Online predator who tricked children into sex acts is spared jail
PARENTS of victims of an online predator expressed their fury yesterday after a judge let him avoid jail after hearing he suffered from autism.
William Powner, who has just turned 18, targeted 85 children.
Chester Crown Court heard he bullied, blackmailed and threatened terrified youngsters to send him naked photos and sex videos of themselves.
Powner admitted 25 varying charges – dating from 2014, through to last December – including inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
But he avoided jail after a judge heard he was “vulnerable” too, having been described as autistic with Asperger’s syndrome.
Yesterday the mother of one victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: “It’s ridiculous. We’ve got no faith in the justice system.
“My child was just 12 when Powner exploited him. He gets to carry on with his life now.
“He would have carried on if he hadn’t have been caught. I feel let down. They can’t use autism as an excuse.”
Another mother said: “I felt devastated to hear Powner wouldn’t be going to prison. All this stuff about autism, it seems pretty convenient this is coming out of the woodwork now.”
Powner used social media sites Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat to contact complete strangers, initially often asking for photos of their faces.
But the chats quickly became sexual after he gained their trust, with his victims sending him videos of themselves engaged in sexual acts.
Curfew
He would then threaten to contact a person’s entire address book if further sexual videos movies were not sent.
Powner, of Warrington, Cheshire, was just 13 when he committed his first cyber-sex crimes. He was found to have a collection of 320 indecent images of children.
He admitted seven counts of inciting the sexual exploitation of a child aged 13 to 17; one of inciting the sexual exploitation of a child aged under 13 and three of attempting to arrange commission of a child offence.
He also admitted three counts of taking an indecent photograph of a child, three of making an indecent photograph of a child, two of causing a child to watch a sexual act and two of distributing an indecent child photograph.
He also admitted blackmail and disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress, possession of an indecent photograph of a child and possession of a prohibited image of a child.
Powner was handed a youth rehabilitation order for three years, a curfew and a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.
Judge Roger Dutton said prison would not prevent the “real issues” at the heart of Powner’s offending.
He told him: “From the privacy of your own home, you dominated, threatened and had a very serious impact on the lives of youngsters.
“You terrorised them, exploited them and their fear of what might happen if they didn’t comply.” the sex