Wigan pervert, 44, jailed for vile abuse of schoolgirls

Lee Hodgetts was only arrested after a parent of one of his victims found text messages of a sexual nature and indecent images on their young daughter’s phone.

The defendant, of Beverley Road, Marsh Green, had pleaded guilty to a range of child sex and child porn charges back in December 2018.

But sentencing was delayed by more than 14 months because Hodgetts had suffered a long bout of ill health.

Now well enough to face justice, he was in the dock at Bolton Crown Court as a judge heard that there were two female victims: one aged 16 and the other aged just 13 when the vile abuse started in 2012.

After the parent raised the alarm, Hodgetts was arrested and his iphone and computer were examined from which the indecent images were recovered.

Of the images found, four fell into the most serious category (A), one was category B and 82 were category C.

Hodgetts pleaded guilty to eight charges in all: three of possessing indecent images of a child, two of distributing the same, two of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and one of causing a child to watch a sexual act.

He was jailed for a total of 40 months and put on the Sex Offenders’ Register indefinitely.