"The Crown" extra, John Bancroft, who used dating apps to hunt down teenagers, has been jailed for 22 years.
The predatory rapist manipulated seven girls into performing obscene sex acts. The 68-year-old sometimes gave them money in a "sugar daddy" arrangement that lasted from 2016 to 2017, reported Mirror.
Bancroft also worked for Unite and Unison, which the judge said that gave him a "platform" to "use and target" the victims. He used apps such as MyLol to target vulnerable girls so that he could manipulate them, according to Sky News. The teens, who were aged between 15 and 17 at the time, were selected as they had complicated relationships with their parents or struggled with eating disorders or were into self harming, Snaresbrook Crown Court in England was told.
For the sentencing hearing this week, three of the victims came to court. They were commended by the judge for their “tremendous courage and fortitude” and “detailed accounts” that helped convict Bancroft of a catalogue of 34 offences. The teenagers wrote statements to describe the emotional trauma and extreme physical pain that they suffered at Bancroft’s hands. Several said that they have since tried to kill themselves.
He admitted five counts of paying for the sexual services of a child, attempted sexual communication with a child, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and nine counts of attempted assault causing or inciting sexual exploitation of a child. He also admitted to seven counts of taking indecent images and six counts of distributing those images. Bancroft of Chestnut Avenue, Buckhurst Hill, Essex, was convicted of four counts of rape and meeting a child after sexual grooming. He was handed a 22-year jail sentence with an extended three-year sentence. This was done as the judge ruled he posed a “serious risk to the public."
While sentencing Bancroft, judge Oscar Del Fabbro said that he was persistent in his "pursuit of these teenage girls." The judge added that during the course of "some of these sex acts you fantasized about what can only be described as sado-masochistic acts - all for your own gratification."
Bancroft's 62-year-old brother Graham Manicom admitted joining him twice to have paid group sex with two of the teenagers. He admitted to two counts of paying for the sexual services of a child, and was given three-and-a-half years jail sentence.
Detective Sergeant Kelly Ryan from Modern Slavery and Child Exploitation team called Bancroft and Manicom "sick individuals" who targeted "vulnerable girls for their own twisted gratification." Ryan noted that the two brothers were "old enough to be the victims’ grandfathers and their manipulative actions have had a devastating impact for the girls they abused," according to Daily Mail.
