Leeds sick pervert Matthew Bradshaw raped a young child and collected horrific footage

A Leeds pedophile who raped a young child is finally behind bars after police discovered he had more victims.

Matthew Bradshaw, 30, was made the subject of a community order in 2021 after being convicted of sexually assaulting a two-year-old girl. Leeds Crown Court heard on Thursday that part of his sentence included a sexual harm prevention order which allowed officers to confiscate and examine the devices in his possession. He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register.

Prosecutor Jo Shepherd said shortly after officers visited his home and seized a computer tower, a server and a Samsung mobile phone, and an initial inspection revealed Bradshaw had kept indecent images of children on the devices.

Read more: The brother of triple murder suspect Kyle Clifford is serving time for killing a teenager

Ms Shepherd said further forensic examination revealed that not only had Bradshaw, of Heights Road in Armley, carried out several sick sex acts against the young child he was convicted of the offence, but there were two other victims.

The court heard that as well as keeping the horrific images showing the abuse of the three children, Bradshaw also collected 31 extreme pornographic images which were “taken from his devices involving sex with an animal”.

The parents of two of his victims were told by police that their children were featured in the images and were forced to identify them. One of them told the court in a statement: “There was nothing wrong with him (Bradshaw) or so I thought. We found out he was a registered sex offender two years ago when we were visited by a police person who I believe he looked after. it…

“We didn’t know he was on the registry. We were so upset that we knew he kept coming to our house, knowing he wasn’t allowed and shouldn’t be around the kids. I can’t put it into words. I can’t describe how he made us feel… We were then approached by the police and informed that he was found with photos of our children. I feel bad even though he took pictures of our children without clothes. I can’t describe the betrayal I felt -a”.

The woman said she “couldn’t eat for three days” after confirming the children in the images were hers. She said: “I understand the police will talk to them but they didn’t really know what it was about. The thought of what could have been leaves me breathless… The thought that he is capable of terrible things. kids and those could so easily have been my kids because he wasn’t honest about his belief it’s awful…

Get all the latest and breaking crime news in Leeds sign up to our Crime and Punishment newsletter here.

“There must be something wrong with him to want to do this. The whole thing makes me feel gross and sick and I think I just want to kill him.”

The court heard the footage led officers to discover Bradshaw had raped his first victim, who was just two years old when the abuse began. Judge Rayfield told the court the girl “became upset and cried” after being attacked by Bradshaw.

The judge also heard from Bradshaw’s mother, who said in a statement that when he was younger, Bradshaw showed signs of “learning difficulties” and attended a special educational needs school and still could not read when He left. She said: “He always found it difficult to make many friends. He went to a session at the Job Center and was diagnosed as having dyslexic tendencies and they said he had a low IQ and mental age.

“When he was a kid he always denied doing things, even when he was caught doing it, but he’s recently started opening up to me.”

Craig Macgregor, mitigating, told the court that Bradshaw’s first victim “says she has forgiven him”.

The court heard a pre-sentence report was carried out and its author described Bradshaw as having a high likelihood of being re-sentenced for sexual contact offences.

Judge Rayfield jailed Bradshaw for 20 years and made him subject to an extended license period of five years for three counts of rape of a girl under 13, 11 counts of making an indecent photograph or false photograph of a child , distributing an indecent photograph or pseudo photograph of a child, two counts of possessing a prohibited image of a child, possessing an extreme pornographic image and assaulting a girl under 13 by touching.

The judge told him he had ‘denied knowledge’ of the indecent images following his arrest in 2022. She added: ‘I read the pre-sentence report and you admit you are sexually attracted to children. Your victim got upset. and cried (after the crimes) so it is more concerning that you continued to do what you did.

“When asked about what would have prevented future offending, your response circled around a prison sentence and they (the author of the report) feel this was more of a concern than the harm caused to your victims. The author rates you as having a clear model. to offend children…

“I find you meet the criteria for dangerousness.”

LeedsLive have launched a WhatsApp community and anyone who joins will get the latest breaking news and top stories sent straight to their phone. To join click Here.

If you don’t like our community, you can always leave. We also treat members to special offers, promotions and advertisements from us and our partners. Read our privacy notice here.