Description
A man who subjected a 15-year-old girl to ongoing sexual abuse and made her film herself engaging in degrading sexual acts has been found to be dangerous by Chester Crown Court and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment as part of an extended sentence.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that Martin Steven Gill, 49, of St Clair Street, Crewe, sexually abused the girl over a period of several months.
He had met her and befriended her and they exchanged contact details, but the conversations quickly became sexual.
Over the coming months he forced the girl to film herself engaging in increasingly degrading acts. She would send him the images and he would store them on his computer.
He also engaged in penetrative sex with her at commercial premises in Crewe on a couple of occasions.
In April 2019, the girl ceased all contact with Gill, but he continued to ask for images. She told him he was lucky that she had not contacted the police. He didn’t contact her after that.
On 9 May 2019, police searched the defendant’s address and seized several devices.
The police discovered more than 2,000 indecent images of children on the devices, including hundreds in the most extreme category. It was clear that many of the images of child sexual abuse had been sourced and created by Gill.
He was interviewed but his victim did not feel able to support the prosecution. However, the case proceeded based on the evidence.
On 2 September 2022 he pleaded guilty to 15 sexual offences, including making and possessing indecent images of children, engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a child and causing a child to engage in penetrative sexual activity.
On 11 November 2022, at Chester Crown Court, Gill was found to be "dangerous" and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment as part of an extended sentence.
Senior Crown Prosecutor Chris Fontaine, a specialist prosecutor with CPS Mersey Cheshire’s Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) unit said: “Martin Gill subjected the victim to degrading acts of sexual abuse for his own perverted sexual gratification.
“What he asked her to do was illegal both because of her age and the extreme sexual nature of the activity. But he didn’t care. Even when she stopped all contact with him, he kept asking for more images. He had no concern for the children being abused in the indecent images.
“We would like to thank the victim for finding the courage to provide a statement. Although she felt unable to attend court, the prosecution was able to proceed on the basis of other evidence which clearly showed him to be a paedophile.
“The Crown Prosecution Service will work with the police to bring these offenders to justice if we have the evidence and the prosecution is in the public interest. In this case, clearly both tests were met.”