Pedophile, 17, who filmed himself raping 18-month-old and molested schoolgirl turned in by his own grandmother
A teenage pedophile who raped an 18-month-old baby just weeks before sexually assaulting an 11-year-old schoolgirl has been jailed. 17-year-old Callum Scott was turned in to authorities by his own grandmother after she recognized him from a CCTV image shared by police.
Scott sexually abused the baby persistently and even recorded video footage of himself doing it, a court heard. Just weeks later, he stalked an 11-year-old girl in a quiet alleyway and groped her while she was on her way home one afternoon. According to a report by Herts Live, Scott grabbed the unsuspecting schoolgirl from behind and covered her mouth to muffle her cries for help. The November 2019 attack took place in Letchworth, Herts, and sparked an investigation before authorities issued a CCTV image of Scott. Shockingly, it was his own grandmother who recognized him from the photo and turned him in to the police.
Following his arrest, authorities seized his laptop and found a disturbing trove of child sexual abuse images and videos along with evidence of a series of horrific sexual assaults on a baby. According to the report, the abuse began in 2018 and continued until Scott's arrest late last year.
Meanwhile, the schoolgirl still suffers from trauma and is afraid to walk to school on her own. The court heard how she often wakes in the middle of the night crying and is unable to talk to her friends about the incident. While Scott was not named during the trial due to his minor status, his identity was eventually revealed after a successful challenge by Herts Live who highlighted his dangerousness to society. Scott was sentenced to eight-and-a-half-years in prison after pleading guilty to 15 offenses.
“These children's self-esteem is likely to be affected life-long by knowing that images of them being treated in this way have been distributed over the internet for any number of people to use for their sexual pleasure," Judge Philip Grey at St Albans Crown Court said.
"While you did not personally touch those children, they are forced to do these things because there is a demand to view such images and so you, and everyone else who views them, share responsibility for what has been done to those children," he explained.
The parents of the 11-year-old girl he raped also have trouble sleeping at night. “You have changed her life forever at a particularly formative age," the judge added while addressing Scott. “It must be terribly hard for her, trying to portray an outwardly normal disposition to her peers while dealing with all of this without the release of confiding in at least some of her closer friends.”
The case was investigated by DC David Milbourn and DC Sarah Phillips, who work in Hertfordshire Constabulary's Joint Child Protection Investigation Team.
“There is no doubt that he is extremely dangerous to children. The prison sentence he received demonstrates not only the seriousness of the case but will further prevent the exploitation of innocent children," DC Milbourn told the court.
“The defendant is now in detention, where his activities will be stringently monitored to ensure he no longer poses a risk to children," DC Phillips added. "We hope their abuser’s depraved actions do not have a far-reaching impact on their future.”