Description
He hid away 97 images he persuaded the girl to send him
A paedophile groomed a 14-year-old girl before getting her to send revealing photos of herself and perform sex acts whilst on the phone to him. Mark Quinn, 32, initially showered the victim with compliments before leaving her so scared she went along with what he said.
Quinn, of no fixed abode, appeared at Truro Crown Court for sentence having pleaded guilty to sexual communications with a child, causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and making indecent images of a child. All the offences took place in Liskeard in early 2020.
Prosecuting the case, Brian Fitzherbert described how Quinn met the girl and even offered to help intervene with difficulties in her family.
He gradually introduced a sexual element to the conversation, talking about kissing and describing her as beautiful, hot and sexy. The victim then spoke of how Quinn made the conversation dirty.
The frequencies of calls and messages escalated to the point when Quinn was contacting her every five minutes. Quinn told her to delete messages on instruction and got her to pose for him in a bra, before storing the 97 pictures away in a hidden folder.
Mr Fitzherbert said: She became increasingly scared and felt she had to do everything he said. Mr Fitzherbert went on to speak of how Quinn persuaded the girl to masturbate over the phone, as he did the same on the other end of the line.
The offending was eventually detected when the girl had her phone confiscated for an unrelated misdemeanour.
In mitigation, Barry Hilliard said: He doesnt know how and why he got into this but was not in a good place mentally and was drinking too much. Hes been dumb with anxiety waiting for his fate.
He comes from a broken home his father was an alcoholic and left when Mr Quinn was 11.
Sentencing Quinn, Judge Simon Carr said: You started an internet relationship with her and initially, and troublingly purported to put yourself forward as someone could assist with family matters.
Having set-up this position you carefully groomed her and the conversations became sexual in nature. You knew she was 14 and particularly vulnerable.
You got her to pose repeatedly and provocatively in her bra and 97 pictures were saved for you to continuously view for your own sexual gratification.
Judge Carr referenced how Quinn got the girl to masturbate before jailing him for three years. He was also made subject to a sexual harm prevention order and relevant sex offender notification requirements.
A statement from the victims family said: When Mark came along he was in a position of trust.
We soon realised something wasn't right when our daughter started acting out of character, when we checked her phone we were in total shock. We feel betrayed, hurt and lost and picking up the pieces was a long and hard process.
All I will say is I know we had our rocky patch but we come through it and our bonds are now as strong as ever. My daughter is a rock and current wife is an absolute angel who will do anything to protect this family.
Hopefully justice has been served and we can all start a new chapter. The whole family would like to send our sincere gratitude to the officers and case workers who were involved. You have been absolutely fantastic and we will always remember the hard work you have put in gaining evidence. It will never go unnoticed and will never be forgotten.
Police get a lot of flak but when it comes to our children they work very hard to see that some sort of justice is served. The ripple effect it had was immense and I'll never wish it on anyone. Please, please if your child acts out of character always follow your gut instinct. My daughter is thankful it's all over and we can now move on and close this very hard chapter that tested this family to the limits. Thankfully we got there before it got even more serious.