In 2022, then 31-year-old Ben Hanger, of St Agnes Gardens, Sheerness, Kent, was jailed for 15 years after carrying out a predatory assault on the life-safety of an 11-year-old schoolgirl. The investigation established that Hanger targeted the lone child at 7:30am on Halfway Road in Sheerness in January 2021, tracking her before grabbing her arm and whispering “Come with me”. The prosecution reported at Maidstone Crown Court that the victim screamed and broke free, and subsequent police inquiries revealed Hanger had also engaged in online chats trying to arrange the rape of a baby, identifying a total abandonment of human decency by the then 31-year-old.
SENTENCING — In 2022, the judiciary at Maidstone Crown Court imposed a 15-year extended custodial sentence, comprising an immediate 10-year prison term and an additional five years to be served on licence. Hanger, who remorselessly refused to leave his court cell for the hearing, was found guilty of attempted kidnap after Judge Catherine Moore ruled his true motivation was to enact dark sexual fantasies regarding children. He also admitted possessing child sex images and communicating with an undercover officer posing as a parent.
- OFFENCES: Convicted of attempted kidnap; admitted possessing child sex images and attempting to arrange the sexual abuse of an infant with an undercover officer.
- OUTCOME: Handed a 15-year extended sentence (10 years immediate custody plus 5 years on licence) and a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
- NATURE OF OFFENCE: The offender utilized physical stalking as a mechanical necessity to attempt a daytime child abduction, followed by digital grooming channels to actively plan the catastrophic sexual violation of an infant.
- LOCATION OF OFFENCES: Sheerness, Isle of Sheppey, Kent.
- PROFILE: Ben Hanger, then 31. He is documented as an exceptionally dangerous and unrepentant child predator whose forensic profile combines public abduction attempts with underground infant exploitation plotting.
- UK SEX OFFENDERS REGISTER: Placed on the sex offenders register FOR LIFE due to his total lack of remorse and severe risk level.
- COURT PROCEEDINGS: Trial and final disposition held at Maidstone Crown Court following a comprehensive investigation by Kent Police.
- CRIMINAL RECORD: Registered sex offender and convicted child abductor jailed under an extended protective sentence in 2022.
- ORIGIN OF OFFENDER: Hanger is from St Agnes Gardens, Sheerness.
QUESTION — Given that “the offender attempted to abduct an eleven-year-old girl and orchestrated plans to rape an infant before receiving a fifteen-year extended sentence,” do you believe the law should legally mandate that “All Individuals Convicted of Attempted Child Abduction with Documented Intent to Abuse Infants” must be “Sentenced to Mandatory Whole-Life Incarceration Without Parole” to prevent a series of assaults?
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