12 months for the paedophile who groomed my daughter is just disgraceful
The mother of an Ulster school girl groomed for sex by an English paedophile last night branded his 12 month sentence “disgraceful”.
Speaking after Robert Hughes, of Pershore Avenue, Grimsby, was sentenced to 12 months for unlawful carnal knowledge of her 15-year-old daughter and 12 concurrent months for meeting her following sexual grooming, the teenager’s angry mother said: “As a mother, no sentence would be long enough for me but realistically, sex offenders do not get the sentence they deserve.
“The fact is these criminals, these sex offenders, they are paedophiles and they are taken by the hand and their victims are slapped to the side.”
Belfast Crown Court heard that the 25-year-old met the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, through a mobile phone chat room and the pair contacted each other on an almost daily basis through the chatroom, by text and by telephone.
The defendant claimed his victim, who used her real name in the chatroom, had told him she was 17 and was at college, but during interview, she said she had told him she was only 14.
Six months after the pair first made contact, Hughes, who had told the teenager he loved her, invited the teenager to Grimsby but she suggested he come to Belfast to see her.
In July 2004, the defendant flew to Belfast and met the teenager at a Belfast hotel where he gave her gifts before having sex with her.
The defendant claimed he only became aware of the girl’s real age the following day when the pair met up again.
Describing sexual grooming as a “serious offence”, Judge Babington said that while the defendant’s victim may have been his equal emotionally, it was his responsibility to say no.
As well as a custodial sentence, Hughes was given a further two years of probation and agreed to participate in a community sex offenders group work programme for 180 hours.
Judge Babington also banned Hughes from working with children indefinitely and ordered him to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.
