NOTTINGHAM CRICKET COACH JAILED FOR CHILD SEXUAL OFFENCES
A judge says men who send intimate pictures to children make parents "want to batter the living daylights" out of them.QC Stuart Rafferty made this comment to cricket coach Steven McCullough, who admitted sexual activity with a girl aged 14.
Nottingham Crown Court heard the 32-year-old had touched her inappropriately and began to send her phone messages, including an indecent photograph.
The judge asked how McCullough would feel if that happened to his child.
"Disgusted, your honour," replied McCullough of Manor Farm Lane, Clifton.
The judge responded, "Parents would want to go out and batter the living daylights out of that person.
I have no doubt her parents would want to do the same to you." He stated that the internet makes it easy for people to send obscene photographs, describing it as "a pestilence." McCullough was sentenced to a three-year probation order and will be on a programme for sex offenders.
He will also be on the sex offenders' register for ten years and was given a court order to deter reoffending.
"I very much suspect your sporting days are over.
It doesn't matter if you were not officially a coach, you were in a position of responsibility and you betrayed that," the judge added.
Gurdial Singh, prosecuting, said the offence started in September last year when McCullough, a cricket coach, was coaching at that time.
He had never been in trouble before.
Later, the girl was found to have been drinking, her phone was confiscated, and her mother found some texts that seemed "a bit weird." McCullough later touched her over her clothing and sent her the photograph.
Mr Singh emphasized that McCullough was a coach during this behaviour, though Philip Bown, defending, said he was not an official coach.
Bown added that McCullough lost his control and should have known better, noting that he was twice the age of the girl.
He had no prior criminal record.
The judge further stated: "He was an older man, twice the age of this poor girl." When asked by the court, McCullough expressed remorse, and the court imposed the sentence accordingly.
