AN INTERNET pervert who groomed and abused a Cheltenham

teenager has been jailed for four years.

Philip Hawkins, groomed the teenaged boy for sex over the

internet and then regularly travelled 200 miles to abuse him in

a hotel room, a court heard today.

Hawkins found his victim through an internet chatroom when

the boy was just 13 years old.

He then began to text him and talk to him through MSN - an

online communication tool popular with youngsters.

The sentence means Hawkins will be free on parole in just

over a year - but will then be subject to a six year extended

licence period during which he has to undergo sex offender

treatment programmes.

Sentencing him at Gloucester Crown Court today Judge Martin

Picton said: “You groomed and corrupted a boy in his early

teens - an age when so many boys and girls are vulnerable to

corruption and the damage that can result therefrom.

“What you did was very serious. It went on for a

considerable period of time - it was very deliberate.

“The corruption of the boy also involved showing him

indecent images.

“You had an obvious obsession with boys of that age which is

reflected in the substantial library of such images that you

chose to gather - 70,000-odd separate images.”

Judge Picton said he was in no doubt that Hawkins represents

an ongoing danger to boys unless his behaviour is addressed by

treatment.

Hawkins, 28, of Royal George Road, Burgess Hill, West

Sussex, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to 10 charges

of making indecent photographs of children between August 2005

and April 2007 and one charge of possessing indecent images of

children on April 15, 2007.

He also admitted two charges of causing or inciting a

15-year-old to engage in sexual activity with him between May

2006 and April 2007, eight offences of sexual activity with the

same child between November 2006 and May 2007 and one charge of

meeting the child following sexual grooming between May 2006

and May 2007.

At an earlier hearing prosecutor Mary Harley said that two

years ago, after grooming the boy through an MSN internet chat

room as well as by text and phone, Hawkins travelled to a disco

to meet the Cheltenham teenager.

Hawkins flattered the boy and two months later he returned

to Cheltenham and stayed in a hotel where he lured the boy for

sex.

He returned every month for almost a year to repeat the

offences - until the boy's parents realised what was going on

and confronted Hawkins.

In June 2006, Hawkins stayed at Cheltenham's Thistle Motel,

the victim met him there and they had consensual sexual

contact.

“The offender stayed there on a monthly basis and by late

2006 the victim was staying all night,” Mrs Harley said.

Over the following eleven months, Hawkins travelled to the

hotel to meet the teenager but this ended when the boy's mother

went into her son's room and found two cards from Hawkins, Mrs

Harley said.

“One was a Christmas card saying: 'you mean everything to

me, my pumpkin, my angel, my best friend, my boyfriend. I love

you with all my heart'.

“The other was a Valentine's card saying: 'I did push you to

find out if you were gay. I apologise. It was a tad

unfair'.”

The boy's parents went to a disco that night and confronted

Hawkins. Police were called and Hawkins' two computer hard

drives were seized on April 15 last year.

Mrs Harley said the first hard drive contained 5352 images

of teenaged males, including six of Hawkins and the victim in

this case together.

On the second hard drive were 582 video files and 70,000

indecent images involving male and female children.

Hawkins was arrested on April 15 at his home and admitted to

police what he had done.

At today's hearing defence barrister David Webster said

Hawkins had given a 'genuine expression of remorse' since his

arrest.

Judge Picton sentenced Hawkins to four years imprisonment of

which he will have to serve at least half, less the 276 days he

has already spent in custody on remand.

The judge imposed a lifelong sexual offences prevention

order on Hawkins, banning him from contact with children under

18, and ordered him to sign the sex offenders register for

life.