STEPHEN CASH OF ULCOMME JAILED IN MAIDSTONE FOR CHILD ABDUCTION

In June 2014, Stephen Cash, a convicted pervert from Ulcombe near Maidstone who has previous convictions for voyeurism and uses multiple aliases including Michael Collins, was sentenced to two years in prison after admitting to child abduction. Cash had driven a teenage girl away in his van for a journey that lasted approximately five minutes.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that the girl entered Cash's vehicle willingly, and both the prosecution and defense agreed there was no sexual intent involved in the incident. Prosecutor Sarah Lindop explained, "Cash, who is 26 years old, had only been charged with kidnap because nothing else fits with what he did."

At the start of the hearing, she told Judge Martin Joy, "This isn’t a case of someone snatching a child off the street or taking them abroad. We all recognize that child abduction can involve many kinds of offences, and it’s important to note that the girl entered the vehicle voluntarily; no one stopped her." She added that if the case had gone to trial, the key question would have been whether the defendant knew she was under 16.

Judge Joy emphasized that the law exists to safeguard children and stated that a non-custodial sentence was not appropriate. "This was a relatively short incident, but I must consider the overall seriousness of the offence," he said.

Cash, of Pye Corner, initially denied two charges of child abduction from July and August of the previous year. He ultimately pleaded guilty to one charge, with the other left on file. He also has a history of voyeurism, having been convicted in September 2010 for peering over a toilet cubicle, and is currently on the sex offenders’ register.

Defending lawyer Philip Sinclair, who also referenced Cash’s use of the alias Michael Collins, stated, "He only took the girl on a short journey. That is all he did, and he did not realize he was committing an offence."

Sinclair also compared the case to that of Jeremy Forrest, a teacher from East Sussex who fled to France with a pupil, resulting in his imprisonment for five-and-a-half years—though only one year was specifically for child abduction.

Cash will serve half of his two-year sentence, minus five-and-a-half months already spent on remand.