August 2015 TV talent show dancer jailed for grooming boys A chef and youth football coach who appeared on a TV talent show has been jailed for eight years for using social networking sites to groom boys A PERVERT from Derby “preyed on young children”, grooming underage boys online and arranged to meet them for sex.A judge said Brendan Conway’s case “demonstrated the dangers presented to young children using the internet” when she put him behind bars for eight years. The 28-year-old chef admitted 13 child sex offences in Derby and a further two in Gloucestershire. His hearing was told how he would pretend to be 17 years old when he contacted his victims, one of whom was only 12, online. Derby Crown Court was told how he would persuade some of them to perform acts over web cam while he watched and in some cases either met them or tried to meet them for sex, on one occasion in Derby’s Intu Centre. Jailing Conway, of Border Crescent, Alvaston, Judge Nirmal Shant said: “You preyed on young children, in some cases vulnerable ones.“You were looking to abuse the situation, grooming them to meet as many children as you could so you could have sexual contact with them.“ This was significantly planned with a large element of grooming and this is aggravated by the sheer scale of your offending.” Conway admitted a range of charges relating to at least five boys, all aged under 16, in Derby. They were: Six counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity Five of arranging or facilitating a child to engage in sexual activity Two counts of making indecent images of a child. The images include the most serious category-A ones.The offences took place between January 1, 2012, and June 30, last year. Earlier this year, Conway also pleaded guilty to other child sex charges in Gloucestershire.Julia King, prosecuting, said Conway was snared when one of his Derby victims confided what was happened to a friend who told his mother who alerted the police. Miss King said: “The evidence demonstrates how he preyed on a number of children for his own sexual gratification.“ He would say how he was 17 years old and arranged online with one victim to meet them for sex at Derby’s Westfield centre (now Intu) and when the boy did not turn up he continued to offer to meet him and offered him money.” Miss King said Conway would also offer to pay train fares for other victims to come to Derby and one of the Gloucestershire offences saw him meet the boy, who was aged 13, at a park where he gave the victim’s friends money to buy food while the teenager performed a sex act on Conway, for which he paid him. In 2012, Conway failed to impress TV judges on the Sky television talent show Got To Dance. He also used to coach children’s football teams in Derby and further afield as part of trying to get his Football Association qualifications. Conway appeared on TV dance show Got to Dance and as an extra in the movie Streetdance 3D July 2015 TV dancer pleads guilty to sex charges on boys as young as 13 A dancer who appeared in a TV talent show has pleaded guilty to to a series of sexual offences against boys as young as 13. Brendan Conway, 28, admitted 13 charges, including causing or inciting children to engage in sexual activity and possession of indecent photographs. He denied five other charges, which would lie on file, prosecutors told Derby Crown Court. He was remanded into custody and is due to be sentenced on 24 August. The offences date back to 2012, the court heard. The street dancer, of Border Crescent, Alvaston, Derby, had appeared on television dance show Got to Dance, as an extra in the movie Streetdance 3D, and was due to appear on Britain’s Got Talent. Conway was also a football coach with a youth team in Derby and had worked as a chef. January 2015 Chef from Derby who admits sexual activity with Tetbury boy, 13, collapses in the dock A CHEF from Derby who admitted the online grooming of a 13-year-old Tetbury boy and then meeting him for sexual activity collapsed in the dock of Gloucester Crown Court with a seizure today, Friday. An ambulance was called for Brendan Conway, aged 28, of Border Crescent, Derby, after his barrister said he would be pleading guilty to charges of meeting a child for sexual grooming and having sexual activity with the child. Judge Jamie Tabor QC said Conway was clearly too ill to enter his pleas today but the indictment would be put to him at the next hearing when he is sentenced on February 12 after a pre-sentence report has been prepared. Conway made two appearances in the dock during the course of the morning and seemed fine on the first occasion. He was sent back to his cell for his lawyer to speak to him about his pleas to the charges. When he returned to the dock just before lunchtime he was doubled up, holding his stomach and his face contorted in agony. His barrister Emma Scott said: “He suffers from some form of seizures and he is obviously in a great deal of pain.” She said he would be pleading guilty to the two offences, committed on November 22 last year. As the hearing came to a close custody officers in the dock started to help Conway back towards the steps leading down to the cells but he then collapsed to the floor, shaking uncontrollably, and lay there for 1-2 minutes. When he had recovered enough to be taken to the cells he was helped down the stairs by two custody officers and a short time later ambulance paramedic arrived to examine him. During the hearing prosecutor Janine Wood said his two guilty pleas would be acceptable and she would not proceed with a third charge of attempting to meet the boy following grooming. Conway made contact with the boy via the gay social network site distinc.tt. He pretended to be aged 17, got chatting to the boy, and arranged to drive to Tetbury to meet him. Conway, who wore a grey tracksuit top, dark blue Umbro jogging bottoms and orange trainers, was remanded in custody pending sentence on Feb 12.