In 2021, Joshua Plunkett, the Lewisham Paedophile, who preyed upon adolescent females and then sexually and physically assaulted them, was incarcerated.
Joshua Plunkett, 25 (27.11.95), of Reginald Road, Lewisham, was sentenced to 14 and a half years’ jail at Croydon Crown Court on Thursday, 18 November. He will serve a minimum of eight and a half years of the term in prison, with the balance to be served on parole. He was also issued a 15-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and will be registered on the Sex Offenders Register.
He was found guilty by the same court on Friday, 17 September of:
- Possession of a prohibited image;
- Sexual communications with a child;
- Controlling coercive behaviour;
- Disclosing private photographs;
- Actual bodily harm;
- Two counts of sexual activity with a child;
- Perverting the course of justice;
- Causing a child to watch a sexual act;
- Breach of a Sexual Risk Order;
- Failing to comply with section 49 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
The court heard that Joshua Plunkett targeted five teenage girls aged between 13 and 18 between 2016 and 2020.
After befriending his victims online, he would then exercise coercive control and abuse them physically, sexually and emotionally. Several victims told detectives he used ‘strangle holds’ on them. He broke the finger of one of his victims and bit her so forcefully that a complete mouth impression was left.
Joshua Plunkett used coercive control to dominate his vulnerable victims and would publish graphic images of them online to punish them and cause embarrassment if they upset him or tried to break contact.
Even after he was arrested and charged, following a comprehensive investigation by the Met’s Modern Slavery and Child Exploitation Team, his reign of terror did not stop as he sought to intimidate one of his victims while on remand to avoid justice.
Plunkett’s criminal activities commenced in 2016, when he was 20 years old, initiating an online dialogue with [Victim 1], who was 15 at that time. As the victim began to perceive that Joshua Plunkett had true affection for her, he requested that she email him intimate photographs of herself. She declined his advances due to her lack of readiness, prompting Joshua Plunkett to retaliate with derogatory words and verbal abuse over SMS. The victim acquiesced and transmitted a sequence of explicit images.
In July 2017, Joshua Plunkett initiated a dialogue with [Victim 2], who was 13 years old. He enquired about her age, to which she incremented her actual age by one year and replied 14; however, this did not dissuade Plunkett, who thereafter sent her a series of sexual texts.
[Victim 3] initially encountered Joshua Plunkett on Facebook at the age of 15, leading to their correspondence. They convened in March 2018 when she was 18 years old and he was 22 years old. As the relationship progressed, Joshua Plunkett started insisting on access to her social media accounts. In May 2018, Joshua Plunkett forcibly demanded her phone, and upon her refusal, he seized her by the neck and strangled her. He replicated the identical action merely three weeks later. In June 2018, the victim terminated the relationship. This infuriated Joshua Plunkett, who accessed her social media account and exhibited abusive and disrespectful behaviour, sending numerous explicit images and videos of their sexual encounters to her friends and family. Joshua Plunkett’s actions devastated the victim’s modelling career and undermined her self-esteem.
In 2018, Joshua Plunkett engaged in sexual relations with [Victim 4], who was 15 years old at the time. In September 2018, during a play fight, he intentionally grasped her finger and attempted to fracture it, leading to a probable break. In December 2018, while incarcerated, Joshua Plunkett convinced the victim that her statements at the police interview were the reason for his continued detention. During the subsequent four weeks, he made a deliberate attempt to get the victim to withdraw her assertion regarding any sexual aspect of their connection. His endeavours were successful, resulting in her retraction of the statement in January 2019. After conversing with the police, she fortunately reconsidered and completely revealed the totality of the abuse in June 2020.
In January 2020, after being released on bail, Joshua Plunkett visited [Victim 4]’s residence without invitation, claiming he believed he had taken her keys a few weeks prior. Violating the Sexual Risk Order obtained by investigators, he entered the victim’s bedroom while she was listening to music and commenced to strike her repeatedly in the face and head, resulting in her collapsing to the floor. He subsequently struck her in the face, resulting in a laceration on her forehead that bled extensively. She succeeded in moving significantly towards the door when he yanked her back by her hair, causing some to be torn out, and she collapsed to the floor, where he continued to kick her. He subsequently seized the victim’s mobile phone and bank card before departing the area. Her 12-year-old sister observed all of this.
In September 2019, Joshua Plunkett reached out to [Victim 5] via Snapchat. He informed her that he was 16; however, he was actually around 24. The victim disclosed her actual age, 14. Joshua Plunkett requested the victim to view several of his recordings on Snapchat stories. One of the films he transmitted depicted him engaging in sexual activity, prompting the victim to block him. During the summer of 2020, while in custody for these charges, Plunkett sought to include the victim among the contacts he could call from prison. He deceived the jail authorities by claiming she was his 24-year-old cousin, so he once more violated his Sexual Risk Order.
Detectives initiated their inquiry into Joshua Plunkett in September 2018 and apprehended him for the first time in November 2018. He was then arrested three additional times during 2018 and 2019. The inquiry was intricate, encompassing five victims and offences originating from 2016. It required eight months of meticulous collaboration between the police and the victims to uncover the complete magnitude of Plunkett’s abuse.
Detectives also worked tirelessly behind the scenes to protect the victims and any potential future ones by doing things such as applying for Sexual Risk Orders, working closely with the prison to gain intelligence and making a Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act application after he refused to provide the PIN for his phone.
Detective Constable Natalie Franklin, the investigating officer from the Met’s Modern Slavery and Child Exploitation Team, said: “Joshua Plunkett is a cruel monster who preyed on young teenage girls. He would make their lives a living nightmare for his own twisted pleasure by abusing them with sexual, physical and emotional violence. He is the personification of violence against women. Even when he was on remand awaiting trial, he exercised his control by intimidating one of his victims and making her so fearful that she withdrew her statement.
“This was a complex investigation which involved hundreds of hours of enquiries to be carried out, but we were happy to work around the clock to make sure that Joshua Plunkett was brought to justice so he could not hurt and control any more young girls.
“I would like to praise the bravery of Joshua Plunkett’s victims who came forward and gave evidence. It cannot have been easy for them to re-live their traumatic ordeals, but their courage resulted in us being able to build a strong case against Plunkett, which has resulted in him being put behind bars for a considerable amount of time.”
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