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Ex-UKIP candidate convicted for downloading child sex abuse photos

By
October 19, 2024
Uncategorized

A former UKIP Party candidate has admitted downloading images of children being sexually abused.

Jason Rutter, 49, from Bromsgrove, pleaded guilty to five counts of making indecent images of children after police found evidence of the indecent photos at his home in November 2016.

He is no longer a member of UKIP, a party spokesman confirmed.

Rutter was given an 11-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, at Worcester Crown Court yesterday and ordered to pay court costs of £1200.

The judge also ruled that his computers must be destroyed. He will now be registered as a sex offender for 10 years.

The sentencing came more than three years after police received information that indecent photographs of children had been downloaded at an address in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.

They searched the property and seized several items from Rutter’s room.

He was not present at the time of the search, but detectives made contact with him shortly afterwards, the Criminal Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

He agreed to hand himself in and went willingly to Worcester Police Station on November 16, 2016, bringing a mobile phone and a laptop with him.

Police said he had attempted to forensically delete evidence of child abuse off the devices before arriving at the station.

However, investigators were still able to uncover harrowing images of children subjected to sexual acts.

Dawn Cartwright of the CPS said: “Rutter has received a criminal conviction for downloading these sickening images of vulnerable children.

“He will now be registered as a sex offender for 10 years and will be made subject of a device only sexual harm prevention order for 10 years which means he must not delete his internet history or use the internet or social media to communicate with any person under the age of 16.”

Interim UKIP chairman Ben Walker told the Standard: “The party is pleased that Mr Rutter has been caught and convicted for this disgusting crime.”

“The law should actually be tightened in such areas and UKIP would like to see much harsher sentencing for perpetrators of sexual crimes against children with much more support for victims and their families.

Mr Walker confirmed that Rutter left UKIP in January 2018 to set up a new branch of the far-right For Britain movement in Bromsgrove, using a considerable amount of his own money.

“He was previously vetted by the party in September 2016,” Mr Walker explained. “The party’s vetting process only searches social media profiles given to us by the candidates themselves and any information our own database may hold on the candidate in question. These processes are due to be reviewed.”

Evening Standard

Democratic Football Lads Alliance steward left stranger with brain injury after march in Sunderland

By
June 22, 2020
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A march steward caused a brain injury to a stranger who he pushed to the ground when violence flared after a city centre protest.

Dean Lawrence, 42, had provided security for the Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA) during their march in Sunderland in September 2018, which was met with counter protesters on the day.

Newcastle Crown Court heard in the hours after the event, some of the attendees went drinking in bars.

Prosecutor Alec Burns told the court two men walking home from the pub, through a park behind Crowtree Leisure Centre, came under attack.

One victim, who had been at the counter-protest and had been involved in “banter” with the DFLA during the event, was punched to the ground and beaten by an unknown attacker.

His friend, who had not been at the march, was pushed to the ground by married dad-of-two Lawrence and left with four areas of intracranial bruising with bleeding on the brain.

Mr Burns told the court: “He pushed the complainant and knocked him to the ground. He had no time to react and wasn’t able to soften the blow and hit the ground with his head, which knocked him unconscious.”

The court heard Lawrence walked away and left his victim on the ground.

His victim spent three days in hospital, with an injury prosecutors said could potentially be fatal, and was unable to drive for seven months after the attack.

He said in an impact statement he was left with painful headaches and when out alone he is always “wondering if i’m going to be attacked again”.

He added: “I don’t think I will ever get over the psychological effect this had on me.

“I am trying to take each day as it comes in the hope that as time goes by it will become easier to deal with.”

Lawrence, of Aintree Close, Catshill, Bromsgrove, West Midlands, admitted causing grievous bodily harm.

Judge Julie Clemitson sentenced him to 20 months behind bars, suspended for two years, with a £2,500 compensation order.

The judge told him: “You left, you walked away, you left him there without checking to see if he was alright.”

Judge Clemitson said Lawrence has since “distanced himself” from the DFLA organisation, has positive references, has never been in trouble before and is remorseful for the attack, which faced delay in being concluded in court.

The judge added that the current public health crisis had influence over her decision to suspend the jail term.

Steven Reed, defending, said Lawrence struggled to accept what he had done in the aftermath of the violence and was “scared”.

Mr Reed said Lawrence had been a steward at the march and had gone to the pub afterwards.

He adde: “In relation to the confrontation in the park, he went there with the intention of preventing a confrontation, not being involved in a confrontation.”

Mr Reed said Lawrence has raised money for charities supporting homelessness and autism and got himself “caught up through naivety”.

Sunderland Echo