Teenager forced himself on child

BBC UK, October 10, 2008

A teenager who forced himself on a boy playing truant from school has been on the sex offenders register since the age of 13, a court has heard.

Jonathan Bermingham, 19, also known as Jonathan Ross, lured his 14-year-old victim into woods in Falkirk.

Once there, he sodomised the boy. The attack was similar to another he carried out on a nine-year-old boy in Falkirk in 2002.

He admitted the attack at Edinburgh High Court. Sentence was deferred.

The court was told that Ross approached his latest victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at Glenfuir Road on 12 June this year.

Advocate depute Iain McSporran said: "The accused gave the impression of also being a schoolboy playing truant, saying he didn't want to hide there because police would find him and that he would show him a better place to hide."

The pair walked away together, jumped a wall, crossed the canal and climbed a bank to bushes.

Ross then grabbed the boy, told him to sit down and demanded "let me kiss you".

When the child began to shout for help, Ross told him "shout and you're dead".

He then had sex with the boy before leaving the scene.

The court was told that the child was distressed and hysterical when he got home.

"He sat on the couch rocking back and forth, holding his head in his hands and crying," said Mr McSporran.

At first he said someone had grabbed him by the throat and tried to kill him.

"Then he finally disclosed to his sister that he had been raped."

DNA samples

Police were called and the boy picked out Ross from photos he was shown.

By the time the police picked up Ross he had had a bath and his clothes had been boil-washed but DNA samples linked him to the sex attack.

The 14-year-old victim now suffers from post traumatic stress disorder.

Ross faced Judge Lord Uist, the same judge who sentenced him to five years detention for the 2003 attack.

Ordering a psychological report on the dangers Ross posed to the public, Lord Uist said: "I remember the previous case and although I cannot remember the exact details it was similar to the present case."

At the age of 13, Ross joined his father John Bermingham, 35, and his brother William Bermingham, 16, on the sex offenders' register.

John Bermingham featured on the BBC's Crimewatch programme after carrying out two sex attacks with hours of each other on 4 November 2000.