Curate's husband jailed on child porn charges

A curate took her husband to a police station after he was found sexually grooming a 12-year-old girl over the internet, a British court heard today.

Peter Waterton had sent a series of secret emails to the girl in which he talked of a “tingly, buzzy feeling” when he saw her pose like a cat-walk model, Leicester Crown Court was told.

The 69-year-old, from Higham on the Hill, Leicestershire, was arrested after his wife, Dawn, a Church of England minister, was confronted by the child’s father.

The victim’s parent found a number of texts from the defendant on her mobile phone plus emails on her computer.

In one of the online messages found in September last year, Waterton told the girl, from Warwickshire, that he wanted to take photographs of her in the cat-walk pose.

Gregor Purcell, prosecuting, said Mrs Waterton accompanied her husband to Warwickshire Police to report the matter before any photos were taken. The case was later referred to officers in Leicestershire.

During the ensuing police investigation, more than 50 images of child pornography were found on the defendant’s computer.

Waterton, a devout Christian, later admitted four counts of possessing indecent images and one count of sexually grooming a child.

His wife, a curate at St Nicholas Church in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, was in Leicester Crown Court today to see him jailed for 15 months. Mrs Waterton will stand by her husband, the court heard.

Sentencing Waterton, Judge Michael Stokes QC said the indecent photographs, some of which showed very young children in sexual poses with adult males, were “wholly disgusting”.

He said: “It’s quite clear to me on the evidence that your virtual addiction to this sort of material had influenced your potential relationship with (the girl) and I cannot reach any other conclusion that had it not been spotted, something quite appalling might have happened between you and (the girl). Happily, you were stopped.”

On being sentenced, the defendant clutched his chest and fell back into his seat, saying: “Oh God”.

The court heard that Waterton, who has grown-up children from a previous relationship, had turned to the internet for gratification because of age-related problems in his sex life.

The illegal images of children in sexual situations sparked his fascination in the young victim.

In mitigation, Simon Davis, defending, said: “He (Waterton) is ashamed and his words today were, ‘Thank goodness I have been caught out’.”

He added: “Mrs Waterton, in her position, acted extremely responsibly in going to the police and reporting what she had been told. She had no idea that there was more on that computer.”

The couple have been targeted by malicious phone calls since the offences came to light, the lawyer revealed.

The judge imposed an extended licence period of two years and ordered Waterton to be placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.