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Mum who fantasised about child sex abuse and rape of her own teen daughter is jailed

Since the offending came to light, the defendant’s marriage has broken down, she has lost her relationship with her children

Today at 19:11

A 43-year-old mother-of-two who fantasised about the sexual abuse of children and the rape of her own teenage daughter wept in court as she was jailed.

The estranged wife of a police officer, who cannot be identified to protect the identity of her daughter and is at a heightened risk of suicide if her name is released, was sentenced to two years and four months at Antrim Crown Court on Tuesday.

Ordering her to serve 10 months of the sentence in jail and the rest under supervised licence, Judge Roseanne McCormick KC told her that despite defence submissions for her not to be jailed, her offences “crossed the custody threshold”.

The judge said while the defendant claimed to have “no memory” of the three months of exchanging over 2,000 messages and dozens of child abuse videos with a London-based pervert, “she repeatedly asked for the images which are at the heart of this case” and there was no doubt she sent pictures of her own daughter.

Last June, she entered a guilty plea to a charge of “inciting, encouraging or assisting the distribution of indecent images of children” in that between March 29, and June 5, 2020, she assisted a named male “in the distribution of indecent images of children”.

Opening the facts of the shocking case on Tuesday, prosecuting counsel Suzanne Gallagher outlined that in March 2021, officers from the Thames Valley police force alerted the PSNI to the WhatsApp message thread they uncovered while they were investigating a male for possessing and distributing indecent images of children.

In that WhatsApp thread, which contained around 2,300 messages, the male and the defendant “graphically discuss the sexual abuse of babies and the defendant indicates she has a teenage daughter,” said Ms Gallagher, adding that the pair “discuss raping this child, getting her pregnant and then abusing the baby”.

The court heard that within the message thread, the defendant sent images of her daughter and sexually explicit images and videos of herself.

According to a forensic report from the Thames Valley Police, a total of 58 indecent videos and photographs of children were exchanged, including 17 assessed as category A.

According to legal guidelines, images classified at category A depict penetrative sexual acts, including rape, being perpetrated against children.

Ms Gallagher highlighted that during the message thread, the defendant “makes repeated requests for the male to send her such images”.

Having traced the number to the defendant and her home, police conducted a search of the property and seized a number of electronic devices, including the defendant’s mobile phone.

Although the messages were scrambled, advanced examination techniques obtained the message exchanges.

That advanced technique also uncovered a second message thread including the defendant, the same male and a third party where “they discuss raping a baby as well as the defendant’s teenage daughter”.

She was questioned by police but while she admitted it was her and her daughter in the various images and videos, she claimed she had taken the videos of herself to send to an “intimate partner” and could not explain how they turned up on another person’s device.

“The defendant provided no explanation as to how the WhatsApp chat in question was recovered from her mobile phone or how the male came into possession of photographs and videos of her of a sexualised nature other than to suggest that her WhatsApp account, internet and telephone number must have been hacked by person(s) unknown who have then masqueraded as her in an exchange with the man in London,” Ms Gallagher told the court.

She submitted the offences were aggravated because the defendant “engaged in sexualised conversation in respect of sexual offences being committed against her own daughter and a baby” and because the distribution of indecent photographs is more serious than possession.

Lodging a plea in mitigation, defence counsel Michael Ward said while the defendant accepts the prosecution case in its entirety, “she claims to have no particular recollection of these interactions having taken place”.

Mr Ward conceded he did not know whether that was associated with her long history of mental health problems or her “trying to block it out”.

Suggesting the offences were “clearly out of character”, the barrister told the court “she doesn’t have any recollection so it’s difficult to provide a diagnosis or how to treat her underlying issues but probation feel there is significant work that they can undertake with her.”

He revealed that since the offending came to light, the defendant’s marriage has broken down, she has lost her relationship with her children, and she is unlikely to be able to return to her previous career.

“She says, and I think it’s reflected in the reports, that she has lost everything in her life as a result of the behaviour,” said Mr Ward, who urged the judge not to jail the defendant, but to impose an extended period on probation which would treat any underlying issues and thereby also benefit society generally.

Jailing the woman however, Judge McCormick told the court “the aggravating factors are very clear” in that she had engaged in “protracted sexualised conversation” where they discussed abusing babies, abusing her daughter, getting her pregnant and then abusing that baby.

In addition to the jail sentence, Judge McCormick also imposed a 10-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order which places multiple structures on where the defendant can live and what devices she can have.

She will also be on the sex offenders register for 10 years.