Paedophile Sonia Chivers from Driffield sobbed as a court was told how she had taken videos of herself performing sex acts next to a child and shared them in a group chat set up for sick perverts.
Sitting in the docks of Hull Crown Court, wearing a black trouser suit with restraints attached, Sonia Chivers, 29, began crying as the prosecuting barrister listed details of her ‘perverted’ child sexual abuse offences. In the public gallery a ‘support network’ of family members, including her mother, were in attendance.
Along with the videos, she also took an indecent image of the child and shared it online. While she claimed she received no sexual gratification from sharing the content, she said she ‘liked the attention’ she got from other users on a platform called Kik where child abuse was being discussed.
Sonia Chivers pleaded guilty to making and distributing 1 Category B video, making another Category B video, making and distributing 1 Category C image and engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child. Richard Butters, prosecuting, told the court on January 16, 2020, an undercover police officer joined a Kik group chat where users discussed sexual abuse against children between the ages of zero and four. The officer engaged in a chat with the defendant.
She messaged that she was ‘feeling horny’ and said she might call the child into the room. She continued to describe sick things she wanted the child to do to her and claimed the child ‘knew what to do as routine’.
She added she would film the acts next time. On December 5, 2020, Sonia Chivers was arrested, two videos and an image were recovered from her phone.
In one of the videos, Sonia Chivers was committing a sex act as a child’s TV programme could be heard in the background, towards the end of the video, a child’s head can be seen on video. In the other video, Sonia Chivers can be heard speaking to the child as she committed a sex act, Mr Butters told the court.
In the Category C image that was created and distributed, the child’s head was cropped out but part of their genitalia was exposed. When Sonia Chivers was arrested, she admitted to the offences and said she felt disgusted by herself after she had taken the videos.
She has no previous convictions. Sonia Chivers’s defence barrister, Richard Thompson, told the court it was impossible to mitigate why anyone who came from a loving family would go on to commit such criminal offences as Sonia Chivers did.
He said Sonia Chivers was experiencing loneliness and therefore engaged in attention-seeking behaviour. He added that she did face up to what she has done.
Mr Thompson reiterated that Sonia Chivers had no previous convictions, after the incident, she was released on bail and did not re-offend. She knew this day would come and tried her hardest to live her life.
She had a supportive family and found employment. He claimed she had a strong support network to help her, some of whom were with her in court.
Judge Sophie McKone told Sonia Chivers what she has done was gross, sickening and perverted. She said Chivers received sexual pleasure from knowing the child was watching and even encouraged the child to watch.
Judge McKone accepts Sonia Chivers, of Driffield, was emotionally isolated at the time of the offences, while it may explain it, it does not excuse it. She sentenced Sonia Chivers to 40 months in prison, she is also subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and has been placed on the Sex Offender Register indefinitely.
After her prison sentence was read out, Sonia Chivers was taken away from the docks, but her loud weeping could continue to be heard in the courtroom from a distant room for minutes after she left.
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