December 2012

Junior member of GB kayaking team locked up after enticing young boys into sexual activities via webcam

A JUNIOR member of the GB kayaking team from Wirral was locked up for six months after enticing young boys into sexual activities via an internet webcam.

Stuart Parry, of Hill Close, Ness, Neston, abused his standing within the sport to draw in two teenage boys aged 13 and 15 at the time of the offences.

He had previously pleaded guilty to 20 sex offences, including two counts of inciting children to engage in sexual activity and one count of engaging in sexual touching in the presence of a child.

Parry, 20, was also charged with making and being in possession of indecent images after his personal computers were found to contain 122 indecent images of children, including 12 of the 15-year-old and one of the 13-year-old, along with some of boys as young as five.

Parry’s activities were discovered after Metropolitan police flagged up a Facebookconversation with Cheshire police which officers deemed “inappropriate”.

Peter Hussey, prosecuting, told Chester Crown Court said: “He abused his standing and position with these boys and bullied them for his own sexual purposes.”

The court heard Parry had coached the first victim, who accepted a link on Facebook but switched it off when he saw the defendant carrying out a sex act. Parry later sent through an indecent image.

Parry tried to entice his victim into meeting up for sexual activities and exhibited “worrying behaviour” in the changing rooms, where he would open his towel and expose himself.

The victim told the defendant’s ex-girlfriend, whose mother was the GB kayaking team’s child protection officer, and she referred the matter on.

But the boy was only prepared to give a full account to police when he found out someone else had suffered the same experience.

The second victim never met the defendant, but was another keen kayaker who was aware of Parry because he was “so well known” in the sport.

The court heard there was again contact through Facebook, which led to the boy being asked to perform a sex act.

Parry wanted to meet up but the parents of the youngster, from the south of England, refused permission.

Police recovered emails which revealed Parry had taken a dozen indecent images of the victim via webcam.

Matthew Corbett-Jones, defending, said his client was a young man aged 17 and 18 at the time of the offences with no previous convictions.

He said there was no physical contact with either of his victims and he had not distributed any of the images.

Judge Nicholas Woodward said Parry must serve a custodial sentence at a young offenders’ institute for “using and abusing” his position.

He also imposed a sexual offences prevention order.

October 2012

Olympic kayaking hopeful admits possessing indecent images of young children

AN Olympic hopeful abused his position of trust to target young boys on social networking sites enticing them into sexual activities over a webcam.

Stuart Parry, of Hill Close, Ness, Neston, was chosen for the junior freestyle kayaking GB team in 2005, becoming the youngest member of the squad at just 13 years old.

But Parry, now 20, pleaded guilty to 21 charges of sex offences against young boys after police discovered 122 indecent images of children on his personal computer.

During a plea and case management hearing at Chester Crown Court the Recorder of Chester Judge Elgan Edwards criticised Parry saying he had abused boys who had trusted and looked up to him as an experienced GB kayaker.

Judge Edwards said: “This is a breach of trust. These were conversations over the internet, on Facebook, with someone they knew was involved with kayaking at a senior level.”

The court heard how between October 13 and July 31, 2009 the former Neston High pupil targeted a 13-year-old boy on Facebook before enticing him to engage in a range of sexual activities over a webcam.

He used MSN and Facebook to communicate with the young boys, who are said to have all been interested in kayaking, and took images of them on his webcam and kept them on his computer.

Parry appeared in court charged with 25 counts of sexual offences on children under the age of 16, the oldest offence dating back to October 2008 when he was 17-years-old.

He pleaded guilty to:

Two counts of inciting children to engage in sexual activity.

One count of engaging in sexual touching in the presence of a child.

Possessing 122 indecent images of children – made up of 74 level one images, 22 level two, 14 level three and 11 level four.

Fourteen counts of making indecent images of children.

Taking 12 indecent images of children on his webcam.

He pleaded not guilty to five counts of causing a child to watch a sexual act over a webcam. These were ordered to lie on file.

At an earlier hearing at Chester Magistrates Court in July this year the court heard how Parry’s actions were only discovered when in March last year Cheshire Police was contacted by the Metropolitan Police after flagging up a Facebook conversation between Parry and a 14-year-old boy.

In 2005 Parry qualified for the GB U18 team after impressing judges with difficult manoeuvres in the water including back and forward somersaults, flips and turns.

He qualified for the K1 Junior Men’s GB kayaking team in 2009 during trials to represent Great Britain at the Freestyle World Championships in Switzerland in September 2009.

Parry, known as Stu among kayakers, also sat on the British Canoe Union Freestyle Committee in 2009 as a co-opted member.

Parry will be sentenced on November 26.

He was released on bail with the condition that he doesn’t access the internet or go near any watersports activities or canoeing centres.