Russell Duncan Frederick Weatherley, a paedophile who owned 15,000 obscene photographs of children, has been convicted of engaging in sexual behaviour with a minor.
Durham Crown Court was informed that Russell Duncan Frederick Weatherley abused a teenage girl in 2008.
The 62-year-old of Bearpark was arrested for sexual offences in 2022 after officers discovered thousands of indecent images on his phone.
Amongst the files were images of the victim, who officers managed to trace. It was then that she confirmed Russell Duncan Frederick Weatherley had abused her.
Despite Weatherley denying the offences, officers worked around the clock to gather evidence to bring him to justice.
And after a five-day trial, Russell Duncan Frederick Weatherley was found guilty of six charges of sexual activity with a child and five charges of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
Russell Duncan Frederick Weatherley also changed his plea to guilty for 18 charges of making indecent images of children and one charge of possessing an extreme pornographic image involving an animal.
Detective Constable Liam Padget, of the Durham Constabulary Online Child Abuse Investigation Team, said: “Russell Duncan Frederick Weatherley took advantage of vulnerable girl and portrayed himself as a knight in shining armour, while all the time he was in fact sexually abusing her.”
“Russell Duncan Frederick Weatherley represents a real danger to children. He thought he had gotten away with his crimes, but his shameful past finally caught up with him.”
DC Padget added: “Not only has Russell Duncan Frederick Weatherley possessed massive amounts of the most depraved child abuse material, we now know he grotesquely abused the victim, and recorded the abuse.
“This has weighed heavily on the victim for many years who has been so courageous in helping with the investigation and we hope can now see justice at last.
“If you have been a victim of sexual assault we would urge you to come forward no matter how much time has passed.”
Russell Duncan Frederick Weatherley was remanded in custody and will be sentenced at Durham Crown Court on November 18.
UPDATE 11.12.24
Russell Duncan Frederick went to trial and was found guilty of all the offences as well as changing his plea to guilty for a further 18 counts of making indecent images of children and possessing extreme pornography with an animal.
Russell Duncan Frederick was sentenced to ten years and six months in prison at Teesside Crown Court on Friday (December 6).
Following the sentencing, DC Liam Padget, who led the investigation, said: “Russell Duncan Frederick is a monster in every sense of the word and that is how the victim described him so we hope this sentence allows her to finally start to heal from this ordeal.
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