Barnsley paedophile allowed to go on holiday jailed
West Yorkshire PoliceA paedophile who was allowed to go on holiday to Greece while on bail has been jailed for more than 15 years.
Matthew Thompson, 48, admitted sexually abusing two girls but was told by Judge Jonathan Gibson he could still take a pre-booked trip to Kos in October.
He was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register before he left and to report to police on his return.
Thompson, of Bentham Drive in Monk Bretton, Barnsley, was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court.
Whether he eventually took the trip abroad was not mentioned during Thompson's sentencing hearing before a different judge on Friday.
The long-distance lorry driver pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to 10 charges, including assault of a child under 13 and taking and making indecent images of a child.
'Predatory male'
The judge, Recorder James Baird, ordered Thompson to serve 15 years and 10 months in jail, plus a year on licence.
He was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for life.
The charges he admitted were:
- Assault of a child under 13 by penetration on no fewer than 10 occasions
- Assault of a child under 13 by penetration on no fewer than three occasions
- Sexual assault of a child under 13 by penetration on no fewer than five occasions
- Assault of a child under 13 by penetration on no fewer than five occasions
- Taking indecent photographs of a child
- Taking indecent photographs of a child - 74 images at category C
- Making indecent photographs of a child - 1 moving image at category B
- Making indecent images of a child - two still images at category C
- Possession of an extreme pornographic image depicting sexual activity with an animal - one still image and nine moving images
- Sexual activity with a child
Recorder Baird said in Thompson's probation report he was described "as a predatory male with a sexual interest in children" and said only a substantial sentence was appropriate.
Barrister Gillian Batts, for Thompson, said it was very rare for a defendant facing such allegations to enter guilty pleas.
"It is an acknowledgement from the defendant... that these things happened and the victims are telling the truth about what happened to them," she submitted.
"The victims did not have to give evidence and did not have to go through the process of being cross-examined and inevitably being called liars."
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