Mum of boy who was raped jailed for neglect

The Star reported earlier this year when Neil William Gamble and partner David George Bradbury, both of Pigot Street, Newtown, St Helens were sentenced to 16 years each in jail at Liverpool Crown Court in March for their campaign of abuse.

Both men had pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to four charges of rape and multiple charges of sexual assault and of taking indecent images.

The boy's mum, who cannot be named for legal reasons to protect the identity of her son, was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court this week.

Bradbury and Gamble's abuse of the boy finally came to light after police executed a search warrant at the defendants' address on September 25 last year after an indecent image, which was not of the boy, had been posted on social media.

Officers found an electronic device which had footage of the abuse on it.

Gamble, now 66, committed most of the physical abuse on the boy while his partner Bradbury videoed the "appalling" assaults.

Neil Gamble

The hearing heard that Gamble and Bradbury, now 56, had contact via WhatsApp with the boy's mum's phone number.

Messages to her included requests to see the boy and one said: "I will give you £30."

In a previous court hearing, John Williams, prosecuting, said the abuse was a case of "classic grooming" and took place for almost two years from October 2018 starting when the boy was aged six.

Mr Williams said: "Examination of a device belonging to Bradbury showed pictures of appalling sexual abuse.

"He (the boy) was allowed to visit the defendants' home. It is clear from the examination of Bradbury's iPad that they had filmed the abuse, acted as a team on an equal footing with Gamble committing the sexual acts and Bradbury filming and encouraging Gamble.

"He was six when the abuse started, the abuse carried on for some two years."

He described the abuse was a "classic grooming situation", and said: "What is clear is that both defendants were using things like toys and sweets and playing children's programmes to the boy in order to make him feel comfortable."

David Bradbury

He added was "a clear indication that the two men are grooming and gave the young boy's mother money to have access to her son," added Mr Williams.

Before sentencing Gamble and Bradbury Judge Rachel Smith said both men "exploited" the "vulnerabilities" of the boy's mother and said to them that "you exploited them to exploit her son".

She added: "I don't regard either of you as playing a lesser role than the other. You were an equal partnership. Working together and recorded them for your own sexual gratification.

"The offending continued for years and I am sure it would have continued".

She described their offending as a "campaign of rape".

The boy's mum was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court

A Merseyside Police spokesman confirmed the boy's mum has been subsequently charged under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933.

She has been convicted and sentenced to four years in prison.

He said: "She received four years imprisonment, and she was charged with neglect under section 1(1) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933."