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A police community support officer (PCSO) has been jailed for carrying out a “campaign of voyeurism” in swimming pool changing rooms and causing young girls around the world to engage in sex acts, including involving animals.

Warning: The following article contains details of a graphic nature

Matthew Shaw, a father-of-two, videoed children believed to be as young as six in swimming pool changing rooms and at a Center Parcs, and admitted to police he may have done it around 100 times.

He also spoke to seven girls – aged between 11 and 15 – from locations including the United States, Australia, Wales and Derbyshire while posing as both a teenage girl and boy, asking for and sending sexual images and videos on Snapchat.

The 38-year-old, a PCSO in Derbyshire for 15 years, incited one young victim to perform sex attacks on a dog and attempted to incite others to perform acts involving their younger siblings.

Sentencing him to 14 years in prison at Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday for 24 offences, Judge William Harbage KC said: “You have brought shame and disgust on yourself, your family and the police service.

“These are appalling offences which will fill right-thinking members of the public with horror, revulsion and disgust.

“These are despicable offences you have committed against ordinary members of the public going about their everyday lives.

“I am satisfied that you pose a significant risk of serious harm.”

Shaw was first arrested last April when a girl, 10, noticed a GoPro filming her while she was changing at a leisure centre in Nottinghamshire, prosecutor Robert Underwood told the court.

Police later found 25 recordings of children taken in changing rooms at the leisure centre in question and a swimming centre in Mansfield on a seized phone, dating back to October 2021.

Shaw also spoke to seven girls aged between 11 and 16 on Snapchat, first contacting them as a girl named Chloe before introducing a “brother”, falsely named Matt, to the victims.

He spoke to one victim, from New Jersey in the US, for over a year dating back to February 2021, starting shortly after her 12th birthday, referring to her as his “baby girl” and leaving the girl feeling as if the pair were in a relationship.

With both this victim and others, he would ask for sexual images and videos, with Mr Underwood saying many felt “uncomfortable”, “scared” and “pressured” by the requests and one saying in a victim statement that they were often left crying in their school toilets due to the effects of Shaw’s offending.

Shaw got into Center Parcs by ‘jumping over a fence’ while on bail

While on bail, Shaw visited a Center Parcs in Nottinghamshire, gaining entry by jumping over a fence and using discarded wristbands to access the changing rooms, taking another five recordings between June and August last year.

He was arrested again on 31 August, with Derbyshire Police confirming he had been suspended the next day.

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In a police interview, he said that he had potentially committed around 100 voyeurism offences but denied having a sexual attraction to children.

Further analysis of devices found at his home in Bernard Avenue, Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, uncovered searches for indecent images and that he had exposed himself to children on the internet chat site Omegle.

Shaw pleaded guilty last December to nine counts of causing a child under 13 to engage in a sexual act, 12 of causing a child to engage in a sexual act, and three counts of voyeurism.

Harinderpal Dhami, mitigating, said Shaw, who has been given an autism diagnosis, was a “lonely, sad and pathetic figure” who struggled to form relationships and initially spoke to the teenage girls to establish friendships, but “age became irrelevant” due to the “euphoria” of speaking to people.

He said: “He took to social media and his mobile phone to strike up what he thought were relationships.

“It quickly took him to a very dark place and he effectively made a misjudgement.

“It did not start out with the aim of grooming young girls.

“He understands the consequences are catastrophic, not for him but for those who are left on the outside.”

As well as the custodial sentence, Shaw was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offender’s register for life.

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Police search for missing sisters last seen three days ago near Aberdeen river

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Police search for missing sisters last seen three days ago near Aberdeen river

Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.

Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.

The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.

Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Image:
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland

Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Image:
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland

Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.

Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”

Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.

The Huszti sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
Image:
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland

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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.

Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.

The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.

Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.

CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”

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Britain’s gas storage levels ‘concerningly low’ after cold snap, says owner of British Gas

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Britain's gas storage levels 'concerningly low' after cold snap, says owner of British Gas

Britain’s gas storage levels are “concerningly low” with less than a week of demand in store, the operator of the country’s largest gas storage site said on Friday.

Plunging temperatures and high demand for gas-fired power stations are the main factors behind the low levels, Centrica said.

The UK is heavily reliant on gas for its home heating and also uses a significant amount for electricity generation.

As of the 9th of January 2025, UK storage sites are 26% lower than last year’s inventory at the same time, leaving them around half full,” Centrica said.

“This means the UK has less than a week of gas demand in store.”

The firm’s Rough gas storage site, a depleted field off England’s east coast, makes up around half of the country’s gas storage capacity.

Gas storage was already lower than usual heading into December as a result of the early onset of winter.

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Combined with stubbornly high gas prices, this has meant it has been more difficult to top up storage over Christmas.

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UK’s first taxpayer-funded injection room to open in radical move to tackle drugs epidemic

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UK's first taxpayer-funded injection room to open in radical move to tackle drugs epidemic

Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics. 

We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.

“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.

It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.

Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.

But there is a new concept in town.

From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.

A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
Image:
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre

It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.

Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.

One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.

Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
Image:
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility

It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.

The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.

There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.

Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
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Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment

One of the eight bays users can inject in
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There are eight bays users can inject in

We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.

The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.

The aftercare area
Image:
The aftercare area

Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’

Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.

The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.

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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.

One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.

The question is what does success look like?

The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.

It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.

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