CLIVE MCCARRON OF DUDLEY SENTENCED FOR SEXUAL ASSAULTS AT BAGGERIDGE COUNTRY PARK

In August 2012, Clive McCarron, a 50-year-old man from Dudley, was sentenced to 40 months in prison for engaging in sexual activities with a schoolgirl at Baggeridge Country Park. The court heard that McCarron met the girl through an internet messaging site.

Judge Michael Dudley noted that the girl was only 14 when she started exchanging messages with McCarron, during which they shared intimate photographs. The judge stated, "McCarron had told the schoolgirl he was 30 when in fact he was in his mid-forties. There is no doubt if she had known his true age, the correspondence would have stopped."

Wolverhampton Crown Court was told that when the girl was 15, McCarron met her after lessons at her Dudley school and they entered into a sexual relationship despite the significant age difference. The judge remarked, "This is a serious case for a man of your age to involve himself with a girl of 15. It left her, hardly surprising, very confused about her feelings."

It was fortunate that the girl confided in a female friend, who advised her to report the matter to the police.

McCarron, a divorced father of one, admitted to six charges of sexual activity with a child. His defense lawyer, Mr. Ian Windridge, argued that "This was a two-way intimate exchange between two people with genuine affection for each other." He also stated that McCarron was unsure why the relationship had soured and was arrested after departing for a holiday in Cyprus.

The court was informed that McCarron, who resides at Elmtree Grove, Keysoe, Bedfordshire, worked in the asbestos clearing industry. He traveled to the West Midlands for work and was given a laptop by his employers, which he described as akin to a "child receiving a box of sweets" because it allowed him to contact women online.

While searching on a teen website, McCarron found the Dudley girl and reportedly engaged in mutually consensual sexual activity with her. Prosecutor Mr. Howard Searle stated that McCarron first met the girl when she was in school uniform, and their relationship escalated to sexual encounters at Baggeridge.

Further investigation of McCarron’s seized computer revealed he was also communicating online with another girl aged 14.

The judge ordered that McCarron must register as a sex offender for life, issued an indefinite sex offender protection order, and prohibited him from working with children ever again.