Eight years for sex tourist who preyed on young girls

A sex tourist who carried out vile attacks on two girls as young as seven in Cambodia was jailed for eight years today.

Father-of-two Mark Towner, 52, pleaded guilty to 14 counts of abuse including sex with a girl under the age of 13 after his wife told police of pictures she had found on his computer.

Towner, who was obsessed with pornography, went to the South East Asian country in May last year on business but preyed on two seven-year-old girls he hired for sex.

Maidstone Crown Court, heard that safety officer Towner, from Cranbrook, in Kent, took pictures of himself carrying out the lewd acts with the children and e-mailed them back to the UK.

Towner was prosecuted in the first case of its kind using legislation that allows police in this country to prosecute for sex crimes carried out abroad.

Passing sentence Judge Warwick McKinnon said Towner was a danger to children and passed a longer sentence so that he could receive rehabilitation.

He said: ‘‘These are acts of sexual abuse, grave, indeed they are quite horrendous and horrific offences.

‘‘Children as young as seven and no older than 10 are involved in degradation and they were performed for your own perverted gratification.

‘‘You are a danger to young children and the court must send out a message of determination against people who perform acts on one so young.’’

Towner’s wife ran crying from the court when she heard the horrific nature of the crimes he had carried out on the children.

She had contacted police when she found two images on his computer that were taken off of the Internet.

Speaking after the case Detective Constable Dave Canning said Towner had more than 600 images of children on his computer.

‘‘In my experience in almost 20 years of police service, these are probably the most appalling photographs that I have seen and they involve very young children,’’ he said.

‘‘This case highlights particularly good use of new legislation by allowing the full weight of the law in this country to be brought to bear on Mr Towner.

‘‘The new legislation has allowed us to charge for several serious offences in addition to possession of indecent photos.’’

Towner was charged with having sex with a child under the age of 13, three counts of indecent assault and 10 of possessing gross images of a child.