Paul Evans 55

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A paedophile, who exposed himself to a girl whilst in the bath, told her mum there was "nothing wrong with being friends" with a child, a court heard.

Dad-of-one Paul Evans "pressured" the teen into sending intimate pictures and would tell her she was "beautiful" after meeting on a mobile app in December 2021. Teesside Crown Court heard the child told him she was a teenager straight away and on their first video call was even wearing a school uniform.

Outlining the case, prosecutor Rachel Butt, said the pair would chat on WhatsApp and call each other almost every day. The timings would range from between 7pm and 4am.

"She said he was very nice to her at first and would compliment her on her appearance and tell her she was beautiful and amazing," Ms Butt said. "In their first video call he told her 'if you keep speaking to me you'll get money'."

After several weeks of grooming the 55-year-old began to ask for pictures of the girl's cleavage and private parts. Ms Butt said these requests would make the young girl feel "pressured" because he would "beg" repeatedly and say things such as "I've had a really bad day, you don't care about me".

The court heard the young girl sent pictures on multiple occasions and during some of the video calls the Middlesbrough defendant would take his top off. Ms Butt said on one video call he was in the bath and exposed his erect penis to her.

However, in February 2022, the girl's mother became suspicious after she saw a message from her child to the defendant asking for money. The mum recalled that the youngster had been dropping hints that she had entered competitions to win money. Ms Butt said this was to ensure the family would have not known where the funds had come from if Evans ever sent her any.

The court heard the mother questioned her child but she denied sending pictures. The mum then phoned Evans and asked why he was chatting with the child. Ms Butt said in response he said he was "just talking to her" before ending the call.

The prosecutor said the following day the mum phoned the defendant again and said she was going to contact the police. Evans told her 'there was nothing wrong with being friends with a teenager'.

The court heard the mum destroyed her daughter's sim card to prevent her from contacting him and the matters weren't reported until months later. Evan's crimes came to light when social services contacted the police over concerns.

Evans was arrested in June 2022 and data from his phone showed multiple video calls to and from the victim. There was also an image of the youngster in her school uniform on his phone and also one of her cleavage.

In a victim impact statement the youngster said: "The case with Paul has had a huge impact on me and my family. Firstly it really hurt my relationship with my mum. After she found out what happened she didn't trust me and it's taken a long time to try and repair our relationship.

"Paul's actions and the hurt he caused me resulted in my being hospitalised after I tried to kill myself. My parents felt unable to keep me safe and I was put in care for four months. While I know this was trying to keep me safe it removed me from my family and I wasn't able to see my sister which really upset me."

The court heard Evans has 16 convictions for 75 offences and pleaded guilty to causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, causing the same child to look at a sexual act and engaging in sexual communications with a child.

In mitigation, barrister Kelleigh Lodge said the defendant has used his time in custody wisely and is remorseful. She said: "He is genuinely sorry for his behaviour and the impact that it has had on the victim and her family.

"He has been in custody for a short while now and has used it well. He has been working with the DART team to address his alcohol issues and his mental health issues."

She said Evans is working with the probation service and has been approved for the Horizon programme for medium risk sex offenders. The defendant, previously of Forest Drive, Ormesby, was handed a 32-month consecutive prison sentence.

He is already serving a two-years-and-six-months prison sentence after he performed a grotesque dance which involved exposing himself to two 15-year-old girls live on a webcam. Teesside Live previously reported he promised the girls thousands of pounds each if they showed him their bodies.

He offered them more money to touch each other, but they refused. The two girls were online together in a bedroom when Evans performed the sick dance.