Patrick Rock, David Cameron’s former aide who was spared jail over indecent pictures of children was given softer sentence because of judge’s blunder
The 65-year-old also served under Margaret Thatcher and worked on child abuse policy when he was arrested
23rd January 2017,
A FORMER aide to David Cameron convicted of having indecent pictures of children was given a slashed sentence because of a judge’s mistake.
Patrick Rock was given just a two-year conditional discharge after downloading images of half-naked girls in sexual poses – some as young as ten – to his iPad.
Under David Cameron, Rock was deputy head of Home Affairs policy unit with responsibility for co-ordinating the government’s response to child abuse images online.
The Oxford graduate also served under Margaret Thatcher as political correspondence secretary.
The minimum period should have been five years, but the mistake Judge Alistair McCreath made in June was not spotted until it was too late.
Judge McCreath only became aware of the “error” in October when he received a letter from the Met Police’s solicitor – but it was after the eight-week deadline to make any changes.
Today, Judge McCreath told Southwark Crown Court: “The position, crystal clear as it was, is now doubly crystal clear. There is nothing that I can do.
“It has always been the duty of the prosecution to inform the court of its powers to sentence and in the event of the court making an error in its powers of sentencing it is the for the prosecution to inform the court so it can remedy it.
“When an error is made it has to be brought to the attention of the court within eight weeks, this order was made on June 2, the first I heard of it was when a letter was sent from the Met Commissioner solicitors dated October 10.
“I recognise that was unlawful but this error was not brought to my attention in time within the generous eight weeks allowed.
“I have no power to do anything about this because the time has now passed in which I could exercise these powers.
“In these circumstances this application to vary the order has to be refused.”
He said the police lawyer “has fairly acknowledged error on the part of the prosecution at the time of sentence”.
On the possibility of amending the order, he added: “I have no power to do so and I am bound to refuse (this application).”
Rock, 65, of Fulham, south-west London, faced 20 charges of making indecent images of a child in August 2013 and was convicted of five counts.
He was cleared of three and the jury was unable to reach verdicts on the other 12, which were left to lie on file.
Rock was told he must register as a sex offender for the duration of the two years and was also banned from using a device with the internet unless it can retain his browsing history – and must allow police to inspect his history.
Sentencing him, Judge McCreath had told him: “The punishment for you is the loss of your reputation and your very public humiliation.”
Judge McCreath gave Rock a two-year conditional discharge on each count to run concurrently and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Yet a letter from the Met Commissioner’s office dated October 10 last year indicated the discharge should have been for five years, as that is the statutory minimum.
The Crown Prosecution Service indicted it may apply to the Court of Appeal to have the order amended.
Judge McCreath:
Involved with fr Anthony McSweeney case
1/6/2016
Update
CourtNewsUK @CourtNewsUK
Patrick Rock, former aide to David Cameron, has been convicted of five counts of making indecent images of children.
Patrick Rock and David Cameron have known each other for many years.
Jeremy Heywood’s involvement in the Patrick Rock case
Ashworth asked Downing Street’s top civil servant to investigate the circumstances surrounding the arrest of David Cameron’s senior aide Patrick Rock over a suspected offence relating to child abuse images, amid accusations that No 10 has been trying to cover up the allegations.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jonathan Ashworth set out his concerns in a letter to Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, after Cameron’s spokesman refused to answer a series of questions about events leading up to Rock’s arrest and the handling of a separate claim against him
Jeremy Heywood “Sir Cover-Up” – PPS to Norman Lamont
Jeremy Heywood (Sir Cover-Up) joined HM Treasury in 1992 and became the Principal Private Secretary to Chancellor Norman Lamont at the age of 30, having to help mitigate the fallout from Black Wednesday after less than a month in the job.
Heywood remained in this role throughout the 1990s under Chancellors Kenneth Clarke and Gordon Brown before being promoted to be the Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1999.
He stayed in this position until 2003, when he left the civil service in the wake of the Hutton Inquiry where it emerged that Heywood claimed to have never minuted meetings in the Prime Ministerial offices about Dr David Kelly, a job he was required to do.
The Hutton Inquiry was a 2003 judicial inquiry in the UK chaired by Lord Hutton, who was appointed by the Labour government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly, a biological warfare expert and former UN weapons inspector in Iraq.
Sir Jeremy has also been criticised in his current role as Cabinet Secretary, in which capacity he has been involved in protracted arguments about the publication of confidential documents relating to the Chilcot inquiry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutton_Inquiry
Cameron aide who allegedly made indecent images of children
On the authority of the CPS, the National Crime Agency has today charged Patrick Rock, 63, a former Whitehall adviser, with making indecent images of children and possession of 59 indecent images of children.
David Cameron is under pressure to explain whether his senior aide Patrick Rock was tipped off by Downing Street that he was accused of an offence related to child abuse images hours before his arrest by police.
…accused Number 10 late Tuesday of a “lack of transparency” about the senior adviser’s resignation and subsequent arrest, which took place nearly three weeks ago but only became public after a leak to a newspaper.
Patrick Rock’s seniority was demonstrated by the fact that he was one of only three advisers given his own private office in No 10.
Patrick Rock, born Patrick Robert John Rock de Besombes, is a veteran Conservative Party adviser and has been described as David Cameron’s “fixer”.
In Downing Street, he worked across a wide range of topics, including the government’s policy on child pornography.
London-born Mr Rock, 62, is from an aristocratic family and attended Stonyhust College in Lancashire before winning a scholarship to Worcester College, Oxford, where he studied history.
When he graduated, he went to work for Margaret Thatcher as political correspondence secretary.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/10675036/Who-is-Patrick-Rock.html
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Sir Cover Up – Jeremy Heywood, Ed Llewellyn and David Cameron
It also emerged that the aide (Patrick Rock) was previously accused of “inappropriate behaviour” by a colleague and this incident was investigated by his line manager, Ed Llewellyn, Cameron’s chief of staff, who is also an old friend of Rock’s.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/04/cameron-patrick-rock-tip-off
Ed Llewellyn – He has served Cameron for a decade...If you google his name, you discover next to nothing about him: just the repetition of the same bare facts.
No profile of him seems to have been written: a singular achievement when one considers he is one of the most influential men in the country.
After all, Llewellyn had not only worked for Ashdown,… but is on friendly terms, since working in Brussels for Patten, with Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, wife of the current Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg.
Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten April 1993
After leaving Oxford, Ed Llewellyn was employed as an aide to former Governor Chris Patten in Hong Kong, as Patten’s ‘Chef de Cabinet’
10/16/02
Edward Llewellyn, a member of the cabinet advising External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten, has left for Bosnia to work with Paddy Ashdown, the EU’s special envoy there. He is replaced by Patrick Rock.
Main News Summary
Saturday, 19 June 2004
Patrick Rock: “The European Commission is not involved in the process of admission of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Partnership for Peace. With no cooperation regarding the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, Bosnia and Herzegovina will most likely not be admitted to the PfP. That is the decision that NATO will have to make. Lord Paddy Ashdown was very clear: The RS must carry the responsibility for the Report on Srebrenica. It does not mean that all people of the RS committed the crime, but only certain individuals”, said Patrick Rock, Advisor to Chris Patten, the EU Commissioner for Foreign Affairs.
http://www.nato.int/sfor/media/2004/ms040619.htm
Paddy Ashdown a Royal Marine and Special Boat Service officer and as an intelligence officer in the UK security services, became a MP for Yeovil from 1983 to 2001;
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in the 2006 New Year Honours and Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2015 New Year Honours
Ashdown left the Royal Marines to join the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6)
‘Child Rapist & Killer Sidney Cooke is not a threat to children’ – Paddy Ashdown :
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/74151.stm …
June 2014 Rock was charged with three counts of making an indecent photograph of a child in August 2013
14 May 2015 Llewellyn was sworn of the Privy Council
Why has David Cameron appointed his chum Ed Llewellyn to the Privy Council?
Why should an adviser be given this role?
Privy Councillors are almost all MPs (or ex-MPs), peers or judges. But it has not, until now, been a reward for members of a political entourage.
Questions over Patrick Rock arrest amid cover-up claims:
Ashworth set out his concerns in a letter to Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, after Heywood, Cameron’s spokesman, refused to answer a series of questions about events leading up to Rock’s arrest and the handling of a separate claim against him of sexual harassment.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/05/labour-patrick-rock-arrest-cover-up-claims
Patrick ROCK: FORMER AIDE TO PM FACES MAY TRIAL OVER IMAGES OF CHILD ABUSE
A former aide to David Cameron accused of possessing child pornography will face trial in May next year. Patrick Rock, 64, allegedly downloaded 62 indecent images depicting females who appear to be between 10 and 14 posing erotically. He charged with six offences of making an indecent photographs of a child of and one offence of possession of 56 indecent images of children. Described as Cameron’s policy fixer, Rock was a key member of the Prime Minister’s inner circle at Downing Street, and had been involved in drawing up government policy on internet porn. –
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The court heard that 62 images, assessed as being Level C, had been found on an iPad in North Carolina. As a British national Rock can be charged in the UK for these offences even though the images are held in America.
District Judge John Zani said he was transferring the case to Southwark crown court because of the “complexity” it involved.
The court also heard that Rock, who was part of David Cameron’s “inner circle” before his resignation, is being monitored by a welfare officer appointed by Downing Street “for his own protection”.
He had known Mr Cameron since working alongside him in the Nineties for then home secretary Michael Howard. Rock, of Fulham
The indecent images which form the subject of the charges were found on an iPad which was forensically examined. It was seized from an address in North Carolina in America where Rock had been living and working until recently.
link
Wonder what work the UK government/Downing St had Rock working on in the North Carolina area?
Mr. Patrick Robert John Rock de Besombes, Case Number T20140498
26 May 2016
He’s listed as Patrick Robert John Rock – he’s dropped the fancy de Besombes part of his name
Details: For Mention – Case Started – 09:32
For Mention – Hearing finished for PATRICK ROBERT JOHN ROCK – 09:48
16 mins
http://www.thelawpages.com/court-hearings-lists/crown-court-lists-hearing-results.php
Patrick Rock – Judge for his May court dates:
Judge Alistair McCreath …background
Patrick Rock knows where the skeletons are buried
Patrick Rock was political correspondence secretary in the government of Margaret Thatcher.
He went on to operate as special adviser to various ministers, including service as a special adviser to Michael Howard in the late 1990s, when David Cameron was also advising Howard
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/04/patrick-rock-tory.
Patrick Rock later worked in Brussels under Chris Patten, with special responsibility for the western Balkans, before later being brought back into government in 2011 as a Downing Street special advisor, taking on the title of deputy director of policy.
Cameron had last year been reportedly poised to recognise Patrick Rock’s service with a peerage.
Patrick Rock, who has been arrested on suspicion of an offence relating to child abuse imagery, may not be a household name, but he has been a powerful figure in the upper strata of the Conservative Party for decades.
David Cameron and Patrick Rock first worked together as special advisers to Conservative minister Michael Howard in the late 1990s.
Indeed, such was the strength of their relationship that Mr Cameron brought him back into Downing Street in 2011, appointing him deputy head of the influential No 10 policy unit.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/04/patrick-rock-tory
Jo Johnson, far right
The unit is a key driver behind government decision-making and is currently led by Jo Johnson MP, brother of London Mayor Boris, son of Stanley Johnson
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-26435939
Patrick Rock Update:
31 May 2016
I would hazard a guess that a fair deal of sanitising went on in the two years between Patrick Rock being arrested and tried.
They’ve been fixing things for #PatrickRock for years.
31 May 2016
A former aide to Prime Minister David Cameron downloaded images of scantily clad girls as young as 10 but denies the pictures were indecent, a court has heard.
One of David Cameron’s closest aides downloaded 20 indecent photographs of young, scantily clad girls in sexual poses, a court has heard.
Patrick Rock, 64, who has known the Prime Minister for more than 30 years, resigned from his job in Downing Street after he was arrested when investigators seized his iPad and discovered the images in February 2014.
The girls in the photographs ranged in age between ten and 16, with all but one under the age of 14.
With names such as “cutie” and “princess” the girls were pictured in a variety of what the prosecution said were “sexualised poses”.
“While the genitals are not wholly exposed that area is often the clear focus of the picture as if to make the unambiguous suggestion to the viewer ‘look here, look what you can’t’ wholly see’.”
“The child is photographed in a pose that is deliberately sexual in tone, because they are scantily clad and/or their legs are often apart and/or they are showing their bottoms to the camera.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-36418535
Patrick Rock, 64, admits downloading 20 images of nine girls to his computer from a free-to-view website over three days in August 2013
Prosecutor Tom Forster told the jury the youngest girl was 10 years and four months old at time the pictures were downloaded in 2013, and the oldest 16 years and seven months, meaning they were all younger than that when the photos were originally taken.
He said all of the images were photographed in such a way as to draw attention to their genital areas, despite them being covered by clothing.
Judge Alistair McCreath told the jurors they would have to decide whether the images were indecent in the eyes of an average member of society, rather than basing their decisions on their own personal views.
Has there been a stitch-up in the child abuse imagery case against Cameron’s aide Patrick Rock?
The trial of David Cameron’s former aide Patrick Rock began today (May 31) – and looks like ending today, after the jury retired to consider whether the 20 images they have been shown were indecent.
Hang on! Only 20 images?
Rock was originally charged with …(three offences of making child abuse images and one of possessing 62 indecent images of children)
Where are the rest of them?
Where are the other images and why has the jury not been shown them?
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