A paedophile travelled from Northern Ireland to Merseyside and raped a girl in hotels and fields after grooming her on Snapchat.
David McMullan sent his teenage victim a string of gifts before flying over to sexually abuse her four times over the course of around 18 months. On one occasion, the 32-year-old plied her with drugs which knocked her out - before she awoke to find him having sex with her.
Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday afternoon, Friday, that the "sexual offences arose from an online relationship dating back to 2019". Frank Dillon, prosecuting, described how McMullan "initiated contact" with the youngster via Snapchat when she was aged 12.
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He told her that his name was Sean Maxwell, he was 16 and from London - when he was actually approaching his 30th birthday and lived in County Down, Northern Ireland. The pervert would turn his phone off between 8am and 3pm to keep up the charade that he was at school.
After around three months of messaging, McMullan sent her a picture of his penis and "begged her to send him" indecent images of herself. Mr Dillon said: "She was reluctant to do so but he would persist with his requests and, adopting a form of emotional blackmail that was to characterise his contact, he suggested if she was not sending such pictures to him then she must be sending them to someone else.
"He went so far as to say that he would kill himself if she did not stop talking to this imaginary other boy. He would tell her that she did not love him, because if she did she would send him the requested pictures."
The two became "boyfriend and girlfriend", after which McMullan confessed his true location and said that he was aged 19 - later revising this to 23. He sent a parcel to her home on Valentine's Day containing a card with a picture of her face on it and a photograph of a man he purported was himself - as well as a teddy bear, a hoodie, £30 in cash, lubricant and a bubble wand.
The defendant travelled to see the by then 13-year-old four times, but first made a "reconnaissance mission" - taking an EasyJet flight from Belfast and staying at the Premier Inn in Birkenhead and the Village Hotel in Whiston over the course of his three-night visit to the area to "check how easy it might be to take her to a hotel room without challenge". When they did meet for the first time they went to a burger restaurant then took a bus to the Whiston hotel, travelling separately "as not to arouse suspicion".
Once in his room, McMullan gave her a Pandora bracelet. He told her he had cocaine and "pressurised her into" sniffing white powder from a key.
The substance caused her to fall asleep, and she woke up to find him raping her. After realising she was awake McMullan began kissing her, ran a bath and "picked her up and put her in".
On his second visit, he brought her chocolates and met her in a field near her home where he filmed them having sex. The vile predator met her again after school the same day, buying her a Dr Pepper and giving her a sex toy before taking her into woodland and raping her.
After travelling over for a third time, McMullan took the teeanger to the Birkenhead hotel - telling her to pretend to staff that he was her dad and he was visiting her from Ireland. He then raped the schoolgirl in his room despite her "repeatedly telling him to get off".
On his final visit, she was "extremely reluctant to meet him" but agreed to meet him in the field near her home after he said he "had wasted all his money making him come over to see her". While she was "really upset, crying and shaking", McMullan exposed himself to her and forced her to perform a sex act on him.
He made threats to distribute naked pictures and videos she had sent him to her friends and family if she did not "comply", as well as threatening to kill himself. At one stage, the sex offender "deleted any reference to him" from her phone and blocked her on Snapchat.
His crimes were uncovered when the girl reported the abuse to a member of staff at her school. McMullan was arrested at his home on Demesne View in Downpatrick in March this year.
Under interview, he falsely claimed he had began speaking to a 19-year-old woman with a different name on a dating app - either Tinder or Plenty of Fish. He stated she had blackmailed him by threatening to report him for sexual offences unless he gave her money and denied having pretended to be Sean Maxwell.
A statement which was read out to the court on behalf of the victim's mum said the family's "lives had been turned upside down". Meanwhile, her sister described how she "feels like nothing is real and everything is stressful and frightening".
Fiona McNeill, defending, said: "This is a distressing case with many troubling aspects. The impact of these offences has a ripple effect.
"That has been recognised, at least in part, by the defendant. The impact will remain with them for some time to come, if not forever.
"This is the first experience of custody Mr McMullan has had, and the prospect of a lengthy custodial sentence weighs heavily on him. He will spend his middle age in prison."
McMullan, who has no previous convictions, admitted four counts of rape on the first day of a scheduled trial after the complainant had given evidence under pre-recorded cross-examination. Appearing via video link to HMP Liverpool wearing a grey Under Armour zip-up tracksuit top, he was jailed for 19 years with an additional five years on licence.
Sentencing, Judge Stuart Driver KC said: "Over a period approaching two years you groomed, exploited and then repeatedly raped a young girl. You have no previous convictions, but that is of limited worth in these circumstances.
"I find them to be grave and very troubling offences, painting a very worrying picture of your personality. I am satisfied that you are a dangerous offender."
McMullan was handed a restraining order, a sexual harm prevention order and a notification requirement - all of which will be run indefinitely. Forfeiture of his Samsung phone was also ordered.
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