Fireman ‘had intercourse with woman in his automobile after assembly her in school open day’

A firefighter is on trial for allegedly having sex with a young girl in his car after meeting her during a school open day, Liverpool Crown Court has heard. Scott Cameron, a 39-year-old officer from Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, is accused of a series of child sex offences.

The court was told that Cameron, from Harewell Road in Norris Green, complimented the teenager on her looks, asked her to send him explicit photos, and arranged a meeting with her in a secluded area. The father of two admits to sexual activity with the complainant but insists he believed she was over 16.

Prosecutor Steven Ball informed the jury that the girl was only 13 when Cameron and other fire officers visited her school to recruit new fire cadets. One of Cameron’s colleagues, Ed Doinog, reportedly made such an impression on the students that the teen and her friend wrote him a card, which they later delivered to a fire station.

This note praised him for his work, asked questions about his role, and included the complainant’s phone number and their ages.

However, Mr Ball detailed how “events took a sinister turn” about a month later, stating: “Somehow, say the prosecution, Scott Cameron had got hold of her number and, in his messages to her, he was pretending to be someone else.”, reports the Liverpool Echo.

“Initially, she believed it was Ed Doinog. They exchanged messages and she was complimented on looking ‘gorgeous’. This attention made her feel special. But this was not a conventional or normal relationship, for obvious reasons, and there was nearly 25 years’ difference in their ages.

“After a month, the defendant began requesting her to send him photographs. She remembered being abroad on holiday when she was asked for bikini pictures. She ended up sending some partially dressed pictures. Further requests were made for nude photographs.

“These requests became more insistent. They turned into threats. The defendant, say the prosecution, was telling her things like he was going to stop talking to her if she did not send ‘proper ones’ and that the pictures were going to get sent around. He even offered to pay her for photographs.

Around 10 months after his first visit to her school, Cameron reportedly “revealed his true identity and asked to meet her” in woodland. Mr Ball added: “Quite what this married father-of-two in his late 30s was doing, firstly, pretending to be someone else then asking for nude photographs and then arranging to meet this schoolgirl will be for him to explain.

“She made it clear to Scott Cameron that she was only 13. But, members of the jury, that did not put him off, and, from the intensity and frequency of their messages and meetings, this seemed to be something that Scott Cameron relished and certainly could not resist.”

Jurors were told that the two then began meeting “regularly” and, on one occasion, she “snook out” of her house and had sex with him in his car. But she later deleted his phone number after he apparently became “argumentative” with her in his messages.

Cameron – who was based at Crosby Fire Station but had “working links” with Bootle Fire Station, Netherton Fire Station and Storrington Avenue Fire Station in Croxteth – made no comment when first interviewed by detectives. However, during a second round of questioning he subsequently stated that he “started to get messages on Snapchat from accounts he didn’t know” before a “female came up to him one day recognising him from her school”, apparently telling him that she was a sixth form student.

He then “portrayed her as being obsessive” and as having “harassed” him, while he “even suggested that she was sometimes under the influence of drugs”.

The defendant, who was spotted in the dock with his arms folded, donned a long-sleeved grey T-shirt and showed off short greying hair, insisted that “nothing sexual had happened between them”, despite admitting he received some unsolicited pictures which he claimed to have deleted immediately. Cameron also denied knowledge of a card sent to the fire station and refuted posing as Mr Doinog while messaging the girl.

Mr Ball revealed: “He told the police that he was a good person and that he didn’t do bad things. He emphasised that he was married with children. He said that he felt sick to the stomach about the allegations and was concerned about her mindset.

“He also told the police that she had been abused by someone else and she had asked him for some help to find the male responsible. When he refused to help her, he said that she turned nasty.

“You will be able to reflect on this and whether this is a sad indication of a young girl naively looking up to an older male for help and support. The prosecution say that, having heard all of the evidence, you will be able to conclude that Scott Cameron was not a saviour, a supporter or a soulmate but an abuser and manipulator of her.”

Cameron was reported to have “had access to several numbers”, but he told the police that he only had one mobile – an iPhone which was seized when he was arrested. When this device was later “cracked with specialist software” after he refused to give the access code, it was found to contain a picture of the girls’ card and several naked photos of the complainant.

The court heard that “sexual contact is admitted as having happened” by the defendant, with Mr Ball telling the jury: “The focus of the trial will be on whether you are sure to reject that Scott Cameron reasonably believed that she was 16 at the time.

“The prosecution say that this was not a one-off or chance meeting where a single mistake could be made, but this is a case which is the chronicle of a man exercising his own choices, who knew exactly what he was doing and using all of his wider gained experiences as an adult to exploit an impressionable and obliging 13 or 14 year old, a young girl who was the object of his attention.”

Cameron, who is defended by Kate Morley, denies a total of 11 sexual offences. The trial, before Judge David Swinnerton, continues, and is expected to last about a week.

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