'Predatory' Leeds pervert sent pornographic video to underage girl

Forty-three-year-old Scott Mowforth sent the youngster the 16-second video clip after sending her direct messages, and telling her she could confide him if she had “sexual issues”.

The contact persisted for around three weeks, prosecutor Michael Greenhalgh told Leeds Crown Court.

Mowforth denied a charge of forcing an underage girl to look at an image of someone engaging in sexual activity, but was found guilty after a trial.

He admitted two subsequent charges of failing to comply with the sex offenders register, after failing to notify police he had left his home on Heights Way in Armley, and possession of cocaine after traces of the drug were found in his car.

The court was told that Mowforth had lost his job, was sleeping in his car and turned to drugs.

Mitigating, Paul Byrne said Mowforth had “gone from a stable relationship to sleeping in his car and taking cocaine”.

He added: “He is deeply ashamed of that. He has never taken drugs before and won’t be taking them again.

"He will return to work as soon as he can. He will take whatever he can as soon as he can.”

In terms of the sexual offence, he said that despite Mowforth’s denial, he did agree there was a level of intimacy in what he sent, and “accepts he was wrong to send the footage”.

The judge, Recorder Jason Pitter said: “In my view this was predatory conduct born out of your inability to control your desires. You were only interested in gratifying your own interests.

"The impact it would have you plainly did not consider. You have nobody else to blame but yourself.”

He handed him 22 months’ jail, suspended for 18 months, ordered him to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work, gave him him an 11-month curfew and ordered him to enrol onto a sex offenders’ programme.

He was also put him on the sex offenders register for 10 years and gave him a sexual harm prevention order of the same length.