Maxwel da Silva Miranda, a Wood Farm Paedophile caught with a video of a boy molesting another during a ‘wrestling’ game told police it was ‘very normal’ for children to play naked in his native Brazil.
Just weeks earlier, Maxwel da Silva Miranda had been convicted of pawing a 16-year-old girl he had picked up in his car on Cowley Road.
And the Wood Farm, Oxford, man was soon to be charged for a series of sexual assaults on another pre-teen girl. He was found guilty in August of repeatedly groping the girl’s breasts and private parts, including on one occasion after they had been to church together in Swindon.
The victim of those assaults was said to have been left wanting to take her own life as a result of Maxwel da Silva Miranda’s sick behaviour.
Summarising the impact on the victim, Gabrielle McAvock told Oxford Crown Court on Friday afternoon: “The defendant’s offending caused the victim to become suicidal, to self-harm, she tried to jump from the third floor of the flat where she lived. She suffered from flashbacks, had difficulty sleeping and [it] had an adverse effect on her school life.”
Judge Nigel Daly jailed Maxwel da Silva Miranda for eight years, telling him: “It seems to me you are a man who’s quite prepared to exploit the vulnerability of young women to satisfy your sexual needs.”
Earlier, the court heard that a specialist officer made an unannounced visit to the flat Miranda shared with his wife on July 19 last year.
He looked at the sex offender’s iPhone and found in his WhatsApp images folder a video showing two naked boys aged around eight to 10. The children were wrestling although, later in the video, one of the boys could be seen sexually assaulting the other. The video was distributed to three other WhatsApp contacts.
Also on the phone were two extreme pornographic images showing a person having sex with an animal.
He was interviewed by the police and claimed to have been sent the indecent video by friends from Brazil. Ms McAvock said: “The defendant said it was very normal for children to play naked in Brazil.” He denied distributing the video.
No other indecent images were found on his phone. Similarly, there was no evidence of him searching the internet for child sex abuse images.
Maxwel da Silva Miranda, now of no fixed address, was sentenced for sexual assault on a girl under-13, distributing indecent images of children and possession of extreme pornographic images.
Mitigating, Gordana Austin said her client continued to deny the assaults on the younger girl. He was married with two children and, having been sentenced to imprisonment, was likely to be deported to Brazil.
The defendant, Maxwel da Silva M,iranda must comply with an indefinite restraining order banning him from contact with the younger victim, an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and will be on the sex offender register for life.
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