Man gets jail time for grooming and abusing a girl

31 year old lured schoolgirl to his flat

Report on BBC Isle of Man:

A man who lured a schoolgirl to his flat by promising her vapes and alcohol before indecently assaulting her has been jailed for two years and 10 months.

Thomas Hall31, messaged the 15-year-old on Snapchat under a different name for a week before inviting her to his flat on March 7 to collect the items.

Douglas Courthouse heard Hall locked the door after letting her in before attacking her.

Deemster Graeme Cook said the victim “must have been terrified” and “traumatised” as she left the building.

The court heard that although the girl arrived with a friend, who had received vapes from him in the past, Hall would let the victim into his flat alone.

She reported the assault to the police and he was later arrested.

The court heard that the 31-year-old was on bail at the time of the assault on separate charges of possessing indecent images of children, after 57 photos were found on devices he owned in January last year.

Although Hall initially denied meeting the girl, he later pleaded guilty to indecent assault of a child, gross indecency with a child, grooming and five charges of indecent images of children.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, the girl said she was now “extremely suspicious” of men over 30 and that the abuse had caused her to grow up faster than others her age.

The court heard Hall had previously been convicted of relevant offenses which Deemster Cook said involved an “escalation of offending behaviour”.

The deemster said he had caused “devastation” to the victim who had done “absolutely nothing wrong”.