Paedophile babysitter and nanny who exploited role to sexually abuse nine children is jailed for 20 years in Portsmouth

Calculating predator Robin Elms, 23, of Hunston, Chichester, was sentenced to 20 years and six months at Portsmouth Crown Court after inflicting sexual assaults on nine children who were also spied on and video recorded.

The 20 offences between 2018 and 2020 were carried out on children aged two to 14 in five households after he secured employment via ‘reputable’ online childcare agencies.

Seven of the children, in three households, were from West Sussex and two of the children, in two households, were from east Kent.

Elms, of previous good character, had worked in other non-residential child care settings, but there was no evidence of offences against other children.

In sentencing Elms, judge Lance Ashworth said: ‘You groomed the families, moving from home to home, beguiling them and making them feel sorry for you.’

Detective Constable Chris Smith of Sussex Police said: ‘Elms used his access, and the trust placed in him by the parents, to systematically abuse children in their own homes.

‘His offences were horrendous breaches of trust, which are every parent's greatest concern. He had no previous convictions or any other DBS-related record, and the parents all had found him through reputable child care agencies.’

The child abuser pleaded guilty to 10 counts of sexual assault, five counts of taking indecent videos of children, and four counts of voyeurism and one count of sexually assaulting an adult man - not related to his work as a nanny or babysitter.

Elms will spend 15 and a half years of the sentence in prison and five years on extended prison licence supervision.

He will be a registered sex offender for life and was given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) to last until further court notice.

SEE ALSO: Man arrested after train station assault

The prosecution followed an investigation by detectives from the Complex Abuse Unit of Sussex Police which began when one of the families in West Sussex contacted police in November 2020 reporting sexual abuse.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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