Locations
Dennis Estate, Kirton, Boston, Lincolnshire, PE20
Description
A twisted Snapchat predator from Lincolnshire has been jailed after grooming, abducting and having sex with a schoolgirl.
Daniel Potterton from Kirton, Boston, targeted the 14-year-old girl in June before luring her into a string of sexual acts which lasted a number of weeks.
The 20-year-old was sentenced to six years in prison at Newcastle Crown Court and told he must sign the sex offenders register. He will also be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for life and subject to an indefinite restraining order.
Potterton randomly added the girl on Snapchat in June and began chatting with her. Her parents ended up confiscating her phone after becoming concerned about the contact and she reacted by causing damage to their home while shouting and swearing and they contacted police, reports Chronicle Live.
Potterton drove to South Tyneside and contacted the girl from near her home and she went out with him in his Vauxhall Corsa, turning off the GPS on her phone. The girl, who was a virgin, had sex with him in the car.
She was reported missing by her parents and when she returned home she had love bites and was described as "obsessed" with him and refused to cooperate with a medical examination, saying she believed she was in a relationship with him.
Newcastle Crown Court heard the girl also texted her parents asking if she could go away with him for 10 days but they refused. She also said she needed her passport to go to France and "didn't appear to think there was anything wrong with her having sex with him.
Glenn Gatland, prosecuting, said: "He said he was going to prison anyway so he might as well do it again." Police saw the defendant's car crossing Wearmouth Bridge on August 2 and the girl was in the car with him and he was arrested.
In a victim impact statement, the girl's mother said: "It has caused me to feel like I'm having a nervous breakdown, I feel weighed down and I feel like a zombie.
"Her behaviour has turned manic since I found out she was speaking to him. She doesn't care about the danger as long as she can be with him.
"We have taken her phone off her and she is always searching for it. She will do anything and everything to get what she wants.
"She has turned the whole family's world upside down. I feel broken and all our hearts are breaking. She thinks she can do what she wants and calls me an idiot when I try to educate her."
Her dad added: "We have had to put locks on every door except the bathroom. Every time we leave the house we have to lock every room and it feels like a prison. If we don't, she would search everywhere to get hold of bank cards or phones."
Potterton, of Dennis Estate, Boston, pleaded guilty to child abduction, two counts of sexual activity with a child, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child and meeting a child following sexual grooming.
On a second occasion, Potterton drove back up to the North East and the girl went to meet him again. When her mother discovered she was not in her room in the early hours, police were contacted. She then came home at 5am.
Judge Christopher Prince said: "(The girl) bears a deep resentment (to her parents) notwithstanding their efforts to do everything they can to try to help. The effect on them has been profound and distressing. They are quite simply utterly at their wits end at their inability to do more to help her.
"You were fully aware of what you were doing and fully aware you were breaking the law yet you took the most cynical view that as you were going to prison anyway you would engage in sexual intercourse with her a second time."
Steven Reed, defending, said Potterton was of previous good character and said immaturity contributed to his offending.
After the case, Detective Sergeant Jodie Faulkner, of Northumbria Police, said: "This is a very upsetting case that saw Potterton target his underage victim on social media before sexually exploiting her over a number of weeks. His behaviour has had a shattering impact on both his victim and her family. I sincerely hope his conviction in court offers them some comfort.
"As soon as we were made aware of this case, we were determined to get hold of Potterton who we learnt had been travelling long distances from Lincolnshire over a number of weeks to sexually exploit his victim."