Paedophile Terence Bower caught by webcam jailed indefinitely

A PAEDOPHILE caught sexually assaulting the two-year-old daughter of family friends on a webcam has been jailed indefinitely.

Terence Bower must serve a minimum of eight years for the depraved acts which left his young victim with a sexually transmitted disease for which she required surgery.

The 30-year-old was caught on a webcam activated by the toddler's dad after he and the girl's mum became concerned Bower was secretly taking drugs.

The family, of Leeds, West Yorks., who cannot be named for legal reasons, had originally set up the webcam over their baby's cot to monitor their children and to make sure they were not misbehaving.

It had a clear view of the baby's bedroom and could see into the adjacent bathroom if the door was open.

Bower, of Leeds, denied abusing the girl over several months but was convicted by a jury of three counts of sexual abuse.

He had claimed he went upstairs and because the child was crying for the toilet he took her in with him.

But the jury was shown images captured by the camera showing Bower with the girl in the bathroom with the door open - committing a sexual act, glancing over his shoulder to check no one was approaching.

After he left the family's home following the incident on January 31 last year, the father - who was controlling the camera from a computer in the living room - viewed the recorded images and showed them to his horrified wife, who alerted police.

When examined at St James's Hospital in Leeds, prosecutor Michelle Colborne said injuries consistent with repeated sexual abuse were discovered.

She added: "She had been the victim of repeated sexual assaults over a period of many months. It was this defendant who perpetrated these assaults, the most recent of which occurred the night before when he was caught in the act."

Giving evidence, the shocked father had told the jury why he started recording Bower when he went upstairs. "I wanted to know why he spent so long in the bathroom," he said. "I know he has done drugs before, I didn't expect to see what I did."

In September the jury took just 28 minutes to unanimously find Bower guilty of attempted assault of a child under 13 by penetration, assault of a child under 13 by penetration and the sexual assault of a child under 13. He was cleared of a further count of assaulting a child under 13 by penetration on the recommendation of the judge.

Bower was also ordered to be on the Sex Offenders' Register for life.

Jailing Bower, Judge Kerry Macgill said today: "You enveigled your way into the situation where you could have time alone with the girl. It is an appalling crime.

"She couldn't talk, she couldn't tell anybody, mum, dad, what this man was doing to her so she had to suffer it repeatedly time after time after time. What you did undoubtedly caused her severe pain and discomfort.

"The doctor would say it would appear you engineered opportunities to abuse her in a predatory fashion."

Yorkshire Post