In 2018, the Offender Database reported that Joseph Davies, then 23, of Newbury Way, Billingham, Stockton-on-Trent, was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court.
Joseph Davies was handed a ten-year extended sentence after pleading guilty to kidnapping, false imprisonment, sexual assault, and offending with intent to commit a sexual offence. The court heard that Joseph Davies abducted a six-year-old girl in broad daylight while she was playing with a friend. After stalking the area for two hours, he “pounced” on the child, carried her away while covering her mouth, and locked her in the garden of an unoccupied house where he sexually abused her.
During the terrifying ordeal, Joseph Davies bound the victim with a piece of ribbon and warned her: “If you tell anyone, I’ll steal you again.” Despite forensic evidence and his own admissions of the physical acts, Joseph Davies continued to deny any sexual motivation for his crimes, a claim Judge Stephen Ashurst branded as “pure fantasy.” The judge noted that a 2016 police investigation had already uncovered Davies’ sexual interest in young girls in school uniforms, although no prosecution resulted from that earlier search.
The victim’s mother provided a heart-wrenching statement detailing how the “normally happy” girl had been left hysterical, afraid to sleep alone, and plagued by the fear of being “stolen” again. Judge Ashurst ruled that Joseph Davies posed a “significant risk of serious harm” to the public, citing his lack of empathy and his refusal to acknowledge the explicit sexual nature of his predatory behaviour.
The sentence consists of a six-year custodial term, of which Joseph Davies must serve at least two-thirds before the Parole Board can even consider him for release, followed by an additional four-year licence period. He was also ordered to remain on the sex offenders register for the rest of his life.
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