Sick footage from the 1990s shows a topless and sunburnt David Marsh joking to the camera with a young boy sat on his lap – and another clip taken decades later shows the moment he is arrested
Child abuser caught cosying up to kids on holiday in Thailand
A disturbing video helped put a sick child abuser behind bars after it showed him cosying up to kids on holiday in Thailand.
Footage from the 1990s shows a topless and sunburnt David Marsh with a little boy sat on his lap, as the pervert comments: “We’re all enjoying ourselves.” The 74-year-old has now been jailed for 27 years for his campaign of abuse against boys during the 1980s and 1990s.
Another clip decades later shows the moment he feigns surprise after being arrested, exclaiming: “I’m under arrest? Rape?”
Marsh was imprisoned alongside Anthony Whitehead, 72, who received seven years after the pair abused at least six boys between them in Rochdale, Bolton and Manchester.
Some of the extremely vulnerable victims were abused by both men, even though they were not known to each other. They were sentenced on the same day at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court after an investigation by Greater Manchester Police’s (GMP) specialist Child sexual exploitation (CSE) investigators.
Police launched their inquiries back in 2019 after one of the survivors told a person of authority that he had been sexually abused by Marsh as a boy. Detectives from GMP Rochdale’s Complex Safeguarding Team and the Child Sexual Exploitation Major Investigation Team worked to identify other survivors.
Officers found Marsh and Whitehead preyed upon those aged between nine and 13 and exploited their vulnerabilities, taking them to other parts of Manchester and grooming them with cigarettes, alcohol and money. They abused six boys between them while living seemingly ordinary lives.
One of the victims has spoken of feeling “knee deep in shame”, with most, if not all, having a mistrust of authority, including police. Detectives uncovered evidence of Marsh’s sinister attraction to children, with video footage he had taken in Thailand of him interacting with a group of young boys being used as part of the prosecution case in court.
Police believe there could be many more victims and have urged them to consider coming forward. Marsh, from Northenden, and Whitehead, of Atherton, were previously found unanimously guilty of 35 separate sex offences and were sentenced on November 27.
Both must serve at least two thirds of their sentence. GMP Detective Constable Andrea Richards, who has worked on the case from the start, said: “I want to commend the male survivors who have played a crucial role in bringing these abhorrent abusers to long-awaited justice. It was incredibly brave of them to speak about their abuse in what was a difficult and painful process for them to have to go through.
“These depraved men are exactly where they should be, in jail, away from causing our communities and those within it any further harm. There may be others affected by Marsh and Whitehead’s separate campaigns of offending, and we would like to let all survivors of sexual abuse know that we are here to listen to them when they are ready, at a pace they feel comfortable with.
“There are also several agencies, that are not the police, who we work closely with to support survivors for those who would feel more comfortable taking this approach. We continue to be on an upward improvement journey in how we tackle CSE – whether it be the abuse of children yesterday or today. We hope that this conviction, and our continuously improving outcomes for victims, give survivors that we will ensure time is no barrier to justice.”
