Jailed: Telford paedophile superimposed pictures of sex assault victim's face onto child porn images
A paedophile from Telford who sexually assaulted a girl and “disturbingly” superimposed pictures of her face onto explicit images has been jailed for 10 years.
John Leitch, 63, carried out a string of sexual offences against the girl before she was a teenager.
She told her boyfriend what had been happening when she was in her late teens, before telling her mother, who in turn reported Leitch to the police.
After Leitch’s arrest, he confessed to abusing the girl for a number of years.
Police offices then searched his computer and tablet. They found he had a stash of 4,000 images of children, including some that he had edited to feature his victim’s face.
Leitch, of Waverley, Woodside, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault of a child under 13.
He also pleaded guilty to four of sexual assault, one of assault by penetration, two of making indecent photos of children, one of possession of indecent images of children and two of making indecent photos of children.
His victim took to the witness box to say how Leitch’s treatment had left her scared to meet new people, especially men, because she did not know what their intentions might be.
Mr Danny Smith, defending, said Leitch wanted to apologise for all the harm he had caused.
Judge Peter Barrie described the doctoring of pictures to include his victim’s face as “particularly disturbing”. He added: “You have caused serious and lasting harm.”
