Jail for 42-year-old woman who sexually abused girl

A Thornton woman who sexually abused a teenage girl on a camping trip in Chester has been jailed.
Emma WilliamsEmma Williams
Emma Williams

Emma Williams, 42, “took advantage” of the drunken schoolgirl while she was supposed to be helping her last year.

Preston Crown Court heard Williams had gone on the trip to Chester Racecourse with another woman and two teenagers.

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But while they were away, everyone on the trip spent an evening drinking and eating out at a local restaurant.

Later that night one of the teenagers started feeling unwell and Williams accompanied her to the toilet to be sick.

Williams hugged and kissed the schoolgirl and encouraged her to touch her hair, the court was told. Later, Williams said she would share a tent with the youngster to look after her through the night – but instead used the opportunity to engage in sexual activity with the youngster.
Judge Christopher Cornwall, sentencing, said: “Your defence says that the truth of the matter is that this was entirely consensual. Consensual but for the fact she was under an age at which she could give informed consent.

“Young people, whether they be boys or girls, who are under the age of 16 do not always understand the ramifications or what they do or are asked to do and they don’t always understand the full emotional impact. It seems to be her head was completely turned by the flattery and attention that you bestowed upon her.”

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In the days that followed, the court was told the pair exchanged a number of text and Facebook messages – but their relationship was uncovered when the youngster’s mum found messages on her daughter’s phone.

During police interview, Williams blamed the schoolgirl for their affair, saying she had been the one making sexual advances on the trip.

It later emerged a number of messages between the pair had been deleted.

Judge Cornwall said: “She described feeling uncomfortable and powerless. This is really a double-edged sword in the way (the victim) expresses herself in her police interview and the way she does in those Facebook messages.

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“The fact of the matter is that there is a terrible abuse of trust. There is a significant disparity in age – you being almost three times her age.

“At the time she was under the influence of alcohol. I don’t suggest you plied her with alcohol in order to achieve submission but you took advantage of the fact she was both intoxicated and indeed unwell as a result of her intoxication.

“You allowed it to continue. At a peculiarly low ebb in this sorry saga you suggested to the police it was all her fault and that you never felt any sexual attraction to her. That you did has had utterly devastating consequences.”

He jailed Williams, of Devonshire Avenue, Thornton, for 32 months and made her subject to notification for life.