Internet paedophile groomed Yorkshire schoolgirl as slave

Jailing Anthony O’Connor for 14 years and eight months with five years’ extended licence at Leeds Crown Court yesterday, Judge Rodney Jameson QC said he had treated the girl as his internet slave causing her enormous psychological damage.

He said the case demonstrated “the gravity of a type of offending which is becoming prevalent, namely grooming followed by blackmail over the internet leading to non-consensual sexual exploitation”.

The girl, from Kirklees, had initially received a friend request from what she believed was another girl, older than herself when in fact it came from O’Connor, then 57.

He misled her by pretending to be lesbian called Susan, a “deliberate strategy” in order to ensnare the vulnerable teenager, then 13, “whom you intended from the start to groom for your own sexual exploitation”.

Judge Jameson said O’Connor groomed the girl for months telling her “she” loved her and persuaded her to perform acts on webcam which he recorded, then getting her to involve her brother by promising as Susan to have sex with him in the future.

He said initially the girl was made to believe it was part of a loving relationship but when that tactic ceased to produce her obedience he “resorted to the grossest manipulation” trying to instruct her to seduce her brother so he could watch.

When he eventually revealed to her the truth, that he was a 57-year-old man, “you were determined to keep her as your sexual toy.

“By now, as you reminded her, you held all the aces.

“She was entirely in your power and you exploited that position without mercy or pity.

“In short you used every means available to you to enforce your will on this confused and now terrified child.”

He said O’Connor did that by a combination of threats, mostly that he would publish the images he had to her family and neighbours and for just under a year “had taken over her life”.

“The purpose of all this remained your own sexual gratification.”

“You told her she was your slave. Any ounce of rebellion was crushed out of her by being told she was worthless.” The judge said he had robbed the pair of their childhood.

Oliver Thorne, prosecuting, said the offences came to light after the girl’s mother borrowed a laptop and discovered some of what had been happening.

The police arrested O’Connor, from Darlington. He was then found to have shared some of the photos with “paedophile associates” and at one stage on a publicly accessible website.

Mr Thorne said the psychological harm had been particularly great to the girl, who had attempted suicide and self-harm. She said in a victim impact statement “people say don’t let it ruin my life, but it has”.

O’Connor, now 59, of Barden Moor, Darlington, admitted eight charges of causing a child to engage in sexual activity, 11 of making indecent images and four of distributing indecent images.

His barrister, Anastasis Tassou, said he had no previous convictions and by his guilty pleas had saved a trial.

The judge said there had to be a lengthy sentence because the harm caused by such illegal internet usage was so great.

He said while earlier acts and images might have been taken ostensibly with the girl’s consent when she thought she was in a relationship with an older girl, that was not the case after O’Connor revealed his true sex and age.

He knew the girl was suicidal even then but continued to control her life, forcing her to continue performing sex acts.