‘I know it’s wrong and the police are taking me to court. I’m probably going to jail for it. I’ll still do it when I get out.’

Scarlet Drury told this to court following her conviction on multiple counts of child abuse. She abused a boy and two girls, claiming “age is just a number”. She bragged about the offenses and continued to contact the girls after being banned by the court from doing so. She gave the above response when questioned about it. One of the girls reportedly blames herself for the abuse:

She was described as nervous and paranoid, blamed herself for what happened, struggled emotionally to accept it and isolated herself from her family.

Drury was 17 and 18 at the time of the offenses. None of the articles covering the case state the age of the victims. Drury faced five counts of sexual activity with a child and one count of taking a child without lawful authority. For this she received suspended sentence: a one-year custodial sentence suspended for two years with a year’s supervision and a five-year sexual harm prevention order.

This for a person who admitted she would defy court orders and re-offend.

The judge had his reasons for giving the convicted multiple child molester such a weak sentence:

Judge Tony Briggs told her: ‘You’ve had a very tragic past for which you are in no way responsible. ‘You lived with your mother who was ill and then lived with your father but he was, unhappily, addicted to drugs and alcohol and introduced you to these substances. You relied on these substances from your very early teens. ‘You were in a very powerless state indeed. All this happened a considerable time ago, two years since the last offence.’

That is an interesting response. I recall another 19 year old convicted of sex offenses who appears addicted to drugs and alcohol receiving a negative backlash when he received a six-month sentence. I wonder how social media will respond to this case. In the case with the young man, people turned on the judge, creating a petition to have him removed from the bench. Let us see how long it takes for anyone to demand that of Judge Briggs.