STEPHEN WILLIAMS, A DANGEROUS PREDATOR FROM BILSTON, HAS HIS JAIL SENTENCE REDUCED IN THE WEST MIDLANDS

In March 2009, a convicted sex offender known as Stephen Williams saw his nine-year prison sentence for abducting two young girls in the Midlands reduced on appeal. The 56-year-old, who has a long history of sex offense convictions dating back to the 1960s, had been released from prison just weeks before he targeted the two girls, aged eight and nine.

Williams, described by authorities as a “dangerous predatory sex offender,” approached the children in Coventry after traveling from the hostel where he was residing on Wellington Road, Bilston. He attempted to buy sweets for them after stopping the girls in the street. When police intervened, Williams was arrested. In December of the previous year, he was sentenced to nine years by Judge Peter Salomonsen, who commended officers for their vigilant monitoring following Williams’s release. The judge explicitly stated that Williams was “a dangerous predatory sex offender.”

While incarcerated, Williams kept a secret diary, in which he detailed young visitors to the jail, noting their physical characteristics such as hair color, weight, and build after observing them arrive.

However, at London's Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Irwin and Mr Justice Wyn Williams decided that the original nine-year sentence was excessive and reduced it to six years and eight months. Williams’s legal representatives argued that Judge Salomonsen had set the starting point for the sentence too high.

Mr Justice Irwin explained, “In our view, the facts do justify, not a starting point of the maximum sentence, but a very high starting point. Relentless re-offending must be regarded as a very serious aspect to be taken into account by the courts. Here, the previous convictions aggravated the current offences to a very high degree, indeed. Further, a well-established and unarguable risk of serious future offending with the potential for harm to the public has always been a consideration in sentencing. These factors, however, even together, do not properly carry the court to a starting point of the full maximum possible sentence.”

Although Williams did not physically snatch the girls, he engaged them in conversation before inviting them to follow him to a nearby sweet shop, where he paid for treats and drinks. The girls eventually left, although they believed police officers in a nearby car were watching. Williams, who has previous convictions for attempted rape and indecent assault, was arrested in the vicinity.

*West Midlands Police declined to release Williams’s photograph to the press at the time of his December conviction. The force typically releases images if they deem the crime serious enough and consider it in the public’s interest. Each case involves a risk assessment prior to any decision about public disclosure.*

The police press office at Birmingham’s Lloyd House refused to publish Williams’s image, citing concerns that releasing his photograph might make it harder to track his movements if he went underground after release. The force also dismissed the suggestion that it was in the public interest to identify Williams, emphasizing their caution regarding his potential future risk.