A Belfast court heard at one point the 21-year-old from Cliftonville Avenue said he would ‘rape the f**k out of’ the child and another youngster
A Belfast man who contacted a 12-year old schoolgirl online then demanded she perform and record “degrading acts” for his sexual gratification was jailed for two years today.
Tommy Reader, who is 21 and from Cliftonville Avenue, attended his sentence hearing at Belfast Crown Court via a videolink with HMP Maghaberry.
Describing Reader’s offending as “catfishing on the internet”, Judge Neil Rafferty KC imposed a four-year sentence which was divided equally between prison and supervised licence.
The court heard that in January 2024 the PSNI was contacted by police in England regarding complaints made by a 12-year old schoolgirl. These complaints concerned her disclosing sexual communication with an adult male over a period of several months.
The schoolgirl’s mother went through her daughter’s phone where she located sexually explicit chats with a male contact. The mother read the conversations between her child and Reader, who at the time was 19, and viewed sexually explicit images of her daughter. Reader made sexual demands from the 12-year old which included her performing and recording sex acts on herself and sending him images and videos of this activity.
On occasions Reader insisted that her face was included in the images and videos and he also threatened that if she did not do as he asked, he would share images he already had of her on Twitter/X. Reader told her he would like her to “join in” with another child and that he would “rape the f**k out of both of them”, and also asked her to “join in” with her younger relatives.
He also demanded that she sent him sexually explicit photographs whilst she was wearing her school uniform. Judge Rafferty said these demands were “orchestrated at his direction for his own sexual gratification” and that Reader had a “predilection to see the suffering of the victim while she was forced top perform these degrading acts.”
Regarding a second 12-year old girl, who Reader contacted before the schoolgirl in England, it emerged that he knew her and named her mother. Saying this demonstrated Reader was playing “sinister mind games” with this child, Judge Rafferty said after she alerted her mother and sought help “nothing meaningful” occurred after that.
As a result of the complainant made by the 12-year old English schoolgirl, police interviewed Reader. During this, offences committed against a third victim, described as an ‘unidentified child under 16 years’, emerged due to admissions Reader made.
Accepting his offending against all three victims at interview, Reader told police ‘I just want to admit everything.’ He pleaded guilty to a total of 33 offences committed over a period spanning from December 31, 2020 to January 1, 2024. These charges include causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, possessing indecent images of children, sexual communication with a child and blackmail.
Branding the offending against the English schoolgirl as “by far the most serious in this entire case”, Judge Rafferty said he had read a Victim Impact Statement which outlined the “significant and enduring” harm Reader’s offending has caused her.
During today’s sentencing, Judge Rafferty spoke of Reader’s “difficult and traumatic” childhood which included periods when he was placed into care. The Judge spoke of several aggravating factors including the young age of the victims and Reader’s attempts to involve other children.
Mitigating factors, he said, included Reader’s guilty pleas, his young age and voluntary attending 17 counselling sessions following his arrest.
The Judge also noted that the offences were non-contact and conducted over the internet. In addition to the jail term being imposed, Reader will also spend an indefinite period on the Sex Offenders Register.
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