A Husband And Wife Sexually Abused A 13-Month-Old Baby Girl They Were Babysitting – Sentenced To 27 Years
In what the presiding judge has called the “worse abuse of a baby I have ever seen,” a couple has been sentenced to a total of 27 years in jail for sexually assaulting a 13-month-old baby girl that they had been babysitting, and then sharing the footage they had captured on camera with a WhatsApp pedophile group.
Michael Chase, 52, and his wife Lara, 46, were charged with sexually abusing their friend’s toddler while they were supposed to be babysitting the 13-month-old child at their home. The assault is said to have taken place over a six-month period and the couple, who were married in June 2014, took numerous pictures of their perverted acts. The pictures taken were then distributed via the messenger app WhatsApp in a pedophilia group that the two were a part of.
Not long enough sentence–Michael Chase and wife Lara who sexually abused a 13-month-old baby | Daily Mail Online https://t.co/PaBM9QeZPy
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Michael, a security guard who was once a primary school swimming pool attendant, was sentenced to jail for 14 years while his wife, a pharmacy worker, received a sentence of 13 years in jail. Judge Sean Enright was appalled at the acts performed and truly horrified at the pictorial evidence of the abuse and commented on this during the couple’s sentencing.
“This is the worst abuse of a baby I have seen and the pictures are quite appalling and horrific to look at. The feeling of revulsion returns every time those photographs are opened.”
The father of the baby girl had been a friend of Michael Chase’s for 25 years, and as such, the parents’ suspicions were not aroused when the couple repeatedly suggested babysitting the little girl. It was said that the couple had been responsible for babysitting the 13-month-old a total of four times, and evidence showed that the sexual abuse occurred two of those times.
The court was told how in the the first instance of the sexual assault the couple performed on the child, the photographs confiscated showed Michael Chase masturbating over the 13-month-old. According to the Mirror, the court was also told of the fact that the second assault was filmed. In this instance, Michael Chase went beyond masturbation and can be seen sexually assaulting the baby in a hot tub in his home garden. A raid by police officers at the couple’s house in December 2014 produced mounds of evidence that was used in the trial. Computers and mobiles phones were seized and all off them contained thousands of indecent images of young children.
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The couple were arrested in January 2015, and in November, Michael pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault on a child along with four counts of taking indecent images, three counts of possession of indecent photographs of a child, possession of a prohibited image of a child, possession of an extreme pornographic image, and making 4,524 indecent photographs of children. However, Lara Chase, who has two children herself, denied the charges and claimed she knew nothing about the sexual assault on the baby girl nor that her husband had indecent images shared with pedophiles. She insisted she was estranged from him and wanted him “hung, drawn and quartered.”
Evidence eventually showed that one of her hands was in a picture of her husband assaulting the baby and her phone was used to send at least two images of her husband assaulting the baby, and while investigators were not able to track down to whom she sent the photographs, it was enough proof for her to be sentenced to jail along with her husband. She was convicted of two counts of sexual assault and the distribution of indecent images.
Daily Mail wrote of how the parents of the child have been affected by the discovery that their friend was sexually abusing their little girl. A victim impact statement was read to the courts.
“They are thankful that the child has not been affected although she is now at an age where she picks up the sense of stress and bad atmosphere this has caused. The affect is a huge breach of trust and they carry the guilt of letting that child be looked after by their abuser forever.”
A Detective Constable involved with the case has issued a statement that he is “pleased that the family of the victim have received justice for what can only be described as every parent’s worst nightmare.”
[Photo Courtesy of Lisa S/Shutterstock]
