May 2016 Ex-police officer jailed for abusing boys A former police officer branded “the Jimmy Savile of the scouting world” by his victims has been jailed for a string of sex attacks on boys. Ex scout-leader John Edward Bates, 68, abused his position to abuse four victims in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. He had denied 22 charges of indecent assault and indecency with a child but was found guilty of 18 after a trial. Bates was given a 20-year jail sentence at Lincoln Crown Court. The offences took place between March 1972 and October 1989. During the trial, the court heard Bates abused two boys while he was a scout leader in Wittering where he served in the Royal Air Force. He later became a scout leader in Spalding, Lincolnshire, and went on to abuse two more boys. Sentencing, Judge Simon Hirst said he was a predatory man who abused the enormous trust placed in him by his victims. He said: “You did them all real lasting damage – you did it for no other reason than to obtain sexual gratification for yourself.” In court, one victim described Bates as a “monster, “the Jimmy Savile of the scouting world” Another described Bates’ conviction as “the beginning of the end of my 40-year…living hell.” Speaking outside court, Det Sgt Tim Wilkinson, of Lincolnshire Police, praised the victims for speaking out. Det Sgt Wilkinson said: “They looked up to him, respected him, and all John Bates has done is cause misery and upset,” he said. Bates, who served with Lincolnshire Police between 1976 and 1983, claimed his victims had fabricated evidence against him. He had previously served a four-year jail sentence for offences against young boys, imposed at Nottingham Crown Court, after an investigation in 1982. May 2016 Ex-police officer John Edward Bates convicted of abusing boys A former police officer and scout leader has been convicted of a series of sex attacks on boys. John Edward Bates, 68, formerly of Spalding, Lincolnshire, was found guilty by the jury at Lincoln Crown Court of 16 charges of indecent assault on a male person. He was also found guilty of two charges of indecency with a child. Judge Simon Hirst described Bates as a predatory man who abused the enormous trust placed in him. Bates, now of Camden, north London, was remanded and will be sentenced on Friday. He was warned to expect a “very substantial” jail sentence. Bates, who served with Lincolnshire Police between 1976 and 1983, was cleared of two further charges of indecent assault and two serious sexual offences. He denied all 22 charges, claiming the victims fabricated the evidence against him. Grace Hale, prosecuting, told the jury during the trial that Bates abused two of the boys while he was a scout leader in Wittering where he served in the Royal Air Force. Bates later became a scout leader in Spalding and went on to abuse two more boys. Bates had previously served a four-year jail sentence for offences against young boys, imposed at Nottingham Crown Court, after an earlier investigation into him in 1982. April 2014: John Edward Bates, now 65 is currently living in Upper Tulse Hill, London. Bates is not currently on any sex offender register as his convictions were before the SOR was introduced in 1997 July 1983 Four years jail for sex menace Sex case policeman John Edward Bates was officially dismissed from the Lincolnshire Police Force on Friday during a disciplinary hearing. Chief constable Mr James Kerr heard the evidence against Bates, branded a “menace to boy scouts” by a judge after being found guilty of 13 sex offences against young boys. A spokesman for Lincolnshire Police said: “This case would be a formality.  Mr Kerr heard the evidence against Bates and would then decide how to punish.  He has been dismissed from the force”. Bates (35), of Pinchbeck Road, Spalding – a police constable, scoutmaster and church chorister – was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday morning. He had strenuously denied committing 11 indecent assaults and four offences of a more serious nature during the 13-day trial. Bates was found guilty by a three-woman, nine man jury of 11 indecent assaults, for which he was sentenced to three years.  He was found guilty of committing a more serious offence and attempting to commit the offence, and was jailed for four years.  The sentences are to run concurrently. He was cleared of one charge of a more serious nature, and the jury could not agree on a verdict involving a similar charge.  The Judge, Mr Justice Park, discharged the jury from having to record a verdict. Eleven of the 12 jury members returned to court on Thursday to hear sentence passed on Bates, described by Det Chief Supt Ray Moyses, head of Lincolnshire CID as a man of “hitherto unblemished character”. Mr Moyses, who was accused by Bates of having masterminded a conspiracy against him, told the Judge that 18 or 19 boys had been Bates’ victims.  Two charges were left on the file. Mr Brian Smedley, QC, who defended Bates, said his client’s life had been ruined at the age of 35.  He said Bates might have to ask for protection in jail, and would spend much of his time alone. Mr Justice Park told Bates: “It is plain from the evidence that since 1975 you have been a menace to all boys scouts between the ages of 11 ½ and 15, right up to 1982 when at long last your activities were brought to light. “You introduced these boys, either willing or unwilling, to the most disgusting sexual practices, and showed them from time to time pornographic literature and films. But that is not all.  At your first interview with Mr Moyses you adopted a fairly reasonable attitude.  You said that you would plead guilty to indecent assault on three of these boys in order to spare them the embarrassment of going into the witness box. “You didn’t go through with that.  Instead for a fortnight you made it absolutely necessary for 11 boys to go into the witness box and recount in great detail all the disgusting things you did to them”. During the trial Bates sat calmly in the dock, often straining to hear the quieter boys give their evidence. He frequently passed notes to his counsel, but as the trial wore on he looked more and more tired, and the note-writing happened less often. As sentence was passed, he kept his composure and looked unruffled as he was led away by prison officers. At Spalding Parish Church on Sunday where Bates was a chorister – prayers were said for him during the intercessions. July 1983 Assaults on boys proved. Sex case PC guilty Sex case policeman John Edward Bates has been found guilty of indecently assaulting eleven young boys. The jury at Nottingham Crown Court took more than ten hours to reach its verdict on the 15 charges facing the former Spalding scoutmaster. Sentence was due to be passed yesterday morning. Bates (35) of Pinchbeck Road, Spalding, had denied 11 offences of indecent assault and four of a more serious nature involving boys. The nine-man, three-woman jury were unanimous in finding him guilty on three indecency charges. Bates was found guilty of indecent assault by majority verdicts of 10-2 on three counts, and by 11-1 on five counts. Bates was cleared on two charges of committing serious sexual offences with a boy. On one count, he was instead found guilty by a 10-2 majority of attempting to commit the offence. He was found guilty on a similar charge by a verdict of 11-1. The jury could not reach a majority decision on the fourth offence so the Judge, Mr Justice Park, discharged them from having to arrive at a verdict. Summing-up in the trial of the former Spalding Parish Church choir member began on Monday and continued until Wednesday morning, when the jury was sent out. During the trial, Bates was labelled a “Jekyll and Hyde” character by the prosecution – a pillar of society on the one hand, on the other someone who preyed on young boys while they were in his charge. Each of the eleven boys referred to in the charges – which date back to 1975 – stood in the witness box and told how Bates had interfered with them at his flat, on scouting trips or on holidays. One youth, a choirboy, told how in 1977 he met Bates, when the constable moved to a flat at 3 Gore Lane, Spalding. Bates joined the St Mary and St Nicolas church choir and became friendly with the boy, who was then 15. Mr Desmond Fennell, QC, prosecuting, told the court that after choir practice on a Friday night, sex sessions (turn to page 2) were held at Bates’ flat for almost a year. Several of the boys told the court how they were shown pornographic films, magazines and playing cards by Bates. On one occasion, Bates, wearing police uniform and driving a Panda car, called at the home of an 11-year-old scout and indecently assaulted him. But Bates was found out after the father on one of the boys heard rumours that indecent assaults had been made by the scoutmaster on some of his young charges. The father and another parent confronted Bates at his Pinchbeck Road flat one Sunday night after evensong with the accusation: “You have been mucking about sexually with our boys.” Bates denied touching any of the youths, and was said to be “staggered and amazed” by the claims. But later, when spoken to by Det Chief Supt Ray Moyses and Det Chief Insp Bob Warner, Bates said he had fallen in love with one of the young scouts. The two senior officers, who saw Bates at his flat, told the court that he had admitted indecently assaulting three of the boys, but denied more serious offences. The officers said Bates told them he did not want to drag the boys through the courts and realised that he would have to go to prison for the indecency offences. But in July last year – about five weeks after he was first seen by the police – Bates changed his story and said he had never admitted to indecent assault. He then claimed the police had masterminded a conspiracy against him, and that they and the 11 boys who gave evidence had plotted against him. Bates also said three of the boys were trying to get back at him after he discovered they had allowed a girl to share their tent at a camp in Surfleet at the beginning of May last year. During a lengthy interview at Lincolnshire Police headquarters in Nettleham, Bates denied he had committed any offences on the boys. He denied showing any of them pornographic films, claiming that the only ones he showed at his flat were ones of previous scouting holidays. And he said that if he had touched the boys, it was only to put his arms round their shoulders in a protective and fatherly way. In the witness box, Bates accused police CID chiefs of conspiring against him and claimed the boys had committed perjury. “I wish I knew why this was happening to me,” he said. “I have tried to think of the reasons for the past 13 months.” Another scoutmaster, Mr John Malcolm Brown of Pinchbeck road, said Bates often visited him and his family for Sunday lunch, and was a friend to them. He said he had never heard Bates say anything, or seen him do anything, to imply that he was making sexual advances to any of the scouts. Summing-up for the prosecution, Mr Fennell said the case was a disturbing one from the outset, made more serious by the fact that during the trial Bates had made allegations that senior police officers had conspired against him.