February 2021 ‘Monster’ Reuben Tavares’ heinous crimes so vile man collapses during courtroom drama A monstrous paedophile who committed a catalogue of sickening crimes were only discovered after police raided his home and found pictures of him raping a five-year-old girl. Reuben Tavares, 37, of Avenue Crescent, west Hull, committed his campaign of abuse that spanned two countries over the course of 13 years. He targeted four young children in Portugal and the UK and forced them to engage in sexual activity with him and sometimes each other. Tavares would make his victims – one just a five-year-old girl – pose for photographs that he would keep “to play with”. The disgusting images also showed him sexually assaulting other youngsters. Tavares admitted the 37 offences that were spread over three separate indictments. As details of his sickening crimes were read out by prosecutor David Gordon on Monday, a man was seen running from the courtroom and collapsing on the concourse at Hull Crown Court. Before moving to Hull in 2015, Mr Gordon told how Tavares started abusing a girl in his home country of Portugal. He then targeted a young boy and girl, sexually assaulting them at the same time and forcing the young girl to watch pornography with him. He attempted to rape the boy on a number of occasions, the court heard. Mr Gordon told the court Tavares would encourage the children to kiss. The children would ask him to stop, but he would carry on. Mr Gordon said when Tavares was abusing the girl the boy “would be present and he would tell him to masturbate at the same time”. He said: “She would cry and he [the defendant] would say he didn’t want her to cry. “He would tell her he was sorry. The children discussed wanting to tell someone but they were worried they would think they were lying.” A father of one of the victims said he had been “destroyed” when he heard about the abuse – which was revealed when police searched Tavares’ home. He said: “My life has been destroyed. Since this bomb exploded in our lives I can’t sleep thinking about what happened. “I can’t escape the shadow of guilt for not realising. I’m very afraid he will be sent back to Portugal where he will serve very little time. “He is a very, very, very dangerous man and I am consumed with the desire to make him suffer. “That is part of the reason why I can’t sleep and thinking how it is possible to commit such evil acts against my children.” Mr Gordon told the court Humberside Police had received information that someone at the house had accessed sexual images of children. Electronic devices from the house, including a hard drive and a Samsung mobile phone were seized in May last year and analysed. Mr Gordon said: “Images were recovered of this defendant committing sexual acts on children. The images were taken on a mobile phone. “It was established they had been taken in the defendant’s living room. “He was interviewed for a second time in July last year and admitted responsibility for what had been found on the devices. He identified himself in the pictures.” The sickening images showed Tavares raping and sexually assaulting a five-year-old girl. He had also been found to have created 197 images of class A, 35 images of class B and 120 images of class C in relation to his second and third victim. Mr Gordon told the court Tavares was also charged with possession of category A images – of which there were 1,800. These were downloaded over a 15 year period between May 2005 and May 2020. He was also charged with possession of prohibited images showing beastiality Judge David Tremberg told Tavares he had left his victims to “live in the shadow of his depravity” and said: “It was clear there were occasions where they asked you to stop but you carried on – even when you caused them discomfort and they made that plain to you.” The judge sentenced Tavares to five-and-a-half years imprisonment for each victim to be served consecutively, making a total of 22 years in prison. Tavares was handed a four-year extended licence period and was told he must serve half of his sentence in custody before going before the Parole Board who will consider whether he is safe to be released. Judge Tremberg said: “The offending in this case was repeated and persisted and sustained over years. “They [the victims] were particularly vulnerable. In addition they were conditioned to accept this as a normal part of their lives when it was seriously abnormal. “When they realised it was wrong they were too scared and ashamed to speak out.”