Description
A MAN who committed a “significant” number of child sexual offences against a girl has been jailed for nine years.
Robert Taylor, aged 61, groomed and manipulated the 15-year-old and carried out the criminal behaviour over a three-month period.
Bournemouth Crown Court heard when the girl disclosed what had taken place to police, officers found more than 2,600 indecent images of her on the defendant’s phone.
Taylor, of Surrey Road, Poole, was found guilty of three counts of engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a child and one count of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child aged 13 to 15 following a trial last month.
He admitted one count of causing or inciting a girl aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity, two counts of engaging in non-penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged 13 to 15, seven counts of taking an indecent photograph of a child and two counts of making an indecent photograph of a child.
The 61-year-old defendant was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment by Judge William Mousley KC at a Bournemouth Crown Court hearing on Thursday, February 2.
Judge Mousley KC said Taylor had kept “souvenirs” of his sexual abuse as well as a raft of other indecent images of the girl.
“I’m sure you groomed her to comply with your demands,” Judge Mousley KC said.
He added: “You manipulated her emotionally.”
The judge said the defendant, who had no previous convictions, made the girl frightened of him.
Prosecutor Tim Moores read a statement from the child which detailed the significant psychological impact the abuse had on her.
She described having “horrific memories” more than a year after the offending.
The court heard Taylor refused to answer questions when confronted with the allegations. He later denied the penetration offence and the allegation he fondled himself in front of the child.
Mitigating, Nick Robinson said the defendant had written a letter to the court in which he said he was “deeply sorry for all he has done”.
Mr Robinson described the offending as an “aberration”.
Judge Mousley KC said the defendant tried to cast blame on the complainant, but he told Taylor: “There is only one person to blame and it is you.”
It was accepted by the judge that the crimes were out of character and took place during a difficult period in the offender’s life.
“You were convicted of the most serious offences because of the great courage and sustained determination of the complainant,” Judge Mousley KC said.
The defendant was handed an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and he was placed on the sex offenders register for life.