A MAN was given a suspended sentence for persuading a 12-year-old girl to send him naked photos.
Mark Hughes, 45, admitted one charge half way through his trial, after talking to a Harrow school girl online for months and meeting her outside her school.
During the sentencing at Harrow Crown Court on Thursday last week, Judge Jeremy Donne QC told Hughes: “The victim of the offence was 12 years old at the time. She took and sent to you naked photos of herself and the activity depicted in those photographs didn’t go beyond the fact that her breasts and private parts were exposed.
“What emerged during the trial was that you honestly and truly believed, because this is what she had told you, that she was well in excess of 16 years, in fact in her early 20s. At a later stage you discovered her true age and there was an exchange of emails. You couldn’t have believed after that she was over 16 as you met her outside her school in her school uniform.”
Hughes, who is married, will now have an electronically monitored curfew.
Speaking about the effect on the victim, who is now 13, Judge Donne QC told the court: “After this she became a very unhappy and troubled girl, it appears that she is hopeful coming through the other side.
“No one must underestimate the actual damage that has been caused to her.”
Andrew Hurst, defending, said: “He was shocked as to how young she was, but there was a meeting while she was wearing school uniform. The defendant had not gone looking for children.
“He was extremely foolish to allow himself to stay within that electronic communication with someone who it became clear was less than 16, that causes him considerable shame and embarrassment.”
Mr Hurst said Hughes was in ill health and slipped into ‘a nihilistic state’ while he was struggling with self-esteem issues.
The mother of the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said outside the court: “For 20 months it is us who have done the sentence, it became really bad at one point. It is not only a parent’s job to look after a child, it is a community’s job. Now we just want to move somewhere else and move on.”
For causing or inciting prostitution or pornography involving a child under 16, Judge Donne QC sentenced Hughes, of Barlby Gardens, Ladbroke Grove, to 16 months in prison, suspended for two years, and imposed a curfew and a sexual offences order, restricting his contact with children under 16.
Two counts were ordered to lie on file.
