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A 71-year-old man from the Wirral has been sentenced after targeting a 13-year-old girl. He was known to the family.
As reported by the Wirral Globe, John King, of Netherton Road, Moreton, sent harrowingly explicit messages to the teenager. One eerie one included calling the child a "sex pot". The pedophile was also known to have explicit images of the girl on his phone, and to have bought her a sex toy.
He was sentenced to four years in prison at Liverpool Crown Court on July 17.
King had previously pleaded guilty to other charges, including:
Sexual communications with a child.
Inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
Making indecent images of children.
Possession of 33 indecent images of children.
The victim reportedly couldn't go outside for months at a time, developing agrophobia from the unsettling exchanges. The court heard the teenager cut her hair and became a "shell of herself".
The harrowing events transpired across four months, from October 2022 to February 2023.
The court heard King admitted during police interview that he had given the victim a vibrator and accepted that some of his behaviour had "crossed the line".
During sentencing, the judge highlighted the level of trust King had built with the victim's family, noting that when the girl's mother discovered the sex toy among her daughter's belongings, she turned to King for advice because she did not suspect he was responsible.
King was sentenced and made subject to the sex offender notification requirements indefinitely, as well as a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Verity Quaite, who was prosecuting, said that the victim knew the man, as he had a relationship with her mother 15 years prior. While in close contact with her, he bought her expensive gifts, like mobile phones.
In January 2023, the victim alleged that the 71-year-old assaulted her at home while he was delivering her a mobile phone.
Police and the court did not pursue this charge, but reports say that when the phone was handed to police, they found explicit messages on the phone to the victim, and King requesting photos of the victim in her school uniform.
33 Category C images of children were found on the man's phone.
The victim's mother bravely read a victim personal statement to the court. It read: "[She] was just 13 years old. She was a shy girl. She kept herself to herself but spent some time with friends. She had a close relationship with her siblings, and we were a happy family."
“I cannot fully describe the devastating effect [King’s] actions have had.” She is no longer the same person. She is a shell of herself," her mother recalled.
The statement said that the victim now has agoraphobia and hasn't gone out for as long as four months. When the victim does go out, it's only for mandatory appointments by taxi.
Her mother also said her daughter has "lost out on so much" of her teenage years and activities in normal life.
Heartbreakingly, she also recalled how her daughter has lost weight and cut her hair. Condemning King, she said, "it's all a result of John King's actions".
Ending the statement, she highlighted how the family's lives were "changed irreparably" by King's crimes and how the family is angry and sad that someone they trusted would do this.
Defending, Chris Lothian-Field accepted the offences passed the custody threshold but asked the court to consider King’s previous good character and lack of convictions. He highlighted King’s deteriorating health, including previous heart surgery, a pacemaker, the effects of a recent stroke and ongoing mental health difficulties. He also noted a three-year delay in bringing the case to court, which was not caused by his client.
A family member wept in the public gallery as King was sentenced. Recorder Hall said King had abused the trust placed in him by the victim’s family and used his relationship with her mother to communicate with the 13-year-old. While the judge acknowledged King’s guilty pleas, his previous good character, and his health issues, he said the seriousness of the offences outweighed these, the age difference, and the “gross abuse of trust”.
