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A depraved monster abducted a 14-year-old schoolgirl before raping her in his caravan, a court heard. Jason Hawkins, now 49, lured the child to the South West after they began chatting on the karaoke app StarMaker.
Hawkins drove to the West Midlands to pick her up - leaving her parents in a state of frantic worry. Plymouth Crown Court heard how the drug user sexually abused and raped her at a campsite in Devon.
As reported by Devon Live, Judge Simon Carr jailed the twisted man for 11 years. He spoke of he defendant's "depravity" in overpowering the teenager on his bed as she repeatedly told him to stop.
He said: "This escalated into an extremely manipulative, controlling and threatening relationship, where sexualised matters were discussed between a 48-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl." The court heard that Hawkins threw the girl's phone in the river as he moved her into his caravan.
However, police were able to catch up with him through details on the girl's computer. She had started using the singing app StarMaker - a social media channel popular with teenagers, especially girls.
Hawkins had also previously contacted officers himself. The defendant had complained before picking her up that she was being sexually abused by someone else.
He pleaded guilty to rape, sexual activity with a child and child abduction in November last year. He also admitted meeting a child following sexual grooming.
Hawkins, who has no previous convictions, will not be released until two thirds of the way through his sentence, at more than seven years.
Bathsheba Cassell, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said Hawkins paid the teenager compliments and at one stage claimed he had been a hero in secret services. Miss Cassell said that the conversation became sexual and they began exchanging sexual images of themselves.
The barrister added that in November Hawkins hired a car and drove to pick her up from a shop near her home in the Dudley area. Miss Cassell said her parents were "frantic with worry".
It was added that Hawkins moved her into his caravan. They watched television and went shopping together.
But he went on to perform a sex act and then went on to rape her. Miss Cassell read a statement from the girl which said that she had self-harmed and suffered flashbacks and sleepless nights.
The victim, who cannot be identified under the law., wrote: "I just feel so low after all of this. I just want to lie in bed all day. I have felt that I am worth nothing. I have hurt myself to get rid of this feeling. I have gone to sleep hoping that I would not wake up the next day."
William Parkhill, defending Hawkins, said that he had not intended to rape the girl when he drove to the West Midlands to pick her up. He added that the defendant had told the probation officer that he felt shame for his offending.
The barrister said that he did not want to make excuses. He added that Hawkins had lost his partner, his wider family and his job over the five years leading to the offence before spiralling into drugs misuse.
Mr Parkhill added: "He sought comfort and a life in the online world which he did not have in the real world and then matters progressed."
Judge Carr passed an indefinite restraining order banning Hawkins from contacting the girl in any way. He also made a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order to allow police to monitor his behaviour around children and on the internet. Hawkins will be on the Sex Offender Register for the rest of his life.