November 2012

Firefighter posed as teenage girl to lure 16-year-old into performing webcam sex acts

A FIREFIGHTER who posed as a teenager called ‘Sexy Susie’ to lure a 16-year-old girl into performing sexual acts on a webcam was found to have indecent images of children on his computer, a court heard. Father-of-one Nicholas Marshall, 28, used the fake identity to persuade the girl to behave indecently for him before making five movies of her.

The files, along with 129 other indecent images of pre-pubescent girls, were found on his computer after police raided his home in Norton Wood, Nailsworth, on October 25 last year.

At the time of the offences, Marshall, who is married with a three-year-old daughter, was a retained firefighter with the Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service but has since quit the role.

He pleaded guilty to six offences of making indecent images and movies of children between February 2010 and October last year.

Sentenced him to a three-year community order with supervision at Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, November 1, district judge Martin Brown also ordered him to sign the sex offenders register for five years and attend the Thames Valley Sex Offender programme.

Prosecutor Graham Dono said when police raided Marshall’s home he was not there but his wife and daughter were.

Officers asked if anyone called ‘Susie Rush’ was living at the house but were told there was not.

A police examination of Marshall’s laptop found the indecent images, which were said to be at the least serious level of depravity, said Mr Dono.

They also found three email accounts, including one set up under the name ‘sexi-Susie Rush.’

Officers spoke to the girl in the films, who told them she believed she had been speaking to and performing the acts for a girl of around 17 or 19-years-old.

Mr Dono added that when Marshall was formally arrested for the offences he made no comment.

Nick Cooper, for the defence, said his client accepted the verdict of a probation professional, who felt he needed to undergo a sex offender programme, which Marshall said he was prepared to submit himself to.