Stanley ‘shown no remorse or empathy’ for his crimes
JUDGE Graham Knowles QC said Joshua Stanley ‘posed a significant risk of serious harm’ to women and girls and had ‘shown no remorse or empathy’.
Sentencing Stanley he praised the ‘courage’ of the victims for helping bring him to justice.
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, you 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.
“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 he didn’t stop knowing what he was doing was wrong’.
In a pre-sentence report the probation service said that Stanley ‘posed a significant risk of serious harm to the public’.
Judge Knowles QC said it was right to only make a ‘modest allowance when considering how blameworthy you are’.
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.”
The court heard how the footballer had ambitions to work in the fire service or the army.
Defence barrister Steven Nikolich said: “He used to play football regularly for Rossendale Valley FC from the age of five and then in Accrington Stanley under-16s.
“His family will have to deal with the ramifications of the conviction and sentence.”
The barrister said ‘there may be a causal link between the brain injury and his offending behaviour’ and could also impact on his ability ‘to deal with being convicted and expressing remorse’.