Jail for child rapist dubbed ‘serious risk to children’


A child rapist has been locked up indefinitely by a judge to protect the public.

Carl Walker was branded a serious danger by Judge Jennifer Kershaw QC and told he would not even be considered for release for five years.
Walker will be on prison licence for the rest of his life and was made the subject of an indefinite sexual offences prevention order after Judge Kershaw heard he had sought voluntary work with children.

Walker, 20, of Leeds Road, Windhill, Shipley, was found guilty by a jury at Bradford Crown Court in May of raping and indecently assaulting a girl when she was as young as six.

He groomed her in her Bradford home before sexually attacking her on about 20 occasions.

Sentencing him yesterday, Judge Kershaw told Walker: “I am quite satisfied that you do indeed present a significant risk of serious harm to members of the public.”

She said that under normal guidelines he would have been locked up for ten years.

However, he was given an indeterminate sentence for public protection because the judge said all rape is serious harm.

Walker was due to be sentenced at Bradford Crown Court on June 21, but his case was adjourned for a report from a forensic psychiatrist.

Leeds Crown Court was told yesterday that the medical expert agreed with the probation service that Walker posed “a serious and continuing risk to young children”.

Because he will not admit to the offences it is considered that he might commit more.

Prosecutor Jonathan Devlin said Walker abused the trust of his victim who was only aged six or seven at the time.

Walker’s barrister, Sukhbia Basra, said there was no evidence of any serious physical or psychiatric harm to the girl.

She was violated, and her rights were violated, and that was something clearly abhorrent for a child of her age.

Mr Basra said Walker himself was only 16 or 17 at the time with no relevant previous convictions.

But the judge said because Walker denied committing any of the offences it was not possible for the authorities to address his problems or prevent their recurrence.

The judge spared Walker life imprisonment because she said the offences were not at the worst level of this type.

Bradford councillors voiced their concerns after Judge Kershaw granted Walker bail pending sentence last month.

At that time Walker faced an indefinite sentence to protect the public and the probation service viewed him as presenting a high risk of harm to the public and a serious risk to children.

The court learned that Walker had been previously sectioned and treated at Lynfield Mount Hospital, Daisy Hill, Bradford, for depression.
Sentence was adjourned so that doctors there could compile a new report on him.