WARNING – DISTRESSING CONTENT: Daniel Hawkins, from Merseyside, a teaching assistant exchanged “flirtatious” Instagram messages with a 15-year-old pupil before sending explicit images of himself, a court heard
A mum told a teaching assistant who groomed her daughter “you should never have been in that school” as his victim walked out of court in floods of tears.
Daniel Hawkins exchanged a series of “flirtatious” Instagram messages with a pupil at the high school where he worked before sending her explicit images of himself. A judge today remarked that she was “entitled to be protected and not exploited” and had suffered “an impact which will remain for some considerable time” as a result of his behaviour.
But the teenager was left distraught as her abuser was told that he would be released from prison imminently. Liverpool Crown Court heard on Thursday that Hawkins, from Prescot, Merseyside, initially began working at the school as agency staff before his position was made permanent around three months later.
It was another two months following this that he first began speaking to the 15-year-old pupil after she asked him to download a shopping app on his phone as she would gain rewards from the website. David Watson, prosecuting, described how they then began to talk “on a daily basis”, with the teaching assistant sharing a piece of fruit from his lunch with her on one occasion.
Hawkins would go on to “make flirtatious comments” to her, including a “conversation about future plans” in which he said he “would wait so they could go to university at the same time”. The 28-year-old also asked whether she was “spending time on her hair and makeup because of him” and said that she “looked stunning without makeup”.
After being told that she had purchased a “revealing” outfit for her 16th birthday celebrations, he remarked that he “would like to see”. In the days leading up this anniversary, she set up an anonymous Instagram account which she used to follow Hawkins’ profile. He went on to tell her that “he didn’t think he could follow her” but, on the day before her birthday, said he was “going to buy her a present”.
At this, she asked him to “follow her back as a present” – which he did on the date she turned 16. This led to them “regularly messaging” one another and “matters becoming increasingly intimate”, with the girl “telling him that she loved him”, reported the Liverpool Echo.
The day after her birthday, Hawkins told her that they “were together” although he “couldn’t call her his girlfriend until after she left school”. After she sent him a picture of herself in her bikini, the defendant responded with a photograph of his exposed penis and a video of him performing a sex act on himself.
One of the girl’s friends later reported to staff members that she had seen these images on the victim’s phone. Their conversations however “became increasingly graphic”, taking place “every evening” over the course of several days. He also added her on Snapchat, called her on FaceTime and asked her to meet her after her prom.
But “rumours about their relationship began circulating” around the school, leading to two male pupils informing their head of year about their suspicions The girl however “denied any inappropriate contact” with Hawkins had occurred when spoken to by staff, while her mum did not find any incriminating evidence on her phone after being informed by the school.
The complainant was said to have “deleted a significant amount of material to protect the defendant” around this time after finding that he had deactivated his Snapchat account and left her a message on Instagram stating “don’t have me on this or Snapchat for a while”. When questioned by a safeguarding officer, he initially denied knowing the girl but later “backtracked” and stated that he had helped her with schoolwork previously.
Asked why it was believed that they had been having a relationship, Hawkins replied that “he thought that she fancied him”. When the mum spoke to her daughter again following his arrest, she “became extremely upset and made disclosures” about his behaviour. He has no previous convictions. Imran Khan, defending, told the court that his client had suffered from ADHD, autism spectrum disorder and dyspraxia, adding: “He provides remorse and insight into his behaviour.
“The defendant’s approach to his offending reveals a lack of consequential thinking. He seems to have enjoyed the attention he received and saw it as an outlet from the issues he was experiencing at the time, against the backdrop of his neurological condition and poor mental health.
“He has lost his accommodation. This is his first experience of custody. His mental health has worsened. He has been feeling suicidal and depressed.” Hawkins admitted two counts of being a person in a position of trust causing a child to watch sexual activity and possession of an indecent image of a child. He was jailed for a year, but is expected to be released in the near future after serving eight-and-half months in custody on remand.
Sentencing, Judge Neil Flewitt KC said: “You were more than 10 years older than her. It is clear from your exchanges with her that you were well aware, because of the position of trust you held, that there could not be any sexual contact or sexualised behaviour between the two of you until she was aged 18.
“But your interaction with her began before she was 16. You had contact with her that was generally flirtatious and sexualised and which, in my view, can properly be described as grooming behaviour. This has had a significant impact on her. She was a young person. She was entitled to be protected by you and not exploited by you. It has had an impact on her which will remain with her for some considerable time.”
When Hawkins was told that he had “served his sentence” and would be freed from prison, his victim broke down in tears and began wailing uncontrollably before being escorted out of the courtroom by her mother. The woman shouted “you should never have been in that school” as she left, continuing to say “I trusted…” before her words were drowned out by her daughter’s sobbing.
Hawkins was also banned from contacting the complainant for 10 years under a restraining order. He will be required to sign the sex offenders’ register for the next decade.
