A paedophile who sexually abused three young children in Derbyshire has been spared an immediate prison term. Derby Crown Court heard how Scott Foulkes touched two of the victims sexually and touched himself in front of the third one.
The 34-year-old also took a sexual photograph of one of them and, when the police analysed his PlayStation, found thousands more vile abuse images on it. Handing him a three-year community order, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “Scott Foulkes, I have been doing this job for a long time now and this is one of the most difficult sentencing exercises I think I have ever had to consider.
“You are 34 years of age. That’s your chronological age anyway, but from everything I have read about you and simply by looking at you in court, your age, in terms of function, is far less than that.
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“You are somebody who has a dreadful personal history but this is not a judge feeling sorry for somebody. You are isolated, you barely come out of the house, you have few, of any, social skills and have no intimacy with anyone of the opposite sex or even the same sex.
“You were bullied at school, have few, if any friends and struggled academically. The authorities transferred you to a special needs school but there, even the teachers bullied you.
“You have learning disorders, you are autistic, have ADHD and have had an IQ of 70 or below since childhood. I am told you know what you did was wrong and you have told many people you are sorry for what you did.
“It seems to me I am wrestling with what the sentencing guidelines tell me on one hand but my gut instinct and experience tell me something different. Custody would be catastrophic for you, you are ill-equipped to cope with it and ill-equipped to cope with life and so, in my judgement, the best way forward for you and the community, to rehabilitate you is in the community.”
Michael Tanney, prosecuting, said the three victims were all very young when they were sexually abused by Foulkes. He said the first male child was told to touch himself sexually by the defendant but refused and so the defendant touched himself in the presence of the young boy.
The prosecutor said the second victim, a girl, was touched on her private parts by Foulkes and the third, also a boy, had his private parts touched by the defendant when the victim was aged just two.
Mr Tanney said the offending came to light when one of them confided what happened to them at Foulkes’ hands and a police investigation was launched. He said as part of it, the defendant had an electronic device seize from him and on it were thousands of child abuse images.
The prosecutor said there were 314 of the most serious category A, 256 category B and 7,487 category C. Foulkes, of Longden Terrace, Warsop, Mansfield, pleaded guilty to charges including possession of indecent images, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, showing an indecent image to a child, sexual assault of a child and attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.
He has no previous convictions of any kind. Gareth Gimson, mitigating, said: “Good character before, nothing since, this is not someone who has gone out of their way to cherry pick his victims, he is a person with all manner of difficulties and whose isolation was the trigger for his behaviour.”
As part of the community order, the judge ordered the defendant to attend 50 rehabilitation sessions and attend a 43-day sex offender treatment programme. He also handed him a five-year sexual harm prevention order and placed him on the sex offender register, also for five years.
Sarah Carter is a health and wellness expert residing in the UK. With a background in healthcare, she offers evidence-based advice on fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being, promoting healthier living for readers.
