Vile man who filmed himself sexually abusing baby girl is jailed
A VILE man who filmed himself abusing a one-year-old baby has been jailed after an image was found on his mobile phone.
Barry Cornes, 47, alleged that he was only touching the baby out of curiosity and there was nothing sexual about it.
The mother of the baby was traced by police and made a victim impact
statement saying she was sickened and devastated.
She had to go through the ordeal of holding her child as a doctor made a specialist examination which showed there had been no physical damage from the sexual assault.
Cornes, of Torquay, Devon, denied sexual assault but was found guilty by a jury at Exeter Crown Court after he admitted taking an indecent image of a child.
He was jailed for three years, six months, put on the sex offenders’
register for life.
Cornes was also made subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order which bans unsupervised contact with children.
Judge David Evans told him: “You are still in denial and have shown no
remorse.
"The personal statement of the child’s mother makes plain the very significant distress which your offending caused.
“The child was particularly vulnerable because of her extremely young
age. The taking of pictures is an aggravating feature.
“This conviction will doubtless haunt you for the rest of your life,
and rightly so.”
Mr David Scutt, prosecuting, said the offence happened in January last
year and came to light when the image was found by accident in a
deleted section of Cornes’s phone.
His hand was identifiable in the images but he said he touched the
child out of curiosity rather than for any sexual gratification.
The child’s mother made a victim statement which said: “I felt
physically sick.
"Going to the medical centre to see if my baby was sexually damaged was the worst thing I have ever had to go through.
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“I was crying, shaking and felt sick wondering what had happened to my
baby and so relieved she had not been injured.”
Mr Barry White, defending, said police examined every item on Cornes’s
phone and found no other images or evidence of any sexual interest in
children.
He said: “He is now a pariah who is afraid to go out. His only social
contact is with his parents.”