Locations
Lark Hill, Farnworth, Bolton, Greater Manchester, BL4
Description
THIS if the face of a sadistic carer who was only caught for the vile abuse he subjected his victim to when police, investigating child porn offences, raided his home.
As well as two million images found on his computer, officers discovered a hard drive containing more than 500 videos which Stuart Barrett had created up to 10 years earlier, showing himself abusing a vulnerable disabled man.
Barrett was supposed to be supporting the man, who needed round-the-clock care but instead he was seen in the video taunting, humiliating and assaulting his victim both sexually and physically.
At Minshull Street Crown Court, Judge Tina Landale described 35-year-old Barrett as “every family’s nightmare” as she sentenced him to 14 years in prison with a further four years on licence.
Barrett was employed by Bury Independent Living Development to help look after a 49-year-old man who has profound physical and mental disabilities, is registered blind and is unable to communicate.
But for three years from 2008 he repeatedly abused him, sexually and physically. Barrett, of Lark Hill, Farnworth, would slap, punch, kick and bite the man, sexually assaulted him and, on one occasion, attempted to orally rape him.
“You abused your position of trust to taunt, humiliate, physically and sexually abuse him, believing you could get away with it,” the judge told Barrett.
“So confident were you of this, you filmed yourself abusing him in 506 films. Your conduct can only be described as sadistic.”
Alaric Bassano, prosecuting, told how the victim’s ageing parents had placed him in Bury local authority care when they could no longer look after him themselves. The man was described as “extremely vulnerable”, needed round-the-clock support and was unable to raise the alarm about the abuse as he could not speak or communicate in any other way.
“These offences would have gone undetected were it not for the defendant’s folly in recording the crimes and retaining the footage — footage that was found by police in 2018,” said Mr Bassano.
The public gallery in court was cleared as the judge viewed several of the harrowing videos made by Barrett. The physical assaults were described as slapping, punching, prodding and flicking, mainly to the head or face, kicking him in the groin and biting him on the nose or ears, while the sexual abuse included kissing, Barrett exposing his genitals, touching the victim’s genitals and attempted oral rape.
“On several occasions sexual touchings were accompanied by physical violence,” said Mr Bassano.
“Some of the activity was evidently carried out for the defendant’s sexual gratification. Most was done out of a sense of sadistic, gratuitous cruelty. Because of the victim’s inability to communicate we will never know the true harm he suffered. But his distress is sometimes evident on the recorded footage. His brother is broken by the thought of what has happened.”
In a victim statement the man’s brother said: “I cannot put the level of anger I feel into words — to think that someone who could not protect themselves has been preyed upon by this man breaks my heart.”
The court heard that police visited Barrett’s home in February and June last year and found vast quantities of indecent images of children he had downloaded between August 2011 and May 2012. There were so many images and videos that police stopped reviewing them after the first 25,000. They also found 22 indecent images of children Barrett had covertly taken himself of girls aged between four and eight.
“The girls were out and about, sometimes climbing or sitting on a telecoms box, a fence or crouching on the pavement and thereby exposing their knickers,” said Mr Bassano.
Barrett, who sat with his head bowed in the dock, had pleaded guilty to committing the offences against the care victim and the indecent images of children charges. Rachel Cooper, defending Barrett said: “He cannot explain why he did what he did.”
She added that until his arrest, he was undiagnosed as being autistic, had no friends and lived alone.
“Being maladapted to exist in the world with no support and no help, unfortunately it has been expressed in the worst possible way,” she said.
“It’s perhaps a sad feature of this case that he is going to have a great deal more social interaction in prison than he has had for the last 10 years.”
Judge Landale told Barrett that he posed a high risk of harm to the public and so handed him an extended sentence. He will not be eligible to apply for parole until two thirds of the way through the prison term and was also made subject to a sexual harm prevention order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.
“It seems to me there is no realistic prospect of reducing the risk that you pose because you have no insight into why you were behaving in the way that you did and paid lip service to expressions of remorse,” she told him.
Speaking after the sentence hearing the victim’s brother said he was satisfied with the prison term. “I am happy with that. I can sleep tonight,” he said. “He was a menace to society, a threat to children and he is locked up for a long time.”
He stressed that the majority of carers are “fantastic”, but admits to initially being wary after his brother’s abuse first came to light. “But I know he is happy now,” he said.
Bury Independent Living Development chairman David Newns said: “We are deeply shocked and saddened by these historic events and we welcome, very much, the sentencing of the perpetrator. Safeguarding of vulnerable adults and the vetting of all employees are of paramount importance to us at Bury ILD. This is evidenced through CQC and Bury Council inspections which are carried out regularly. We are working very closely with both these bodies to support the individual and the family concerned.”