March 2019 Former Sheffield City Council boss pleads guilty to 14 additional charges A former Sheffield City Council boss serving time for sex offences has pleaded guilty to 14 additional charges. Roger Dodds was jailed for 16 years in 2017 for abusing four men and a boy, while he worked at the authority in the 1970s and 80s. The 83-year-old pleaded guilty to 14 counts of indecent assault committed against six men and a boy between 1974 and 1980. The complainants from this case are separate to those involved with the first set of charges, bringing the total number of victims to 12. Appearing via video link from HMP Wakefield, Dodds spoke only to confirm his name and pleas. Prosecutor, Gordon Stables, told Sheffield Crown Court that all of the complainants were abused by Dodds after applying to the local authority’s education department for grants to go ‘college or university’. The victims from the first set of charges Dodds was convicted of were abused under similar circumstances. A report on Dodds’ actions was commissioned by Sheffield City Council (SCC) in 2008 in response to police investigations. It said Dodds was able to exploit his position, first in the education department and later giving grants to college students, to ‘pursue his sexual satisfaction’, partly through ‘substantial unregulated and unsupervised access to schools’. Dodds was part of a pornography club, using the basement of the Leopold Street office and sharing material on the council’s internal mail system. He was ‘careful and thoughtful’ about his choice of victim to minmise the risk of being found out, and boasted about his sexual exploits during his ‘extensive’ travelling abroad, the report said. Richard Rowe is one of Dodds’ victims from the first case, and won £91,000 in damages from SCC in 2017, after launching the c case against the authority seven years earlier. Mr Rowe, who waived his right to anonymity, was just 16-years-old when the abuse began, shortly after he joined the authority’s education department where Dodds was in charge. On 10 occasions over the course of 18 months, Dodds sexually abused the teenager in the toilets of the council building. Despite an internal investigation in 1983, Dodds kept his job and carried on working for the council until he was granted early retirement in 1993. He was only caught after a police investigation in 2008. The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC, adjourned sentencing until April 18. June 2017: Dodds has now lost an appeal against his jail term. February 2017 Ex-Sheffield City Council boss jailed for forcing teenagers to engage in sex acts for grants A former council boss has been jailed for 16 years after being found guilty of forcing teenagers to engage in sex acts in exchange for grant payments. Roger Dodds admitted indecently assaulting four males and a young boy while working in Sheffield City Council’s education department between 1975 and 1993. The council has been criticised by victims after it emerged that the 81-year-old also abused colleagues at the authority. After the complaints Dodds was moved to a position working with schools. The authority, who after launching two separate investigations against Dodds, took no action against him, have said that they are “deeply sorry” for the suffering of Dodds’ victims. Sheffield Crown Court heard how Dodds forced students to engage in sex acts in order to get grant payments in the 1970’s. One victim was promised a meeting with Sebastian Coe, which never materialised, and was merely a ruse for them to meet Dodds. The court heard how Dodds’ victims had warned the council about the abuse, only for the pervert to be shifted from one job to another. Then in 1993, during a second investigation, Dodds was allowed to take early retirement with an enhanced pension. All five victims were at the court on Friday (3 February) to hear him sentenced. It was reported that Dodds had shown no remorse for his actions. Dodds had been interviewed by police in 2008, but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided to take no further action against him. Then, in 2014, a new allegation was made and the previous evidence reviewed before he was charged last year.