When a depraved British couple sexually assaulted a young girl and live-streamed their abuse over Skype to a California pedophile, they received a combined 17 years in the slammer, authorities said.
Sarah Gotham, 34, and Craig Forbes, 36, of Devon, were sentenced at Plymouth Crown Court after being found guilty of multiple sexual assaults against the girl, who is under the age of 13, local police said in a statement.
The duo assaulted the girl, believed to have been drugged at the time, on numerous occasions, and broadcast the abuse between December 2012 and March 2013, police said.
The perverted pair struck up a friendship with pedophile Kori Ellis, 42, of San Francisco through a chat room that connects people with “common interests.” Then they connected on Skype and live-streamed their abuse of the young girl, authorities said.
Ellis told the authorities about Gotham and Forbes after San Francisco cops and the FBI busted her in April 2015. She told officers she had witnessed the couple abusing the girl via Skype, under the name “Sarah Girls Only.”
Ellis pleaded guilty to the production of indecent images of children when investigators found more than 64 pages of graphic chat logs between Ellis, Gotham, and Forbes.
Gotham, denied six offenses, while Forbes had earlier pleaded guilty to four. Forbes was convicted of a separate offense of making indecent images of children and breaching a sexual harm prevention order.
Gotham faces nine years behind bars, and Forbes was sentenced to eight years in jail.
Ellis, accompanied by four FBI officers, was flown to the UK for the trial to give evidence against Gotham. Prosecutors said Gotham played an active part in the abuse and “was more than a spectator or a passenger,” according to the report.
Judge Ian Lawrie said he believed Gotham was under Forbes’ “spell” and had been “corrupted” by him.
“[Forbes] is manipulative, devious and is unquestionably interested in child pornography, and from everything I have read and heard, a clear and constant threat to children,” Lawrie said, according to the BBC.
However, he told Gotham, “That does not excuse your responsibility for the offenses.”
Nicholas Lewin, defending Gotham, blamed the incidents on Forbes’ influence, calling him the “vilest of predatory pedophiles.”
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