Kentish Express Ashford & District
Vote tomorow for Kent’s new police tsar
Voters go to the polls today (Thursday) to decide who should be Kent’s next police and crime commissioner.
Six candidates are in the frame for the £85,000 a year role, done by Ann Barnes since 2012.
There are concerns turnout could be low. But, speaking on a visit to Maidstone last week, Home Secretary Theresa May said elected commissioners had increased accountability.
Polling takes place from 7am to 10pm but the result will be declared tomorrow (Friday). The six candidates are: Henry Bolton (Ukip); Matthew Scott (Con); Tristan Osborne (Labour); David Naghi (Lib Dem); Gurvinder Sandher (Ind); and Steve Uncles (English Democrats).
For more on the candidates, visit www.choosemypcc.org.uk Keep up to date with the results at www.kentonline.co.uk and by following our political editor, Paul Francis, @PaulOnPolitics on Twitter. A vile pervert who preyed on three child victims has been given a 16-year jail term.
Mitch Tomkins, 43, used an alleged illness to inveigle his way into the lives of the girls from Ashford.
At his trial at Canterbury Crown Court, the former soldier tried to claim the children – one just five years old – had lied.
But the jury rejected his claims and convicted him on 12 sex abuse charges after he refused to give his doctors permission to reveal details of the alleged medical condition.
Now Judge Simon James has jailed him for 16 years – and ordered an extra four years be served on licence when he is finally released.
He told Tomkins, of London, he had committed “quite deliberate and systematic” abuse after gaining the trust of the victims.
The former squaddie had then groomed the vulnerable victims to enable to him to live out his twisted sexual desires.
Judge James said it was impos- sible to know what emotional damage he had caused the children, who were forced to give evidence at his trial.
He added: “Whether you ever had a medical condition remains a matter of some conjecture, bearing in mind your refusal to permit the release of your medical records and the complete absence of any expert evidence.
“But whether your condition was real or not matters little because you clearly utilised it as a way of getting to the children.
“The jury saw through that as a vain and desperate attempt to avoid the consequences of your unnatural sexual attraction to children.”
The judge added that Tomkins’ continual denials revealed he had shown no genuine remorse for his actions.
Tomkins, who pleaded not guilty to 12 offences, was also barred indefinitely from working with children or staying in a house where children live – without meeting strict guidelines.
He will be eligible for parole after serving two-thirds of the 16 year term .