Suspended jail term for soldier, 29, who ‘groomed’ girl, 14

A SOLDIER sexually “groomed” a young girl he met while on leave in Wales, a court has heard.

Andrew Vernon-Brown sent the child a series of explicit messages in which he talked about oral sex and other sex acts.

But the 14-year-old girl’s mother found the messages and alerted the police and when the squaddie was arrested he described the conversations as “fun and banter”.

The defendant has been discharged from the Army – a job he was said to be doing well at.

Cardiff Crown Court heard Vernon-Brown was on leave from the Army in April last year when he came into contact with a schoolgirl in the Bridgend area.

Janet McDonald, prosecuting, said the 29-year-old subsequently began texting the girl and his messages “soon became sexually explicit in nature”.

The court heard the messages referred to kissing, oral sex, and other sexual acts.

The offending was discovered when the girl’s mother saw the messages on her daughter’s phone.

The defendant was arrested and in interview said he had committed an error of judgement but said the messages were “fun and banter”.

Vernon-Brown, whose address was given as the Catterick military base in North Yorkshire, admitted engaging in sexual communications with a child and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Robert Chudleigh, for Vernon-Brown, said the defendant had served for three years in 32 Engineer Regiment but had been discharged from that employment and was now training as an electrician.

He said his client had demonstrated a “huge amount of remorse and contrition” for his actions which had been entirely out of character.

The advocate invited the court to follow the recommendations of a pre-sentence report.

Judge Timothy Petts said the sending of sexual messages to the young girl by the defendant was “clearly a grooming process”.

He said said the offending had cost Vernon-Brown his career in the Army – a job which according to references he had read the defendant was doing well at – and the Probation Service had identified issues in the defendant’s thinking which it could work to address.

With a one-third discount for his guilty plea, Vernon-Brown was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for 18 months.

He will also have to undergo a rehabilitation course and programme requirement.

Vernon-Brown was made the subject of a seven-year sexual harm prevention order and will be on the sex offenders register for the same length of time.