Operation Shelter Sentencing: Day 4

A young woman has been sentenced this afternoon for her role in the sexual exploitation ring cracked by Northumbria police’s operation Shelter.

22 year old Carolann Gallon sobbed openly as she heard her sentence of 6 years and 3 months for the trafficking of three girls for sexual exploitation. As she was led away she called out “Love you dad” to her father, James Gallon, in the public gallery.

Sentenced alongside Gallon was Abdulhamid Minoyee who was sentenced to 15 years for rape, sexual assault and supply of Cannabis.

Northumbria police released a video with all 17 defendants who have been sentenced so far – one man will find out his sentence next week.

Meanwhile the police chief who took the controversial decision to use a child rapist as an informant against a grooming gang in Newcastle said he has received hundreds of messages of support from the public.

Northumbria Chief Constable Steve Ashman said it had always been a moral question, not a legal one, whether to pay the man who can only be identified as XY almost #10,000 for information.

Mr Ashman was speaking after all but one member of a grooming gang was sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court for their roles in recruiting vulnerable young girls, giving them drugs and then persuading or forcing them into sex with them or other, older men.

The decision to use XY in Operation Shelter, despite him being convicted of drugging and raping a girl, was controversial when the details emerged last month, following a series of trials.

Mr Chapman said: When reflecting upon the morality of the decision, I think it's important to take account of public opinion.

If the moral compass was spinning when it was first made public a few weeks ago, when the verdicts were handed out, it's absolutely fixed now and it's fixed in our favour.

Never in all of my time of policing have I witnessed such an outpouring of public support for what we have done.

We have been flooded with hundreds and hundreds of messages of support for the decisions that we took.

If I had any doubt, and I didn't personally, but if I had any doubt whether it was the right thing to do, then I'm absolutely determined now that it was.''

He insisted using XY - who was not tasked to go to parties - had let police to catch dangerous men, and stopped some girls from being raped.

Mr Ashman said: Some of it was absolutely pivotal in putting some very, very dangerous people behind bars, and more importantly, some of it was directly responsible for our finding vulnerable girls.

If he hadn't told us the information we would've found them and it doesn't take too much of an imagination to work out what might have happened to them.'