Depraved Pontefract pervert took 10-year-old girl into dark woods before masturbating in front of her

The Pontefract paedophile, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, befriended the girl’s mother - who trusted him and regarded him as “like a brother”. Leeds Crown Court heard that on March 2 last year, the defendant told the girl’s mother he had a gift to give her.

He took the girl into secluded woods, which he said was a “treat”, urinated in front of her and encouraged her to do the same. The pervert then took the girl back to his bedroom and masturbated in front of her, asked her to undress and made her watch porn.

He told her to urinate in a can and then did the same, and told the girl not to tell her mother about what had happened. When he dropped the girl back at her home, she told her mother what had taken place and the police were called. When interviewed, the defendant told officers he had bought an iPhone for himself, but it was the wrong device and he decided to gift it to the girl.

He denied masturbating in front of her and claimed porn had come on the TV because it was the last thing he had watched, but later admitted what he had done.

In a victim impact statement read out to the court, the girl’s mother said her daughter had been struggling with anxiety since the offences - she stopped eating and felt sick, and her sleep became disturbed.

Her mother said: “I feel that this crime will impact on her even more as she grows up and understands how wrong his actions were. She began following me around and needed me to be in her sight at all times. She wouldn't go and play as she would before. She wasn’t the outgoing happy little girl she used to be.

“I think we all feel betrayed by him and will be less likely to trust people in the future. I believe he groomed my whole family into trusting him while planning all along that he was going to hurt [my daughter]. I am angry that her innocence has been taken.”

The defendant pleaded guilty to one count of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child at the earliest opportunity before the courts. He has a previous conviction for attempting to remove a child from the lawful authority of their parent or guardian, as well as a caution for the same offence.

Mitigating, Satpal Roth-Sharma said the man now feels ashamed and embarrassed by his actions. She added: “He describes that cannabis was a factor in making a very very poor judgement on that particular day. He would do pretty much anything, he says, to go back and change that.”

Sentencing the man to 20 months in prison, Judge Neil Clark said: “What you have done has had a significant psychological effect on her…and on her family”.