Baby Sitter Jailed For 16 Years

 

 

A babysitter has been jailed for 16 years for giving a three-year-old boy to a known paedophile who drugged and raped him.

Claire Semmens, 28, of Cardiff, handed the boy to Aaron Hughes, who was jailed for life for sex attacks on the toddler.

She admitted causing a child to engage in sexual activity and possessing indecent images at Cardiff Crown Court.

Hughes admitted rape and possessing indecent images.

The court heard Hughes, 32, who has a previous conviction for raping a six-year-old boy, filmed the abuse of the sedated child on his mobile phone so he could watch it on his computer.

 

He was caught when police did a routine check on his computer because they believed he had breached a court order by downloading child abuse images.

 

  Semmens ran babysitting services from her flat in Cardiff, regularly looking after boys aged between three and six, the court heard.

When Hughes and his boyfriend Hamish Morgan moved into a flat next door the three became close friends. But the court heard Semmens was attracted to Mr Morgan and hoped that by providing children to Hughes it would clear the way for her to have a relationship with him.

 

Prosecutor Laurence Jones told the court Semmens not only supplied the boy to Hughes but allowed him to abuse him in her bedroom.

"By her own admission Semmens knew Hughes was a child sex offender who was banned from having any contact with children," said Mr Jones.

 

"But she was trying to satisfy Hughes's perversions for young male children."

 

The court heard police said Semmens had "developed a taste" for child abuse images and police found images of two other boys she had looked after on her computer.

 

Hughes and Semmens went on the run when they realised police were on to them.

 

When they were arrested Hughes told police he suffered from a multiple personality disorder and was not responsible for raping the boy.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Philip Richards described their crimes as "genuinely horrendous".

"It almost defies belief that any human being would do such a thing to such an innocent young child," he said.

"You, Semmens made that child available not once but twice to your paedophile friend and permitted him to carry out his vile activities with that young child in your bedroom.

"You knew full well he was a child abuser and the level of breach of trust is probably worse than Hughes."bbc