February 2015 Soon-to-be wed man groomed 15-year-old girl for sex – Jailed A MAN who was about to get married persuaded a 15-year-old girl to carry out sex acts while he watched via his computer – and carried on grooming her even after his wedding. But Sean Warren’s marriage was short-lived – because his wife walked out on him after his perverted activity came to light, a judge has heard. Warren, aged 24 of Bracebridge Street, Nuneaton, was jailed for four years by the judge at Warwick Crown Court who also ordered him to register as a sex offender for life. He had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and attempting to meet her following sexual grooming. Prosecutor Tim Sapwell said that Warren, using the name Dave Kirk, and the girl began exchanging messages through an online message site in February last year. At first Warren, who was engaged at the time, used a photo which ‘looked rather younger’ than his 23 years, although he did later post a more mature one. The girl told him from the outset that she was 15, and he told her he had seen her in her school uniform. He asked her to be his girlfriend and to send him nude photographs of herself, which she did, sending him three or four fully nude pictures, and he sent her a similar number of himself. Their contact progressed to live Skype video chats which would last for hours at a time – and although a lot of their chat was about ordinary day-to-day matters, Warren accepted that 40 per cent of it was sexual. They would spend most of the weekend on Skype, during which Warren would get the girl to perform sex acts on herself, which she did up to 60 times. Warren, who got married during the course of their online contact, also performed sex acts in front of the camera. They arranged to meet at Liverpool’s Lime Street station, planning to go to a hotel to spend the night together – but the girl later said that did not happen after he told her he did not have enough money. Following his arrest Warren said he had planned to have intercourse and oral sex with the girl, but ‘got out of it’ because he thought they needed to get to know each-other – and because it was ‘problematic,’ with him being married by then. Mr Sapwell pointed out that as well as her age, Warren knew the girl was vulnerable because he was aware she had tried to commit suicide because she was not getting on with her parents. Matters came to light after the girl confided in her older sister who in turn told their mother, and the police were contacted. And when she told him that Social Services were going to be visiting the family, Warren instructed her to make sure all pictures of him were deleted from her phone – and when his phone was later seized it was found to have been re-set. In a statement the girl said the power Warren had over her ‘cannot be over-estimated,’ adding: “My concern for him over-rode my concern for myself and my family. I now realise he had a manipulative power over me.” Nick Devine, defending, said: “The consequence of this two-month period of behaviour has been the complete destruction of his life for the foreseeable future. “His very short marriage has now broken down. His wife has left him. “He was working at the time. He has given up his job, but would not get it back anyway now. “He was as frank as he could be when he was interviewed by the police. He has no real explanation for why he embarked on this behaviour.” Jailing Warren, Judge Alan Parker told him: “This is very serious, given the amount of time, in terms of hours, you spent in persuading the girl to behave in this way and attempting to meet her after the hours spent on this grooming behaviour. “The pre-sentence report says you are at a high risk of harm to female children, but I have no basis to conclude you are a significant risk of serious harm. “You were, I accept, entirely candid with the police and pleaded guilty at an early guilty plea hearing.”