January 2006 PAEDOPHILE LOSES BID TO CUT JAIL TERM A PAEDOPHILE who groomed five teenage girls over the Internet before abusing them has failed to get his prison sentence cut. Geoffrey Roy Wilson, 49, of Kings Avenue,  Eastbourne met three of the young teenagers through the Internet, took indecent photos of all five girls, made them believe there was hope of a real relationship, produced a ring on more than one occasion and proposed marriage to one youngster. Wilson was jailed for nine years at St Albans Crown Court last September, also receiving an extended term of four years meaning he could be recalled to prison if he took a step out of line after completing his jail term. He had pleaded guilty to 14 counts of sexual activity with a child, two of sexual intercourse with a girl under 16, one indecent assault, one of meeting a child following sexual grooming, three of taking indecent photos or pseudo photos, two of makings such photos, and one of possession of them. London’s Criminal Appeal Court refused to cut either the custodial or the extended term, rejecting claims they were ‘manifestly excessive’. Mrs Justice Rafferty, sitting with Sir Douglas Brown, dismissed claims that insufficient account was taken of Wilson’s previous good character, his guilty pleas, his remorse and his willingness to address his behaviour. ‘This was a sentencing exercise which recognised the competing demands of the public interest and of the welfare of the appellant,’ she said. ‘It achieved, on these facts, an unimpugnable resolution.’ She said that in October 2001, Wilson decided to use the Internet to locate females for the purposes of ‘what is best described, as sexual involvement’. ‘Although there was expressed a requirement that the minimum age was 16, it will be no surprise to find that many who used it were under that age,’ the judge said. Wilson met the first three girls, all aged 14, separately through the Internet, after he began a process of ingratiation which later led to sexual activities, and in some cases full sexual intercourse. He took one girl to a motel where they had sex a number of times and had sex with another girl in his van. He met his fourth victim through one of the girls, and his fifth, through the fourth victim. At one stage, he persuaded those two young teenagers to come to visit him while he was on holiday and he had sexual intercourse with each, in the presence of each other. In one report before the Court, Wilson was described as a paedophile and it was said he chose to pursue sexual relations with underage girls, knowing of their vulnerability and deceiving them as well as their families. ‘The lives of at least three of the victims has been destroyed, not to mention that of their families,’ the judge noted. She said it was clear that, contrary to what Wilson claimed, the girls were not sexually active, adding he was and remained a danger to young women.