A perverse Snapchat predator from Lincolnshire has been incarcerated after grooming, abducting, and engaging in sexual relations with a schoolgirl.
Daniel Potterton of Kirton, Boston, exploited the 14-year-old girl in June, enticing her into a series of sexual actions that persisted for several weeks.
The 20-year-old received a six-year prison sentence at Newcastle Crown Court and was mandated to register as a sex offender. He will be subjected to a lifelong sexual harm prevention order and an indefinite restraining order.
In June, Potterton randomly added the girl on Snapchat and had a conversation with her. Her parents confiscated her phone due to concerns regarding her contacts, prompting her to vandalise their home while shouting and swearing, leading them to alert the police, according to Chronicle Live.
Potterton travelled to South Tyneside and reached out to the girl near her residence, thereafter accompanying him in his Vauxhall Corsa while disabling the GPS on her phone. The virgin female engaged in sexual intercourse with him in the car.
Her parents reported her missing, and upon her return, she exhibited love bites and was characterised as “obsessed” with him. She declined to comply with a medical evaluation, asserting that she believed she was in a relationship with him.
The Newcastle Crown Court was informed that the girl further messaged her parents enquiring about the possibility of accompanying him for a duration of 10 days, but they declined. She stated that she required her passport to travel to France and seemed to believe there was nothing inappropriate about engaging in sexual relations with him.
Glenn Gatland, prosecuting, said: “He said he was going to prison anyway so he might as well do it again.” Police saw the defendant’s car crossing Wearmouth Bridge on August 2 and the girl was in the car with him and he was arrested.
In a victim impact statement, the girl’s mother said: “It has caused me to feel like I’m having a nervous breakdown, I feel weighed down and I feel like a zombie.
“Her behaviour has turned manic since I found out she was speaking to him. She doesn’t care about the danger as long as she can be with him.
“We have taken her phone off her and she is always searching for it. She will do anything and everything to get what she wants.
“She has turned the whole family’s world upside down. I feel broken and all our hearts are breaking. She thinks she can do what she wants and calls me an idiot when I try to educate her.”
Her dad added: “We have had to put locks on every door except the bathroom. Every time we leave the house we have to lock every room and it feels like a prison. If we don’t, she would search everywhere to get hold of bank cards or phones.”
Potterton, of Dennis Estate, Boston, pleaded guilty to child abduction, two counts of sexual activity with a child, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child and meeting a child following sexual grooming.
On a second occasion, Potterton drove back up to the North East and the girl went to meet him again. When her mother discovered she was not in her room in the early hours, police were contacted. She then came home at 5am.
Judge Christopher Prince said: “(The girl) bears a deep resentment (to her parents) notwithstanding their efforts to do everything they can to try to help. The effect on them has been profound and distressing. They are quite simply utterly at their wits end at their inability to do more to help her.
“You were fully aware of what you were doing and fully aware you were breaking the law yet you took the most cynical view that as you were going to prison anyway you would engage in sexual intercourse with her a second time.”
Steven Reed, defending, said Potterton was of previous good character and said immaturity contributed to his offending.
After the case, Detective Sergeant Jodie Faulkner, of Northumbria Police, said: “This is a very upsetting case that saw Potterton target his underage victim on social media before sexually exploiting her over a number of weeks. His behaviour has had a shattering impact on both his victim and her family. I sincerely hope his conviction in court offers them some comfort.
“As soon as we were made aware of this case, we were determined to get hold of Potterton who we learnt had been travelling long distances from Lincolnshire over a number of weeks to sexually exploit his victim.”
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