Serial Child Sex Offender Used WhatsApp to Groom 10 Year old Girl
- A man has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl after sending her WhatsApp messages
- The 54-year-old offender later lured the youngster to a bedroom and assaulted her
- The offender who is from the East Lothian region of Scotland, was caught when the girl broke down and told her mum what had happened
- The offender pleaded guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday to sending sexual written communications via text and WhatsApp to a child between June 28 and August 5 last year and asking for photos of her
- The court heard that the offender has two previous convictions for offences involving girls aged 10 and 15, one dating from 2001
Police Officers Face Final Warning Over TikTok Posts
- Two police officers have received final written warnings for posting “offensive and inappropriate” TikTok videos while in uniform, by a misconduct panel
- PCs Amy Taylor and April Cooper of Cambridgeshire Police posted clips of themselves “shouting offensive language” in a police car and dancing inappropriately in a police station
- Chief Constable Nick Dean said: “There is no doubt in my mind that the clips have damaged the reputation of this constabulary”
- They were reported by a member of the public who had seen the videos and felt they were “unprofessional” and reportedly had a very large reach on social media
Vulnerable Children Slipping From Sight
- Vulnerable children who require urgent support will “slip out of view” because of the impact of coronavirus, England’s Children’s Commissioner has warned
- Anne Longfield has called for central investment in youth work to help handle problems exacerbated by lockdown
- She said: “After the school six-week holidays it’s always the case that there are spikes in referrals to social services for children so, after six months, we should expect there to be a really significant increase”
- An estimated two million children in England live in homes affected by substance abuse, domestic violence or mental health issues
- The government said their safety and wellbeing had always been a priority
British Child Rescued From Syria
- The UK has rescued a British child from Syria as part of efforts to help unaccompanied or orphaned minors caught up in the fallout from the conflict with Islamic State
- A repatriation team left Syria with the child on Tuesday, and was led by Martin Longden, the UK’s Syria envoy
- Last year the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the UK would take “the necessary and secure steps” to repatriate minors “who have experienced the worst horrors of war and bringing them home is the right thing to do,” he said in a statement
- Save the Children, a UK charity, said last year that as many as 60 British children might be stranded
