WARNING: CONTAINS DISTRESSING DETAILS | A judge said there was ‘evidence of sadism’ in Ashley Houghton’s crimes
Ashley Houghton(Image: GMP)
A vulnerable girl carved the initials of her abuser onto her body after being encouraged by a sadistic former Strangeways prison officer. Ashley Houghton, 36, groomed the child and pestered her to send sexual videos of herself to him to satisfy his depraved desires.
Houghton, a father who worked at HMP Manchester while committing his crimes, contacted the girl on the social media app Discord. She has not been traced but is thought to live in the US. Houghton is one of the first people in the country to be prosecuted under the new offence of encouraging or assisting self-harm.
Bolton Crown Court heard the girl discussed self-harm during online chats with Houghton, from Atherton, Wigan. After she revealed she had cut herself, Houghton said he was ‘oddly interested in seeing this’ and asked to see pictures of her wounds.
Later in their chats, Houghton – who posed under the username ‘Arthur Morris’ – encouraged the girl to carve his initials onto a sensitive part of her body. When she sent him a picture of the resulting self-harm, Houghton replied: “I love it! Yes! It’s so personal and sexy.” He described her scars as ‘cute’.
As the chats continued, the girl told Houghton that she had tried to asphyxiate herself. Even after this, his demand for sexual content was ‘relentless’ and he began to blackmail and threaten her if she refused to comply, warning that he would sell the intimate images she had sent him.
Prosecuting, James Cooper said Houghton only became aware that she was 14 towards the end of their five week period of chatting online. But a judge said he’d known that she was of school age.
Judge Jon Close told Houghton: “You encouraged her to scar her breasts and buttocks with the initials of her own abuser. You did this even after being told she had attempted suicide. When you learned she was 14 and she was a child, and in fact that she had recently tried to take her own life, you did not desist.
“Instead you blackmailed her for your own selfish and sadistic ends, knowing full well that the risks were significant and the consequences could have been fatal. This was deliberate, relentless and cruel. There was evidence of sadism in your offending. You are a dangerous offender. The risk of harm you pose to children is considerable.”
Houghton was traced via his IP address after the girl made a report to Discord and the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in the US. When he was arrested, police seized his phone but found that any images or videos sent by the girl had been deleted.
Houghton, previously of Dorset Road, Atherton, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted sexual communication with a child; one count of encouraging or assisting serious self-harm; and attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity. Houghton was found to have been communicating with another child who has not been traced, to a lesser extent and seriousness than the other victim.
Prosecutors said the offences had been prosecuted as ‘attempted’ crimes because the children, who Houghton believed were real, had not been traced. Defending, Richard Thomas said the ‘main thrust’ of Houghton’s mitigation was his complete lack of previous convictions.
He said that Houghton had initially co-operated with police, providing his PIN number and answering questions in a police interview, before he decided to answer ‘no comment’ in a subsequent interview. Houghton has since ‘lost everything’, Mr Thomas said, including his home, job and relationship.
His family have turned their back on him, the court heard. Mr Thomas said prison will be a ‘difficult and dangerous place’ for Houghton to be, given his previous work as a prison officer.
Judge Close sentenced Houghton to an extended prison sentence, including a seven-and-a-half year prison term. He will serve two-thirds of that period before the Parole Board decides whether he is safe to be released. The judge also added an extended licence period of six years after Houghton is released.