Former BBC Radio Bristol presenter Peter Rowell is once again behind bars after breaching his sex offender order, having visited a teen under the age of 18
A paedophile former BBC presenter who unleashed a string of sick sex attacks on kids has been jailed once more for meeting up with a teen.
Rowell, 67, was jailed for six years in 2012 for 12 charges of indecent assault on girls under the age of 16. He also pleaded guilty to six counts of making an indecent photograph of a child after he was found to have downloaded more than 400 images.
Rowell, who presented the Afternoon Show on BBC Radio Bristol, was put on the Sex Offenders’ Register. Now, he has been locked up for 29 weeks after admitting two counts of breaching sex offender notification requirements.
The court heard he breached the order by being at a property for over 12 hours with a child under 18 with or without an adult. Mr Rowell travelled 30 miles to Pontypridd in South Wales to stay at an address without informing the police of his whereabouts.
He also failed to tell the police of an address where he had stayed for seven days or longer between November last year and March.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching sex offender notification requirements and was jailed for 29 weeks. The breaches occurred over a decade after he was jailed for making indecent photographs of children and the possession of over 400 images.
Rowell, of Wickwar, South Gloucestershire, had also pleaded guilty to 12 counts of indecent assault after complaints from five women. The sex assaults took place between 1989 and the early 1990s when the women were under 16.
He also admitted six counts of making an indecent photograph of a child. He triggered a police hunt when he was reported missing in March 2011 after failing to turn up to present his regular afternoon programme.
His car was discovered left in a supermarket car park before it was later found in Keswick, Cumbria, and he was arrested in April 2011. Rowell was also a news bulletin reader on ITV West for more than 10 years and worked as a DJ for commercial radio station GWR in the 1980s.
Judge David Ticehurst sentenced Rothwell in 2012 at Bristol Crown Court. He said: “You had a life and lifestyle that would have been the envy of many – an apparently successful career in a glamorous and glittering world,” he said.
“Behind that public image you were a man that hid a dark secret. You were attracted to young girls, sexually abusing and exploiting for your own gratification. You were someone prepared to use the world of showbiz to attract young girls to you to abuse them.
“It is not a case of you involving yourself with a star-struck teenager on an isolated occasion and succumbing to temptation but a series of offences involving five separate girls over a period of five years.”
The judge added: “These girls made contact with you as a minor celebrity. You invited them to visit your studio and they believed they were getting an insight into the media world. In truth, it was enabling you to sexually abuse them.”
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