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Xiahou Dun
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Teacher Jailed Over Three-Year-Old's Rape
7:09pm Monday October 04, 2010
Rob Cole
A deputy headteacher described as a "pillar of society" has been jailed for seven years for encouraging the rape of a three-year-old girl.
Lennon watched a man sexually abuse a young child on a webcam
Married Patrick Lennon, 58, watched the rape on a webcam and described it as "awesome". The father-of-two had taught for decades at the all-girl Greenbank High School in Southport, Merseyside. But he had secretly struck up a friendship with two other paedophiles, Joseph John Hawley, 38, and Phillip Skitt, 54.
Lennon and Skitt, of Wigan, watched online as Hawley seriously sexually assaulted the little girl and broadcast it over the internet on November 16, 2008. The duo encouraged Hawley, of Bolton, by sending him chatroom messages. Forensics experts found more than 500 indecent images on his computer - including images of bestiality.
After his arrest, Lennon also admitted to detectives he had pretended to be a 14-year-old girl when online. Police were alerted to him after he traded paedophile images with a man in Canada. They searched his computer and found evidence of the girl's rape. The two other men also received jail terms for their part in the attack.
