Predator jailed for sex offences with young boys

AN “INSIDIOUS” sex offender who preyed on two boys he met over the internet has been jailed for five years.

Andrew Faulkner, 45, of Bridgewood Close, Crystal Palace,?south London, was sentenced at Guildford Crown Court on Friday (December 17)?after pleading guilty to 15 offences, including three counts of sexual activity with a child.

The court heard Faulkner posed as a teenager on social networking site Bebo in order to meet young boys, one of whom he met up with in the car park of the Tesco store in Park Barn,?Guildford, where sex acts took place.

At an earlier hearing, the defendant pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual activity with a child, two counts of causing or inciting child pornography, one of arranging a child sex offence and one of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

He also pleaded guilty to four counts of making indecent images of children and four counts of possessing indecent images, with a total of 107 found on the defendant’s computer when it was seized by police.

The charges related to two male victims below the age of 16, with the offences carried out in the Guildford area between October 2008 and September 2009.

Prosecutor Alex Durran told the court: “In October 2009, police received a complaint that a 13-year-old male was being sexually groomed.

“Initially the boy made it clear he didn’t want to make a complaint but later admitted some of what the police had been told was true.”

The victim told?officers that?four meetings occurred in the Tesco car park in the back of a van Faulkner had rented, as well as several other meetings at a nearby industrial estate, and he and the defendant were engaged in sex acts at both locations.

Police then carried out an extensive investigation, tracing Faulkner’s mobile phone to a petrol station and matching his image on CCTV footage to a photograph he had e-mailed to one of his victims.

According to defence solicitor Lionel Blackman, Faulkner’s marriage was breaking down and he fell into a depression, seeking solace in internet chatrooms.

"Sexual gratification"

He said: “There were boundaries in this defendant’s mind, although this is not to detract from the deep shame and regrets he has towards the complainants.”

Sentencing, Judge Suzan Matthews said: “The law is very firmly there to avoid offending against boys of this age, and I am quite satisfied your sexual gratification was what all of this was about, at the expense of your victims.”

Commenting on the case, Detective Constable Fiona Mackie said: “The sentencing sees this insidious sex offender who preyed on innocent young boys taken off the streets of our towns.

“Hopefully this outcome can help the victims and their families come to terms with their traumatic experiences and they are to be commended for their bravery and courage in coming forward.”

Faulkner was sentenced to five years in prison for each of the three counts of sexual activity with a child.

He received further five-year?terms for the charges of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and arranging a child sex offence, and?two years for the two counts of causing or inciting child pornography.

He received two-year prison sentences for each of the eight charges relating to indecent images.

Each of the prison terms is to run concurrently, with Faulkner serving five years in total.

He was also designated a dangerous offender posing a risk to the public and will serve an extended period of three years on licence upon his release.

An indefinite Sexual Offences Prevention Order was imposed and?Faulkner was ordered?to sign the sex offenders' register for an indeterminate period.

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Councillor found guilty of chicken farm offences

A SURREY Heath Conservative borough councillor has been left?more than?￡35,000 out of pocket after he was found guilty on a slew of charges relating to his luxury chicken farm.

Ian Bell was fined a total of ￡2,500 and ordered to pay ￡33,462 in prosecution costs after a jury convicted him of five charges at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday (November 2).

The 63-year-old had denied one charge of failing to properly dispose of chicken carcasses and three of not maintaining proper records at his Perfect Poultry farm at Four Walls, in Blackstroud Lane East, Lightwater.

He had also faced a charge of trying to prevent a trading standards team from entering his farm during an inspection visit last year.

Over the course of his 10-day trial, the jury heard Bell had previously run a business consultancy for 15 years before retiring and purchasing his home and farm property in 1998.

He told the court he first began rearing chickens in 2005 and that his poultry business slowly developed after people requested he get birds for them. He then began professionally selling?the animals?from June 2006.

Surrey County Council’s trading standards team had first been alerted to?Bell’s farm in 2009 after the RSPCA received complaints over the way it was getting rid of dead chickens.

Bell admitted that he had used bonfires to dispose of dead chickens during the early days of his business, as this had been standard practice in his family upbringing.

Regarding the charges of failing to keep proper records, Bell said he had not been aware of the need to do so until 2006.

Bell said that he had taken issue with the nature of the visits, most of which occurred on the grounds of the Animal Welfare Act, which he said, unlike the Animal Health Act, required a suitable reason for inspection.

He said: "If anybody turns up to my place under the Animal Health Act I would let them in, I would have no power to stop them at all."

The court was told how following one visit to the farm in 2006, Bell said he was told that dead chickens had to be taken to an incinerator for disposal in an approved vehicle.

Bell claimed that at the time he did not know of any renderers and his vehicle had not been tested. He argued that with an average of three chickens dying on his farm a week, he needed to dispose of carcasses quickly.

He?also told the court that his farm had been targeted by a group of unknown individuals who had telephoned his home threatening to destroy his business unless he coughed up ￡500.

Days after the threat, Bell said?there?was a break-in on his farm and equipment such as incubators had been damaged or removed, eggs smashed and chickens killed.

He told the jury paperwork relating to his business had been left scattered over the floor and in some cases was missing.

Bell?added that coupled with having at one time been visited 10 times by trading standards, he had begun to suspect?there was a malicious campaign going on against his business.

Jurors took?just an?hour to find him guilty. Bell was fined ￡500 for each of the five charges and ordered to pay the prosecution costs.

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