Monday 11 December 2023

Teenager Raped By Host Who Plied Her with Rum

Ten Years: McQuade
A rapist, who encouraged a 17 year-old to get drunk on rum before attacking her when she arrived at his flat to just “hang out,” is starting a ten-year prison sentence today.

Market trader Francis McQuade, 35, struck after the teen had consensual sex with two other men at the property, forcing her to the bathroom floor while throttling her.


The father-of-three, of Pankhurst House, Du Cane Road, Shepherd’s Bush - who admitted smoking crack earlier that day - even popped out to a local shop for more rum to continue drinking into the early hours.


He fought the case, but was convicted unanimously by an Isleworth Crown Court jury after an eight-day trial of one count of rape and one of attempted rape at the address on January 20. 


“The defendant strangled her during the rape, preventing her breathing and causing her pain,” said prosecutor Cyrus Shroff. “She was extremely drunk and had already been exposed to exploitative behaviour by the two other men.


“This defendant was pressuring her to drink alcohol and down glasses of rum and he was sexually aggressive towards her from the moment she arrived at the flat.


“He had been saying he wanted to have sex with her and was aggressively sexual towards her throughout the evening and on his own evidence was very drunk.”


Judge Kwame Inyundo told suited McQuade, who has been locked-up since his arrest: “You are over two years older than her and that night she came to your home to ‘hang out.’


“You met her at the front door showing signs of intoxication and made sexual references and continued to make crude sexual gestures to her when she was alone in the room with you.


“She went into the bathroom to have sex with her boyfriend and you and the other guest took more than a passing interest in this.


“All three of the men were drunk and each of them were encouraging her to drink strong alcoholic spirits,” added the judge. “She then had further sexual activity with the other guest.


“You considered that you should be party to sexual activity with her, but she did not want or consent to sexual activity with you.


“She said she was in pain and wanted to be sick in an attempt to put you off, but you physically forced her when she was intoxicated and grabbed her by the neck and forced her to the bathroom floor.”


After the rape the teenager tried to crash out on the living-room floor, but McQuade positioned himself behind her.


“You tried to pull her trousers down and kiss her and your behaviour was bizarre and erratic,” Judge Inyundo told him. “You would suddenly change from speaking softly to aggressively.


“The victim used her phone to make recordings and it is obvious to anybody listening to them your intention was to have sexual activity with her.”


After eventually leaving the flat in the early hours the victim called police from a nearby bus stop and McQuade was arrested shortly afterwards.


Despite the jury’s unanimous verdicts McQuade still maintains his innocence, claiming in his pre-sentence report sex with the young woman was consensual.


“The recordings overwhelmingly show the opposite,” announced the judge. 


McQuade comes from a large family of North End Road, Fulham market traders and was a well-known and popular character on his parents’ curtain stall.


However, while travelling in Australia he was violently attacked in Melbourne, resulting in serious head trauma and a brain injury that required three immediate surgeries.


This injury has effected his behaviour since and was a factor in the offending, said Emma White, defending. “This is a man who acts on impulse rather than pre-meditation.


“He is susceptible to making bad choices and there is a link between his brain injury and his vulnerability.


“It is also suspected he was a victim of cuckooing by a Somalian drug gang.


“The doctor says the brain injury ‘played a moderate part or perhaps a more significant role’ inn the offence.”


In her victim impact statement the teenager said: “I no longer enjoy going out with friends without feeling fear or paranoia.


“I have had long periods of depression and have contemplated suicide. I do not socialise with male friends and this will stay with me for the rest of my life.


“I will never love anyone and I have a lifetime of trauma and fear.”


However, Ms White reminded the judge: “I would ask your honour to approach some of what she said in her victim impact statement with caution.


“This trial was delayed because she could not be found. She was enjoying herself at the Notting Hill Carnival.


“It is a step too far to say she was plied with alcohol to assist this offending.


“This is a group that in effect took over his home and were drinking and potentially taking drugs,” added the lawyer. 


A DNA test confirmed sexual contact with the victim.


“It is obvious from the medical reports the brain injury you received is a matter that cannot be put aside,” announced Judge Inyundo. “The impact of it is the principal mitigation in the case.


“You lack impulse control and are open to influence. The consequences of that brain injury did play a part and that will be reflected in the sentence.”


McQuade, who will serve two-thirds of the sentence before he can be considered for parole must also sign the sex offenders register for life.

Saturday 9 December 2023

Notorious Paedophiles Sentenced

Phillip Tuffill
Two notorious paedophiles have been sentenced at the Old Bailey for further historic sexual crimes.

Phillip Tuffill, 64, was still serving a 14-year sentence at Category C HMP Oakwood, Featherstone, Wolverhampton when charged with the offences.


Jan Timothy Fuller, 62, of Harcourt Street, Stone-on-Trent had completed his six-year sentence when he was hauled back to court on the new counts.


Last week at the Central Criminal Court Tuffill received three years imprisonment and Fuller six years imprisonment.


The complainant was molested by both defendants when he was aged approximately nine to sixteen years-old.


Tuffill was originally charged with one count of indecent assault; gross indecency and attempted buggery against the boy when he was approximately fourteen years-old between July 20, 1982 and July 22, 1983.


Fuller also initially appeared at Bromley Magistrates Court in 2021 charged with twenty-five counts relating the same boy between July 20, 1977 and July 22, 1985.


The charges relate to abuse beginning when the victim was aged approximately nine years-old.


He was charged with fourteen counts of indecent assault; eight counts of gross indecency; two counts of buggery and one count of attempted buggery.

Jan Timothy Fuller


The offences were said to have occurred at West Wickham Leisure Centre; Rye, East Sussex; on a train; in Fuller’s car and Fuller’s mother’s house.


The victim told police Fuller touched him intimately between his legs while the pair were travelling on a train in the late 1970’s, progressing to sexual activity in the defendant’s car.


He gave a statement that Fuller performed oral sex on him, which escalated to the defendant performing anal sex on him at his mother’s house.


Many of the counts reflected multiple incidents of sexual abuse, particularly the boy having to pleasure Fuller.


Tuffill ensured he had access to young boys as a member of the St. Bartholemew’s Church choir in Sydenham, south-east London.


He shared a house with Fuller in Gowland Place, Beckenham.


In 1987 Fuller received six months imprisonment for gross indecency with a boy and eighteen months imprisonment in 2005 for indecently assaulting a boy.

Thursday 7 December 2023

Locksmith Denies Being 'Blade Runners' ULEZ Lookout

A locksmith has denied being a ‘Blade Runners’ lookout when police arrested him with a ladder moments after one of London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s despised ULEZ cameras was destroyed.

Jon Wentworth, 54, appeared at Bromley Magistrates’ Court yesterday
and was bailed to return for a trial on February 12, next year.


The cameras enforce Transport for London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone, which charges the drivers of older vehicles £12.50 a day with a fine of up to £180.


Wentworth, of Downlink Avenue, Bexleyheath pleaded not guilty to one count of causing criminal damage to a camera in nearby Arbuthnot Lane on November 7.


Prosecutor Akram Ramna told the court the camera was fixed above a traffic light on the busy road and was damaged in the early hours.


“The Crown’s case is that police received a phone call from a home address on Arbuthnot Lane that they could see three males causing damage to a ULEZ camera.


“The caller said they were woken by a grinding noise of something being cut and saw one male standing outside their address as a lookout and there were sparks going everywhere.


“There were another two males on ladders who were able to evade the police officers, but one suspect was crossing the road with a ladder in his hands when he was stopped by the police.


“This was the defendant Mr Wentworth, who also had a pair of pliers in his back pocket and another pair of pliers were found at the scene.”


Wentworth’s lawyer Anna Jemmison said: “The defendant accepts being in the area, but not that he was one of the three men committing criminal damage or assisting or encouraging any other person to do so.


“There is no forensic evidence linking my client to the criminal damage.


“As far as possession of the ladder he was out walking and seeing it in the middle of the road was concerned for pedestrians and motorists and moved the ladder.


“He did have a tool on him. He is a locksmith and needed it for work that day.”

Tuesday 5 December 2023

NHS Surgeon's £64K Wages Swindle

An NHS surgeon today admitted forging timesheets to falsely inflate his working hours in a £64,938 swindle.

Kingston Hospital Ear Nose & Throat (ENT) specialist Kifayat Ullah, 40, had switched to a reduced 22.5 hour working week, but continued claiming wages for a full 45 hour week.


Appearing with the support of his wife at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court Ullah, who lives in a £1.5m two-bedroom flat in Primrose Hill Road, Primrose Hill, Hampstead heard he faces a potential prison sentence of four-and-a-half years.


He pleaded guilty to one count of making a false instrument, with intent it be accepted as genuine, between December 4, 2020 and June 30, 2021, namely timesheets.


Ullah was employed as a locum at Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust via the MedicsPro Recruitment Agency.


Prosecutor Laura Boca told the court: “Doctor Ullah is a specialist ENT surgeon and was contracted via MedicsPro full-time from November, 2020.


“At his own request his hours were reduced to twenty-two-and-a-half hours per week and the defendant submitted false time sheets, claiming £64,938.


“Of this, £56,718 was actually paid to the defendant.


“When he was interviewed he denied any wrongdoing, agreeing his hours were reduced to twenty-two-and-a-half hours and he was paid for forty-five hours.


“He admitted the time sheets may have included times he did not work, but he said it was not deliberate.”


Requesting the magistrates send Ullah to the Crown Court for sentencing Ms Boca explained: “The starting point on the sentencing guidelines is four years and six months imprisonment.


“This defendant is a doctor working in the NHS and has abused this position to forge time sheets and abuse the trust of the NHS.”


A total of twenty-nine time sheets were forged by Ullah.


Bench Chair Judith Way agreed Ullah needs to be sentenced by a Crown Court judge. “This court cannot deal with this case today, our sentencing powers are inadequate.”


She told Ullah: “You will be sentenced at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court and we are asking for a pre-sentence report to be done, which will help the court when you are sentenced.”


He was released on bail until a sentencing date is fixed.

Sunday 3 December 2023

Priest Sentenced For Thirty Years Old Sex Assault

A Roman Catholic priest, who fondled a 17 year-old boy flutist between the legs three decades ago, avoided prison when he received a Community Order on Friday.

Father Reginald Dunkling, 63, allowed the teenager - who played flute in a church band - to sleepover at Our Lady of Muswell in north London after they attended a Wembley Arena opera.


The trial heard the priest - a former Youth Chaplain - had a passion for live theatre and musicals and was “idolised” by the talented teenage musician.


Wood Green Crown Court was told that during the night he entered the boy’s bedroom within the priest’s house and lay on the floor, pushing his hand under the covers and rubbing the youngster over his boxer shorts for nearly a minute.


Dunkling - known as Father Reg - of Chequers End, Gadsden Row, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire fought the charge, but was found guilty of indecently assaulting the boy on a day between April 1992 and April 1993.


He must complete the twelve-month Community Order, plus twenty-five days of a rehabilitation activity requirement.


He must also obey a three-month night-time curfew between 8.00pm and 5.00am and sign the sex offenders register for the next five years.


During the week-long trial the victim, who was screened from the priest, told the jury: “I remember Father Reg coming into the room, lying down on the floor next to the bed and putting his hand under the covers.


“He said: ‘Have you had a man do this before?’ I got out at first light as soon as I could.”


Father Dunkling’s lawyer Tanya Panagiotopoulou asked: “Is it possible what was done was by someone else? I suggest this defendant never came into the room you were sleeping in.”


“I’m afraid I know what Father Reg looks like and sounds like,” replied the man. 


Two years earlier the priest declared his love for the then-15 year-old during a church trip to Lourdes, when he was Youth Chaplain, the court heard.


“I always knew it was significant because it happened once in my life. A grown man saying he had fallen in love with me,” explained the victim. 


“I was 15 years-old and felt confused and trapped. He said: ‘You must know what I’m going to say to you. I’m in love with you.’


“He had made it clear he wanted me to visit his room and we lay down on the bed and he held my hand. I kind of froze.


“I remember feeling trapped, almost claustrophobic and he was a priest. It was a big deal.”


Father Dunkling’s lawyer suggested: “To say ‘you are loved’ and ‘I love you’ was a stock phrase to the youth as was holding hands.


“Do you accept being loved is part of the sermon? May you have misunderstood Father Dunkling?”


The man rejected the priest’s account, declaring: “That is not the case. I wouldn’t be standing here otherwise.”


Shortly afterwards he was taken on holiday to Tenerife by Father Dunkling and another man. “I remember feeling deeply uncomfortable because of this baggage.


“I have a memory of him being very drunk and exclaiming: ‘You don’t love me.’ I couldn’t wait to get home.”


His parents had no worries about the Tenerife trip. “They would see going away on a trip with a priest as being the safest possible.”


He also recalled Father Dowling taking him for an Italian meal and ordering him wine, but was not sure if that was the same night as the charge.


Ten years later he met the priest after performing with his band at the Hammersmith Apollo. “I remember him being quite drunk that night and he said he always knew I would do well.


“I over-compensated and was Uber-friendly and I was angry on the way home and threw a bottle across the street, saying: ‘This is insane.’


“I had a very long conversation in 2012 with the police about Father Reg, but I did not want to do anything about it. I wanted to move on.


“I didn’t want my family to think they had somehow let me down and not protected me.”


A witness from the Lourdes trip told the jury he caught the priest trying to gain entry to the complainant’s room. “I heard knocking on the door and it was Father Reg trying to get in. He was drunk.


“He looked at me and swore at me. He told me to go away in no uncertain terms and I told him to go away.


“Ten to fifteen minutes later he was back, knocking on the door and I told him to go away and I stayed in the corridor to make sure he did not come back.”


A female friend of the complainant told the trial he told her about Father Dunkling’s abuse thirty years ago. “He said Father Reg had made unwanted advances and expressed feelings for him.


“He had touched him physically and in a sexual manner. I remember something about a bedroom, but it is hazy.”


Metropolitan police officers from Operation Winter Key arrested Father Dunkling on June 16, 2020 and asked him if he molested the complainant.


“No, never, absolutely not,” insisted the priest, saying he was never alone with the youngster in a Lourdes or Mussel Hill bedroom.


Previously the jury were shown a video-recorded interview the man gave to police in which he explained: “I remember him going through the covers and just stroking me over the top of my shorts. 


“He stroked and stroked and stroked and I just froze.


“He was a charismatic, interesting, likeable guy that introduced me to theatres and musicals. Stuff I ended up doing as a living. I kind of idolised him.”


Regarding the Lourdes trip the complainant added: “He asked me to stay in his room, which didn’t seem odd to me. I was very naive.


“He held my hand and told me: ‘I’m in love with you,’ and I kind of froze. He did not touch me at that point, but it was all about how he was in love with me.”


The man did not report Dunkling after the Muswell Hill sleepover two years later. “I remember him being very drunk and I brushed it off a bit, thinking it was a big mistake, but as I got older I became more angry.”


Between those incidents he went on a Tenerife holiday with the defendant and another man. “Father Reg spent time with my family and my mother’s attitude was: ‘He’s a priest, of course he is okay.’


“It is very odd for a 15 year-old boy to go on holiday with two grown men and during it he would shout: ‘You don’t love me.’ It was a very odd couple of weeks.”  


Prosecutor David Harounoff told the jury: “The defendant is a priest and in 2013 the complainant was contacted by the police, who were investigating offences, but he declined to co-operate.


“In 2020 the Diocese of Westminster undertook a safeguarding review and the complainant decided he wanted to co-operate and the police interviewed him.


“As a teenager he was involved with the Church of Our Lady Help of Christians in Kentish Town and developed a relationship with Father Reginald Dunkling.


“He was a gifted flute player in the church band and describes this defendant as charismatic and interesting and he took him to the theatre and to a trip to Lourdes with others.”


Aged just fifteen, the boy was invited into Father Dunkling’s room, where the priest told him: “I’m in love with you,” the jury were told.


There was no physical contact until the night of the Wembley Arena opera, the trial heard.


“When he was 17 years-old he stayed with this priest in Muswell Hill after the show and meal,” explained Mr Harounoff. 


“He says he was asleep when this defendant entered the bedroom and lay on the floor beside him, placed his hand under the bed covers and stroked him over his boxer shorts.


“The complainant said he did not like it and to use his words ‘bolted’ the next morning at 5am.


“Ten years later he saw Father Dunkling at a music function in Hammersmith and says this defendant looked uncomfortable.”


Another witness, who attended the Lourdes trip, will tell the jury he saw a drunken Father Dunkling knocking on the boy’s bedroom door.


He was warned off, but returned five minutes later and knocked on the door again and had to be told to go away for a second time.


“The witness stayed in the hallway until he left the vicinity of the boy’s room,” added the prosecutor.


Father Dunkling was arrested on June 16, 2020. “He was adamant absolutely nothing had happened.”


The priest told the jury during the trial he often obtained free tickets to West End shows and would take parishioners along - including the complainant.


“I had a lot of contacts in the West End and Theatreland and I was fortunate to be offered a lot of tickets. When you’re offered a freebie you take it because you can’t afford it.”


He denied sneaking into the boy’s room and molesting him, adding: “I have been asking myself that question since the police knocked on my door.


“That morning I was woken at 6.30am by four police officers. I was in total and utter shock.


“I was in my bedroom and I was terrified. It was dreadful, I was so embarrassed, I was humiliated.”


The priest also complained: “I was put in a holding cell for seven hours and talking about it now brings back bad feelings. 


“I was offered a glass of warm water on one of the hottest days of the year and the officers went out for lunch.”


Dunking claimed there was nothing sinister about proclaiming his love for the teenage boy. “I was not in love with him, I can categorically say that. 


“That was my mantra, that was my work to preach the Gospel. Many of them felt unloved by their families and I was just doing my job.”