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A court heard how Sarah Campbell had sex with her victim on a golf course and under a blanket while others were sleeping in the same room. Campbell, 40, would ply the boy with cocaine and cannabis so they could “get off their barnets” together as part of a series of abuse over two years that saw her victim treated as a “sexual play thing”, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

Martine Snowdon, prosecuting, said Campbell started grooming the boy in 2016, Liverpool Echo reports.

She told the court that the pair had sex multiple times and that she would offer him drugs. Ms Snowdon said: “They would “get off their barnets” regularly, as [the victim] put it, smoking cannabis and taking cocaine provided by her.”

Campbell would try to avoid social services finding the boy by getting him to sneak into her house at odd times of day and hide, Ms Snowdon told the court. She then fell pregnant with his child and was charged with multiple sexual offences against him.

At the start of her trial, Campbell fled and was later convicted in her absence. Eventually, she was arrested and held in custody.

Simon Christie, defending, said Campbell was herself a victim of abuse. She had been trying to get counselling in prison and was using her time there positively, he told the court. Mr Christie said: “The defendant, in her first experience of custody, has put her time to good use already. She has been given responsibility as a wing cleaner.”

Judge Ian Harris told Campbell her actions had robbed the boy of part of his childhood. He said she treated the boy as her own “sexual plaything” and that she used him for her own pleasure.

Campbell, of Longfellow Street, Bootle, was jailed for nine and a half years.

As the judge handed down her sentence Campbell stood motionless with her head down and her hands placed against the dock before sitting down and placing her head in her hands for the rest of the hearing.

A family member then shouted “I’m going to do what I can” and said, “I know the truth”. As they left they added, “I am going to go now, hold your head up high. I mean it.”

Speaking after her sentencing, Merseyside Police Detective Sergeant Peter Sloan said: “The atrocious abuse that Campbell carried out not only traumatises victims when it happens, but has a huge impact on their mental wellbeing which can last a lifetime. It can also cause irreparable damage to a victim’s faith and trust in adults, which can affect their ability to form trusting relationships. 

“The bravery shown by the victim and his family in coming forward and reporting Campbell to police so that she could be brought to justice means she cannot cause any further harm.”

Campbell was previously charged with sexual offences relating to another boy – but these charges were not proceeded with by the prosecution.

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