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Wakefield au pair who abused boy to be freed
THE country's top judge has quashed a two-year sentence handed to a male au pair from Wakefield who sexually abused a two-year-old boy in his care.
Paedophile Richard Mowatt abused the toddler while changing his nappy during a three-month stay working for the boy's family after they hired him via an internet advert.
In May, The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier QC, sent Mowatt, of Greenlay Drive, Kirkhamgate, to a Young Offender Instititution for two years and three months.
But on Wednesday, three judges – led by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge – granted Mowatt, 21, his freedom at a Court of Appeal hearing.
He admitted 20 counts of making indecent photographs of a child, possession of indecent photographs and sexual assault.
Mowatt's sentence was quashed after appeal court judges heard he approached the Lucy Faithfull Foundation to get help and staff there reported concerns to police.
Instead, Mowatt was handed a three-year supervision order and must attend a sex offenders' treatment programme.
After Mowatt's home was raided last July police found more than 1,300 pictures and videos on his computer including images of children as young as three being sexually abused and tortured by men.
Police were not aware of the sex assault committed when Mowatt worked as an au pair in 2007 and 2008 until he told them he briefly touched the boy.
Mowatt also legally downloaded 5,600 images and 30 films of children wearing nappies from family photo albums on photo sharing websites including Flickr.
Mowatt's layers argued he was only 19 at the time of his offending and had shown a "commendable" desire to deal with his admitted sexual attraction to boys in nappies.
Mr Justice Rafferty said: "It is his own candour and full awareness that brought him before the courts. It is difficult to see, in terms of the sexual assault on a child, any harm to the infant from a momentary lapse.
"The justice of the case can be met by the acknowledgement that, by now, he has served the equivalent of six months' loss of liberty.
"It is the interest of the public generally, and children in particular, that compels us to the view that the community order proposed is the appropriate disposal now.
"There is no doubt, in our mind, that an order should be put in place prohibiting his working with children in the future."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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