One of the distraught victims said Daniel Tranmer had ‘taken away her childhood innocence’
Daniel Tranmer has been jailed for seven years(Image: Hull Live)
A serial sex offender who targeted four vulnerable girls during a series of unpleasant incidents – leaving them suffering serious emotional problems – has been jailed for seven years. Daniel Tranmer took advantage of the girls and he even told one of them that what he was doing was “funny”.
He later tried to talk his way out of trouble by claiming that he did not commit any of the offences and that the allegations against him had been made up, Hull Crown Court heard. Tranmer, 40, who has had addresses in Regis Court and Nelson Court, Hull, denied nine offences of sexually assaulting a child under 13, involving four girls, but he was convicted by a jury on March 26 after deliberations spanning five hours and 32 minutes. He was cleared of a similar offence involving a boy.
Dale Brook, prosecuting, said: “The defendant has a sexual interest in children. He has managed to gain access to several children over the years.” Tranmer intimately touched the girls for his sexual gratification during a number of incidents.
He told one girl that he was “going to do something funny” and, when he pulled her skirt and exposed her underwear, she told him to stop but he said that it was funny. There had been a “lasting emotional effect” on her.
“I continue to have lingering thoughts about what happened,” she said. “I often feel on edge. I lost trust in adults following this experience.”
Tranmer intimately touched another girl. “She felt like it went on for a lifetime,” said Mr Brook. The victim had been left suffering low confidence and self-esteem as well as nightmares and a loss of trust in people.
“My childhood innocence has been taken away from me by Daniel Tranmer,” she said. Tranmer also touched a third girl.
She later said: “What happened to me has affected my capacity to trust people. He took my childhood innocence for no reason.”
He inappropriately kissed and touched a fourth girl. The girl’s father said that her family was “mortified, shocked and disgusted” and felt “completely betrayed” by Tranmer.
“It has been a living nightmare,” he said. “It didn’t feel real.” Social services and the police became involved.
During his trial, Tranmer denied that he had sexually abused any of the victims and he claimed that the victims had made up stories about him. He categorically denied that the offences took place.
After the convictions, sentence on Tranmer had been adjourned for a report on the level of danger that he posed in the future. He had been on bail during the trial and this was allowed to continue until the sentencing hearing, including a request to allow Tranmer to go on a pre-booked seaside holiday to Withernsea.
After being given bail, Tranmer returned to court without problems for sentence, despite knowing that he faced an inevitable prison term, and he was outside the building, with supporters, before it opened at 9am. Judge Alexander Menary had previously warned him: “A sentence of immediate imprisonment will follow.”
At a sentencing hearing, Tranmer was asked to go to Hull Magistrates’ Court and, for logistical reasons, he later appeared in a dock there. He joined the Hull Crown Court hearing via a video link.
Defence barrister John Dunning said that Tranmer still denied the offences. Most of them happened a long time ago. He suffered problems and was vulnerable and this might have affected his culpability for the offences. He had no previous convictions.
Tranmer was given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and he will have to register as a sex offender for life. After the original trial, Humberside Police said that the offences came to light in November 2022 after police launched an investigation following a report of concern for the welfare of a young girl.
The girl claimed that she had been intimately touched by Tranmer. He was arrested but he denied committing any sexual offences. Inquiries continued and further reports of similar incidents were made.
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