A PERVERTED Solihull man who filmed himself having sex with a 15-year-old girl has been jailed.
After police found a 15-year-old runaway girl from Leamington in bed at Paul Cotton’s Chelmsley Wood home, they began to investigate his other activities.
And they discovered Cotton had filmed himself having sex with another 15-year-old in a hotel room after tying her up and blindfolding her.
He also had dozens of images he had taken or persuaded those two girls and others to send him, leading a judge at Warwick Crown Court to decide he poses on ongoing danger to young girls.
The 45-year-old, of Lowerstack Croft, pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, two charges of taking indecent images of a child, and seven of possessing indecent images of children.
He was given an extended sentence of seven years in prison, of which he will have to serve at least two-thirds before the Parole Board can consider his release.
And Cotton, who also has to register as a sex offender for life, will then be on licence for the rest of that term and for a further eight years.
Prosecutor Graeme Simpson pointed out Cotton had originally denied all of the charges, and only entered his pleas at a pre-trial hearing.
Mr Simpson said Cotton’s activities began to come to light in July 2015 after police officers searching for a missing 15-year-old from Leamington went to his flat in the early hours of the morning and found her in his bed.
She was taken away by the officers and Cotton, who had not been found in bed with her, was given a ‘harbouring notice’ banning from having any contact with her.
He did not face any direct offences in relation to her, because she refused to co-operate with the police, but officers did find naked images of her on one of three phones they seized.
That phone, two others, and a memory stick, were also found to contain indecent images of other girls aged 13 to 15 – three of who were later traced.
One of them was a Chelmsford schoolgirl who was just 14 when Cotton first contacted her in 2013 via Facebook and began asking her to send him naked pictures of herself, which she was uncomfortable about, but did so.
He later met her and took her to a Travelodge in Basildon, where he tied her up and blindfolded her and recorded them having sex.
Amy Jackson, defending, said Cotton, a father-of-three with no previous convictions, had been working as an HGV driver until an accident in which he injured his back, and he is now in constant pain as a result, which would make prison difficult for him.
Jailing Cotton, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano told him: “This sort of behaviour has very, very serious effects on young children. They have been subjected to behaviour which will have an emotional effect on the rest of their lives.
“You were not only old enough to be their father, you had children of a similar age. You persistently targeted young and under-age girls on the internet.
“I have no doubt there is a significant risk of serious harm by you, in particular to young girls, by the commission of further serious specified offences.”
