Denbighshire: Child rapist Michael Stewart gets life sentence

Michael Stewart admitted charges of sexual abuse and will serve a minimum of 16 years

A man who repeatedly sexually abused a young girl and arranged for other men to rape her has been given a life sentence.

Michael Stewart, 41, admitted sexual abuse charges and will serve at least 16 years before he could be released.

Mold Crown Court heard the girl endured "virtually indescribable suffering and misery" between the ages of 10 and 16.

Co-defendant Matthew Penny, 44, was found guilty of raping a child under 13 and was jailed for 20 years.

Prosecutor Anna Pope listed a catalogue of sexual offences against the girl.

Stewart raped and abused her and sent images of his crime to others and secretly filmed her.

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"He gained sexual pleasure by watching her being raped by strangers and raping her himself," Ms Pope told the court.

Penny was the only other offender that investigators have been able to trace.

Matthew Penny was sentenced to 20 years in prison

Stewart brought the girl to two meetings with Penny in Conwy and Prestatyn, Denbighshire. Both men raped her at the meeting in Prestatyn.

Their crimes were revealed after the National Crime Agency alerted North Wales Police about two chat accounts on the messenger service Kik.

Officers found Penny had uploaded videos and images of child sexual abuse to the app and also found a link to Stewart and visited his home in north Wales on 9 November 2022.

They later found the girl, who became upset and said she had been sexually abused.

In her victim impact statement, she said she felt the abuse was her fault and still suffers nightmares.

Simon Rogers, defending Stewart, said it was the first time he had been prosecuted for having contact with an underage girl but accepted his client posed a high risk of harm to children.

Simon Killeen, representing Penny, said until his client was 42, he had never committed an offence.

Judge Timothy Petts said the girl had endured "virtually indescribable suffering and misery", explaining how Stewart had degraded, humiliated and treated her in an "utterly horrific way".

He said she must have felt "sickening fear" when being driven to be raped by Penny, causing "devastating and life changing" consequences.

The judge said Stewart's life sentence was "thoroughly merited" due to the seriousness of his crimes, the loaning of his victim to other rapists and the high level of danger he poses.

Stewart admitted raping a girl under 13, raping a girl under 15, raping a woman over 16, distributing indecent photos, engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a girl under 13 and arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation and voyeurism.