After doing 200 hours of unpaid labour, a Ginger Paedophile Football Supporter, Joseph Wood, who repeatedly sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl, was found not guilty.
The seven-year-old child was sexually abused by Joseph Wood of Milton Drive in Buckie at a Moray property “and elsewhere” until he was sixteen and she was twelve.
During a trial at Inverness Sheriff Court this month, he was found guilty of sexually abusing the youngster “on various occasions” between August 23, 2015, and March 15, 2020.
In addition to exposing himself to her and making lewd remarks about her, he also forced his hand inside her clothing, touched her, and got into bed with her.
Additionally, Wood sent the girl a number of written messages in which he indicated his desire to have sex with her, requested her to send him dirty pictures of herself, and sent her indecent pictures of himself. This caused the girl to view sexual photographs.
Wood was accused of committing certain activities “for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification or humiliating, distressing, or alarming her.”
According to earlier testimony in court, Wood’s misdeeds were only discovered when his victim alerted her mother.
“She sent me a message saying that she ‘needed to tell me something,'” her mother said during the trial.
She described how he had been groping her and how she had been mistreated since she was a young child.
When he assured her that “he’d do it properly” when she reached sixteen, she became frightened.
She simply lost it.
He would grab her behind and touch her.”
Prior to sentencing on Thursday, June 18, Wood’s attorney told Sheriff Elaine Macdonald that a jail sentence for his client was “no doubt” an option.
Sheriff Elaine Macdonald sentenced Wood, stating that it was “without doubt a very serious offence perpetrated against a young, vulnerable child over time.
She continued by saying that the incident had caused “lasting damage” and that although such an offence would typically result in a jail term, she also had to take his age at the time into account.
“You appear with no other convictions,” she went on, adding that she had to weigh each of these considerations while determining the appropriate punishment because reports presented to the court indicated that he had a low chance of reoffending.
The sheriff added that Wood would be under supervision for a longer period if he received a non-custodial sentence with a lengthy supervision order, rather than being imprisoned for the offence.
When the sheriff sentenced him to a community payback order, he emphasised that it was a “direct alternative to custody” and that breaking its conditions would put him back in jail.
Wood received a sentence of 200 hours of unpaid labour, a three-year monitoring order, and a three-year placement on the Sex Offenders‘ Register.
Additionally, he was placed under a 10-year non-harassment order, which prohibits him from contacting or approaching his victim.
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