John Lawrence Kernan, a deviant Paedophile from Penrith, was charged with sexually assaulting two schoolgirls after one of the victims covertly recorded his actions.
John Lawrence Kernan, a deviant man from Penrith, was charged with sexually assaulting two schoolgirls after one of the victims covertly recorded his actions.
Throughout the investigation of 56-year-old John Lawrence Kernan for recent abuse, an additional victim emerged, revealing that the defendant had previously sexually attacked her throughout her childhood.
John Lawrence Kernan was 16 years old when he perpetrated the prior act.
The defendant, John Lawrence Kernan, of Scaws Drive, Penrith, pleaded guilty to four offences: one historical count of gross indecency with a child; and three more recent sexual assaults on a different schoolgirl. Both victims were under 13.
At Carlisle Crown Court, prosecutor Gerard Rogerson outlined the background to the case.
He said that the offences came to light when the victim of the most recent sexual abuse told her mother that she had recorded an incident involving John Lawrence Kernan, when he claimed that what did was just ‘playfighting’.
But the girl was deeply ‘uncomfortable’ with what happened and so decided to gather evidence by covertly recording her next encounter with Kernan, using her iPad.
She then asked her mother to look at the video she had recorded. “I showed my mum and said look at this video,” the girl told police. When her mother saw the video, what it showed left her feeling “sick to the stomach.”
The girl said she had previously spoken to only one other person about what happened – a friend at school. The victim said she had not known how to tell Kernan to stop the abuse but said: “I knew what was going on.”
The prosecutor then read to the court from a victim impact statement which the child’s mother made.
The woman said that both she and her daughter had suffered ‘significant emotional and psychological impacts’ as a result of John Lawrence Kernan’s abuse.
“She describes her daughter has having gone through a roller coaster of emotions and trauma,” said Mr Rogerson. The woman said he was heart-breaking to see her child – formerly happy-go-lucky – change so much.
The girl now suffered regular breakdowns, and nightmares haunted her sleep.
The woman and her daughter felt vulnerable when they went to Carlisle, fearful that they might see John Lawrence Kernan.
They avoided certain areas because of their fear of seeing him. “He took advantage of an innocent child for his own needs,” the woman said.
She added that the abuse had a devastating impact and that the images she had seen on her daughter’s video recording played over and over in her head, leaving her unable to sleep and causing her mental health to spiral.
When the police interviewed him, Kernan claimed he had done nothing wrong, but conceded that it ‘looked bad.’ The court heard that in conversations with members of his family, the defendant had made incriminating admissions.
He told a relative that he had ruined his life. Mr Rogerson added that John Lawrence Kernan was a man of previous good character.
Mark Shepherd, mitigating, said the defendant had himself been exposed as a child to inappropriate sexual material in the form of pornography. “He regrets clearly what he has done and is remorseful,” said the lawyer.
Mr Shepherd said there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation.
But Judge Richard Archer noted that the defendant appeared to have learned little during the intervening years between his first offence – which involved inappropriate sexual contact on three occasions with the victim – and the more recent offences.
While it would be possible to suspend the sentence he would impose, said the judge, there should be an element of deterrence in sentences for such sexual offending against children who are aged under 13.
Referring to that deterrent element, the judge said this means sending a message to future offenders and to the public at large that those who commit such offences against young children will be appropriately punished.
Addressing John Lawrence Kernan directly, the judge said: “For that reason, I regret to say to you that I have concluded that appropriate punishment in your case can only be achieved by an immediate custodial sentence.”
Judge Archer jailed the defendant for 16 months.
John Lawrence Kernan will be on the Sex Offender Register for a decade, and he will also be subjected to a sexual harm prevention order which will bar him from having unsupervised contact with any child or staying at any home where a child is resident.
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