Locations
Howard Road, Southampton, SO15
Description
A SEX offender once found guilty of offences relating to an international paedophile ring linked to Hampshire has been hauled back before the courts.
Jasmine Melissa Hope, previously known as Melissa Noon, pleaded guilty to breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order by deleting the internet history on her mobile phone.
Appearing at Southampton Crown Court, the 38-year-old, of Howard Road, Southampton, was sentenced to a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for two years.
The order was imposed on Hope by Portsmouth Crown Court in 2011 after she was found guilty for her part in an international paedophile ring based in Hampshire.
As previously reported in the Echo, the group committed “horrific” crimes against two young children in the UK and one in Australia.
Hope was found guilty of 11 charges including causing a child to engage in sexual activity.
Following a six week trial, ringleader Robert Hathaway, 37, then of Tyseley Road, Portsmouth, was given an indeterminate sentence of 12 years.
That was later quashed and replaced with a life sentence with a minimum term of 10 years.
Hope, who was Hathaway’s partner, received four years.
This was later doubled to eight years on appeal through the unduly lenient sentence scheme.
Three other defendants became involved by meeting the couple over the internet to carry out the abuse and were jailed for a total of 15 years.
As previously Hampshire police launched their investigation into the ring after being tipped off by the authorities in Australia, who had uncovered a "mirror image’’ ring in Brisbane and Sydney which also abused at least one young child.
Hathaway had been in contact with this ring and shared images with them and one of the charges faced by Noon was for encouraging the Australian child to engage in sexual activity.
A total of 2,000 pages of chat logs were uncovered by police, as well as 14,000 indecent images of children and 300 videos of children being abused.