YMCA CREEP GROOMED 2 TEEN GIRLS
Jury convicts youth worker of sex offences
A YOUTH worker preyed on two vulnerable teenage girls while he worked for the YMCA.
Stephen Henderson, 31, targeted the girls aged 14 and 15 while a senior staff member at the charity’s Bellshill and Mossend branch in Lanarkshire.
He repeatedly contacted them via Snapchat and told them explicit details about his sex life after meeting them at the group.
Henderson groomed the 15-year-old. The woman, now 20, said he repeatedly asked her about her sex life.
The second victim, also now 20, said when she was 14 he asked her: “What would happen if I asked you to have sex with me?” while they sat in his car. At Hamilton Sheriff Court, Henderson, from Holytown, sobbed as he was convicted by a jury. He had given evidence and branded both women liars.
He was found guilty of indecently communicating with the 15-year-old and of meeting her intending to engage in sexual activity between September 2015 and March 2017. He was also convicted of communicating indecently with the second girl between August 2013 and December 2017.
Sheriff Colin Dunipace deferred sentence on the first offender until next month, continued his bail and placed him on the sex offenders’ register.
He warned Henderson: “You should be under no illusions that the court will take an extremely serious view on these matters.”
A spokeswoman for Bellshill and Mossend YMCA, which suspended Henderson over the claims, said he was no longer an employee, adding: “We will continue to do everything possible to safeguard the well-being of all the people who use our services.”