by Lynda Roughley
A Birchwood man who “pressured” a 12-year-old girl to send him sexually explicit photographs of herself has been jailed despite pleas not to send him to prison due to a serious mental disorder.
A court heard that Thomas Stevens, aged 21, committed the offence shortly after receiving a suspended jail sentence for opening train doors while it was travelling at 70 mph. And he went on to make a series of 39 nuisance calls including five hoax calls which cost the emergency services wasted time and money.
Stevens, who suffers from autism, ADHD and social communication difficulties, admitted all his offending behaviour and his barrister urged a judge not to send him into custody.
But jailing him for three years, Recorder Eric Lamb said that the only appropriate sentence was an immediate jail term and he also ordered him to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for life.
He said that at times he had pressured the girl into sending him the indecent images of herself.
As he was led to the cells his step-mother and a woman friend broke down in tears in the public gallery and called out, “He’s never going to cope.”
Michael Scholes, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court, yesterday, Wednesday, that Stevens met the 12-year-old while they were both playing an online game on Snapchat in November 2020. He told her he was 15 when he was actually 19.
“They chatted regularly including WhatsApp and Instagram and after a short period of time they considered themselves girlfriend and boyfriend and their messages became intimate.”
Stevens started suggesting she send him naked images and videos of herself and told her to carry out sex acts while he watched and he sent her similar images of himself.
This happened on an almost daily basis until February when she saw a post on Instagram revealing his real age, which was confirmed by his ex-girlfriend.
She revealed what had been happening and said, “I didn’t like it but I did it so he could be happy and stuff.”
Mr Scholes said that over a two week period in January last year he made 39 calls using four different mobile numbers relating to Dominoes Pizza at Birchwood where he was employed.
Most of the calls were abandoned or remained silent but five were hoax calls to the emergency services including claiming someone had collapsed and stopped breathing, someone had fallen down a flight of stairs; there had been a serious road traffic accident with casualties and a car on fire and another false claim that someone had been stabbed.
He was twice seen by fire officers at the scene of these alleged incidents and he was arrested after the calls were traced to his place of employment.
Ambulance crews wasted almost three hours and involved nine clinicians and the fire service estimated the calls they had been called out to wasted £6,000, said Mr Scholes.
Stevens, from Birchwood, Warrington, pleaded guilty to inciting a child to engage in sexual activity; sending false electronic communications and admitted being in breach of the eight month suspended prison sentence for the train offence.
Simon Christie, defending, said references spoke highly of the defendant and he was described as “a likeable personality by many while working with him.”
He said he is suffering from a serious mental disorder and it is “a crying shame” that the treatment he had been offered in the community did not come close to dealing with his issues. He is still awaiting “a bespoke interventional package.”
Stevens has engaged with probation as part of the suspended sentence order and if jailed he is likely to have increased problems on his return to the community, said Mr Christie.
