Bolton grooming gang leader told to expect 'substantial' jail term after pleading guilty

The leader of a Bolton grooming gang has been warned to expect a "substantial" jail sentence after admitting a string of rape and sex offences involving five under-age girls.Ashley Darbyshire changed his plea to guilty on the first day of a scheduled trial at Liverpool Crown Court, admitting to a total of 19 offences.Darbyshire, of Bolton Road, Westhoughton, is to be sentenced at a later date along with eight other members of the gang, who were convicted of sex offences in February after a three-month trial.Darbyshire's fellow gang members are all in custody. But because he is recovering from a stroke and pleaded guilty, he was remanded on bail subject to a number of conditions, including an electronically-monitored curfew between 6am and 6pm.But the judge, Simon Medland KC, warned him: "However, a substantial custodial sentence is inevitable in your case.

"I heard a great deal of evidence in the first trial about your conduct and how it led to other offences in part."Darbyshire pleaded guilty to two offences of raping an under-age girl - one offence occurring while she tied up in a bedroom and before another defendant raped her - and 10 offences of sexual activity with her when she was aged between 13 and 15 in the Blackrod area on Bolton.He also admitted raping another under-age girl and inciting her to engage in sexual activity; inciting another girl to engage in sexual activity and two offences of sexual activity with a fourth victim and inciting her to engage in sexual activity.Darbyshire, who was allowed to sit in the dock while entering his pleas because of his health, additionally pleaded guilty to making Category C indecent images of another girl.