'WhatsApp messages' of firefighter and schoolgirl 'he had sex with'

A dad who had sex with a schoolgirl in his car told police officers: "I am a firefighter, I go out every day and help people", a court has heard. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service officer Scott Cameron is on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of a series of child sex offences.

The 39-year-old, of Harewell Road in Norris Green, is accused of telling a teenager, who he met when she was 13, that she was "gorgeous" before instructing her to send him naked pictures of herself and arranging a meeting with her in the woods. The dad-of-three admits having engaged in sexual activity with the complainant - who the prosecution say he met when he and other officers attended a school open day in order to recruit new fire cadets - but maintains that he believed she was aged over 16.

During trial proceedings this afternoon, Friday, November 29 the jury of seven men and five women heard evidence from Cameron's second police interview. During the voluntary interview on February 22 this year, conducted at Huyton police station, Cameron stated he "started to get messages on Snapchat from accounts he didn’t know" before a "female came up to him one day recognising him from her school", apparently telling him that she was a sixth form student.

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Cameron told interviewing officers that the girl approached him while he was walking to collect his son from school. He said after receiving messages from Snapchat accounts, that he then blocked, he began to receive WhatsApp messages. The defendant said the girl had told him that she had been sexually assaulted in Croxteth Park and had asked him for help.

Cameron said he had told the girl: "I am a firefighter, I go out every day and help people. I am not a vigilante, this isn’t something I can do for you." But he said messages continued with the girl saying she knew his partner's name. He told officers that she messaged: "I hate your partner, your bird, I want to kill her. I want to stab her, I hope something happens to her.”

When asked by police officers why she said that, Cameron told them the claimant said "because she has you and I haven't". The defendant proceeded to tell officers that the girl, who was living "a fantasy", would send "100s of voice notes over and over" and he "had to delete, delete, delete". He told the interview that the teen would tell him at times that she had been taking gold bar ecstasy pills and drinking alcohol.

The firefighter told the police that the conversation culminated on January 23 this year when he received voice notes from the teen and heard other voices in the background. He said he blocked the account because they said "you're the one who is 38 and have been speaking with a 15-year-old".

He told police officers: "I have only ever wanted to do the right thing with my life…getting into the job I do, I have wanted to do it for many years. The whole point is to help people…ending up in a situation like this has smashed me to pieces." He added: "I never want to do bad things to people…it’s a struggle to find myself in this situation."

Cameron told police officers that the claimant had sent him sexually explicit images, but he would "delete the whole conversation with them in". The police officers then read messages between the devices of the teenager and the defendant where the former makes reference to pregnancy and says "you did me in me nan's".

Cameron told police officers: "It's not mine, it's nothing to do with me. This isn't about me, it's about the lad she has told me about." The defendant told officers that the teenager was making a joke about a previous situation. He also told police officers: "When I was speaking to her about anything sexual it was more about what had previously happened and I was trying to get information."

The defendant told police officers that he had not had sexual contact with the girl. The police officers said there had been around 7,000 messages between the pair over a number of months. The court heard that when asked by police officers to hand over the PIN code to his phone the defendant refused and said there were personal things on there involving his partner.

The interview finished with an officer asking "are you attracted to young girls," with Cameron responding "absolutely not". He also denied being a paedophile and said any contact had been to help her.

During the prosecution's opening earlier this week, Steven Ball told the court Cameron met the girl when he and a number of other fire officers attended an open day at her school in order to recruit new fire cadets and as part of an ongoing project. One of the defendant's colleagues, Ed Doinog, was said to have "made an impression" on the pupils to such an extent that the teen and her friend made him a handwritten card which they later dropped off at a fire station.

This letter "complimented him for the job he did" and asked a series of questions about his role, as well as containing the complainant's phone number and their ages. Mr Ball said "events took something of a sinister turn" around a month later, saying: "Somehow, say the prosecution, Scott Cameron had got hold of her number and, in his messages to her, he was pretending to be someone else."

The court heard the pair exchanged messages and she was complimented on looking "gorgeous". Mr Ball said around a month later the defendant began asking her to send him photographs, with the girl recalling "being abroad on holiday when she was asked for bikini pictures". Mr Ball told the court further requests were made for nude photographs, with requests then "turned into threats".

Mr Ball said around 10 months after he visited her school, Cameron "told her who he actually was" after initially posing as Mr Doinog. The court heard Cameron asked to meet the girl, with the pair meeting "regularly" and, on one occasion, she "snuck out" of her house and had sex with him in his car. But she later deleted his phone number after he apparently became "argumentative" with her in his messages.

During the prosecution's opening the court heard that "sexual contact is admitted as having happened" by the defendant, with Mr Ball telling the jury: "The focus of the trial will be on whether you are sure to reject that Scott Cameron reasonably believed that she was 16 at the time. The prosecution say that this was not a one-off or chance meeting where a single mistake could be made, but this is a case which is the chronicle of a man exercising his own choices, who knew exactly what he was doing and using all of his wider gained experiences as an adult to exploit an impressionable and obliging 13 or 14-year-old, a young girl who was the object of his attention."

Cameron, who is represented by Kate Morley, denies a total of 11 sexual offences. He is expected to give evidence on Monday. The trial, before Judge David Swinnerton, continues.