Crimes NEWS

Sandhurst soldier facing jail after having sex with ‘dangerous’ schoolgirl, 13, who ’seduced’ him

Published by onlines on November 30, 2009

A soldier at Sandhurst who was seduced by a 13-year-old Lolita he met in the military stables faces jail after admitting having sex with the schoolgirl.

Nigel Thomson, 41, a private in the Household Cavalry, had been working in the stables at the Royal Military Academy when he was ‘groomed’ by the teenager, a court heard.

The soldier took the girl back to his room on the base for sex just a day after a woman officer had warned him the teenager was ‘dangerous’ and was just 13.

Falklands veteran Thomson, who served as a private for 22 years before resigning from the Army following the incident, was arrested by Royal Military Police after the girl produced a condom he used in the encounter, which she had kept as a souvenir.

Michael Roques, prosecuting, told the court Thomson came into contact with the girl ‘fairly regularly’ at the stables.

But by July last year, the female officer became concerned about the pair in the light of what she knew about the girl’s similar behaviour with older men in the past.

Mr Roques said: ‘She had become aware of the complainant having inappropriate sexual relationships with men previously and was concerned about the defendant.

‘She warned him not to hang around with the complainant and warned him that she was dangerous.’

At the same time she told Thomson explicitly that the girl was only 13 years old, the prosecutor added.

Mr Roques told Reading Crown Court that the following day, the girl was sent home from school after she was caught drinking alcohol.

She went to the stables where she met Thomson, and the pair went back to his room for sex using a condom supplied by the girl.

Mr Roques said that when the girl was interviewed by police, the difference between consenting sex , non-consenting sex and sexual activity with a child was explained to her and the officer asked: ‘Which one is it?. She replied: ‘I don’t know. You’re the officer. I didn’t say yes, I didn’t say no.’

Mr Roques rejected defence claims that the girl had initially claimed to have been raped, but the court was told she had made a false complaint of rape against another man in the past.

Martin Mulgrew, defending, described the incident as ‘a meeting of minds’ and said rather than his client grooming the girl, the reverse had occurred.

He said Thomson had served his Queen and country loyally and had even been rendered partly deaf by an incident during a spell in the Falkland Islands, but was ‘not the most capable of people’, reflected in his failure to progress beyond the rank of Private during almost a quarter of a century of service.

Had she been under 13 years of age then Thomson, who has a partner and teenage daughter, would have been charged with rape, irrespective of consent.

Thomson, of Ashtead, Surrey, faced a maximum sentence of 14 years after pleading guilty to sexual activity with a child on the first day of what was supposed to be his trial.

But in an ‘advance sentence indication’ before the case, Judge Mary Jane Mowat suggested he would face a sentence of around 18 months if he pleaded guilty and avoided a full trial.

The rare legal procedure is known as a Goodyear hearing after a Court of Appeal case which set down guidelines for its implementation.

Judge Mowat ordered the Probation Service to prepare a report on Thompson ahead of sentencing in January.

She told the probation representative: ‘It appears to me this is a one-off incident, with a particularly willing girl. I don’t think treatment programmes will be of any assistance at all.’

Thomson, who had one previous conviction at Wiltshire juvenile court in 1980 for arson, was told to sign on to the Sex Offenders Register on an interim basis and was released on bail.

The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Surrey is where all Officers in the British Army are trained to take on the responsibilities of leading soldiers.

(source: dailymail )

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