TWO young men went out “looking for girls” and within minutes of meeting two had sex with them in a hotel bedroom.
Trainee plumber Ryan Simpson and electrical apprentice Jake Purdie, both 18, believed the two strangers they had met were 15 but Mold Crown Court heard the two girls were only 13.
Simpson, of Chestnut Avenue, Wrexham and Purdie, of Berse Road, Caego, both admitted sexual activity with a child in Llangollen in May.
They were sentenced to 12 months youth detention, were placed on the sex offender register for 10 years and made the subject of a five-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) not to approach the victims again.
Judge Niclas Parry said both men had admitted taking two complete strangers to their hotel rooms believing they were aged 15, because that is what the girls had told them.
“Within minutes, literally, of meeting them you were using them sexually,” the judge said.
Judge Parry saidthere was no regard for the girls’ welfare.
The youths’ only concern their own sexual gratification.
But both were of good character, highly regarded by their employers and it was clear they had acted out of character. The girls had joined in willingly and when asked to stop the defendants had done so immediately.
Judge Parry said he accepted it was a personal tragedy for the defendants but the law was there to protect young girls from themselves.
Karl Scholz, prosecuting, said on May 12 at about 10pm the two girls went to a shop to get sweets and a drink.
Having left the shop the defendants called over to them, the girls told them they were 15 and one later told police good looking lads had shouted over to them. She did not want them to think they were “just kids”.
Stephen Edwards, for Simpson, said his client knew he had let himself down badly. Simpson was a decent young man working as a trainee plumber.
He came from a respected family, was polite and pleasant but quite naïve and immature.
It was accepted young girls had to protected but the girl had been sexually active already, had posed semi-naked photographs of herself on social media and had indicated that she was much older.
He asked the judge to consider her physical appearance and the way she presented herself when assessing Simpson’s culpability. It was not predatory behaviour, the girls were not taken against their will and when asked to stop he had done so.
Maria Massellis, for Purdie, said there had been an element of deception by the girls over their ages, which was important in assessing culpability.
Purdie worked in the family firm, his family was very respected and Purdie normally behaved in an exemplary fashion.
Glowing testimonials were submitted top the court on behalf of both defendants.