Violent pimp Junior Bryan jailed for 24 years for 20-year reign of terror on young victims

Junior Bryan’s violent abuse started when he forced some of the women to turn to prostitution to fund their drug habits after getting some of them hooked on Class A drugs.

Amongst the horrendous violence and sexual humiliation, the violent pimp forced one of his victims to dig her own grave and relentlessly assaulted another over a prolonged period.

His youngest victim, who was aged just 14, was given heroin laced cannabis joints while Bryan went on to try and force her into prostitution and carried out indecent assaults on the teenager.

One of his victims was driven along an isolated track next to a Darlington golf course and was forced to dig her own grave while being viciously assaulted.

The lake near Blackwell Grange Golf Club

Bryan also inflicted humiliating sexual abuse of the-then teenager before attacking her with a hammer.

The heart-breaking testimonies of Bryan’s victims were read out by prosecuting barrister Richard Bennett when the defendant finally faced justice at Teesside Crown Court.

His victims outlined the devastating impact of his bullying, intimidation, violence and sexual abuse had on their lives at the time and how they are still physically and mentally tortured by his behaviour to this day.

Club Bongo in Middlesbrough where Bryan met his first victim

The first victim, who was raped and forced into prostitution by Bryan, said: "JC was sending me down to London on a coach to sex work, and at the same time girls were getting dropped off from London for JC. It absolutely broke my heart.

"All of the money I was earning doing sex work went to JC. It was so humiliating for me."

A second victim, who was raped as a child, she said: "At the time I was being raped, I had no idea what was happening or how it was happening.

"I fought my hardest to make it stop and was screaming and crying throughout.

"I was in agony and have never know pain like that. During the rape, he constantly threatened me."

One of his teenage victims from the Darlington area, who was raped and beaten by a depraved Bryan, told how meeting him had completely ruined her life.

Junior Bryan's custody picture from 2005

During one of the brutal attacks he forced her to dig her own grave, on another occasion he forced her head underwater at a pond and also carried out a violent attack with a hammer.

She said: "I always sleep with a knife or screwdriver under my pillow to protect myself as I fear being attacked again.

"For the last 17 years I have been prescribed depression tablets which I think I am now reliant on.

"I can honestly say that I hate JC with a passion. If I had not met him I don’t believe I would have had a lifetime of drug use which has caused myself and my family misery."

A further victim, who was taken to Leeds as a young girl, was sexually assaulted by Bryan and he attempted to force her to work as a child prostitute.

She said: "Every day when I wake up I'm angry and upset just because I have woken up – that's just how I feel.

"I try and put my memories to the back of my mind but I do find myself thinking about what JC did to me, every day."

Throughout the eight-week trial, jurors had heard from all the alleged victims how he had abused them sometime between 1993 and 2013.

The catalogue of charges allegedly happened while the defendant was living in Darlington, Middlesbrough, Leeds and London.

Junior Bryan, known as JC, in his younger days

Judge Howard Crowson told Bryan he was a controlling and abusive man who deliberately targeted some of his victims due to their age and vulnerability.

He said; "You are a selfish man, only interested in your desires and willing to destroy the lives of others in pursuit of them.

"You targeted young women that you found attractive. With some you were initially attentive and appeared generous. Some willingly immersed themselves in your drugs driven lifestyle believing it to be glamorous, others were tricked into it.

"By both routes some of those women found themselves as sex workers working to pay for your drugs habit and often their own, but always controlled by you. Most of them experienced violence at your hands, many of them have lived for many years with the memory of the rapes that they suffered at your hands."

Describing Bryan as a dangerous offender, he said. "I do consider your offending to represent a campaign of violent sexual offending against vulnerable, often very young women or children, and your offending reveals a dangerously distorted view about sexual relationships."

He added: "The harm you have caused over so many years in pursuit of selfish sexual desires, to the apparent delight in the pain you have caused to your victims to satisfy your need, convince me that if you were at liberty there would be a significant risk of serious harm being caused to young women, in particular, by the commission of further serious sexual offences."

The 63-year-old, of Marton Road, Middlesbrough, was cleared of several charges, including ones of rape, but was convicted of at least one charge against all eight of the women who said they had suffered at the hands of the defendant.