Gay foster couple to be sentenced for abusing boys
(Filed: 23/06/2006)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/06/23/ufoster.xml

A gay couple found guilty of sexually abusing boys placed in their foster care have been sentenced to a total of 11 years in jail.

Couple showed 'no empathy, remorse or any responsibility for their actions'

Ian Wathey, 41, and his partner Craig Faunch, 32, were found guilty at Leeds Crown Court last month of a series of sex offences against young boys.

Wathey has been sentenced to five years and Faunch has been sentenced to six. The sentences begin immediately.

Judge Sally Cahill QC said neither of the men had shown "empathy, remorse or any responsibility for their actions".

The pair were approved as foster carers by Wakefield Council in July 2003, but within months they were using the boys from troubled homes for their own sexual gratification, the court was told.

Faunch was found guilty of two charges of making indecent photos of a child. The court was told that he used a camcorder to film two naked eight-year-old boys in the shower.

He was also found guilty of five counts of sexual activity with a 14-year-old boy.

Wathey was found guilty of four charges of sexual activity with a 14-year-old boy.

Wathey was also found guilty of encouraging a child to watch sexual activity.

He was cleared of two charges of sexual activity with a child by the jury.

Referring to Faunch's abuse of a 14-year-old boy, Judge Cahill said: "You, Craig Faunch, chose to victimise and abuse that boy, showing the very depths in my view of what you are prepared to do.

"You saw him as the ideal victim. You are presented as a couple but this is not about homosexuality, it is about abuse of trust."

The couple, of Pontefract, West Yorkshire, were found guilty of the charges following a two-week trial.

Sentences of 5 and 6 years are an insult to human intelligence. And notice what the judge says: it's not about faggotry!

When I was young, fags who stayed in the closet publically and kept their mouths shut were left alone; the open loudmouths got beat up on occasion. That system worked pretty good.