Army Cadet volunteer groped boy in bed then pretended he was sleepwalking

Ryan Baskerville also groomed the family of a young boy to “gain access” to him and was later caught with hundreds of child abuse images, Leeds Crown Court heard.

The paedophile was given 28 months’ jail after finally admitting sexually touching the two youngsters, having spent five years denying the offences.

Prosecuting, Chloe Hudson said Baskerville had gained the trust of a family in Leeds in 2016, and asked if he could take their 11-year-old boy swimming.

He told them he worked with people with disabilities at Kirklees Council and reassured them he had been vetted.

He would take the boy swimming regularly, and pinched thy boy’s bum cheeks, twice over his clothes, and then a third time when the boy fell asleep on the sofa, this time putting his hand under his pyjama shorts.

In an impact statement, the boy said he is still badly affected and slept with the light on until he was 16.

In 2017, Baskerville then assaulted the 15-year-old.

Again he was a friend to the family and asked if he could stay over one night in the spare room.

The boy woke the next morning to find Baskerville in his room with his hand on his torso.

Sitting upright the boy panicked and asked what he was doing, to which Baskerville replied “I’m doing first aid on you”.

Telling his father, they said the defendant then began acting strangely, like he was pretending to sleep walk.

He later told police he had no recollection of the incident and continued to deny it.

In 2020 the police raided his home at Rayner Lodge in Liversedge and seized his laptop, finding 69 Category A images – the most serious which involved the abuse of one-year-old babies.

There was also 122 Category B and 494 Category C images. There was evidence that he had been searching out the videos and photographs.

He admitted three counts of sexual touching, and three counts of possessing indecent images.

Baskerville, who is now 28, has no previous convictions.

His barrister, Catherine Silverton, said that his sleepwalking was “not a fabrication” and is backed up by medical evidence although conceded that it was not a defence in this case.

She said he apologised and admitted he should have got help sooner, adding: “He has taken full responsibility and has been open with his family.”

Addressing him on the sexual touching of the 11-year-old, Judge Robin Mairs said: “I have no doubt from the outset you were sexually attracted to this young man.

“You groomed your way into his family to gain access to him. What you wanted most of all was access to him.”

Referring to the 15-year-old boy, Judge Mairs said: “You maintain that you sleep walk. I accept it’s not a fabrication but it was in this case.

"It was not born out of any sleep walking, it was born out of your sexual desire for this boy.”

Barred from ever working with children, he was also given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to limit his internet use, and told to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.