March 2006 PERVERT GETS FIVE YEARS Waddup pictured in 1999 PERVERT Ian Waddup is today beginning a five year prison sentence after being convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl. The Whitehaven News revealed last month that he had been kicked out of the United States for “grooming” a girl for illegal sex. Ian Waddup, 44, formerly of Pica and Mirehouse, had denied three charges of sexual assault and one of causing or inciting a child aged under 13 to engage in sexual activity but a jury unanimously rejected his claims at Carlisle Crown Court. He had been warned after his trial to expect a jail term. Only after the trial was over could The Whitehaven News reveal that in 1999 Waddup was jailed in the United States – and then expelled – for “grooming” a 15-year-old girl for illegal sex. Waddup has convictions for sex offences against children dating back to the 1970s. The offences happened when the victim was visiting the cottage at Pica that Waddup shared with his partner. The victim later told her mother that Waddup had sexually assaulted her. The jury heard claims that after one assault Waddup told the girl not to tell anyone what had happened or they would both get into trouble. In the 1999 case in the USA, the judge had spoken of her frustration at being unable to ban a convicted British child molester from the internet. Ohio Judge Sylvia Hendon had just jailed Waddup, who had flown to America to meet a teenage girl he had wooed by e-mail. Police arrested him as he was taking the girl to a hotel. Waddup spent thousands of pounds conducting an e-mail romance with the 15-year-old. He was jailed for 180 days, with 90 days suspended, then kicked out of the country. Waddup had been living in Gray Street, Carlisle, while he awaited sentence.