Judge praised courage of victims
JUDGE Graham Knowles QC said Joshua Stanley ‘posed a significant risk of serious harm’ to women and young girls and had ‘shown no remorse or empathy’.
In his sentencing remarks he praised the ‘courage’ of the victims for helping bring Stanley to justice and said the ‘only person to blame is you’.
He told the court: “You are a dangerous sexual predator who, despite on your own account having had 50 to 100 sexual partners by the age of 17 or 18, wanted what none of them had supplied.
“Perhaps you hoped that taking risks would make good [a sexual] failing.
“You certainly wanted the danger of being caught, the control of doing exactly what you please when you pleased, and the gloating satisfaction of having got away with it.
“But thanks to the courage of three girls, the courage you either lacked or disdain, you have not got away with it and must now be punished.
“Girls and women must now be protected from you.
“You are a serial risk taker, not merely willing it appears but determined to have sex with people in criminal circumstances when you could’ve been walked in on.”
The court heard how in 2015 Stanley was himself a ‘victim of violent crime’ and suffered a ‘traumatic brain injury’ when he tried to defend others.
Psychiatric reports submitted to the court said they ‘couldn’t find a significant causal link between the brain injury and [Stanley’s] crimes’ however one doctor said he ‘doesn’t absolutely rule it out as a possible contributory factor’.
Another psychiatrist said the injury ‘may have affected [Stanley’s] decision making but didn’t override his free will and didn’t stop him knowing that what he was doing was wrong’.
In a pre-sentence report the probation service said there was a ‘high risk of sexual recidivism’, that Stanley ‘posed a significant risk of serious harm to the public’ and that he ‘failed to appreciate sexual boundaries and will continue to view opportunities in the presence of other females as a sense of selfentitlement’.
Judge Knowles QC told Stanley it was right to only make a ‘modest allowance when considering how blameworthy’ he was and that it ‘would be wrong to make more’.
He said: “You have no remorse, quite the contrary, and you have shown no empathy whatsoever.
“It’s not that you are incapable of showing it.
“What you did was appalling.” CASES heard at Blackburn Magistrates Court:
FAZLU Miah, 45, of Queen Street, Rawtenstall, pleaded guilty to drink driving and failing to stop after an accident. He was jailed for 12 weeks and disqualified from driving for five years and 42 days.
CHRISTOPHER Michael Patrick Egan, 61, of Unsworth Street, Bacup, pleaded guilty to ABH. He was given an eight-week jail sentence, suspended for six months, a 12-month restraining order and ordered to pay £100 compensation and £200 costs.
DOMINIC Brown, 29, of Grane Road, Haslingden, was found guilty in his absence of using a television without a licence. He was fined £150 and ordered to pay £205 costs.
CHRISTOPHER Robert Brown, 49, of Prinney Mill, Haslingden, pleaded guilty to criminal damage and while subject to a suspended sentence order. He was given a 12-month community order with a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement, a three-year restraining order, fined £160 and ordered to pay £100 compensation.
JONATHON Maynell, 27, of Queen Ann Street, Haslingden, pleaded guilty to being drunk and disorderly in a public place and while subject to both a suspended sentence order and a conditional discharge order. He was fined £40, ordered to pay £85 costs and his four-week suspended jail sentence order was extended to 12 months.