Sunday school teacher directed sex offences via internet from 7,000 miles away

UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

16 JUNE 2017

A Sunday school teacher was jailed for life today for a string of sickening child sex offences against girls as young as four in the Philippines – despite being 7,000 miles away.

Married father-of-two Paul O’Neill, 57, who taught maths at a Catholic secondary school, arranged for youngsters to be raped and abused by adults, watching live on a webcam and directing the offences from his home in Wollaton Vale in Nottingham.

At Nottingham Crown Court O’Neill admitted 30 charges, involving 12 girls aged from four to 15, including three child rapes, arranging or facilitating the commission of child sex offences, causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, conspiring to rape a child, and arranging child prostitution.

In a case thought to be the first of its kind in the UK, O’Neill, who was a minister with special responsibilities for children with the New Apostolic Church, was charged despite not being present or physically taking part in the abuse.

Prosecutors described O’Neill as a “virtual sex tourist” with a “very dark secret”, and said he “relished” the financial imbalance between himself and his poverty-stricken victims.

The offences took place between 2008 and 2016, and involved girls between four and 15.

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