Catfish predator caged after preying on teen
A catfish predator who drove a vulnerable teen to the brink of suicide after subjecting him to months of abuse has been jailed and placed on the sex offenders register for life.
Twisted Stephen Cannon, 32, groomed his 18- year- old victim after meeting the teenager on an online Ayr United fan page while using the fake name ‘ Stephen Bryan’.
Cannon, who was previously caged for attempting to rape a 15- year- old boy, took his victim back to his home on York Street Lane in Ayr and made advances towards him, touching him over his clothes and kissing him.
The pervert would block the door so the terrified teen, who is described as having the maturity level of a 12 or 13- yearold, couldn’t leave.
And on one occasion told him: “You’re not going for your train until you give me a kiss.”
The boy later broke down after his mother confronted him about Cannon.
It took him two days to provide his statement due to the emotional stress.
Officers told the teen that Cannon wasn’t Stephen Bryan and on Googling Cannon’s real name the teen found newspaper articles about him.
At the sentencing hearing last Wednesday, solicitor Brian Bell told Ayr Sheriff Court that nothing he said was to excuse or minimise what Cannon did.
Mr Bell said: “This is a troubled, serious case and there cannot be any excuse for his behaviour- particularly as it was repeated.
“The accused would make his advances and be stopped by the victim- none the less, the victim would return.
“They had a friendship which appears to be through football but the accused saw fit to take advantage of that.
“I accept matters took a sinister turn.”
Mr Bell said Cannon has now been banned from Ayr United’s home stadium Somerset Park and concluded that Cannon was “socially isolated”.
He added that upon Cannon’s release from prison, he “resumed an isolating existence before befriending and then abusing the victim”.
Mr Bell said: “Mr Cannon will have to return to jail and he will have to think long and hard to try and mend his ways.
“Something has to be done to prevent him from becoming something of a revolving door.”
Sheriff Colin Dunipace said: “This was an extremely troubling case.
“You identified a young man- who you clearly knew was vulnerable- and you took steps to groom him and act in this absolutely appalling manner.
“Having read the Victim Impact Statement it makes an extremely chilling reading.
“The impact you had on this young man and his family are immeasuable.
“As your solicitor has rightfully conceded, there is only one rightful sentence and that is a period of imprisonment.”
The victim’s mother, who we’re keeping anonymous, hit out at her son’s abuser.
She previously told the Post: “When they were out he would say things like ‘ this is a quicker way’ but it wasn’t.
“It was a longer but more private way.
“There were times where Cannon would do a pee outside and tell my son to look.
“And times he had an erection and would say to my son ‘ that’s your fault- you did this’.
“He would try and provide him with drink and sometimes would get quite angry that he wasn’t drinking.
“The scariest time was when he took him up a dark alleyway and my son had to run away from him because he thought he was genuinely going to rape him. He told me that he wanted to kill himself and he was crying all the time.”
Cannon was jailed for 22 months, backdated to September, and will be supervised by social workers for three years upon his release.
The pervert was placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for an indefinite period and made subject of a Sex Offenders Prevention Order for five years, banning him from having unsupervised contact with children or deleting or disguising his internet history.
After abusing his victim Cannon will have to have to think long and hard to mend his ways