“You do not accept that you’ve done anything wrong.
"You do not accept you’ve committed any criminal offences let alone sexually abusing this boy over these years.
“You say he is a complete liar and has made this all up.
“You’ve shown not one iota of remorse for what you did.”
READ MORE: Judge tears into remorseless paedophile
‘You thoroughly deserve’ 29 year jail sentence, says judge
Paedophile Rick Passway was told he "thoroughly deserved" the 29 year jail term a judge imposed in May.
The pensioner, now 77, was finally made to pay for a catalogue of abuse against six women and girls in the 1970s and 80s.
They included the rape of one woman in Faringdon just days after a hysterectomy operation.
Judge Nigel Daly, who sentenced Passway, said: “Your treatment of your first victim [who was repeatedly raped as a child] was despicable.
“You’ve heard what she has to say about that. You’ve taken away her childhood. You have ruined her adult life.
“The rape of your second victim [who was sexually assaulted in the mid-80s] was shocking in the extreme.
“In respect of the other offences, it is quite clear you were unable to keep your hands off young women and would sexually assault them at any opportunity, repeating it again and again and again because you never got caught and you were never punished.
“You showed your victims no mercy. You showed them no compassion and you have displayed no remorse or contrition since - either at trial or since.”
Sending him down for 29 years, the judge added: “That is the sentence upon you. You thoroughly deserve it.”
READ MORE: Paedophile ‘thoroughly deserves’ three decade sentence that could see him die in prison
Men were drugged and sexually assaulted in Cotswolds
"Sexual predator" Luiz da Silva Neto had denied drugging and sexually assaulting two men in consecutive months at a cottage in Middle Barton last winter.
But jurors convicted him of assaulting the men, both of whom were married and had gone to the Cotswolds cottage with the 36-year-old for different reasons.
At his trial, the Brazilian-born man claimed that the encounters were consensual.
He admitted being a regular user of drugs, including GHB, and participated in casual sex with men.
He was jailed for 22 years by Judge Michael Gledhill KC in July.
The judge told him: “You chose to take these drugs and you did precious little about it and you became a sexual predator.”
READ MORE: ‘Sex predator’ Luiz da Silva Neto gets 22 years inside
Kassam meeting after Grindr ‘hookup’
Lonely David Pickford arranged to meet a 14-year-old ‘boy’ he met on hook-up app Grindr near the Kassam Stadium.
But the ‘boy’ with whom Pickford swapped sexually-explicit messages in the hours before the proposed meeting on October 14, 2020, was an undercover police officer trawling the net for predatory paedophiles.
Pickford was jailed for two-and-a-half years by Judge Michael Gledhill KC in June, who told the Oxford man: “It is extremely disturbing to read these messages you sent over just a few hours [before the meeting]; quite blatant sexual suggestions of what you wanted to do to that child.
“Within hours on the very same day you were committing charges seven and eight namely engaging in sexual communications with a child of only 14 and making arrangements to meet him later in the day following grooming.”
READ MORE: Man tried to meet 14-year-old 'boy' near Kassam after Grindr hook-up conversation
Pervert ‘wanted to castrate himself’
James Carvell, who amassed a collection of more than 150,000 child sex abuse images, "wanted to castrate himself", an Oxford court was told in August.
The 56-year-old was said to have collected the images out of an "obsessive" compulsion rather than out of a sense of sexual gratification – and because struggles in childhood had left him with a deep "self-loathing".
Jailing him for 28 months, a visibly disgusted Judge Daly told the defendant: “The total number, as you have heard, of the different categories are in excess of 150,000.
"That is a staggering amount and it represents tens of thousands of children being exploited.
“Every one of those images is an image of a child.
“It is almost unbelievable that such images in such quantities can exist and yet, no doubt, what we are looking at over all is but a tip of the iceberg.”
READ MORE: Man with 150,000 child sex abuse images 'wanted to castrate himself'
‘You became a sadist’
"Sadist" Brian Clargo subjected his victim to torture-like abuse in Oxfordshire and Europe. She was made to strip her clothes and was beaten by the now 57-year-old.
He played what was referred to in court as the "nipple cripple game" with her and repeatedly sexually assaulted the girl.
In a victim personal statement summarised to the court in August by prosecutor Walton Hornsby, the now mum-of-four said the abuse had "overshadowed" her life.
She had suffered ‘severe’ post-traumatic stress since the ages of 12-13.
Jailing Clargo for 12 years, Recorder Stuart Trimmer KC said: “It is said you weren’t sadistic and made bad decisions. I reject that and form the view you became just that; sadistic.
“Put very shortly, you wrecked her life. She may recover, but you did her enormous damage.”
READ MORE: ‘Nipple cripple’ game among tools in sadistic child abuser’s armoury
To Kassam to meet ‘girl’
Yll Rozhaja, 39, travelled from London to the Kassam Stadium complex in Oxford to meet what he thought was a 13-year-old girl.
He had, in fact, been exchanging messages with an undercover police officer – operating a ‘decoy’ account.
Jailing him for 28 months at Oxford Crown Court in September, Judge Maria Lamb said: “You went to the trouble of travelling some quite considerable distance to the Oxford area in expectation of meeting her.
"I think that does show on your part some significant planning and determination to carry out what you thought you had arranged.”
READ MORE: Jail for dad-of-two who planned to meet 'girl' at Kassam
Woman was sexually assaulted as she slept
Raj Garewal, 57, repeatedly sexually assaulted a woman while she slept or pretended to slumber in an effort to put him off.
She told a court in September that the abuse had made her feel "dirty, violated and humiliated".
Judge Catherine Tulk jailed him for three years and imposed a 10 year restraining order banning all contact with the victim.
He will be on the sex offender register for life.
READ MORE: Woman sexually assaulted as she slept
Storytime toucher
Kevin Purdy’s first victim was just eight years old when he repeatedly touched her while reading her children’s tales.
“You did it, I am quite satisfied, under the pretext of reading her a story. It must have looked like this was innocent and blameless behaviour on your part. But sexually assault her you did – and repeatedly,” Judge Maria Lamb said in September, when she jailed the Faringdon man for seven years.
“You touched her [sexually] while you were reading her stories. She asked you to stop, but you ignored her.”
The girl’s mother said Purdy ‘deserved a life sentence’, with Judge Lamb noting: “One can understand the sentiments.”
His second victim was older, in her early teens when the abuse was carried out. Purdy groped her bottom on "at least five occasions".
She had asked him to stop but, as with his first victim, he ignored her.
READ MORE: 'Paedophile who assaulted my daughter should get a life sentence,' says mum
Ex-headteacher in dock
Former headteacher at Abingdon’s John Mason School, Paul Corrie, was jailed for a year in September after he admitted filming himself performing a sex act while on a call to a 12-year-old ‘girl’.
The ‘girl’, who he met on website Chat Avenue Teen Chat, was in fact a police officer operating a decoy account.
Jailing him for a year, Judge Maria Lamb said: “I cannot ignore the fact of the seriousness of this type of offending and in my view the only appropriate punishment here can be achieved by a sentence of immediate custody.”
READ MORE: Former headteacher sent x-rated images to '12-year-old girl'
Abused after church
Maxwel da Silva Miranda was jailed for eight years for sexually assaulting an underage girl – including on one occasion when she came back to his Oxford home after attending church with him in Swindon.
Sending him down in October, Judge Nigel Daly said: “It seems to me you are a man who’s quite prepared to exploit the vulnerability of young women to satisfy your sexual needs.”
Prosecutor Gabrielle McAvock summarised the impact on the victim of the sexual assaults: “The defendant’s offending caused the victim to become suicidal, to self-harm, she tried to jump from the third floor of the flat where she lived.
“She suffered from flashbacks, had difficulty sleeping and [it] had an adverse effect on her school life.”
READ MORE: Jail for sick Oxford sex offender who molested underage girl
‘Big bad wolf’
Arthur Shefford was branded the "big bad wolf" by one of his victims when he was given 12 years’ imprisonment in 2019 for predatory assaults on four children that dated back to the 1970s.
In November, Recorder James Newton-Price KC gave him a further nine years after he was convicted of sexually assaulting another girl.
The assaults were committed between 2012 and 2016.
READ MORE: Paedophile who was branded the 'big bad wolf' gets MORE time in jail
Teen raped child
As a teenager, Jake Nolan got a primary school-aged girl to perform sex acts on him.
Now 26, the past caught up with the Didcot man – as he was jailed for five years for rape of a child under-13 and causing or inciting a child under-13 to engage in sexual activity.
Judge Maria Lamb told Nolan in December: “The impact which you have had upon your victim has been devastating.
"It is clear – quite wrongly – that she blamed herself for what had been done to her.
“She has no reason to reproach herself at all.
"She was a child at the time these things were perpetrated against her by you.”
READ MORE: Man who raped girl when he was a teenager had 'devastating' impact on victim
Arrested at coach station
Kenneth Harrison sent a photo of himself in pants to a ‘girl’ - boasting in lasciviously cryptic terms of his ‘nine inches’.
The girl was, in fact, an adult posing as a child to catch-out would-be paedophiles – as were a number of other online profiles to whom 59-year-old Harrison sent explicit messages.
He was arrested at Banbury coach station waiting for one of the ‘girls’ to arrive off the bus.
He had talked of taking her back to his flat for sex.
Jailing him for five years and three months in December, Judge Michael Gledhill KC said: “The message must go out from this court loudly and clearly that if anybody seeks to meet girls of this age for sexual purposes they will be very severely punished by way of substantial prison sentences.”
READ MORE: Paedophile, 59, arrested at coach station waiting for 'girl' to turn up
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