Military News Today

Timothy Herbert Darch of Southdrop Road, Kingsway, Quedgeley, now 62yrs old, formerly known as Julian Timothy Darch, was today (Tuesday 20th February) found guilty of multiple counts of serious sexual assaults that took place in Swindon back in 1996 against three teenage boys under the age of 16yrs.

Known as Tim Darch, the RAF veteran who served in the 1980s was previously found guilty in 2017 of downloading and producing child pornography, including category A child porn, got away with a £250 fine and £85 victim surcharge costs and remained on the Sex Offenders Register for five years.

Darch subsequently changed his name by Deed Poll from Julian Timothy Darch to Timothy Herbert Darch and then went on to become a Wiltshire Councillor for Lynham & Bradenstoke in 2018 as a convicted paedophile and on the sex offenders register.

Finding the conviction of Darch in a Google search by Richard Hall, who was one of the boys back in the ‘90s, who gave evidence in court in the first week of the trial, was horrified to learn that Darch had continued to abuse boys his entire life.  With this shocking information, Mr Hall, now in his 40s, contacted the Wiltshire Police Force to make an accusation of child rape and grooming back in 1996.  Following Mr Halls statement to the police, two further survivors came forward to give their statements, which led to the arrest of Mr Darch.

The historic charges consisted of four counts of indecent assault on a boy under the age of 16 and four counts of rape on a boy under the age of 16.

The court heard how Mr Darch, born in 1962 who was 34yrs old at the time, used his position of trust within his role as a coordinator for the Swindon Gay Mens Health Project and his link to YGAP (Young & Gay Awareness Project) where he first met Mr Hall who at the time in 1996 was just 14yrs old.

Darch had perfected his grooming of other underage boys by what is known in the gay community as cruising, where Darch would head to a known gay meeting spot in Swindon Town Gardens. The court heard Darch first met one of the survivors that has requested anonymity, in the toilets, where Darch performed oral sex on the boy who at the time was also just 14yrs old.

The grooming and sexual abuse of these three boys took place during 1996/97. Darch’s defence was that he did not know Mr Hall and denied knowing the ages of the other boys at the time, claiming he believed the boys were over the age of consent, even though he had seen them in school uniforms and during this time at least two of the boys had been living at Mr Darch’s Swindon address in Liden and still attending school.

It was clear by the evidence put forward by Miss J Stringer, the prosecution barrister, that Darch was a predator who searched out young boys. Using his position at the Swindon Council backed Gay Mens Project and his ability to network as a pillar of the community within the Swindon gay community.  The court heard one example of this was to invite young boys to a venue called the Rear Entry Club which was based at the back of the then named Flag & Whistle pub in town, aptly named due to the entry to the club being at the rear of the pub in a disused function room.  In this environment Darch was able to show these young impressionable boys the Swindon gay community and would invite them back to his house in Liden.

It was at Mr Darch’s house in Liden that the dark sexual abuse would take place behind closed doors.  Knowing two of the young boys home environment was not good, he used this further to groom them where one became his live in boyfriend and the second who also can’t be named became a resident at the address.  The boys, now adults, understood later on that they had been groomed and they had not been legally old enough, or mature enough to make the decision to consent to sex with a man more than twice their age at the time. At the time they felt obligated to have sex with Darch with the fear that they would lose the money, cigarettes he would give them and even the roof over their heads that Darch had provided.

The Defence barrister Miss Nadia Chibat, who on 4KBW website is described as someone who specialises in defending those accused of sex offences ranging from rape to offences against children, claimed in Mr Darch’s defence that it was he who was the victim and that the three survivors had come together to make up stories against her client.  With no defence witnesses, Darch was left to take to the stand himself which during cross examination by the prosecution opened up his previous 2017 conviction of child porn where it was shown that Mr Darch had in 2013 had a heart attack that left him impotent. Darch claimed he was so desperate to find a solution that he went on the internet searching for child porn, including ‘cute teen boys’ & ‘young boys masturbating’.

The Defence strategy was that of Mr Darch being the victim, a victim of a heart attack leaving him impotent, a victim of being gay in the military forcing him to leave before he was found out, victim of being the subject of false accusations by the three young boys, now men in their 40s.  

A defence transparent to the jury who heard multiple times where evidence showed not only had he been a clever predator hiding in the shadows of authority and trust, but from separate witness statements from the survivors where in independent statements and on the stand, two of the witnesses had recalled a conversation between them describing Mr Darch’s penis as very small. The then manager of the Flag & Whistle pub connected many of the dots of the three survivors testimonies, describing how Darch was often at the centre of things, confirming that Darch knew of the ages of the then three boys and that Darch had even orchestrated the permission of bringing these young underage boys into the Rear Entry Club under supervision.

The trial that took just over two weeks convened with the jury going away for just over 7hrs today (Tuesday 20th February), coming back to give a guilty verdict to all eight counts against Mr Darch.

Count 1:  Guilty – Majority vote (11-1)

Count 2:  Guilty – Majority vote (10-2)

Count 3:  Guilty – Unanimous vote

Count 4:  Guilty – Unanimous vote

Count 5:  Guilty – Unanimous vote

Count 6:  Guilty – Unanimous vote

Count 7:  Guilty – Unanimous vote

Count 8:  Guilty – Unanimous vote

During the trial all three survivors of Mr Darch had been given anonymity from being named in the press.  Since the guilty verdict, one of the survivors has waived his anonymity to be able to speak and to call for anyone else who might have been victim to Mr Darch’s grooming over the past three decades and to highlight his campaign to stop as many cases like this where men in authority, pillars of their community, are able to walk freely amongst young innocent and impressionable boys and girls and groom them.

Mr Hall was initially shocked that a convicted paedophile could, just months after his conviction locally, become a councillor with no checks such as the current DBS Check which back then would have been known as the CRB Check.  

Speaking with both Swindon MPs, we were able to ascertain that changes were coming into place and that new rules for councillors taking post who have direct contact with young people would be required to have a DBS Check.

Mr Hall, although pleased with at least some steps forward in protecting the public from peadophiles and other sex offenders slipping through the net of local government said: “Although it’s a step in the right direction, and I thank both Robert Buckland & Justin Tomlinson for showing their support and concern, the report by Simon Bailey, I feel does not go far enough and I believe all Councillors taking up post should be required to take a DBS Check. I will be campaigning further, so no other sex offender can slip through the net of local government, putting our younger community at risk”.

In a response from the lead Detective that led to the Darch trial, DC Ross Duff from Swindon CID said: “Darch met the young men through Swindon organisations such as support charities for young gay men.  Darch put himself in a position of trust and exploited that to take advantage of those vulnerable children.”

DC Duff went on to say “I would like to thank his victims for their incredible bravery throughout this process, by giving their evidence to police and throughout the trial.”

“I hope that this verdict reassures our community that we take these allegations very seriously, and that this behaviour will not be tolerated.  We will relentlessly pursue offenders to secure justice for their victims and want to reassure anyone who reports incidents of serious sexual assault and rape to us that they will be believed”.

Speaking to Mr Hall after the trial, he said, “Four years ago, I said the words I never thought I would, I wish to report an historic sex crime.  Tim H Darch, aka, Julian Timothy Darch is a habitual and life long paedophile. Today his career of child abuse and creating child pornography has come to an end.  I wish to take this moment to thank Swindon and Wiltshire police – and in particular DC Ross Duff – for the support they have given me, and the tireless work on their investigation and getting this case to trial.  Without DC Duff I would not be able to say that justice has been achieved and that Mr Darch is now where he belongs.”

Mr Hall Went on to say:  “Of all the issues raised and discovered during the investigation and years of waiting for a trial date, my chief concern is that of Tim, a registered sex offender and convicted child pornographer, being able to change his name and location with such ease – on each occasion being able to live within viewing distance of primary schools – and for him to be able to position himself within those communities as a figure of responsibility and respect by becoming a councillor and therefore, not only representing vulnerable people and their families, but having one on one access to them and the wider community.

I thank the kind words from MPs, Justin Tomlinson and Robert Buckland, who have informed me about the added safety measures being put in place at local government level.  I will be in contact with both MPs in due course in hope to meet with them to see where further measures can be put in place and also a tightening of the ability of sex offenders to with ease change their names by Deed Poll.  

Furthermore, I will also be pushing for tighter laws as in the United States where people can find if sex offenders and those who have committed other serious crime can be located in the community, and for stronger restrictions on where convicted peadophiles can live, such as near schools and parks, where Darch was so easily able to live for many years.”

Mr Darch was remanded into custody to be sentenced at Swindon Crown Court on 28th March.