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Jail for sexual predator who molested 13-year-old boy

Jonathan Henry has been jailed for two years after sexually molesting a teenage boy.(Photo by Mark Tatem)

A sexual predator who made a 13-year-old boy watch pornography and repeatedly sexually molested him has been jailed for two years.Jonathan Henry, 23, was described in court reports as having the mental processes of a 14-year-old, with poor social skills and a moderate to high risk of reoffending.He will spend two years on a suspended sentence and undergoing probation once he is released, but has refused to admit full guilt. Although he admitted to a string of sex charges, Henry told court officials he blames the victim, who was a family friend, for what happened.Prosecutor Nicole Smith explained the defendant groomed the young victim by befriending him over the course of summer 2009. He then carried out three separate sex attacks on him, which involved him playing pornography to the young boy during one of the incidents.Ms Smith said the victim was left traumatised and contemplating suicide.Jailing Henry this afternoon, Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons told him society needs to be protected from men like him.She said of the victim, who cannot be identified: “You abused and violated his trust in a way neither he nor his family will ever recover from. For that alone a lengthy period of incarceration is warranted. There’s no one else to blame for your conduct.”In an emotional address to the court before the sentence, the victim’s mother described Henry as a “compulsive liar” and said she has had to “restrain myself” when seeing him out in public since the sex attacks.Mrs Justice Simmons told the anguished woman: “I hope you continue to try. I don’t want to see you in the dock.”Henry faces an additional two years behind bars if he offends again, or breaches the terms of his probation, which are designed to counsel and rehabilitate him.