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10 years for dance teacher (23) i National accolade who molested 5 teenage girls


-A DANCE teacher from Clit- heroe who sexually abused five


teenage girls has been jailed for 10 years. A judge at.Preston Crown Court


told 23-year Edwin Dillon he had a vastly inflated ego and sense of his own importance. He had targeted his victims, hav­


ing sex with four of them and “trying it on” with another. All the girls had


considered him good looking and charming.; ■ •


’ .


‘ Tlie court heard that Dillon initially flattered the girls, but went on to use


emotional blackmail or manipulation to try, to stop them disclosing what had taken place. ;


., ■. Dillon, of Nelson Street, Clitheroe,


had denied 10 offences of sexual ac­ tivity with a child, but a jury convicted him following a trial. His victims were all aged 13 to 15.


^ Mr Michael Scholes (prosecuting)


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said it had always been accepted in all cases that the sexual activity was consensual. “But that, in relation to the offences, is irrelevant, given the age of these victims and the need for the law to afford protection to those below the legal age of consent -16,” he said. “By the standards of the girls,


Dillon was charming and good looking. The Crown’s case is that he encouraged those feel-, ings by flattery, with a view to sexual activity, and that he groomed each girl for that spe-; cific purpose. ■ " , , . r ’


. “He later sought to prevent- them from disclosing what had happened by emotional black- > mail or manipulation. The of­ fences came to light as a result ■ of the girls’ willingness to make disclosures to agencies about . what had been happening.


. • “Despite all of the defend- CLICK


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. N0 plaeg at your ghgggn Grammay ielioolF Worried abotu eduearioii eut§?


to EDWIN DILLON ant’s efforts to ridicule and under-


. mine them, each of the girls then had the courage to disclose to the police what had happened to them. All of the victim impact statements are very ' measured and not in any way vindic­ tive or hysterical.”


'


: The court heard that one girl had said in her statement: “Whatever hap- pens, the court will never change what he has done to me. I would like him to see what real damage he has done. ” Defence barrister Mr Martin Hack-


ett said Dillon had written a letter to the court. Mr Hackett said; “He now accepts


he is guilty as regards the offences, nohvitlistanding that he pursued the matter through to trial. He accepts the finding of the jury as the correct finding.” .. ■ In mitigation, Mr Hackett said


there had been no physical threats or use of violence. He accepted that a lengthy prison term would follow and he submitted it should be a determi­ nate sentence, rather than an indefi­ nite one. ■; Passing sentence. Judge Michael


Byrne told Dillon; “You don’t think of these girls in terms of your victims, but that is exactly what they were. My assessment of you is that you have a vastly inflated ego and sense of your own importance. Such was your sense of your own importance and your own invincibility that you could not


bring yourself to accept you had done wrong. - “Even though there was clear evi­


dence accepted by the jury; I think you demonstrated that you have a real lack of maturity and lived in your own world of fantasy and in reality you could not comprehend or accept not getting your own way. The judge added that he was of the


view that so long as the defendant’s attitudes continued, he represented a risk to underage girls. ; As well as the prison sentence Dil­


lon was told he will be’on the sex of­ fenders’ register for life, banned from working with children indefinitely and be the subject of a sexual offender’s prevention order for 10 years. • Dillon was arrested after a


lengthy investigation by Lancashire Constabulary’s Engage team, a spe­ cialised unit comprising police offic­ ers, social and youth workers and oth­ er agencies. Engage team members use their skills and expertise to track down offenders who groom children for sex, whilst also offering support and protection to young victims and their families from a specially trained


. team of professionals. DI Steve Dowson from Eastern


Division’s Public Protection Unit said: “This type of predatory crime will not be tolerated and 1 would like to reassure local people that we will continue to target those suspected of • sexually exploiting children. 1 urge


tion, support or advice on the issue of child exploitation can call 01254 267790.


It Started when I was 14....


ONE of, Dillon’s young victims wrote an account of how his of­ fences had impacted on her and her family. Titled simply “My Stoiy”, it was presented to the court as part of the compelling evidence against Dillon. Now, with the permission of the girl and her family, it has also


. been released to the Press in the hope that it might encourage other


, victims to speak out: ' ;


. ' My Story. It all started when I was 14 years


old and he was 20. He was funny ’ and good looking. I thought he was amazing. Very quickly I fell in love with him, and thought he loved me, and after a few months he took my innocence away from me. I truly believed we would eventu- . ally be together and the only reason


:.we were not now was because of my age. He told me to keep it a secret


; between us, as if anyone found out I we would not be able to be together. I would do anything for him and this included lying to my family and


. friends. He made me feel that he was theonly person I needed in my


life and he would love me and pro-' tect me.


• . Tliese lies and secrecy eventually caused problems at home between


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C - " ' { a c i r a g f ! , , ~ MALSIS________ ts V ik it .in d # a c


me and my mum, and I started run­ ning away so that I could be with him inore. I stopped going to school and things at home went rapidly ' downhill. He made me choose be-


tween him and my friends. I chose him. ■ .


Girls and boys aged 4 '4 3 -' .Day and Boarding - Neat Skiptori •


: I Started Stealing food from home to give to him and any money I had I gave to him. He said he did not want it, but he would still take it from me. He became my life, no matter at whatcost.


. V When Engage got involved I felt c a n d o fto , i n t i r t lu J d


that they were just trying to ruin everything, I just wanted people to leave us alone, and if I never ad­ mitted we were together there was nothing they could do. He told me never to tell my Engage worker or I would lose him. v ; : •


During all my sessions with my


Engage worker I never told the truth about my relationship with him. I felt there was trust between me and my worker and 1 enjoyed our session. I knew.that if I did tell ■rny Engage worker that she would


support me and not judge me, or who would come to see me and sup- be cross that I had not told her the port me, and as they worked all tc> truth about my relationship with him. I knew she would understood why I had not told the truth as I was scared of getting him into trouble, and I knew this would happen if I


1 . t—


needed someone to talk to there was always someone on the team


gether they knew who I was and did ‘ hot have to go through everything


. again with a stranger. Engage worked with me in one-


. told anyone, and I did not want to lose him.


Tlie more time I spent with my worker looking at and discussing


exploitative relationships I be­ gan to understand that I had been groomed and exploited and that it was not right. I knew that I needed to. tell someone what had been happening to me. It was really dif-


_ ficult for me to tell my worker, I was scared and also upset as I knew that This would have to be the end


of our relationship when he found out what I had done, and I was still totally in love with him. But I knew what he was doing was not right, and also he may be doing this to other young people.


■ ' dilhcult to tell people what had hap­ though it was really, really


pened Engage supported me and my family through all the time they have been involved. My Engage worker supported me and my mum ' through all the times when I ran


■ away from home, she took me home ■ and also supported me to get back


. into education. She always listened and never gave up on me when I did


not turn up for our appointments or when my behaviour was really bad


parenting support worker with En- who helped and supported


My mum then got her own


her through the prosecution, and the police on the team were easy to talk to and understanding, they did ' not wear uniforms and seemed to' really care.^Tliere was also a nurse


to-one sessions and also in a group, my worker also acted as a mediator between me and my mum when things got really bad at home. By working with Engage I began to understand that all this was not my fault and that I had been exploited, .they also made me realise the im­ pact on every area of my life. Throughout the prosecution


Engage always let us know what was happening and involved our


. parents, my mum found this really supportive. Engage help, support and protect young people who are being exploited and if I had not worked with Engage I would still be in an exploitative relationship now and maybe I would have lost my family and not re engaged in educa­ tion. They also helped me see how supportive my mum was and that no matter what I put her through during that time she loved and sup­ ported me) I feel so lucky to have her and the support of Engage and I feel that I have become “me” now as I am no longer lying to protect him anti I feel that I can be myself and achieve whatever I want to do. I wanted to let people know that


, this happens to young people, and for people to understand that I am


just a girl, a daughter and a sister, the girl next door. I never thought that something like this could hap­ pen to me and wanted to share this to help other people who may be in an exploitative relationship or to warn young people and families aboutthis. - ■ ■


who would help me and give me medical advice when I needed, she


■ was really easy to talk to and never judged me.


If my worker was not in and I ouluculic uii iiic lUtiiJi


anyone with information or concerns to contact us.” Anyone wanting further informa­


for byFaiza Afzaal


THE hard work of Gor­ don Wilson, Kibble Valley Rail’s Friend of Clitheroe


Station, was rewarded at a ceremony. At the National Community


Rail Awards, held in Westcliff- on-Sea, the station gained a second place in the category


of Local Station Environment (Community Rail Lines).


A spokesman for Ribbble


Valley Rail said: “The award is a testament to Gordon’s hard


. work in keeping the station clean and tidy and the flower displays in tip-top condition.” The station has recently seen the addition of some ex­


partnership scheme involving


tificate for the station, two other projects - centred on Clitheroe station and the Plat­ form Gallery - were awarded at the cereriiony.


tra flower planters made from • recycled plastic and funded by I^ncashire County Council. They were installed in a


Network Rail and Northern- Rail. Along with receiving a cer­


“Meet Me at the Station”;


an art project with local pri-' maty schoolchildren and led by Alistair Nicholson, a Black­


NowNorthcote has 4 AA Rosettes plus 4 Red Stars


THE luxurious restaurant and plush ac­ commodation of Nofthcote has resulted in one of the Ribble Valley most prestigious hotels gaining hvo hugely coveted awards at the AA Awards Ceremony. . Firstly, the recognition of the food on


offer increased to four AA Rosettes and Northcote is also thrilled to have won four AA Red Stars for exceptional quality, comfort, cleanliness and customer care. To be recognised as an industry leader


- there are only three other venues in Eng­ land, outside London, with four Rosettes and four-Red Stars-and be among such impressive and recognisable company as Gidleigh Park and Hambleton Hall, which also have four Rosettes, and four Red Stars, is recognition that the owners, chef patron Nigel Haworth and business part­ ner Craig Bancroft are thrilled to receive. Northcote was one of only three venues


awarded four AA Rosettes this year and is now one of only 20 four rosette venues in England, in the company of Ramsay’s Royal Hospital Road, Claude Bosi’s Hi­ biscus and Phil Howard’s The Square. A delighted Craig Bancroft said: “The.


AA awards are so highly regarded and we are privileged to have received this promotion to a very exclusive club- only a handful of other venues have achieved thisstatus. ■ • . “The renovation of the rooms, along


with our AA Housekeeper-of-the-Year runner-up, Paula Seddon,- the standard has been driven up continuously.


.


“Nigel and his kitchen team, headed up by Great British Menu’s 2010 winner, ; Lisa Allen are thrilled to have received the


' fourth rosette for their incredible food of­ fering. It’s an exciting time for us at North­ cote.”' ' ,


■ Northcote is part of the Northcote Group, which includes the Ribble Valley Inns, and Northcote at The Rovers at the Blackburn Rovers’Stadium.


burn artist, was awarded third place in the Working with


Young People categoiy ot the awards. .


A project called the “Great


Wall of Daisyfield,” was highly commended in the Commu­ nity Art Schemes section.


STATION STARS: Marjorie Birch, vice chair of the Clitheroe Line and East Lancashire Community Rail Partner­ ships, Gordon Wilson and Brian Haworth, Community Rail Development Officer, holding the ceitificates outside Clithe­ roe station, (s)


ClitheroeAdver1Isor&-nmes,-niursdaY,October21,2010 ' 9 Grassroots casH


FUNDING is available for small communi­ ty groups in the Ribble Valley through the Grassroots Grants programme. This programme, funded by the Office of


the Third Sector and administered by the Community Foundation for Lancashire, is aimed at projects which should enable groups to flourish. The fund will support activities and


purchases such as training for volunteers, putting on local events and equipment. Groups can apply for between £250 and £5,000. To be .eligible, groups must have been active for at least 12 months and have an annual income of less than £30,000. The,closing date for applications is No­


vember 26th and, if successful, the money awarded must be spent by March 31st. : ,' For more information and or an applica­


tion pack, contact Andrea at Hyndburn and Ribble Valley CVS on 01200 422995 or e- mail: andreaduckworth@hotmail.c6.uk


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