Record details
A young woman embarked on "relentless" sexual exploitation of a vulnerable girl, filming intimate videos and exchanging thousands of explicit messages.
Abbie Knight not only encouraged the inappropriate contact knowing the victim's age and difficult personal circumstances but also became "quite controlling and jealous".
Maidstone Crown Court heard that although it was accepted the 24-year-old had not targeted her victim in a predatory manner or had in any way threatened or forced her, she had taken advantage of the youngster's "fractured and isolated" lifestyle.
Videos of them kissing "intimately in the way partners would" and another of them lying in bed together were also created via the TikTok platform.
Knight, of Windmill Road, Gillingham, later pleaded guilty to four offences of sexual activity with a child and one of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
Prosecutor Christina Rowberry told Knight's sentencing hearing on Monday (November 11) that having met two years ago, the pair had "very quickly" become sexually intimate.
It was noticed that they would also spend a long time on the phone together, with video calls occurring even when the victim went into the bathroom.
‘There was a strong element of jealousy over the bond she was forming with another girl…’
Knight also requested photographs from the girl and would challenge her about what she was doing when they were not together.
"The relationship seemed quite controlling. The defendant would ask where she had been, who she had been with and why she hadn't phoned her sooner," explained Ms Rowberry
"On one occasion the defendant also said she knew best because she was the adult.
"There was also a strong element of jealousy over the bond she was forming with another girl."
Knight's deviant behaviour came to light when messages between them were discovered on the youngster's phone.
In total, there were more than 19,000, the vast majority sexually explicit, said the prosecutor.
But the court heard that when Knight's phone was seized and downloaded by police, nothing relating to the victim was found on the device save for one message to her mum in which she made it "quite clear" that she was aware of the girl's vulnerabilities and acknowledged she was a child.
Although police said the two videos had been created and time-stamped on TikTok, it was the defence case that Knight had not been responsible herself for uploading any such material.
The young victim attended the court hearing to bravely detail how she had been affected by Knight's offending.
Describing how she felt "disgusted" by what had happened and how it would "haunt" her, she said: "I can't explain the emotion I feel for her. I don't think there are any words that can explain it.
"What Abbie did to me changed my life. What she did I have to live with for the rest of my life. It pains me.
‘It was not something that is permissable, inevitable or acceptable but it was entirely your fault…’
"She took advantage of a vulnerable little girl. Looking back I feel sick."
Lucy Luttman, defending, described Knight as "very much a closed book" with her own troubled background and difficulties, including emotional immaturity as well as traits suggestive of a personality disorder and adult ADHD.
But the lawyer said there was remorse and acknowledgement of her wrongdoing.
"Although she had emotional feelings which appear to have been reciprocated, she now understands that that should not have happened, ever, and she realises how wrong it was," Ms Luttman told the court.
But she argued that although Knight was aware of "some" of the victim's vulnerabilities when they met, she "didn't pick her out because of it."
Furthermore, Ms Luttman said the disparity in age was not "as significant as it would be" had Knight been someone who had reached emotional maturity.
She also remarked that the contact between the defendant and the girl "was not purely about sex" as such cases of child abuse often were.
However, on jailing Knight for three years, Judge Julian Smith told her that what she had perceived as a "relationship" was what the law regarded as "sexual exploitation of a child".
"It was not something that is permissable, inevitable or acceptable but it was entirely your fault," he told Knight, adding that her jealousy and controlling nature "demonstrated just how imbalanced and illegal" it was.
Referring to the victim's expressed feelings of "betrayal and conflict", Judge Smith told Knight: "The suggestion she was a willing party doesn't work with an adult. The responsibility was with you to say 'No'.
"This was relentless conduct that was both sexual and controlling."
Knight was also made subject to a four-year restraining order and a 10-year sexual harm prevention order restricting contact with underage females.
She must also sign on the sex offender register indefinitely, and will be barred from working with children and vulnerable adults.
