Tube Station Attack: 16 Year-Old Girl Assaulted

A 16 year-old girl was beaten to the floor and hospitalised by two mystery females – currently hunted by police - at Bermondsey Underground Station.

The teenager had shared a lift with three other women – one with a child's buggy – and was attacked after leaving for the Eastbound platform.

British Transport Police (BTP) have released these CCTV images of their two suspects and are requesting the assistance of the public to identify them.

It was approximately 1.30pm on Sunday, August 27 when the girl entered the station via Jamaica Road, Southwark.

After the short lift journey she was approached on the platform by one of the women.

She was assaulted and pulled to the floor and a second woman from the lift joined in the attack.

All the three females then made their way to the Westbound platform and left the station onboard a train.

The victim was left with injuries that were treated at hospital.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact BTP by calling 0800 40 50 40 or texting 61016, with reference 2300100555.

Alternatively, you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Tarby's Car: Veteran Comic's Hit-And-Run Crash

Veteran entertainer Jimmy Tarbuck has been caught after a hit-
and-run crash into parked cars near his £5.5m home in one of south-west London’s most exclusive neighbourhoods.

The 83 year-old comedian was recorded driving his two-litre green Lexus away from the scene on a neighbour’s Ring doorbell - leaving a row of damaged vehicles behind.

Liverpool-born Tarbuck - affectionately known as ’Tarby’ - did not appear before Lavender Hill Magistrates’ Court, where he pleaded guilty to the offences by post.

The court heard the collision occurred in Coombe Gardens, New Malden, near Tarbuck’s home, New Hartwell, Coombe Park, Kingston-upon-Thames, a private gated community.

He pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention; failing to stop after an accident and failing to report an accident on May 15.

Tarbuck was fined £716, with £110 costs and ordered to pay a £286 victim surcharge.

His clean driving licence was endorsed with five penalty points.

Prosecutor Laura-Ann Harding told the court the incident occurred at approximately 3.30pm: “The defendant drove a vehicle without due care and attention.

“They collided heavily into stationary vehicles, causing severe damage and at the same time an accident occurred with another vehicle, a Vauxhall Corsa and they failed to stop when required and give their name and address.

“Multiple vehicles were hit and one was shunted forward three houses. Nobody was injured as all the vehicles were parked and empty at the time.”

The magistrates were played footage from the Ring doorbell, which showed Tarbuck slowly dragging along the Vauxhall Corsa beside his car and then continuing away from the scene. 

Tarbuck, whose sixty-year career in showbusiness includes hosting ’Sunday Night at the London Palladium’ in the mid-sixties, which enjoyed an eighties reboot as ‘Live from Her Majesty’s.’

He has also hosted tv game shows ‘Winner Takes All’; ‘Full Swing’ and Tarby’s Frame Game,’ and was the regular host of ‘Tarby’s Bar’ during ITV’s coverage of the FA Cup Final.

Tarbuck, who has three children, including actress Liza, sent a letter to the court apologising for his actions.

Bench Chair Dr. Samantha Cobb announced: “We have read his mitigation and the bench fully accept he is full of remorse and is deeply apologetic.

“We accept this was utterly out of keeping with his character and we take into account he had recently lost his sister and it had been her funeral in the preceding days.

“He says he cannot explain why he did not stop that day.”

Harley Street Sex Therapist Sentenced After "Public Shaming"

A Harley Street-trained registered sex therapist was trapped in an internet sting after grooming and trying to meet an imaginary 13 year-old boy after explicit online chats.

Giles Dee-Shapland, 51, also a registered psychotherapist and hypnotherapist encouraged ‘Ben’ to play with himself and promised to take him to gents’ toilets to witness or engage in gay sex.

Describing himself as a ‘Holistic Sex Therapist’ and member of the British Society of Clinical Hypnosis Dee-Shapland employed his skills and experience to groom the boy.

At Isleworth Crown Court he received twenty-two months imprisonment, suspended for two years and is now subject to a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order, prohibiting unsupervised contact with children.

Church youth group leader Dee-Shapland, of Walham Green Court, Cedarne Road, Fulham describes himself as ‘Sexpert at SimplySxy’ with a special interest in trauma and psychosexual disorder.

Before the trial he pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity on September 19, 2020.

The jury unanimously convicted him of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child on August 8, 2020 and attempting to meet a child on October 3, 2020 after grooming.

Dee-Shapland was exposed by the citizen-led Phoenix group, who confronted him at Bayswater Underground Station, where he had arranged to meet the boy.

He has since complained about the “public shaming” aspect of his exposure as a sex offender.

“This was a decoy person operated by the so-called paedophile hunter group Phoenix,” explained prosecutor Oliver Wellings. 

Dee-Shapland was on an adult internet chatroom when he began communicating with ‘Ben’.

“This defendant engaged in extensive communication about his sexual experience and encouraged ‘Ben’ to pleasure himself and arranged to meet him to ’show him the sights.’

“In his evidence to the jury he sought to portray himself as a sexual therapist, assisting a young boy with his sexuality.

“There was extensive grooming with ‘Ben’ who was a real thirteen year-old boy as far as the defendant knew. The amount of chat was considerable over a three-month period and was persistent and prolonged.”

Judge Lindsey Rose told first-time-offender Dee-Shapland: “Ben stated that he was thirteen years-old, but that did not stop you for a moment.

“I do not accept that communication was for friendship, it was for sexual reasons and it lasted three months.

“I have seen the large amount of messages sent back and forth and within a few messages you started talking about sexual matters and your sexual urges.

“You continually pushed the conversation back to sexual topics for your own sexual gratification.

“You hoped that this would develop further and pushed him to say how he felt about you.

“You saw your opportunity to meet this young boy when he said he was coming to London. 

“You did not plan to just show him around, but to take him to mens’ toilets and your intention was for him to be involved or watch others engage in sexual activity.

“In clear manipulating behaviour you told him what to say to his mother about meeting you.

“You are a trained psychotherapist and sex therapist and you used your training and expertise in those online conversations. It is clear you used that knowledge and training to manipulate what you thought was a young child.

“I’m told you have been subject to shaming online and face-to-face and have not been able to assist at your church, where you have been an active member.

“You still do not accept you are sexually attracted to children and are someone who cannot face your criminal behaviour.

“These are very serious matters,” Judge Rose told Dee-Shapland, adding she was only able to suspend the sentence because she felt he was capable of addressing his offending.

“The defendant has been a member of a regulatory body and I want to check they are aware of these convictions and it is noted on their register,” added the judge.

“He is not practicing and has not been for some time,” said Dee-Shapland’s lawyer Helen Butcher. 

“This was one very unfortunate episode out of the blue. This has been quite a shattering experience for him.

“He felt he was of high regard and was seen by others in a high regard, but there has now been public shaming, which is perhaps unique to these offences, causing anxiety for his own safety and stress.

“He is assessed as a ‘low risk’ of re-conviction and there has been nothing since September, 2020.

“He is described as isolated, lonely and seeking meaningful relationships.”

Dee-Shapland was also sentenced to a six-month electronically-monitored tagged curfew between 9pm and 6am and must complete a thirty day rehabilitation activity requirement.

He must also sign the sex offenders register for ten years.

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.