Paedophile at Centre of Shoebury Review Has Been Convicted 10 times in the Last Three Years
Weds 25th May 2016, Yellow Advertiser

A PAEDOPHILE at the centre of an Essex Police review has been convicted 10 times in the last three years, the Yellow Advertiser can reveal.

Court documents obtained by the YA show Dennis King, now 81, last appeared before the courts just eight months ago.

The prolific child sex offender was one of two men convicted in 1990 following a police investigation into the abuse of boys in Shoeburyness.

King, then aged 55 and living in Cunningham Close, Shoebury, received a four-year jail term after pleading guilty to four counts of gross indecency and three counts of attempted buggery.

The second man, Brian Tanner – then 57 and living in Beedell Avenue, Westcliff – got three years for three counts of gross indecency and three counts of attempted buggery. He has since died.

Police are reviewing the 1990 case after four whistleblowers reported 'failures' which they claim led some victims to self-harm, commit suicide and, in one case, go on to abuse children.

Court papers have shown that in March 2013 King was convicted at Peterborough Crown Court of two counts of possessing an indecent image of a child, two counts of possessing a prohibited image of a child, two counts of making an indecent image of a child, one count of taking an indecent image of a child and one count of possessing bestial pornography. He was jailed for a year.

In November 2014 he was back before the same court, where he pleaded guilty to causing or inciting a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity. He was jailed for 13 months and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

Then, in September 2015, he was sentenced at the same court for breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

The documents do not reveal the nature of the breach but show he was ordered to comply with an 18-month community order.

Papers show King's offending in Peterborough had begun years earlier.

In May 1996 he pleaded guilty to two indecent assaults on a male and one count of taking an indecent photo of a child.

He was handed a three-year probation order, but that was revoked 13 months later and he was jailed for five years. The sentence was reduced on appeal to four years in May 1998.

In April 2000 he stood trial and was convicted of two indecent assaults on a male and one count of intending to pervert the course of justice. He was jailed for seven months.

Last month the YA revealed King had a string of child sex offences to his name before 1990.

In 1966 he was jailed for abusing two boys he met in a public toilet on a Southend seafront.

Documents detailing his appeal, which he lost, stated that by that time he had already served six months for attempting to procure gross indecency with a 15-year-old. When that sentenced was handed down, two more offences were taken into consideration, one concerning a nine-year-old.

He had also been fined for importuning immoral purposes and, in September 1964, had been sentenced to one year's prison for attempting to procure indecency.

Essex Police has urged any victims of King, Tanner or any other paedophile in Shoebury in the late 1980s to contact Detective Tracey Harman by dialling 101 and cooperate with the review.

Otherwise, call one of these specialist helplines:

National Association for People Abused in Childhood – 0808 801 0331

SERICC (south and west Essex) – 01375 380609

CARA (mid and north Essex) – 01206 769795

SoSRC (Southend) – 01702 667590

National Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse – 0808 800 5000

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