The Colchester cases to be heard at crown court this week

Crown courts sitting at Chelmsford and Ipswich deal with criminal offences committed across north Essex.

Samuel Creed

A SEX offender who was caught touching a woman’s feet on a train told his victim: “I bet you wish you had a boyfriend like me”.

Samuel Creed, 21, was jailed for more than two years after sexually assaulting two women.

The predator was hit with a criminal behaviour order after he was convicted of a sexual assault carried out at Stowmarket railway station in February 2020.

The order banned him from travelling on the railway network or speaking to any passengers.

Samuel Creed

But he breached the order under a year later when he approached another woman on a train between Manningtree and Colchester.
In May last year, Creed approached the victim and started speaking to her about her shoes.

The woman ignored him, but he touched her shoes and squeezed her ankle, telling her: “I bet you wish you had a boyfriend like me to do this to you at night.”

Read more: Sex offender caught squeezing woman's ankle on train is locked up

After the victim reported the assault to British Transport Police, scoured CCTV footage and identified Creed.

He was arrested, charged with sexual assault and sentenced to 26 months imprisonment at Ipswich Crown Court.

Danny Whitelock

A knife-wielding thug told his girlfriend “someone’s getting killed” before injuring a man with a knife.

Danny Whitelock hunted the victim before finding and confronting him in Rosebery Avenue, Colchester.

Ipswich Crown Court heard how the 30-year-old texted his girlfriend to say “bye bye” to his victim before hunting him down in the early hours of October 15, 2020.

On the night of the incident, Whitelock, of North Road, Clacton, located his victim near East Hill, Colchester, and pulled up beside him in a vehicle.

After an exchange of words, he produced a knife and pointed it out the car window, waving it in the victim’s face before getting out of the vehicle and confronting him.

The court heard how the victim turned to run and felt “a prick in his back” before turning round and being struck by the knife on his right hand.

Read more: Knifeman sends chilling 'someone's getting killed' text before blade attack

Whitelock then fled the scene, but was stopped at a roundabout nearby more than one hour later, where a knife with the victim’s blood on it was seized by police officers.

Whitelock admitted charges of possessing a knife in a public place, threatening a person with a blade and wounding and was handed two years’ imprisonment, suspended for two years.

Whitelock was ordered to pay court costs of £666 and £1,000 compensation to the victim, and must also undertake 20 days of a rehabilitation requirement.

Mark Beauchamp

A cocaine addict who twice set fire to his home and barricaded himself in his bedroom during a psychotic episode has been spared jail.

Mark Beauchamp set fire to the property owned by his parents, in Salary Close, Colchester, after claiming his friends had advised him to fake his own death.

Ipswich Crown Court heard the 31-year-old used lighter fluid to set fire to his bed on April 28, 2020 before leaving the scene and confessing to a family friend what he had done.

Despite promising he wouldn’t do it again, Beauchamp proceeded to light a fire at the bottom of the property’s stairs and in the bedroom the following day.

Read more: Addict who set fire to his Colchester home is spared jail

Beauchamp admitted two charges of arson with recklessness as to whether life was endangered and was handed a 22 week prison sentence which was suspended for two years.

Beauchamp must now undertake 12 mental health treatment sessions, 80 hours of unpaid work and 40 days of rehabilitation.

He must also pay £500 in costs.

Clive Mars

A pervert who scoured the dark web for sick child abuse images “catalogued and stored” a collection of more than 20,000 pictures.

Clive Mars, 67, also used a hidden camera to capture images of a child.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard the Gulf war veteran took his own images of two victims on the hidden camera before storing them for later viewing.

When police raided his home, they seized a number of storage devices including 24 USB drives and a 125gb hard drive.

Officers found more than 20,000 indecent images of children, including more than 16,000 at Category C, 3,000 at Category B and 2,200 at the most serious Category A.
More than 2,000 movies at Category A were also uncovered.

Mars, of Waterside Marina, Brightlingsea, admitted three counts of possessing indecent images of children, one count of taking an indecent image of a child, five counts of voyeurism, one count of possessing a prohibited image of a child and one count of possessing extreme pornographic images.

Clive Mars

Matthew McNiff, mitigating, said a report had found Mars was at a low risk of re-offending and could be properly rehabilitated.

He said Mars, who served in the armed forces from the age of 23, had an “exemplary record”.

But Judge Christopher Morgan said he was of the “firm opinion” an immediate prison sentence must follow.

Jailing Mars, of Waterside Marina, Brightlingsea, for 27 months, he said: “You deliberately searched, you used the dark web.

“The result of your searching was the collection of these images."

He added: “There are a significant number of images from the schedule which demonstrate you were viewing on a regular basis, and searching for on a regular basis, abuse of children as young as one years of age.

“It is quite plain the young ages of these children is an aggravating feature within the Category A images.

“Those children are, because of their age and their circumstances, plainly vulnerable.”

He added: “These images were not viewed and then deleted.

"It is quite plain on your own admission you catalogued them, you had a number of devices including USB sticks, your collection included moving images.”