Adult Dating | Webcam Pervert Loses Appeal

5:20am Monday 4th June 2012 in News

A PERVERT who encouraged a 14-year-old girl to stage a private sex show for him via a webcam has been told by top judges he cannot complain about his jail term.

John McGregor Farrell Morell was jailed for six months at Salisbury Crown Court in April after admitting causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

The 53-year-old, of Johnson Way, Ludgershall , challenged his sentence at London’s Criminal Appeal Court, with his lawyers arguing he should have been given a community punishment.

But his appeal was dismissed by three of the country’s top judges, who said a term behind bars was “appropriate”

and six months was “not excessive.”

Mr Justice Burnett, sitting with Lord Justice Hughes and Mr Justice Nicol, told the court Morell contacted the girl, who cannot be identified, via an adult dating website ” initially believing she was 20.

However, the girl, described as being “vulnerable,”, told him she was just 14 at the start of online communication.

Despite that, Morell exchanged graphic and sexually explicit messages with her over 10 days in August 2010.

He also asked her to strip and encouraged her to engage in sex acts as he watched online via a webcam, but he did not let her see him.

When interviewed by police, he initially maintained he believed she was over 16, but soon confessed he realised her true age and admitted his guilt at the earliest chance.

A probation officer had recommended a three-year community order and a sexoffender treatment programme, because he had little insight into the effect of his crime on the victim.

But, dismissing the appeal, Mr Justice Burnett said it was “not inappropriate” for the judge to impose the immediate jail term.

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