The 11 predators that walked FREE since Huw Edwards dodged jail
by Jill Foster · Mail OnlineWhen newsreader Huw Edwards was handed a suspended sentence last month, it sparked outrage across the country.
Victims of indecent image abuse called it an 'insult to survivors' while online commentators questioned whether there was a two-tier justice system in place, allowing some criminals to walk free while others were jailed.
Edwards, 63, had pleaded guilty in July to three counts of making indecent images of children. Yet he was given just six months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with a requirement to complete a sex offender programme.
A suspended sentence is a custodial sentence when the offender does not go to prison immediately.
Instead, they are given the chance to stay out of trouble and comply with up to thirteen requirements set by the court. These can include doing unpaid work, being subject to a curfew or undertaking some form of rehabilitation.
According to the Ministry of Justice, 43,734 offenders in 2023, had a suspended sentence order imposed, up from 40,952 in the year before.
Over the last 19 days since Edwards was sentenced, hundreds of suspended sentences have been handed down in the UK courts. And these include many who have been violent or sexually abusive towards women or children.
Here MailOnline looks at a snapshot of just some of the court cases around the UK in the last three weeks where sexual or violent offenders have walked free…
Stuart Pettifer
The day after Huw Edwards was handed his suspended sentence, another man walked free from court for a similar crime. Hotelier Stuart Pettifer, 57 had been making and distributing indecent images of children – some as young as five.
Police had arrested Pettifer, 57 at his home on the Isle of Wight in December 2022. An iPhone had been discovered where he lived and it was found that he had been searching Instagram for pictures of young girls.
He was a member of chat groups where he – and others – would share indecent images, fourteen of which were Category A – showing the worst kind of abuse.
The age range of the children in the images was between five and fourteen.
Pettifer's solicitor told the court that Pettifer had been having 'intimacy issues' in his marriage.
His Honour Judge Newton-Price handed down an 8-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months. Pettifer was also ordered to complete 45 rehabilitation days, 100 hours of unpaid work and pay £150 costs. He was handed a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
Dr Ross Canade
Dr Ross Canade, a 53-year-old child psychologist at the controversial Tavistock hospital trust was handed a 12-month suspended sentence earlier this week (2 Oct).
He had been caught grooming what he believed to be a 15-year-old schoolboy, unaware that in fact it was a 'decoy profile' set up an older male from a vigilante paedoephile-hunting group.
Canade – who had worked at the scandal-hit hospital which treated gender confused children - exchanged numbers with the 'boy' and the conversation 'quickly turned sexual' before continuing on WhatsApp.
They pair talked about 'having sex in a local park' and five days later they met up and ate together at a restaurant in North London.
Alongside his 12 month suspended sentence, Canade, from north London, was given a six-month suspended sentence to run concurrently after admitting to attempting to engage in sexual conversation with a child. Both sentences were suspended for 18 months.
He was also ordered to carry out 150 days of unpaid work as well as complete 35 sessions of a sex offenders rehabilitation course. But despite being fired from the hospital, Canade remains free to practice.
Paul Stewart
Paedophile Paul Stewart, 70, was arrested at his home in Bradford in May last year, by police who seized a laptop and memory sticks, which were in his pocket.
They were found to contain 816 indecent images of girls as young as four – 79 of which were Category A photographs and videos of the worst possible abuse. Some were downloaded as recently as the day before he was arrested.
Miss Recorder Catherine Silverton at Bradford Crown Court told him: 'You may have kidded yourself that viewing images like this is a victimless offence. It is not. These are victims.
'People like you viewing these disgusting images provide a market. These children are subject to abuse so people like you can view these images. And the impact of that abuse on children is unquantifiable.
'It devastates lives and you and anyone who views these types of images are complicit in that.'
He was sentenced to eight months, suspended for 18 months and was given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order. He will also be on the sexual offenders register for a decade.
He was also ordered to undertake 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days and to pay costs of £450.
Valutham Jeganathan
Shopkeeper Valutham Jeganathan attacked a woman with a hammer leaving her with a cut to the head and a bruise shoulder - but was not given any prison time.
Jeganathan, 48, had been charged with 11 offences against the woman, including rape, unlawful wounding, multiple assaults, and threatening to kill her.
He was acquitted of all but one of the offences by a jury at Chester Crown Court. He was also later convicted of cruelty to a child.
Prosecutor John Philpotts told the jury that Jeganathan's abusive behaviour towards his victim was at its worst 'when he was drunk, which was often'.
His Honour Judge Simon Berkson handed Jeganathan a 27-month prison sentence, suspended for three years, and ordered him to do 250 hours unpaid work within 12 months. He was also made to pay £500 prosecution costs, and a £100 victim surcharge.
Judge Berkson also made a restraining order, banning him from contacting the woman, and going within 100 metres of a specified address in the local area.
Martin Thain
Headbutting his partner of 15 years, leaving her with a head wound during an hour-long assault, Martin Thain, 32, was given a suspended sentence for two years with 150 hours of unpaid work.
Newcastle Crown Court heard how Thain dragged his partner by her hair, threw objects at her and headbutted her during an argument about their eight-month-old child.
Annelise Haugstad, prosecuting, said: 'She was so terrified she lost control of her bladder. She sat on the sofa and he threw things at her and was calling her a psycho.
'She ran upstairs and felt her head smash into the wall. He pinned her down on the stairs.'
Ciaran John Brandenburg
A pervert whose interest in children began when he was in primary school himself, was found to have over 360 images of the worst kind of child abuse on his computer. Yet again, he was given no time in prison.
Police raided 21-year-old Ciaran Brandenburg's home in North Yorkshire, after a tip-off in September 2023. They found images on his computer of children as young as one.
As well 367 Category A images of the worst kind of abuse there were 280 of the middle category and several hundred of the least serious category. Police also found prohibited images of children.
Other images had been downloaded in 2011 when Brandenburg was only nine years old and therefore below the age at which he could commit a criminal act. They were not among the images listed in the charges.
Judge Simon Hickey said: 'You were very young when this started. I think you were (a risk to the public) when you were caught, but not since.'
He made him subject to a 10-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months on condition Brandenburg does a 43-session sex offenders' rehabilitation programme and 30 days' rehabilitative activities. He must also register as a sex offender for 10 years with the police.
The judge declined to make Brandenburg subject to a sexual harm prevention order restricting his use of the internet, saying that police would be able to keep an eye on Brandenburg via his registration as a sex offender.
Ian McGarley
When he spotted his former partner at an event at a pub during the King's Coronation weekend, Ian McGarley, 34, asked her for a cigarette.
But when she made a comment that angered him, he punched her in the face, which caused her to fall to the floor.
The prosecution told Newcastle Crown Court that: 'She managed to stand up but the defendant punched her again, this time catching her chin and causing her to fall for a second time.
'While on the floor he kicked her, using his entire body weight and caught her leg.'
The court heard a witness also reported McGarley stamped on the woman's head while she was on the ground.
The victim said in an impact statement she was left 'in fear' and was worried he would attend her home or work.
McGarley, 34, of no fixed address but who lives in Sunderland, admitted assault and a bail act offence.
Mr Recorder David Gordon said it was an 'absolutely disgraceful piece of behaviour' while families, including children, were present.
McGarley, who has no previous convictions, was sentenced to 20 months, suspended for two years, with rehabilitation requirements including alcohol monitoring. He was also given a five-year restraining order.
Dean Sinclair
A mother suffered horrific injuries in a dancefloor attack by a stranger who had whispered 'you don't reject me'.
Dean Sinclair, 36, approached his victim from behind in a nightclub in South Shields in July, and she told him to leave her alone.
But he told her he would not be rejected, pushed her to the floor and picked up an empty bottle, which he threw and it hit her in the face.
The 25-year-old victim said she was left in '10 out of 10' pain, suffered a gaping cut to her lip and one of her teeth was knocked out.
She needed eight stitches to her lip, surgery to remove parts of the broken tooth that were left inside her gum and faces a £3,000 dental bill to replace it.
The victim, who will be scarred for life, said in an impact statement that she was 'physically and mentally drained', left with flashbacks and in fear.
Sinclair, who has a record for violence, was sentenced to 20 months, suspended for 18 months, with rehabilitation, programme and alcohol abstinence requirements and a £4,000 compensation order.
Judge Robert Adams said while throwing the bottle was a 'highly reckless act', he level of injury caused had not been intended.
Brian Jones
A 64-year-old paedophile was caught trying to meet what he thought was a 13-year-old child but was in fact an undercover organised crime unit team.
Brian Jones – also known as Bryan Jones – appeared in Lewes Crown Court last month after pleading guilty to one count of attempting to meet a boy under 16 following sexual grooming and two counts of attempted sexual communication with a child.
Read More
The online paedophiles walking free despite accessing thousands of child abuse images
He was sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment suspended for two years. He must also complete a rehabilitation programme and will be subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Andrew Webber
Farmer Andrew Webber, 53, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual touching at Exeter Crown Court last month. He pleaded not guilty to a third offence of sexual touching, but the offence is to lie on file.
The court heard how Webber hugged and kissed a 16-year-old girl in a car, and grabbed her thigh before she managed to get away. When police were investigating, they learned he was already being investigated for comments he had made to a decoy child online.
Webber was spared prison, after the judge was told it would result in him selling his livestock and losing his farm.
He was given 10 months imprisonment suspended for 18 months, with a course to attend, and 70 hours unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £1,000 in compensation and will be on the sex offenders register for 10 years with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years as well.
Leighton Williams
A 37-year-old father-of-two from Wakefield put his hands around his wife's neck and strangled her to restrict her breathing, a court in Wales was told.
Williams and wife Coral had been married for five years when, on April 5, he arrived at the supermarket where she was working and shouted insults at her.
Read More
Shamed Huw Edwards 'could make as much as £2MILLION from his mortgage-free house being sold'
Mrs Williams was left 'very upset', and when she arrived home at 5.30pm, he continued to accuse her of being unfaithful, before placing his forehead against hers and pushing against it.
Shortly after, Williams placed his hand around her neck for three to five seconds, applying pressure so as to restrict her breathing.
Neighbours called police, who found Mrs Williams hiding in a garden, 'clearly upset', with reddening to her neck.
In a statement, Mrs Williams said her husband had 'always been abusive', but had 'never been physical'.
Defending Williams, who had five previous convictions for eight offences, Elen Owen said he was under 'huge stresses' at the time, having had his work contract ended in January.
Mrs Williams then immediately started work herself, which left him feeling 'incredibly trapped with two very young children'.
Sentencing, Judge Nicola Saffman gave Williams a two year suspended sentence and also ordered him to complete a 35-session 'building better relationships' programme, and 35 days' rehabilitation activity requirements.
A restraining order was made, prohibiting Williams from contacting his wife for two years. He will also pay a £187 surcharge.