Lancaster piano teacher evades jail after posting child sex stories online

Phillip Fawcett, 48, admitted he had sexual fantasies about young girls as he taught them to play the piano in their own homes.

Going by the username ‘English Perv’, the married dad-of-two uploaded 60 blog posts and poems of around 1,500 words each to a paedophile’s website.

Preston Crown Court heard he used the hundreds of images depicting children aged between five and 15 years old, that he had stored on his computer, as inspiration for the stories.

A judge handed Fawcett a three year community order and ordered him to complete a sex offenders rehabilitation programme.

Fawcett has also been banned from working with children, must sign the sex offenders register for five years and must complete a 60 day rehabilitation activity requirement.

The judge said in passing sentence he had to balance the need to punish Fawcett with the interest of the wider community, and said: “Your offending is serious enough to cross the custody threshold not only in terms of the images but also in respect of the delight expressed in these articles.

“I make no bones about it: I take the view that for your offending you should go to prison.

“The balance to that is that it may not benefit society as a whole on your release.”

Officers from Lancashire Constabulary raided Fawcett’s home on January 28 2016 and seized a laptop and a number of memory sticks.

Forensic examination revealed 215 category A images, including 11 video clips, 250 category B images, 160 at category C and 595 prohibited images of children - category A being the most serious classification of images.

Following his arrest, Fawcett, of Anthony Road, admitted he had been using the website since 2012 and had last used it two weeks before his arrest.

He said he had worked as a piano teacher for 25 years and had been sexually attracted to children for the last decade.

Recorder Guy Mathieson, sentencing, said: “Part of the horror of this case is that whilst you were leading this secret life, revelling in the delights of abusing children, you were going into people’s homes to teach their children music.

“You were revelling in the misery of children for your own sexual gratification but it went further for you.

“You prepared a blog, uploaded and further disseminated over the internet, 60 articles or more.

“They are a series of sickening articles, extolling the virtues of paedophilia, exploring and expressing your own desires, explicit in their depravity, revealing what you would do to children.”

Fawcett, who has also performed as a pianist at Lancaster venues, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images, one of possessing indecent images, one of possessing prohibited images and six counts of publishing obscene material.

Despite his urges, Fawcett had not acted on his desires with any of the children he had taught, the court heard.

Guy Mathieson said: “You delighted, it seems, in discussing your desires and expressing your desires in this way on the internet with other likeminded individuals, with whom you discussed your depravity, legitimising, encouraging and involving this behaviour in others and yourself - and the abuse of children.”