January 2011 Child sex offender sentence fury THE mother of a girl who was sexually abused has said her attacker’s sentence has “trivialised” his crime and the anguish of her family. Wayne McNamee, aged 20, (pic above) last known to be living in St John’s, Worcester, admitted sexual enticement of a minor. At Hereford Crown Court, he was sentenced to a two-year community order and must also sign the sex offenders’ register for five years. His victim’s mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: “This sentence is more like counselling and therapy sessions for two years. “It’s not even like cleaning graffiti off a bus stop. “It just belittled and trivialised what happened. It has been a nightmare.” Her daughter – who was 12 at the time of the offences – was targeted by McNamee who, having known the family for a number of years, said his feelings changed towards the girl when she was 12. He began sending her sexually explicit text messages, and pleaded guilty on the basis he would not have had sex with her until she was 16. “Basically, he groomed her,” said her mother. “Naturally, she felt flattered this man was paying her attention. She thought it was good to have a boyfriend of that age.” It was only discovered when her shocked mother stumbled upon a text and reported it to the police. Adding to the anguish of such a discovery, it took six months for her daughter to realise the seriousness of what had happened. “He had months to brainwash her,” her mother said. “Everything he told her would happen – that he would get into trouble – happened. She believed him for a long time and thought we were in the wrong. “It’s an awful mixture of feelings. There’s the guilt because I did not see it before. “He used to chat to me. He was very clever and manipulative. “I did catch it in time because they didn’t have sex, but the anger you feel even still. “You feel like a failure. We thought we had behaved responsibly with our children. “We never let them roam outdoors, we gave them mobile phonesso they could contact us, we always picked them up and we let them on the internet for homework.” In the time which has elapsed between the discovery of the text and McNamee being sentenced, the family have all suffered. The victim’s father has had two serious health problems, which will have lasting effects, while the victim herself has had problems at school, had to have counselling and visit the hospital for stress-related illnesses. But for her mother, it is still the horror of his crime which plays on her mind. “Twelve is still a child – and she was my child,” she said. – McNamee is also prevented from contacting the victim by a restraining order.