Deputy head told pervert to rape girl aged three

Patrick Lennon, 59, who taught at the all-girls Greenbank High School in Southport, Merseyside, asked John Hawley, 38, to sexually abuse the youngster.

Lennon pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday to a string of sexual offences including two counts of encouraging or assisting Hawley to commit the attack.

He was suspended last September from his post at the school where he had worked since the 1970s.

His arrest by Merseyside Police and subsequent trawl through his computer led to colleagues in Greater Manchester detaining Hawley and another man, Philip Skitt, in March this year.

It emerged Skitt, of Wigan, and Lennon had been in online contact with Hawley, of Bolton, in which they asked him to commit a sexual act on a child.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: "During interview, Hawley admitted raping and sexually abusing a child under 13 on a number of occasions over two years and told police that on at least one occasion, Skitt and another man were watching on a webcam and encouraging the abuse.

"Images of him raping a child and other extreme pornography were found in his possession."

Lennon, of Warwick Avenue, Crosby, pleaded guilty to two offences of encouraging or assisting Hawley to rape a three-year-old girl.

He also admitted six counts of possessing extreme pornography and 15 counts of making indecent photographs of children.

Hawley, 38, of Boundary Street, Halliwell, admitted three counts of raping a child under 13, three counts of sexual assault by penetration of a child under 13, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child and making indecent images of a child.

Skitt, 54, of Orrell Road, admitted to two counts of encouraging or assisting sexual abuse on the same day as Lennon. He also pleaded guilty to voyeurism and making indecent images of children.

Skitt and Lennon denied other similar charges but the court heard that in principle all the pleas were acceptable to the Crown Prosecution Service.

All three will be sentenced at the same court on September 3.