Posted in: Comics, Image, Rebellion / 2000AD, Titan | Tagged: court, dan boultwood, london
Dan Boultwood Sentenced After Pleading Guilty To Child Sex Offences
Comic book creator Dan Boultwood was sentenced in court yesterday, after pleading guilty to child sex offences
I sat in Snaresbrook Crown Court in East London yesterday to watch the sentencing of former comic book writer and artist Dan Boultwood, who, in May of this year, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a child. The offences occurred in 2010, when Boultwood was 29, and the victim was 15 years old. The court heard that they had met at an earlier comic convention and had stayed in touch online. As stated in court that the UK age of consent to sexual activity is 16.
Because this is a sexual offence case, the victim is entitled to lifelong anonymity. The victim reported the crime to police in 2022, and Dan Boultwood was arrested in 2023. He pleaded guilty at a hearing in May this year, bringing sentencing forward to yesterday, rather than a planned trial date in 2028. The judge stated during sentencing that Dan Boultwood fully accepted that his actions were wrong and showed great remorse, which the judge noted was unusual compared with many other cases she hears involving such crimes. The judge also considered psychological reports made about Dan Boultwood from 2012, after he was referred following a mental breakdown, as well as more recent statements from his probation officer and his partner of nine years. She also noted that there were no prior or subsequent criminal records in his name.
The judge stated that these factors did not in any way mitigate the seriousness of the crimes or the impact they had had on the victim, but questioned the utility of a custodial sentence. The judge complimented the victim, describing the Victim Personal Statement as the best she had ever read, and praised its eloquence and clarity.
Boultwood was sentenced to three years‘ imprisonment, but this has been suspended for two years. Which means he left the court without being taken into custody. If an offence is committed within those two years, the court could enact some or all of the prison sentence. He has also been sentenced to undertake thirty days of sessions of rehabilitation activity related to sexual offences, and two hundred hours of local community work. He is subject to sex-offender notification requirements and was ordered to pay a court surcharge.
Dan Boultwood is best known in the comic industry for writing and drawing It Came! from Titan, drawing Chu, written by John Layman from Image, Newbury And Hobbes, written by George Mann for Titan, as well as Hope Falls, The Baker Street Irregulars, adaptations of Anthony Horowitz‘s Horowitz Horror, Danger Academy, and Starship Troopers, often with Tony Lee and often from Markosia Press. He contributed to titles such as Phonogram by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, and to strips for children’s comics, including Haggis and Quail Are on the Trail, Squid Squad, and The Prince of Baghdad in the Phoenix weekly comic, and Peaches’ Creatures and Steel Commando written by Ned Hartley. He also worked for Rebellion/2000 AD publications such as Monster Fun and Steel Commando, as well as on many Doctor Who comic book covers. He also created cover artwork for the video game TimeSplitters 2, and a sporadic webcomic, Rockets & Rayguns. As a result of all of this, his work was regularly featured in Bleeding Cool. However, during sentencing, it was repeatedly stated that Dan Boultwood was no longer working in the comic book industry.
Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!
Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!
