I seldom post on things like this because of the nature of the subject. It’s all too easy to sensationalize this issue. But this, to use the vernacular of today, is off the hook:

A paedophile who molested an 11-year-old girl escaped jail yesterday when a judge ruled the victim had “welcomed” his advances.

Judge Robert Atherton triggered outrage when he told Manchester Crown Court the child had invited Jon Dixon’s attack as she had a “sexual awareness” that would make someone twice her age blush.

The judge rejected an assessment by the probation service that Dixon, 20, posed a “high risk of serious harm to children”.

His reasoning? If you can call it that, that is.....the girl had portayed herself as a twenty year old. But even after she confessed that she was only (she said) twelve, they still communicated:

Dixon and his victim exchanged 900 text graphic messages over a two-week period before the girl told Dixon she was actually aged 12 - although her real age was 11.

He continued to pursue her with more graphic sexual text messages, emails and a request for pornographic photos before they met.

“It was clear the defendant’s attitude and intentions towards her had not changed despite her saying she was only 12,” said Jonathan Dickinson, prosecuting.

So, the basis of the judge’s opinion was that, even after the girl had been determined to be a child by the offender he did nothing to warrant a jail term because she had put herself out there as a twenty year old. The fact that he molested after he discovered she was a child meant little.

Read the whole article. Personally, I hope it’s tabloid sensationalism, but it may not be.

I need a drink.