Military News Today

RAF Veteran and former Wiltshire Councillor is back in court this week for historic child sex offences including multiple counts of child rape.

The case has been delayed due to backlogs, and pleas from the barrister of accused Tim Darch who now resides in Quedley, Gloucestershire.

In following this story, Military News Today found that surprisingly, there is no law or rule in place for a councillor.

In 2017, Mr Darch was found guilty of Child Porn offences and found guilty, but never received a jail sentence. Although being put on the sex offenders register for five years, Mr Darch became a Wiltshire Councillor the following year.

In 2020, Mr Darch stepped down as a councillor for Lyneham & Bradenstoke Parish Council around the time he was starting to be investigated by police for the historic allegations.

Now living in Southdrop Road, Kingsway, Quedgeley, the avid HAM Radio enthusiast who also appeared alongside Sir Tony Robinson in an episode of Channel 4’s Time Team moved just 50yrds from a primary school which was the latest property Darch has lived in situated next to primary schools. In fact the last three properties Mr Darch lived in have been near schools, including his home in Chippenham, Wiltshire which was situated opposite a primary school.

In the UK the justice system seems to always play catch up reacting to yet another incident where an adult has groomed or assaulted a child.

In our covering of this story finding Mr Darch became a local councillor even though being on the register, we approached both of Swindon’s MP’s, Justin Tomlinson & Sir Robert Buckland KBE KC for their reactions and if there was a way of protecting the local communities up and down the country from predators becoming councillors. Both MPs reactions were of genuine concern and came back with the following reply:

Sir Robert Buckland replied to Military News Today with…

“Coincidentally, the Government just last week announced that following a review of the disclosure and barring system, local councillors involved in the provision of children’s services will be required to undertake DBS checks. 

Many thanks for your email and for outlining this issue to me.

Coincidentally, the Government just last week announced that following a review of the disclosure and barring system, local councillors involved in the provision of children’s services will be required to undertake DBS checks.

I’ve attached the letter which the Minister, Simon Hoare, wrote to local authority leaders.

I know this doesn’t go as far as you’d like, but I trust that Simon Bailey, the independent author of the review, took a variety of possibilities into consideration and I am glad that the Government is implementing what he has advised.“

Although stopping short of requiring all Councillors to be DBS Checked, it seems the Government have seen that councillors in contact with children should be background checked.

‘Child Porn Peadophile Military Veteran Awaiting Trial For a Second Time’

As for the wider protection of children, the UK falls far far short of the US that have strict laws to serious offenders, including all sex offenders. In the US the public have the ability to check a database to see how safe their local area is giving information of any sex offenders on the register are living in their area. Although no names and addresses are given, the database doe give information of a sex offender living in the area.

In the UK we have Sarah’s Law, the child sex offenders disclosure scheme which allows parents, carers and guardians to formally ask police for information about a person who has contact with their child, or a child close to them if they are concerned the person poses a risk. But thats as far as Sarah’s Law goes.

If a sex offender lives in your area, but has no contact with a child in your care then the police cannot tell you. Sarah’s Law does not give this sort of information.

Many have called for a law in place, much more like the US, giving the public access to a database that could save so many children from abuse from predators, but multiple governments have decided against going this far.

Mr Darch’s Trial starts on Tuesday 6th February at the Swindon Crown Court.