Man Jailed for Abusing One-Year-Old Baby

A man who filmed himself abusing a one-year-old baby has been jailed after an image was found on his mobile phone.

Barry Cornes, 47, of St Lukes Road, Torquay, claimed he was only touching the child out of curiosity and that there was nothing sexual about it. However, a jury at Exeter Crown Court disagreed and found him guilty of sexual assault.

The mother of the baby, who was traced by police, made a victim impact statement expressing her devastation and disgust. She described the ordeal of having her child undergo a specialist medical examination to check for physical damage from the sexual assault.

Cornes, who admitted taking an indecent image of a child, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison. He was also placed on the sex offenders' register for life and subjected to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order prohibiting unsupervised contact with children.

Judge David Evans, in sentencing Cornes, highlighted his lack of remorse and the significant distress caused to the child's mother. He emphasized the vulnerability of the child due to her young age and the aggravating nature of the image taking.

The prosecution, led by Mr. David Scutt, revealed that the offense occurred in January of the previous year and was discovered when the image was accidentally found in a deleted section of Cornes' phone. While Cornes acknowledged his hand in the images, he maintained that his actions were driven by curiosity rather than sexual gratification.

The child's mother's victim statement poignantly described her feelings of nausea and the emotional trauma of taking her child to a medical center for examination. She expressed that it was the worst experience she had ever endured.