April 2014: To cheers and chants of “scum”, police escorted a man, named locally as sex-offender Ian Hook, and a woman from the property in Union Street, Pontlottyn, on Sunday April 13 – Click this link for more March 2014: Released and living in the Pontlottyn area under an alias name – John Jenkins.
July 2007 Pervert fails in bid to cut sentence A GWENT pervert who had shown “no regret or remorse” for subjecting two young girls to a campaign of sexual abuse lost his bid to reduce his prison sentence. Top judges in London heard that 48-year-old Ian Hook ruined the childhood and adolescence of his two victims and that the psychological effects on them were immeasureable. After he was sentenced to 10 years in jail in November, his victims bravely waived their anonymity to talk to the press  about the “evil” paedophile who abused them while giving the image of a caring family man. His daughter Claire Hook and step-daughter Fiona Hook MacKenzie kept what was happening a secret because they did not know it was also happening to the other. London’s Court of Appeal was told Hook abused his first victim from the age of 14 and his second from the age of six or seven. His deviant behaviour began by exposing himself to them, but progressed into full-blown sexual assaults. Hook, of Bryn Road, Cefn Fforest, Blackwood, was convicted at Cardiff Crown Court last year of four counts of indecency with a child and 13 counts of indecent assault. Mr Justice Tugendhat said the sentencing judge took into account Hook’s good work record and previous good character. However, he noted, Hook forced his victims to testify in court by branding them liars and denying the charges against him, thus prolonging their ordeal. He had shown no “regret or remorse” and a pre-sentence report stated that he was unable to demonstrate any victim empathy, said the judge. Hook appealed his sentence on several grounds, including that it was too long given the lack of physical injury to his victims. However, the appeal judges ruled that, whilst severe, the sentence was not “manifestly excessive”.