Pub landlord convicted of more than 20 sexual assaults on young girls

Carl Marland,58, of Ilford, London, was convicted of more than 20 offences in October 2021 after a trial at Manchester Crown Court and jailed yesterday, May 24.

Detectives from GMP Rochdale's Child Sexual Exploitation Team worked closely with officers from the Metropolitan Police to co-ordinate Marland's arrest on January 27, 2021.

Marland would travel to Manchester from London, where he ran a pub, most weeks from June 2020 to December 2020 to visit the girls - aged from eight to 16 - and their families to carry out his attacks.

Among the charges Marland was found guilty of were three counts of rape and secretly filming one of the girls while she undressed.

Marland would groom the girls, giving them gifts of clothes and money, as well as drugs and alcohol.

The landlord set up a bank account for one of the girls and transferred around £3,000 to her, and would drive the girls around in his car, where much of the abuse took place.

Police became aware of Marland when one of the girls' mothers found inappropriate messages from him on her phone in November 2020.

Detective Constable Andrew Sanderson, from GMP's Child Sexual Exploitation Team, said: "Marland spent the majority of 2020 travelling from London to Manchester in order to commit these offences, some of which are the most serious offences against children.

"These crimes have had a huge detrimental impact on his victims and their families, and he has essentially stolen their childhoods.”

In total, Marland was found guilty of the following offences: • Causing a child to watch a sexual act

• Sexual assault of a child under 13

• Rape of a child under 13

• Assault of a child by penetration

• Voyeurism

• Making indecent images of a child

• Sexual activity with a child

• Engaging with sexual communication with a child

• Causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity

• Supplying class B drugs

• Supplying class C drugs