Mother's fury as teacher who bombarded girl of 14 with vile sex messages is spared prison

• Primary trainee Tony Marsden, 23, sent explicit messages on Facebook
  
• But court suspended sentence for Marsden, of Whitley Bay, North Tyneside
• Judge Simon Hickey took into account glowing character references
  
• Victim's mother: 'The messages were pornographic. My blood ran cold'
  

By JACINTA TAYLOR

Published: 19:38 EST, 28 June 2014 | Updated: 19:38 EST, 28 June 2014

Paedophile: Tony Marsden sent thousands of messages to the youngster

The mother of a 14-year-old girl bombarded with many hundreds of sexually explicit Facebook messages from a paedophile trainee teacher has reacted with fury and disbelief after he was spared jail.

Tony Marsden sent thousands of messages to the youngster which  at first used charm and flattery to groom but quickly grew explicit and sinister. When the girl’s mother found out what he was doing it took her 1,450 sheets of A4 paper to print out the vile transcript.

Yet a judge handed down a suspended jail sentence, saying he was impressed by ‘powerful mitigation’, including glowing references from a former private school head, a school chaplain and a GP.

The girl’s mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘He should never have been freed. I do not think they should be able to take into account character references for paedophiles. The messages were pornographic. My blood ran cold when I saw them – I was horrified at what I was reading.’

The Mail on Sunday has seen the sickening catalogue of messages which reveal how the 23-year-old trainee primary teacher from Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, embarked on a campaign to lure the impressionable teenager to follow his bidding after befriending her at a summer camp where he was an instructor.

The majority of the messages are too disgusting to print here.

In an early grooming text to the girl, who had just celebrated her 14th birthday, Marsden tells her: ‘You are just amazing, you really are.’

Soon after, he promises her that he will ‘make you toast in the morning, make you laugh and smile and never hurt you and always be there to catch you and everything’.

But the following day he pleads: ‘Tell me what you are doing, will make me so horny.’

In other messages he begs her to send photos of her in a bikini and tries to make her touch herself sexually, writing: ‘Just try this one xx i slowly run my hand back up he [sic] inside of your leg before .  .  . xxx’

Bombarded: Excerpts from three of the messages, most of which are too explicit to be printed

Then he demands: ‘Just try xxx I want to know what you’d do to me .  .  .’ Then he says: ‘Or you just want me to make you ... and you can .  .  . Xx’

The girl changed from a confident, happy, outgoing teenager to becoming increasingly withdrawn and secretive as the messages from Marsden became more graphic and insistent. It was this sudden personality change which alerted her parents that something was wrong.

Her mother checked her daughter’s Facebook account and was horrified by the quantity of filth Marsden had been sending.

She said: ‘Tony Marsden put on this facade of being a perfectly nice man, but underneath it all he was trying to gain my daughter’s trust for his own gratification.

‘She is blameless, but feels as if she has done something wrong.

Judge Simon Hickey suspended Marsden's sentence after he heard glowing references

‘I never imagined that she would be in danger from someone that she knew and who came from a family with decent, hard-working parents.

‘I had always thought that I had been very vigilant when it came to my daughter’s access to the internet, making sure that she only accepted friend requests from people she knew and taking her laptop and phone off her at night.’

Judge Simon Hickey gave Marsden credit for pleading guilty to inciting a child to commit a sexual act and slashed one third off a mandatory two-year custodial sentence and then suspended the remaining 16-month sentence for two years.

The Newcastle Crown Court judge told Marsden: ‘You have the support of your family and good references, including one from a reverend. You have committed a serious offence, but I think it’s highly unlikely you will trouble the court again.’

Asked yesterday about his sentencing, Judge Hickey said: ‘I am afraid I cannot comment.’ Leading child protection agencies slammed the sentencing.

Jon Brown at the NSPCC said: ‘The victim’s family understandably expected a tougher punishment. Sexual abuse by its very nature is hidden so it’s unlikely that even people close to the individual would know their true character.’

And Esther Rantzen, founder of the NSPCC’s ChildLine, said: ‘I can absolutely understand the fury of the mother. How she must have felt when she discovered what this man was doing to her daughter.

‘I am not sure that judges have a real understanding of paedophilia, which is an addiction.’

Bharti Patel, chief executive of child protection charity ECPAT UK, said: ‘Any leniency on sentencing sends out the wrong message on the severity of the crime of grooming and could deter young people from reporting such instances.’

The mother initially contacted  the NSPCC for advice who in turn passed the matter on to police.

Detective Inspector John Douglas said: ‘This man has abused his position of authority and trust by sending a youth explicit messages via social media.’

Marsden was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register and barred rom working with children for  five years.

He has also been suspended from his university course and will not  be allowed to continue his teacher training.