Man from Skegness is jailed for duping woman to have sex and filming it

Mark Frederick Nicholls, 41, of Kingsthorpe Crescent, had been convicted of voyeurism after a trial at Boston Magistrates Court earlier in February and was appearing before District Judge Peter Veits for sentence following a pre sentence report from the Probation Service.

The court had heard that in May 2019, Nicholls had masqueraded in an on-line dating site to the woman by pretending to be 24 years old himself and a former member of the Army.

It was said that when he met her, he contrived for her to be blindfolded so she did not realise how much older he was, and had sex with her in a hotel room, where he had set up a video camera to record the act.

Judge Veits heard the victim read out her personal impact statement in which she said she had lost all her

confidence and now experienced anxiety and depression and had a constant fear this would be repeated.

“That man has made me a victim,” she said.

In mitigation, Michael Alexander said there was 'nothing this man can say that will take away the pain this woman has suffered'.

“I suspect he has a problem that he doesn't recognise what his actions cause,” he said. “His relationships have failed and he started an alias because of his own inadequacies.”

He said the film recorded was no longer on his phone and could not be seen by anyone.

Judge Veits was critical that the Crown Prosecution Service had not charged a more serious offence and that he could only sentence Nicholls for the offence for which he had been charged.

He said the victim had only consented to a sexual act because she thought he was a 24 year old man and he had then videoed what went on and taken away her underwear.

“You deceived her in an awful way,” he said., “and then you put her through the ordeal of a trial in which she did commendably well in giving her evidence.”

Judgee Veits said that he would be sentencing Nicholls to the maximum he could which was to six months in prison and ordered him to register on the Sex Offenders' Register for seven years and be subject

to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

He was also ordered to pay £180 court charges on his release.