A Rotherham thug offered a teenage girl £20 to get into a taxi with him after hitting her in the chest.
Aaron Farrell, 44, approached the 13-year-old girl as she made her way to The Lanes Community Centre in April 2022. Prosecutor Kevin Jones told Sheffield Crown Court on Thursday, January 2: “As she was walking she heard the defendant shouting. She wasn’t sure if he was trying to attract her or not.
“She asked him ‘Me?’ and he approached her and described him as saying something about his phone being taken. She described him as being somewhat angry and said she couldn’t help him and moved away, hoping he would go away.”
The girl went into the community centre and when she went back outside she was approached by Farrell, of Wingfield Road, once again. Mr Jones said: “He had a bottle of some sort of alcohol and offered it to her and she didn’t know what to do so took it and had a drink from it because she was scared. She called her cousin who she was due to meet, telling her there was someone who needed help getting something. At that point, the defendant told her to follow him around the corner and again, she did as she was told.
“As they went around the corner, he grabbed at her, making contact with her right breast. She pushed him away and called her cousin and as she did that, she came around the corner. He asked the cousin to call a taxi for him, which they did and he then offered the girl £20 to go with him and asked her how old she was. She said she was 13.”
The taxi arrived and took Farrell, who was later arrested. He went on to admit common assault and fell to be sentenced for that as well as two more counts of the same charge, possession of a bladed article, theft and criminal damage in relation to a second indictment.
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The court heard Farrell had attacked his then-partner during two separate incidents last year. Mr Jones said that during one of them in June, Farrell swung at the woman with a jar of coffee. In another, four days later on June 22, he grabbed her earphones from around her neck, breaking a choker necklace she was wearing.
Mr Jones said: “She describes he then left and went to buy alcohol and returned and gave her a bottle of gin. She describes that she was lying on the bed drinking and he wanted some sort of intimacy but she declined and described him as being annoyed.”
The court heard the woman went to where her friend was in the property and was followed by Farrell, who dropped the bottle on the floor while calling her names. Mr Jones said: “She tried to clear it up and he told her to stop and get out and hit her around the side of the head.
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“She got up and walked outside and he followed and she described him shouting and screaming and she told him she was gong to call the police and she did so. She described him as pacing up and down. She told him she was waiting for the police and he went back into the house and she describes hearing him throwing things around and he came out with a pair of scissors. He continued to shout at her and a neighbour shouted to leave her alone.”
Farrell was eventually arrested.
Mr Jones said he had 29 previous convictions for 47 offences including possession of a bladed article, battery and breaching orders.
Mitigating, Zaiban Alam said a pre-sentence report had been prepared and that it was “evident all of the offences really occurred with a backdrop of alcohol issues.” They said: “The relationship was one in which both parties are suffering with alcohol issues…They clearly lived a very chaotic lifestyle as a result that was fuelled by alcohol.”
It was said the offence he committed against the teenager was Farrell’s “biggest regret.”
His Honour Judge Slater jailed Farrell for 10 months.
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