Two gay paedophiles have been caged for three years after they tricked dozens of children into posing for pictures – by organising a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee party.
Stuart Jephcote, 47, and Brian Pendred, 48, befriended neighbours who were unaware of their past crimes and even baby sat for an 11-year-old boy.
They even became members of the local residents’ association and abused the position to organise family events including a Jubilee party last summer.
Last July police swooped on their run-down flat in a high-rise in Clifton, Nottingham, and discovered pictures of the men handing sweets to the youngsters.
Detectives also seized their computer where they discovered they had made vile searches for ‘boy sex’, ‘Harry Potter sex’ and ‘Gay boy sex school.’
The pair were jailed for three years at Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday after admitting repeatedly breaching a court order which banned them from having any contact with children.
Jephcote was also given a further nine months for possessing child pornography which will run concurrently.
Judge Michael Stokes QC said: “You are both of low intellect. But the fact remains I have no doubt at all that both of you fully understood what you were not to do in relation to young children, in particular boys under the age of 16.”
Judge Stokes blasted the Probation Service for failing to monitor the pair closely enough – saying it was “completely inadequate”.
Neighbours of the men were unaware about their sordid past.
Jephcote had a string of convictions for child sex offences, including a gross act of indecency, trying to have sex with a girl, and three indecent assaults on boys.
After being convicted of possessing six images of child porn last July, both men were issued with a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO).
The SOPO banned them from communicating with children under 16 or taking their photo.
As well as throwing a Jubilee party, they also staged a Christmas party last December which was attended by 20 children under the age of 16.
Pictures on the men’s Facebook pages included Pendred smiling as he handed out sweets to the youngsters while Jephcote played music and danced with the children.
One neighbour even trusted the men to babysit her 11-year-old son. The pair took him on bike rides and bought him an expensive computer game.
The court heard Jephcote and Pendred sat on the Southchurch Court Committee which represented residents living in an estate in Clifton for four years.
Horrified Georgina Wyer, 66, the group’s chairman, said: “They were on the committee when I arrived about four years ago. It makes me feel sick, we don’t want them back in the flats.”
“It took me weeks to get back to sleep when I found out”
Linda Siddell, 50, vice-chairman of the committee, said: “Our young people have been let down. You take people at face value, we trusted them.”
Speaking after the case, a Nottinghamshire police spokesman, said: “Mr Jephcote and Mr Pendred had withheld information from police and probation offender managers.
“Despite this, proactive police work from officers of the Dangerous Persons Management Unit brought to light breaches of their SOPOs and further offences of indecent images of children in Mr Jephcote’s case.”
