A PAEDOPHILE has walked free from court after grooming a teenage girl for almost a year.

Paul Castle was told to consider himself ‘very fortunate’ by a judge after he was handed a suspended sentence at Reading Crown Court on Thursday (November 2).

The court heard that the 38-year-old had sent 2,000 messages to the young girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and put his ‘own sexual desires’ before anything else.

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Castle admitted to inciting a 14-year-old to engage in sexual activity between August 8, 2021 and July 7, 2022 as well as engaging in sexual communications with a child and causing a child to look at an image of sexual activity.

He was handed a 20-month prison sentence, suspended for 22 months, by Judge Leslie Cuthbert.

“You can consider yourself very fortunate you are not going to custody right now,” the Recorder said. “It’s very much down to your admissions of these offences and saving [the victim] from the further trauma of trial proceedings.”

During sentencing, the court heard that Castle had ‘intentionally groomed’ the victim for the best part of a year.

A victim impact statement written by the victim’s mother stated the offences had a ‘profound impact’ on the girl, causing her to contemplate taking her own life.

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Through ‘great resilience’ the girl admitted what had happened to her by writing it in an essay at school before then telling her mother and reporting it to the police

Judge Cuthbert said: “There was no justification for what you did. You pu t your own sexual desires before anything else.

“You actions implemented the idea of her selling naked images of herself to make money for the drugs she as taking to cope with what you did – she has to deal with those images being online forever.”

The aggravating features of the case were the psychological harm caused to the victim as well as the Castle being under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time.

Mitigating features were Castle’s lack of previous convictions, his genuine remorse, his immediate admission of guilty and the private help he has been receiving on ‘sexual thoughts about children’.

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As well as his suspended sentence, Castle must complete 40 days of rehabilitation activity, 120 days of alcohol treatment monitoring, and 120 hours of unpaid work.

A Sexual Harm Prevention Order has also been put in place for 10 years meaning Castle, of Cannon Lane, Maidenhead, has to report any name changes and addresses to the police.