April 2014

Paedophile groomed 13-year-old girl in Belgium via facebook from Northamptonshire home

A Northamptonshire man who groomed a 13-year-old girl from Belgium via Facebook has been jailed for 18 months.

Iain Hubbard, aged 44, befriended the girl, who had just lost her father, and began talking to her on the social networking site in August 2011.

Mary Loram, prosecuting, said Hubbard manipulated the girl so that she believed they were boyfriend and girlfriend.

Despite the fact he knew her age, Hubbard pestered the girl to send naked photographs of himself.

Ms Loram said Hubbard also asked the girl to take her clothes off in front of a web camera and perform a sex act.

Ms Loram said: “The girl was reluctant but he made her feel guilty by telling her that she would do it if “she loved him”.”

Hubbard was arrested in October 2011 and police managed to trace a number of the pictures and messages Hubbard and sent and received from the girl despite the fact many had been deleted.

At Northampton Crown Court, Hubbard pleaded guilty to charges of causing or inciting a girl aged 13 or under to engage in sexual activity and three charges of making indecent photographs of a child.

Maxine Kroner, defending, said Hubbard, of Little Street, Rushden, was a former member of the armed forces who suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome. Ms Kroner said Hubbard had been heavily depressed and drinking heavily at the time he committed the offences.

Recorder Rachel Brand QC said: “This girl was at a particularly vulnerable time in her life and this was highly manipulative behaviour by you.

“You were fully aware of her age.”

Hubbard will be on the sexual offenders register for the next 10 years.