Woman, 25, jailed for grooming teenage girl & having sex with her after buying victim gifts and giving her cash

A WOMAN who groomed a teenage girl by watching a “lesbian film” with her has been jailed for more than two years.

A judge blasted “tone deaf” Co-Op worker Ellee Nicoll for ignoring “loud and clear” alarm bells when she began buying the youngster gifts and handing her cash.

The defendant, 25 and of Swindon, Wiltshire, “cultivated” the relationship with months of sexting before sitting down with the girl to watch a film about lesbianism.

She picked the movie to “normalise” what she wanted, it was heard.

The truth was only revealed when the young girl’s mother became concerned at how close the pair were becoming.

She sat her daughter down to talk about grooming – leaving the girl feeling “sick”, prosecutors said.

Judge Jason Taylor QC, sitting at Swindon Crown Court, heard the victim has struggled with her mental health, and initially looked up to the defendant as a “big sister”.

He told Nicoll she “must have realised” what she was doing, adding: “Alarm bells should have been ringing loud and clear in your mind, but you were seemingly tone deaf.”

Prosecutor Andrew Houston said the young girl quickly began sending photos of herself naked and in underwear.

The pair then developed a “heavy sexual flirtation” and were “touchy feely” with each other.

Their relationship was so brazen that Nicoll’s horrified mum warned her to stay away from the schoolgirl, it was heard.

But the situation worsened when the victim’s mum, not realising her daughter was being abused, offered Nicoll a place to stay after a family disagreement.

She allowed the defendant and her daughter to stay in the same bed, where they watched a smutty film and agreed to “do stuff to each other”.

In the following days, Nicoll described it as “the best night of her life”, and the victim said she had “no regrets”.

Mitigating, Gareth James said the offending was “out of character” and that it has “had a devastating effect on her already”.

“She does seem to be a defendant who can properly and accurately be described as a vulnerable defendant herself and perhaps immature,” he said.

“Given the undoubted effect already upon Miss Nicoll and her concerns for her future problems and the work she has already undertaken on a voluntary basis, [this] demonstrates very clearly there is a significant prospect of rehabilitation.”

But while Judge Taylor said Nicoll may not have “set out” to groom the youngster, she had caused huge harm.

‘NO REGRETS’

“When she sent you naked images of herself, the appropriate thing to do was gently say ‘it is not appropriate’,” he said.

“You didn’t. You had become so desensitised from her age it didn’t give you pause for thought in the cold hard light of day.

“‘No regrets’ for [the victim] turned to embarrassment, and by the time she was interviewed by police, she felt sick.

“Sometimes teenagers just need to be protected from themselves.”

Nicoll was sentenced to immediate custody after admitting sexual activity with a child and sexual communication with a child.

She was also ordered to comply with a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years, as well as a restraining order preventing her from contacting the victim.