Paedophile bell-ringer caught by spelling mistakes after hacking into victim's Facebook account

By James Hore , Sophie Evans
Mirror
January 11, 2016

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/paedophile-bell-ringer-caught-spelling-7155071

Locked up: Liam Cann (pictured in his mugshot) was jailed for 10 years at Chelmsford Crown Court

Paedophile: The 22-year-old bell-ringer (pictured arriving at magistrates' court last year) groomed and engaged in sexual activity with boys as young as eight

A church bell-ringer who sexually abused young boys was caught after he repeatedly made the same typo when he hacked into a victim's Facebook account to send messages proclaiming his innocence.

Liam Cann, 22, was jailed for 10 years after grooming children as young as eight by giving them money and bribing them with FIFA points - used to buy players and kit in the Xbox online game.

Once he had won their trust, he would then engage in sexual activity with them, prosecutors said.

When concerns were raised about Cann's actions, the bell-ringer hacked the Facebook account of one of his six victims to send messages to his own Facebook account.

But his plan back-fired when he repeatedly misspelled the words else as 'eles' in his messages.

Cann was convicted of a string of sex offences by a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court after prosecutors successfully highlighted his spelling mistake blunders.

The defendant, wearing a light blue shirt with white collar stood shaking in the dock as he was sentenced to the 10-year term, with a six-year extended licence period.

Sentencing Cann, Judge John Dodd QC told him: "You outwitted, you bribed, you bullied, you cajoled each of these boys.

"Your offending largely followed a pattern - one which involved befriending boys younger than yourself, grooming them and offering benefits, including money and Fifa points.

"It was determined and it was repeated. You took advantage of their immaturity and awakening interest in sexuality to abuse them for your own pleasure."

Stephen Rose, prosecuting, quizzed Cann during the four-week trial.

He said: "Usually we don't put people on trial for spelling mistakes in this court and it's not principally what we are checking.

"You were spelling it wrong before the message you sent and after the message you sent, you kept spelling it wrong.

"That was you trying to get your victim to keep quiet and not speak to the police."

Detectives launched an investigation in November 2012 when the mother of one of the teenage boys contacted the NSPCC expressing her concerns about the relationship he had with her son and his friends.

One of his victims informed police he had not been the one to send e-mails to Cann's Facebook account.

It emerged Cann had access to the youngster's Facebook account password.

Prosecutors described Cann as 'a predatory man scouring the world of Xbox for young teenage boys', even giving one of his victims £300 after he made a trip to the North of England to visit him.

After Friday's sentencing Detective Chief Inspector Martin Pasmore, of Essex Police said: "Despite being faced with overwhelming evidence, Liam Cann chose to test the evidence and put his young victims through the ordeal of attending court and reliving the offences he put them through.

"This sentence brings the judicial aspect of this case to a close.

"But my thoughts are very much with the victims and their families and I hope that they can now begin to move forward in a positive light."

And the mother of one of his victims, who cannot be named, said: "I have got absolutely no sympathy for him. I'm normally a very understanding person, but if he thinks he is going to do that to my son and his friends, he's got another thing coming.

"When I found out what was going on, I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach.

"It is a disgusting thing to do to someone, maybe the most disgusting thing, because it is all about someone's pleasure and ruining other people's lives.

"It is just so, so wrong. It is hard to put into words. There is no excuse for what he did.

"If he doesn't come out of prison I'm quite happy, but I hope it gives him the chance to learn about sexual abuse, to see what it does to people and how it affects their lives."

Cann from Goldhanger, Essex, was convicted last October of 23 charges relating to incidents between 2006 and 2014 and sentencing was adjourned.

He was found guilty of meeting a child following sexual grooming; attempted rape of a child under 13; nine counts of sexual activity with a child; five counts of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity; three counts of attempting to pay for the sexual services of a child; two counts of showing indecent photographs of a child; engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child; taking indecent photographs of a child and making indecent images of children.

He admitted one charge of possessing indecent images of children.