Philip Greenhalgh 61

Description

A pervert took advantage of a teenage girl and bribed her into carrying out degrading sexual acts in return for money and cigarettes.

Philip Greenhalgh, 61, was jailed at Leeds Crown Court this week having admitted a catalogue of offences against the girl dating back several years. He forced her to pose for sexual photographs and would regularly tell her she owed him for the cigarettes he gave her.

The girl, who was 15 at the time, wanted to raise money for a Mother’s Day gift and she came into contact with Greenhalgh who offered her money.

The judge, Recorder David Kelly, told him: “She wanted pocket money for a Mother’s Day present, together with the fact she had a smoking habit you encouraged by giving her cigarettes and asking for sexual favour in return.

“She was unable to tell her mother at the time because she would have had to tell her mother she was smoking cigarettes.”

Prosecutor Eleanor Fry said that he offered to buy cigarettes for her, and when he did, he asked her: “How are you going to pay me for them?”

He suggested she show him her breasts, so reluctantly, she did and Greenhalgh touched her. She went home and cried, Miss Fry said. But matters then began to escalate when he continue to touch her and ask her to masturbate him.

He would also ask her to take her clothes off and he would ask her to pose, telling her what positions to hold. He took the photos and filmed her on his phone. He would even ask he to smile while posing.

Eventually, he tried to persuade her to have sex with him but she refused. He said he was saving a condom for the time they would have sex. The girl then confessed to a friend who encouraged her to contact the police.

Greenhalgh, who was living in Leeds but now lives on Ingram Crescent in Knottingley, near Wakefield, was interviewed by police and told them he thought she was 14 at the time. His phone was checked and it was found he had performed a factory reset, but videos of the girl, along with photographs, were recovered. One video included Greenhalgh’s telling her how to pose.

On the day his trial was due to begin, he admitted 16 offences, including five counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity, four counts of sexual activity with a child, two counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, two of taking indecent photographs and three of making indecent photographs.

The court heard that he had five previous convictions, including a rape dating back to 1992 for which he received a two-year sentence.

Mitigating, Richard Canning said Greenhalgh had been on bail “for a number of years” and there had been no issues or further offending. He conceded: “He knows he is going to receive a lengthy sentence. He is thoroughly ashamed of what he has done, he wishes it had never happened.

“His main wish is that the complainant will get past this when she gets older.”

Recorder Kelly gave Greenhalgh an eight-year jail sentence, for which he will have to serve two-thirds, rather than the usual half, before being eligible for parole. He was also put on the sex offender register and given a life-long sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).