June 2022 Dangerous perverts took advantage of drunk underage girl Two Derbyshire perverts took advantage of a drunk 14-year-old girl and sexually abused the distressed teen in a public park. Derby Crown Court heard how passers-by witnessed Reece Mackender and Martin Hopkinson carrying out their vile acts and did nothing, with one witness filming the crimes and posting the footage online. None of them chose to report it to the police. Mackender was then found hiding behind a shower curtain at a nearby address having placed the clothes he was wearing in a washing machine to get rid of the evidence. And on a mobile phone seized from him were messages to his father in which he said “Please help dad, come home quickly, it’s bad, underage”. Both Mackender, 29, and Hopkinson, 36, have been jailed. Sentencing him to eight years and Hopkinson to five years and nine months, Judge Jonathan Bennett said: “This was a shocking offence, it was a Saturday afternoon in a park, there were children and families around, we know one person even filmed it. “While this is not classic grooming behaviour, there were elements here. There has been severe psychological harm (on the victim).” James Bide-Thomas, prosecuting, said the victim and her 15-year-old friend were drinking on Somersall Park, Chesterfield, on June 1, 2019. He said they were approached by the two defendants who started asking them sexual questions and then talked them into going with them to a nearby supermarket to buy more alcohol. The prosecutor said all of them returned to the park where the friend started to feel uncomfortable and called her boyfriend. He said: “The next thing (the victim) remembers is being dragged by her ankles. Martin Hopkinson pulled her towards him by her ankles and pulled her underwear to one side.” Mr Bide-Thomas said at that stage both defendants had sex with the girl. He said: “Several members of the public saw what was going on but no-one reported what they saw. One of them filmed it and put it on Snapchat. (After it was over her friend) went over to (the victim) and she was sobbing.” The prosecutor said police went to an address where they found Mackender hiding. He said the messages to the defendant’s father were then recovered from his phone. In a moving victim impact statement, the teenager told of the serious damage the crime has caused. Mr Bide-Thomas said: “She has been unable to sleep at night and suffers panic attacks and flashbacks and sits in her room at home all the time.” Mackender, 29, of Stone Row, Chesterfield, was found guilty of sexual activity with a child following a trial, meaning she and her friend had to relive their ordeals in court. Hopkinson, 36, of Chester Street, Chesterfield, pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child and possessing indecent images of children relating to almost 400 child abuse images recovered from his mobile phone. Both men were also handed lifetime sexual harm prevention orders and they will be on the sex offender for life.