Julie Morris, a safety lead at a Wigan primary school, and her partner David Morris videotaped themselves abusing and raping a girl under the age of 13 in a series of films discovered on his phone, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
A deputy headteacher was sentenced to 13 years and four months in prison for raping and sexually abusing a youngster.
Julie Morris, 44, and her partner David Morris, 52, videotaped themselves abusing and raping a girl under the age of 13 in a series of videos recovered on the latter’s phone, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
Julie Morris pled guilty on Wednesday to 18 charges, including two counts of rape, nine counts of inducing a child under the age of 13 to participate in sexual conduct, and two counts of engaging in sexual behaviour in the presence of a child.
She also admitted to three charges of taking indecent photos of children, one count of engaging in sexual communication with a minor, and one count of possessing indecent images of children.
She was also sentenced to serve a four-year license period following her prison sentence.
David Morris was sentenced to 16 years in prison with a four-year parole period for 34 offences, including seven charges of rape and 13 counts of causing or persuading a child under the age of 13 to engage in sexual behaviour.
“Every now and then you encounter cases where the facts are almost beyond comprehension,” Judge Andrew Menary said as he sentenced the couple. This is one of those situations.
“It illustrates that human depravity has no bounds.”
The court heard disturbing videos of Julie Morris giggling as the incident occurred.
She was a safeguarding lead at St George’s Central C of E Primary School in Wigan, and the offences had nothing to do with her job there.
According to Prosecutor John Wyn Williams, the couple met on the dating service Plenty of Fish in 2016 after both had separated from their partners, and the relationship “soon became very sexual.”
“Their correspondence got graphic and wicked,” he claimed, “resulting in some of their sexual dreams becoming a reality.”
The court heard how Julie Morris would take non-indecent images of other youngsters and give them to her spouse to “fuel his passion for sexually assaulting young children.”
Mr Wyn Williams stated that the sexual assault was discovered after police discovered a communication regarding child sexual abuse involving David Morris on a phone acquired during a search warrant.
He was subsequently detained, cautioned, and released, and a number of gadgets were recovered, the court heard, including recordings of rape and sexual abuse.
Mr Wyn Williams said the couple were caught the next day because they appeared to be attempting to elude the police.
“They were in a camper van on their way to the Lake District with £10,000 in their possession,” he told the court.
Officers also combed through 175,000 pages of messages exchanged between the couple, which revealed sexually explicit communications, as well as videos and photographs on David Morris’ phone.
They referred to the victim as “our little plaything” in the messages.
The defendants allegedly put up a group conversation with the youngster to discuss how they planned to mistreat her.
Julie Morris, according to defence counsel Paul Becker, had “lost everything in life,” including her reputation, work, and home.
“She was held in great respect prior to her offending,” he stated.
Charles Lander, David Morris’s defence counsel, claimed he had exhibited genuine contrition and was “under no illusions” that he would be imprisoned for a long time.
Senior CPS prosecutor Mairead Neeson described the case as “one of the worst she’d seen,” adding, “the details of what they did are so awful that when I finished reading them, I broke into tears.”