Ryan Edgar, 30, and Ashley Phillips-Dawson, 20, have been locked up at a sentencing hearing before Grimsby Crown Court. They will also have to register as sex offenders
Two funfair workers have been put behind bars after they targeted and sexually abused two vulnerable and “impressionable” teenage girls.
Ryan Edgar, 30, and Ashley Phillips-Dawson, 20, were both dealing drugs and working at Hull Fair at the time of the offences. Waltzer operator Edgar, from Hull, who was described in court as a “dangerous” predator, raped one of the girls and incited her to engage in other sexual activity.
His young accomplice Phillips-Dawson, who also worked at the fair, joined in the depraved sexual abuse at a flat in Hull. The ordeal of the two girls came to an end only when police investigating their disappearance went to the flat, a court heard.
Edgar denied raping one of the girls as well as assaulting her by penetration, inciting her to engage in sexual activity and assaulting her, causing actual bodily harm, Hull Live reported. He was convicted by a jury at Hull Crown Court after a trial but was cleared of assaulting the second girl, causing actual bodily harm. Ashley Phillips-Dawson denied three offences of raping the second girl but he was convicted of the alternative offences of sexual activity with a child as well as assaulting her, causing actual bodily harm.
The pair were locked up at a sentencing hearing before Grimsby Crown Court. Edgar was jailed for 14 years, and will be on extended licence of six years after his release from prison. Phillips-Dawson was sent to a young offenders’ institution for five years. They were each given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and they will have to register as sex offenders.
Judge Richard Woolfall said that the defendants were told the ages of the girls as the victims were seeking work at the fair, and they knew that they were underage. The court heard Edgar groomed one of the girls, asked her for nude images nightly and flattered her. Edgar asked the girls to deal drugs and they were put under pressure by him to do so, the court was told. Both men were in contact with the girls ahead of the fair and during the course of the event, culminating in the girls going to the flat.
Judge Woolfall said that Edgar had an interest in sexual activity with underage girls, including sexual activity that involved force, with searchers on his phone including “rape”. Phillips-Dawson was initially not present when the girls first went to the flat, the court was told. Judge Woolfall said the impact of the offences on the victims had been significant and both had suffered psychological harm.
Jeremy Evans, prosecuting, said that, at 4am on November 4 last year, police went to a flat in Hull while investigating after a report that two girls, aged 15 and 14, were missing. The girls were found sitting on the bed. In the safety of the police vehicle, one of the girls disclosed that Edgar had committed sexual offences against her in the same bedroom where she had been found. The other girl told the police that nothing had happened to her but she later told her mother what took place. She had been sexually abused by Edgar’s friend, Phillips-Dawson.
The first girl said that Edgar took her into the bedroom, put his hand around her throat, removed her clothes, pinned her down by her throat and wrists, and raped her. “She had said ‘no’ and was unable to push him off due to his superior strength,” said Mr Evans. The other girl and Phillips-Dawson went into the living room where he undressed her and had sexual activity with her.
Edgar denied the allegations and claimed that all the sexual activity had been consensual. He claimed that he believed that he was helping the girls out and that he believed that the girl was aged 16 or 17. Phillips-Dawson admitted that he knew both girls after meeting them at Hull Fair the previous month but he denied being in the flat at the time of the offences. He claimed that he was at home with others at the time.
Mr Evans said that both men were dealing drugs and they had asked the girls to do so for them. They refused but it was clear that the teenagers were in fear of the men’s activities. Before the sexual offending started, Edgar assaulted one of the girls by hitting her so hard on the bottom that it left marks and redness. He later claimed that he did so because she liked it.
Phillips-Dawson also hit the other girl a number of times on her bottom, although he denied this during the trial. By its verdicts, the jury decided that this took place in the kitchen. Both men had created a sexually charged atmosphere there, said Mr Evans. Both girls were in fear by this time and they were isolated in the flat because they had turned off the location services on their mobile phones, Mr Evans added. Earlier, before Phillips-Dawson arrived, both girls had been made to take a line of cocaine. Edgar told them that they had to do so or he would not let them stay at the flat.
Michele Stuart-Lofthouse, mitigating, said that Edgar had no previous convictions for sexual offending. He added that Edgar had been in custody for about 14 months on remand and this has made him address his difficulties with drugs. He said Edgar was working within the prison to improve himself the best that he could, adding that he had a complicated background, but he had a positive relationship with the mother of his child. His remand into custody had a devastating impact on these relationships, Mr Stuart-Lofthouse said.
Julia Baggs, representing Phillips-Dawson, said that he had no previous convictions. She said he was not present at the time that drugs were taken and there was no suggestion that he encouraged drug-taking. He was aged only 18 at the time of the offences, Ms Baggs added. She told the court that Phillips-Dawson had been working in joinery and carpentry and he had been on bail during the trial until he was remanded in custody after the guilty verdicts.
Ms Baggs told the court that Phillips-Dawson had now been in custody for more than four months, which had been difficult for him. He had worked as a wing cleaner while in custody, she said, adding he would continue to try to better himself for the future through education to develop his skills.
