Pervert’s head-butt knocked out officer

A POLICE officer classically trained on the clarinet can no longer play the instrument after being head-butted by a paedophile pensioner.

Helen Clarke, a detective sergeant, was knocked out by John Butters during an interview at his home in Swindon in 2018.

A court heard that he lashed out after mistakenly thinking that the officer had been rude to his wife, claiming afterwards: “She deserved that”.

An accomplished clarinetist, DS Clarke can now no longer perform after the attack dislodged a tooth.

Butters, 72, was jailed for 20 months on Thursday for numerous offences, including sending filthy messages to what he thought was a teenage girl.

But ‘Mia’ was actually a police officer trawling the internet for would-be sex offenders.

Butters quickly began sending the youngster explicit messages and tried to set up a meet, writing: “Promise you won’t get preggers but you will have sex.”

He would also chat with other perverts on video conferencing platform Zoom, it was said.

Police raided his house in late 2017 and found 30 indecent images of children on his devices.

These also found three videos showing boys and girls as young as four being raped by men, and software capable of deleting files and a programme to access the dark web.

A court heard that officers then returned to Butters’ home around a year later. He turned violent and attacked the detective sergeant.

The defendant was said to be agitated and tried to throw a punch before headbutting DS Clarke – knocking her out with a single blow.

Ranjit Sandhu, defending, said his client was unhappy that five officers had arrived at his house, not the one officer he had been expecting.

He said: “Once the defendant saw the five police officers who had attended it’s fair to say he was frustrated.”

He told the court that the pensioner had been assaulted by police officers in his youth.

Mr Sandhu added: “The only way he could stop police officers from assaulting him was to become aggressive.”

Butters, of Swindon, admitted causing actual bodily harm, attempted sexual communication with a child and three counts of making indecent images.

Jailing him at the town’s crown court, Judge Peter Crabtree said: “I have very real reservations about your ability to rehabilitate.”

He was also ordered to abide by a ten-year sexual harm prevention order and sign onto the sex offenders’ register for the same length of time.