‘Danger to children’ is jailed for eight years
Pervert preyed on two young teenage girls and ‘extremely vulnerable’ girl aged under 18
A“DANGER to children” groped two young teenage girls and filmed himself with his hands around a third girl’s throat without her knowledge.
Adam Connolly, 30, of Frederick Street, Widnes, preyed on two girls both under the age of 16 and while they stirred from sleep on a sofa - in separate but similar incidents which happened in Runcorn more than a year apart.
Oliver King, prosecuting, told Chester Crown Court the first assault happened in the morning while Connolly was wearing his work clothes.
Connolly lay behind his victim and groped her below her top with skin on skin contact.
She sprang up and asked what he was doing, to which he replied he “thought she liked it”.
The following year, a similar incident happened to a different girl of the same young age when Connolly put a quilt over his victim and lay behind her and ran his hand over her, with skin to skin contact, prompting the girl to turn to face him and open her eyes.
Connolly asked if she “wanted a cuddle” and she said “no”, and Connolly left for work.
When arrested, he denied assaulting them and claimed his first victim was “unreliable” and that he “inadvertently” touched the second girl’s shoulder.
His phone revealed he had been looking at pictures on Facebook of his second victim on the day of the assault - but he had also saved pictures of his first victim.
Magistrates’ court documents said the offences happened in Runcorn.
While on bail, a girl described as “extremely vulnerable” and under the age of 18 but over 16 discovered Connolly had secretly filmed them having sex.
Mr King said the “footage showed him placing his hands around her neck and appearing to strangle her”, but added “she didn’t look distressed”.
The girl reported the video when she learned of it.
Connolly had two convictions for four dissimilar offences, “mainly carrying weapons”.
In a victim impact statement read out to the court, his first victim said the effects of the assault included loss of sleep and appetite, and diminished relationships.
His second victim said she “began to push myself away” from people after the assault and had stopped going out as much as she used to.
Her life had “changed forever”, she said, adding she feels “disgusted” and “angry” over what happened.
A statement from his third victim was not provided.
Connolly’s two younger victims both underwent cross-examination as the cases approached trial before he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault and to a third count of making a Category A indecent video of a child.
Jo Maxwell, appearing for the defence, cited Connolly’s guilty pleas and the principle of totality in mitigation.
She added Connolly had backtracked on his attempts to minimise his offending and “perhaps now realises how stupid it sounded when he tried to inform the author of the pre-sentence report that any contact was innocent and accidental”.
Miss Maxwell said there was no objection to the terms of the indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order proposed and granted by the court.
Judge Patrick Thompson, presiding in Chester on Friday, made restraining orders in respect of the two younger victims and placed Connolly on the sex offenders register for life.
He imposed consecutive sentences on each offence to reflect separate incidents and the time elapsed between them, with 18 months for each sexual assault and five years for the indecent video, totalling eight years.
Sending the defendant down, Judge Thompson said: “It seems to me, having read everything I have about you and the circumstances of these offences, and having seen the victims in counts one and two crossexamined, that you have an unhealthy sexual interest in children and I notice in the pre-sentence report you are assessed as a danger to children under the age of 18.”
A victim surcharge was also ordered.
None of the victims can be named for legal reasons.
Cheshire police were unable to provide a mugshot of Connolly in time for publication, five days after the hearing.