Woman sentenced for showing sexual image to 13-year-old

A woman has been sentenced after she admitted showing a sexual image to a 13-year-old girl.

The crown court in Carlisle heard that Samantha Amy Young showed an image of herself in a “sexual pose” at her home address in Crosthwaite Court in Workington on June 12, 2020.

Three days later, during a conversation with her parents, the victim disclosed that she’d been shown a naked image of the defendant.

The image, the court heard, showed a naked Young, now 26, posing in front of a mirror.

During her interview with police at Workington Police Station, Young “described herself as the responsible adult”, prosecutor Joe Allman told the court.

In his evidence, Mr Allman outlined that a number of children had been invited to go to Young’s house and that the defendant “did so to offer them a shower”.

“She made the offer as they were all in wet clothes,” he told the court.

When interviewed about the incident in question, Young told police that the victim found the picture “accidentally” and “at that stage, she took the phone and deleted the image.”

She told detectives that the images were marked in a folder entitled “for my eyes only” on social media platform Snapchat.

On one of her devices police found messages and images of an explicit nature, one of which was “Young, naked, in a sexual pose”, Mr Allman told the court.

Peter Wilson, defending, said Young had been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorder and emotionally unstable personality disorder.

“She has longstanding issues with mental health and low mood back to her early adult years,” he told the court.

“She suffered significant trauma and loss in her formative years, which has had a significant impact on her mental health and her ability to cope with stress.

“She has resorted to self-harm and overdoses.”

Mr Wilson added: “Given her mental health and physical health, I would say she is not an entrenched sexual offender.”

Addressing the argument that the viewing of the image by the victim was “accidental”, Judge Richard Archer said: “You are being sentenced on the basis of the prosecution case that the use of the image was done for the purpose of sexual gratification”.

Mr Wilson said the defence did not wish to dispute the wording of the charge to which Young pleaded guilty.

Sentencing Young, Judge Archer told the defendant: “that image was entirely inappropriate to show to a 13-year-old female.”

He said that Young’s actions were “a betrayal of the trust” of the victim’s parents and that the defendant should “understand why the family in this case feel the way they do about this offending”.

Pointing to a pre-sentence report carried out by the probation service ahead of the hearing, Judge Archer said to the defendant: “I am concerned that in parts of the report you seem to suggest you are perhaps as much of a victim of the offence or of the circumstances as the victim.”

Young was given an 18-month community order requiring her to complete 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

She was also made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the next five years which significantly restricts the opportunities for unsupervised contact with those under the age of 16.