A TALENTED athlete abused his position of trust to target young boys on social networking sites, enticing them into sexual activities over a webcam.
Stuart Parry, of Hill Close, Ness, Neston, was chosen for the junior freestyle kayaking GB team in 2005, becoming the youngest member of the squad at just 13-years-old.
But last week Parry, now 20, pleaded guilty to 21 charges of sex offences against young boys after police discovered 122 indecent images of children on his personal computer.
During a plea and case management hearing at Chester Crown Court, the Recorder of Chester Judge Elgan Edwards slated Parry saying he had abused boys who had “trusted” and “looked up to him” as an experienced GB kayaker.
“This is a breach of trust. These were conversations over the internet, on Facebook, with someone they knew was involved with kayaking at a senior level,” said Judge Elgan.
The court heard how, between October 13 and July 31 2009, the former Neston High pupil targeted a 13-year-old boy on the social networking site Facebook before enticing him to engage in a range of sexual activities over a webcam.
He used MSN and Facebook to communicate with the young boys, who are said to have all been interested in kayaking, and took still images of them on his webcam and kept them on his computer.
Parry appeared in court charged with 25 counts of sexual offences on children under the age of 16, the oldest offence dating back to October 2008 when he was just 17-years-old.
He pleaded guilty to:
Two counts of inciting children to engage in sexual activity
One count of engaging in sexual touching in the presence of a child
Possessing 122 indecent images of children, made up of 74 level one images, 22 level two, 14 level 3 and 11 level 4
15 counts of making indecent images of children
Taking 12 indecent images of children on his webcam.
He pleaded not guilty to five counts of causing a child to watch a sexual act over a webcam. These were made to lie on file.
At an earlier hearing at Chester Magistrates Court in July this year, the court heard how Parry’s actions were only discovered when, in March last year, Cheshire Police were contacted by Metropolitan Police after flagging up a Facebook conversation between Parry and a 14-year-old boy.
Back in 2005 Parry qualified for the GB U18 team.
He qualified for the K1 Junior Men's GB kayaking team in 2009 during trials to represent Great Britain at the Freestyle World Championships in Switzerland in September 2009.
Parry is due back in court on November 26. He has been released on bail, with the condition that he doesn’t access the internet or go near any watersports activities or canoeing centres.
