A JUDGE said the “scale of depravity” shown by a woman and her accomplices involved in the systematic sexual abuse of a girl “beggars belief”.
Vicki Bevan, 37, was given a life sentence at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, after she had organised the sexual abuse of a girl under 10 with two other men.
Meanwhile, Tony Hutton 42, and Paul Rafferty, 62, who also abused the victim, were also given prison sentences in the hearing.
The victim had been subjected to abuse over a two-year period between 2019 and 2021.
Images of the horrific abuse were shared between the three and Bevan also shared them more widely on the platform Kik Messenger.
Bevan also expressed depraved fantasies of kidnapping, torturing, killing and eating children in messages with another man.
She also discussed “charging money” for the abuse of the girl to “purchase a house with a cellar” in which to carry out the depraved acts.
Prosecuting, Martine Snowdon said Bevan’s horrific crimes came to light after police had “arrested a male in relation to sexual offences” on whose phone was found “indecent images of children".
The phone also contained WhatsApp conversations with Bevan, dated between March 6 and April 6, 2021 which outlined her depraved fantasies.
She said the pair discussed in “graphic detail” of plans to “kidnap, rape and torture” children and also about “killing and eating children after sexually abusing them”.
Ms Snowdon added: “They made plans to charge money for the abuse (of children) so they could use that money to purchase a house with a cellar to carry out the acts they were planning.”
During these conversations, Bevan sent images of the girl.
She added: “It is clear from that the vigour and enthusiasm which Bevan approaches these conversations.”
Ms Snowdon said that, after being arrested on June 13 last year, Bevan said she had “sent messages but said children have never been abused”.
Police discovered on Bevan’s phone, “conversations with seven other people of a similar nature”, with one discussing “drugging and raping” girls. In another, one person tells Bevan he is “only 13” and she says “she has no age limits”.
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Graphic conversations between Bevan and Rafferty were found, dating between November 2020 and May 2021. In them, he asks Bevan “if she has any boundaries and she says ‘none at all’”, Ms Snowdon added.
Meanwhile, Hutton was arrested in July 2021 and his phone was found to have indecent images with one of the pictures showing him committing sexual abuse of the girl.
He said to police that he’d met Bevan “online” and that she was “egging him on”.
In an earlier hearing, Bevan had pleaded guilty to one count of rape jointly with Rafferty; two sexual assaults one jointly with Hutton and one with Rafferty; four sexual assaults by penetration, one jointly with Rafferty; one count of attempted sexual assault by penetration; one count of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity; three counts of sexual activity with a child; 17 counts of making indecent images of children; two counts of possessing extreme pornographic images and three counts of distribution of indecent images of children.
Meanwhile, Rafferty pleaded guilty to one Rape jointly with Bevan; one sexual assault by penetration jointly with Bevan; one sexual assault of a child jointly with Bevan and six of making indecent images of children.
Hutton pleaded guilty to one sexual assault of a child jointly with Bevan and three counts of making indecent images of children.
Defending Bevan, Jonathan Duffy said that she “understands the seriousness” of her offences and “accepts she is in acute need of help to deal with whatever it was that caused her to behave as she did”. He added she had been diagnosed with bi-polar.
Defending Rafferty, Simon Christie, said his client stated he deserves to be punished” and was “relieved to be punished for these offences”.
Defending Hutton, Tom Watson, said his client “takes ownership for his outrageous disgusting and disgraceful behaviour”.
Passing sentence to the defendants, judge the recorder of Liverpool Andrew Menary QC said: “The scale of the depravity by your combined offending really beggars belief”.
He said how Rafferty and Hutton became “two of her (Bevan’s) customers and that “all of you were complicit”, and described some of Bevan’s conversations as “beyond disturbed”.
Judge Menary said: “The chats you participated in with the other men weren’t mere fantasies. I, at least, can’t be sure that it was mere fantasy” and that “some of the online discussions led to sexual abuse of a child.
“Your fantasies became a nightmare reality” for the victim.
The judge said that while Bevan has been diagnosed with bi-polar there “was nothing in the report to suggest your mental state at the time was so affected as to lessen in any way your culpability“.
He added: “You are the one driving the conversations, you are the one introducing the images of child abuse”.
He added that while it “too early” to determine the overall “effect” of the abuse on the victim but it is “likely” her “ability to form normal relationships has been damaged irrevocably”.
Bevan, of Newtown, St Helens, was given a life sentence, and must serve at least 10 years and 44 days in prison before being eligible for parole.
The judge stressed this is a "life sentence" and the minimum time to be served is "not a fixed term but is the initial term before the Parole Board can undertake a first review".
Rafferty, of Fry Street, Parr, was given an extended sentence, consisting of a 10-year custodial term and four years on licence.
Meanwhile, Hutton, of Liverpool Street, St Helens, was sentenced to four years.
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