School sign language tutor sentenced for sexual grooming

Wednesday 28 March 2018

A British Sign Language tutor who worked in Jersey schools has been jailed for seven months after he attempted to meet a boy he believed to be 13, but was in fact a member of the public using a fake profile.

41-year-old Robert John Lupton-Le Masurier had pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual grooming in February.

Setting out the facts for the prosecution, Legal Adviser Lauren Hallam told Court that Cheyenne O'Connor - a member of the public who has posing as teens on online chatrooms and dating sites - set up a fake profile on Grindr on 7 January. She explained the application is mainly used for "for men to meet and date other men." She said that Ms O'Connor set up an account under the false name of "Benny" and registered the age as being 18, due to the application rules. Once on Grindr, Ms O'Connor however posed as a 13-year-old boy.

On 10 January, 'Benny' received a message from Le Masurier. After a few initial messages, Benny told Le Masurier of his age. The conversation went as follows: 

Benny: not going to lie I am underage. Don’t want anybody to talk to me that doesn’t want to.
Le Masurier: You mean you don’t want some fun?
Benny: I have never done anything before.
Le Masurier: You want to try?
Benny: I'm 13.

After this, Le Masurier asked the boy about his school and for pictures, asking him to be discreet. He told Benny: "I’m really looking for fun (sex)," adding later on in the conversation, "Don’t worry about being nervous, don’t mind your age as long as you are very, very discreet."

Ms Hallam said that the conversation continued with some "very sexual requests" from Le Masurier. The pair then continued to exchange messages for five days, during which Le Masurier told Benny he didn't want the police to see the texts. He also asked the boy repeatedly if they could meet and a meeting was arranged on 15 January. On the day, Benny said he had to cancel because his mum had come home. Le Masurier asked to meet him the following day at the park

Ms O'Connor photographed Le Masurier walking around the area where Benny had agreed to meet and then went to the police. During his police interview, Le Masurier, who his advocate described as "profoundly deaf," said he didn't understand the word "13" or "age." He said he had a poor command of English and didn't understand the content of the conversation. He denied knowing the boy was 13.

Pictured: Le Masurier was sentenced by Relief Magistrate Sarah Fitz on Wednesday.

Advocate Nina Benest, who was defending Le Masurier, said he was of previous good character, had pleaded guilty on the first occasion and had several references. She said he had been in a relationship for 20 years and never had a previous underage encounter or any "general sexual interest in children."

She said Le Masurier took full responsibility for his actions and understood how he had broken the law, for which he offered an "unreserved apology."

Advocate Benest told Court that Le Masurier was profoundly deaf. "He knows nothing beyond what is expressly explained to him. There is no white noise for him, no TV, no radio, no general conversation, no eavesdropping. There is no osmosis by which he can learn society’s rules," she said.

She explained that his first language is the British Sign Language (BSL) and that English is foreign to him and needs to be translated. In addition she said his command of English was equivalent to that of a seven or eight-year-old. She added: "Many words and concepts that we use have no direct translation in BSL and need to be explained to convey their meaning." 

Advocate Benest told Court that there was no information about any prison officer having even a basic command of BSL. She said that as a result of his conviction, Le Masurier lost his job, lost his partner and was "ostracised by the community." She said he was completely isolated and couldn't rebuild his life.

She told Court: "Nobody has had these critical conversations with him about behaviour with children. He had never came across the word 'grooming' before and it is something that had to be explained at length to him during his interview. This has been a shocking and frightening experience for him."

Advocate Benest urged the court to consider a community service order rather than a custodial sentence which she said would have a disproportionate impact on Le Masurier. She concluded: "It is going to be an uphill struggle much more than for any other offenders as it is."

Pictured: Le Masurier had been messaging a boy he believed to be 13 on Grindr, an app used by men to meet other men.

Relief Magistrate Sarah Fitz said that Le Masurier's case was very similar to another case heard in Royal Court in 2016 in which the defendant had been jailed nine months. She quoted the Deputy Bailiff's, Tim Le Cocq, comments on the case, saying: "Any attempt to groom a minor for sexual purposes is extremely serious and, in our view, a custodial sentence is almost inevitable. Naturally in this case, no child was in fact put at risk or was ever going to be assaulted as a result of this communication.  Whilst we must view the correct sentence in that light, and we do, the offence is nonetheless a serious one."

She said that there had been concerns in Le Masurier's case about his "level of remorse and acceptation of responsibility" which Advocate Benest had dispelled. 

The Relief Magistrate said she had considered the issue of deafness but that it couldn't mitigate the offence itself, which she said is "as serious whether he is deaf or not." She added that Le Masurier's deafness was relevant in terms of his hardships in prison but "not such a factor that it can lead to a non-custodial sentence, but it can certainly reduce it."

 As "an act of mercy rather than an act of principle," she sentenced Le Masurier to seven months in prison, instead of the nine months she would have normally applied. She also imposed a five-year restraining order and ordered for Le Masurier to stay on the Sex Offenders' Register for at least five years.