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Judge issues porn warning to parents after teen who started watching explicit clips aged 12 is convicted of child rape

<em>William Nicholson repeatedly raped a child after watching porn from a young age (SWNS)</em>
William Nicholson repeatedly raped a child after watching porn from a young age (SWNS)

Parents have been warned to monitor their children more closely after a boy who began watching pornography aged just 12 went on to repeatedly rape a child.

William Nicholson, now 19, was said to have used his victim as an “experimental” plaything over several years to satisfy his sexual curiosity.

He started showing the girl – a primary school pupil – pornographic videos and began abusing her when he was 14, Teeside Crown Court heard.

The victim confided in a friend of her mother’s what had been happening, having kept it a secret until 2015, and the police were called in.

The judge warned parents to monitor the online activities of their children (Rex)
The judge warned parents to monitor the online activities of their children (Rex)

Judge Peter Armstrong said Nicholson’s pornography viewing had influenced his behaviour.

He said: “It almost beggars belief – I can’t believe it didn’t have an effect on him.

“It is a warning to parents to monitor their children’s activities rather than being left to their own devices in their bedrooms.

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“It’s behaviour where it is experimenting or curious and perhaps acting out what he had seen using [the girl] as an object to do that.”

Chris Baker, mitigating, said Nicholson had been heavily influenced by adults from the time he stopped going to school seven years ago.

In statements the victim said she struggled to explain what was happening at the time, and now suffers from nightmares.

<em>Nicholson was sentenced at Teeside Crown Court (Geograph)</em>
Nicholson was sentenced at Teeside Crown Court (Geograph)

She said: “When this was happening I felt really confused. I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t put it into words.”

Nicholson, of Darlington, County Durham, was found guilty of two charges of rape, attempted rape, two indecent assaults and causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

He was sent to a young offenders’ institution for six years, will be on the sex offenders’ register for life, and banned from working with children.

An indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order was also imposed – which prohibits Nicholson from having unsupervised contact with under-16s and restricts his computer and internet use.