Jessica Brennan has been jailed for heinous crimes against children when they were still known as Allan Brennan.
North Yorkshire Police released a statement on Tuesday confirming that Jessica Brennan from Harrowgate, Yorkshire, who was “Allan Brennan at the time of offending” but now identifies as a woman, had preyed on school-aged girls between 1998 and 2016.
This week, York Crown Court had handed Brennan a notional 22-year sentence after being convicted of five counts of indecent assault, sexual activity with a child, another five counts of sexual activity with a child, attempted rape of a child under 13, assault of a girl under 13 by penetration, another assault by penetration, and two counts of sexual assault.
Brennan, a father of two, should serve at least half of that sentence before being released on licence. The 54-year-old predator will be placed on the sex offenders register for life.
Detective Constable Rebecca Prentice of North Yorkshire Police’s Harrogate & Craven CID branded Brennan a “vile and dangerous paedophile”.
Local newspaper the Harrogate Advertiser detailed how York Crown Court had heard that one of the children Brennan had sexually assaulted was just four years old, while another was subjected to abuse for a decade. In total, the prosecution said there had been 86 instances of abuse.
Many of the victims had complained that in the subsequent years, they had suffered from depression, anxiety, symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trust issues, and difficulties forming romantic relationships as adults.
One victim who suffered from self-esteem and self-worth issues as a result of the abuse by the paedophile told the court: “It’s made it hard for me to trust people.”
“This has affected my family. Anything that this evil man gets (in terms of punishment) won’t be enough for what he’s done to me and my family,” she added.
Prosecutor Philip Standfast had revealed that one victim had come forward in the early 2000s, but no charges had been brought at the time. Only three to four years ago, when other girls sought justice, was Brennan finally charged.
On Wednesday, meanwhile, a paedophile named in court listings “Paul Wilson, also known as Melissa Wilson” confessed to using public libraries in Liverpool to look up “Harry Potter erotica” and child pornography.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how Wilson — who has gender dysphoria and “identifies as a female even though she was born as a male”, according to the defence, as well as Asperger’s syndrome and multiple personality disorder — had bypassed library security systems to search for “Harry Potter erotica with a focus on Hermione Granger”, as well as “children porn” and “young girls modelling underwear” at Liverpool Central Library and Toxteth Library “almost every other day”.
The Liverpool Echo reported how the court had also heard how the confession had come in a letter to police via Wilson’s alter ego, Dan Thompson, because Wilson wanted to go back to jail as that was where the 34-year-old felt accepted, with defence lawyer Mike O’Brien saying: “She feels safer and happier in that environment.”
“Even the inmates accept her for who she is and who she wants to be,” O’Brien added.
The court had heard that Wilson’s first offence was in 2008 for indecent images of children, with orders twice breached before the paedophile was jailed for possessing more child pornography. Wilson breached court orders again in 2010, 2011, 2012, and was sentenced to four years in 2015 after further possessing of prohibited images and for threats to kill. Wilson had committed a grand total of 39 known offences in 13 years.
Sentencing, Judge Swinnerton said: “You have a lengthy and growing criminal record which revolves around your interest in indecent images of children and your repeated breaches of the orders which try to prevent you from accessing such images of children.”
Wilson was sentenced to just 32 months and is serving time at HMP Altcourse, a men’s prison.
Within the same 24-hour period, the Northern Echo reported that a “transgender sex offender” was back in court for failing to tell authorities that they now identify as a woman. Andrew McNab had legally changed their name to Chloe Thompson, using the latter to set up an account for TikTok, a social media app commonly used by children. Thompson had contravened an order to tell authorities of their whereabouts, activities, and aliases after a conviction in 2011 for sexually assaulting a teenage girl.
Prosecutor Uzma Khan said: “Whilst the officer is reviewing the applications on their mobile phone he comes across the TikTok application which they state they had downloaded and has been using it for two weeks. The user name is Chloe Thompson and he confirms he has never confirmed this alias to the police.”
It was the eleventh breach of the order since it was imposed a decade ago.
Thompson, 41, pleaded guilty at Teeside Crown Court on Tuesday and was sentenced to four months suspended for one year — and so will not actually go to prison — as well as 20 days of rehabilitation activities and a 12-month community service order.