Prison for Sutton pervert who travelled to Canada to meet underage girl he groomed online
A Sutton pervert who travelled to Canada to meet a girl he had groomed online when she was underage was “genuinely” in love with his victim, a court has heard.
Canadian police challenged Garry Burrows after a neighbour became concerned he was having sexual relations with a child in September 2023.
Lucy Jones, prosecuting, said Burrows was 32 when he visited his victim at school and even took the school bus home with her.
Because the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had turned 16 the previous month, police told him that what he had done was "lawful but morally incorrect."
His victim told police she had consented to all aspects of their sexual relationship and described him as her English boyfriend.
But Nottingham Crown Court also heard she felt pressured into performing sexual acts for him on video links, and Burrows sent videos of him performing sexual acts to her.
Nottinghamshire Police found indecent images of the girl when they seized his mobile phone in October 2023.
"You drive me crazy and turn me on so much," he told her when she was only 15-years-old, after meeting on Twitter in April.
Messages revealed he became infatuated with her, calling her "the only woman in his life," and saying, "Christ, I know it sounds bad but I would marry you."
The girl's mother said Burrows had a "lasting, devastating" impact on her "naive and impressionable” daughter, who is now “on a self-destructive path from which she may never recover.”
Laura Hocknell, mitigating, said: "It is not another case of internet grooming. He is extremely lonely and isolated. He was consistently bullied throughout school and college. She appeared to be attracted to him.
"This defendant was genuinely in love with her. He thought it was the best thing that had ever happened to him.
"When he found out her age he researched the age of consent in Canada. He continued to talk to her. That is when his conduct became criminal. This is not somebody who is an ongoing risk to children.”
Burrows, now 34, of Lime Street, admitted sexual communication, causing a child to watch sexual activity, inciting sexual activity, and possessing indecent images of a child, on September 18 last year.
On Friday, Recorder Stuart Sprawson told him: “You have shown remorse but you struggle to view your behaviour as abusive. The truth is you exploited her for your own sexual gratification.”
Burrows, of previous good character, was jailed for three years. A sexual harm prevention order was imposed for ten years.