January 2012 Clitheroe convicted paedophile (69) gave love notes to paperboy (13) A CONVICTED paedophile from Clitheroe repeatedly approached a 13-year-old paperboy and gave him gifts and “love notes.” Blackburn magistrates heard John Gidlow invited the boy to stay with him at a remote holiday cottage in Norfolk. He even approached the newsagent the boy worked for, asking for his address, before leaving a note which repeated the invitation for the boy to stay with him. Gidlow (69), of Chatburn Road, Clitheroe, admitted three charges of breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order imposed in 2005. He was remanded in custody for the preparation of a pre-sentence report. Mr Scott Ainge (prosecuting) said Gidlow had spoken to the boy several times between June and September when he went to stay in Norfolk for two months. He told the boy to go on “rude” websites. During the school holidays the boy was handed what he described as a love note which contained a £5 note. Other cash gifts followed. Gidlow had asked the boy where he lived and which school he went to, but the boy refused to tell him. Mr Ainge said the boy had told his brother about the behaviour and he had told him to tell their mother. “The boy told police he was too scared to tell his mum in case he got in trouble,” said Mr Ainge. “She was eventually told by a member of staff at the paper shop after Gidlow handed her a note and asked her to pass it to the boy. “The defendant clearly has an obsession with this boy and such an obsession would seem to present a risk of offences of a sexual nature,” added Mr Ainge. Gidlow was convicted of seven indecent assaults on young boys in 1985. He was made subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order in 2005 after police became concerned about his behaviour towards boys at Ribblesdale Wanderers Cricket Club, where he was involved in coaching youngsters. Gidlow was jailed for six months later that year for breaching the order when he was seen talking to a teenage boy at a cricket match. “Looking at it globally this man has had an issue for at least 26 years,” said Mr Ainge. “More recently has been asking a young boy to visit him in Norfolk and there can only be one reason why he has extended that invitation.” Mr Richard Prew (defending) said the Sexual Offences Prevention Order prohibited Gidlow from having any contact with boys under the age of 16. “He accepts how foolish he has been in relation to his behaviour towards this young boy, but there has never been any repetition of the index offences,” said Mr Prew. “He did not for one minute expect the boy to visit him in Norfolk.” November 2005 Convicted sex offender jailed A CONVICTED sex offender who had contact with two members of a boys’ cricket side – in defiance of a court order – has been jailed for six months. John Gidlow was seen chatting to a youngster at Ribblesdale Wanderers Cricket Club, in Clitheroe, just three months after having been made the subject of the full Sex Offences Prevention Order. Preston Crown Court also heard that Gidlow wrote letters to another boy and made a sexually inappropriate comment towards him in a telephone call. Gidlow (61), of Chatburn Road, Clitheroe, was told by the judge who sent him to jail: “It seems to me when these orders are imposed, and there can be no chance or no reason for a misunderstanding as to what they mean, that imprisonment must follow. These orders are to be obeyed.” Gidlow had admitted three offences of breaching a Sex Offenders Prevention Order (SOPO). The court heard that an original interim order was made in the summer of last year as a result of concerns about Gidlow’s behaviour on the local cricket scene.
The order was then made into a full one in March this year following a four-day hearing. Under the terms, Gidlow was prohibited from having contact or trying to contact anyone under 16, or attending or joining sports or leisure clubs. He was allowed to attend Ribblesdale Wanderers Cricket Club, but only in the public areas. Mr Philip Potter (prosecuting) said around three months after the full order was made, Gidlow was seen talking to a boy at the club. He had been talking to the lad in the company of adults, but ended up chatting alone with him. An under-15s match was taking place on that occasion. An off-duty detective was at the club on that date and someone pointed out to him that Gidlow was a convicted sex offender. The officer became aware of the SOPO being in place. It was pointed out to the defendant that the boy was clearly under 16 and that he would be reported. Following Gidlow’s arrest it was discovered that he had contacted a 15-year-old boy, another cricketer for the same club. He sent three unsolicited letters to the boy and also made a sexually inappropriate remark to him during a telephone conversation. The same teenager had received a letter from the defendant around the end of March, the same month that the full SOPO had been made.Back in 1985, Gidlow had been jailed for seven offences of indecent assaults on males under 16, while housemaster at a boys’ boarding school in the south of England. He was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment, three of them suspended. The offences were all indecent assaults against boys under 16. In 1987 he returned to Clitheroe, the area where he had been born and bred. The court heard that Gidlow stopped going to Ribblesdale in 2002 and switched to Clitheroe Cricket Club, across the road from his home. Mr Richard Prew (defending) said Gidlow had been coaching at Ribblesdale for eight or nine years. “Three thousand boys passed through the coaching that took place”. Throughout that time, said Mr Prew, nothing else came to light. He went on to say that Gidlow’s behaviour became somewhat erratic. There were concerns about his behaviour towards young boys. Approximately four families came forward to the effect that letters had been written to their sons that were inappropriate. After the full order was made, Gidlow, he said, “fell at the first hurdle.” “He is extremely remorseful he has had to put the two boys’ families through this. He believes himself to be a grandfatherly-like figure to the boys he has been in contact with at the cricket club. He doesn’t see when he oversteps the mark.” He could not “honestly remember” making the comment to the 15-year-old on the phone. But he pleaded guilty after seeing the boy’s video evidence. “Having seen what he said, and the manner in which it was said, he has no doubt.” Apart from that, conversations had been about cricket. Mr Prew said that Ribblesdale Cricket Club president Mr Denis Birch was among those who had written testimonials in Gidlow’s favour. Shortly after Gidlow came to Ribblesdale, the club had received an anonymous tip that a paedophile had joined. Through a process of elimination, Gidlow was singled out, thereafter watched far closer than would normally have been the case. Prior to the sentencing hearing, the terms of Gidlow’s SOPO had been extended to bar from him any sports ground in the country. Passing sentence, Judge Andrew Blake told him: “You cannot have been in any doubt as to the necessity to adhere strictly to the requirements of that order. “It cannot have escaped your consciousness that any behaviour involved in talking to or approaching adolescent boys would not be tolerated. Even the decision of yours to go to an under-15s match seems to be a grave lapse of judgement.”