Two Hull Fair employees are guilty of multiple child sex offences

Ashley Phillips-Dawson (left) and Ryan Edgar (right) targeted two teenage girls while working at the Hull Fair last year

Humberside Police Two side-by-side custody photos of two men looking into the camera. On the left is a man with brown hair, a brown beard and a brown mustache. He is wearing a gray sweater. The man on the right has short brown hair and a short brown beard and mustache. He is wearing a red shirt and his collar is up — Ashley Phillips-Dawson (left) and Ryan Edgar (right) targeted two teenage girls while working at the Hull Fair last year

Two men have been found guilty of multiple child sex offenses after attacking two teenage girls while working at the Hull Fair last year.

Ryan Edgar, 29, was found guilty of sexual activity with a child, rape, sexual assault by penetration and two counts of assault. He had denied any wrongdoing.

Ashley Phillips-Dawson, 19, was found guilty of assault and three charges of sexual activity with a child. He also denied the facts.

Both men were remanded in custody and will be sentenced at Hull Crown Court on November 18.

While Edgar and Phillips-Dawson were working at the fair, they struck up a conversation with two young girls, exchanging phone numbers and encouraging the girls to befriend them.

Edgar, of Park Street, Hull, asked the girls to send him nude photos and convinced both girls to go back to his flat with him and Phillips-Dawson, of Topcliffe Garth, Hull.

The girls were reported missing but were later found in Edgar’s flat, hiding in the bedroom after he lied about them not being there.

The men were arrested on suspicion of rape.

It was later discovered that Edgar had taken one of the girls to his bedroom, pinned her down and raped her, while Phillips-Dawson sexually assaulted the second girl downstairs.

Both men also subjected the girls to abuse and forced them to use cocaine.

Det Con Megan O’Meara, who led the investigation, branded the men “filthy individuals” who “took advantage of two impressionable teenagers”.

“I would like to commend the two girls and their families for coming forward. It is not easy to take that step and report sexual crimes, but then they had to relive the trauma through a trial after both men refused to admit to their reprehensible crimes.”

She added: “It is because of the girls’ bravery that both men have been held accountable for their crimes.”