A North East sex predator who targeted an elderly woman with dementia in her own home was exposed after the victim’s horrified daughter caught him abusing her on a hidden camera. Lawrence Smeatham was filmed kissing, cuddling and fondling the vulnerable pensioner and exposing himself, footage that the daughter had never imagined she would see when she installed CCTV to check her frail mother was safe.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that the daughter watched the abuse unfold after checking the camera on one occasion. Smeatham was also heard telling the woman he had previously had sex with her. In a victim impact statement which she bravely read aloud at his sentencing hearing, the daughter described the moment she discovered what was happening.
She said it felt like watching “a slow motion car crash” and described the footage as horrific and disgusting. She told the court she felt physically sick and could not believe what she was seeing, adding that it was a living nightmare she could not wake from. She said she was left struggling to comprehend the reality that her vulnerable mother had been sexually abused in her own home.
The daughter told the court her mother appeared totally unaware of what had happened but said the impact on her own life would never fade. She said her mother had the naivety of a child and trusted everyone, and that it haunted her to think what might have been going through her mind. She said she counted her blessings that her mother was mercifully unaware of the crime, but added that the effect of what Smeatham had done would stay with her until the day she died.
When arrested, Smeatham, 64, of Hillside in Winlaton, Gateshead, initially denied any sexual activity. However, after being shown the CCTV footage, he refused to answer questions and later pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a person with a mental disorder impeding choice and engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a person with a mental disorder impeding choice.
He was jailed for 16 months and ordered to sign the sex offenders register indefinitely. The court also imposed a sexual harm prevention order and a restraining order.
Sentencing him, Judge Julie Clemitson said dementia was a cruel disease that caused confusion and an inability to trust one’s own memory. She told Smeatham he had taken advantage of that illness and prioritised his own sexual gratification over any consideration for the victim. Referring to the daughter’s evidence, the judge said one could only imagine the horror she felt on discovering what was happening in her mother’s home while being powerless to intervene.
The judge said it was deeply disturbing that Smeatham had described having a long-term girlfriend with learning difficulties whom he claimed had the “mind of a five-year-old”. She told him he clearly had no internal control over his urges, had a predilection for vulnerable females and posed a high risk to vulnerable women and girls. She said the most vulnerable members of society needed to be protected from people like him.
Shaun Routledge, defending, said Smeatham was remorseful and had not been convicted of any offences since the 1990s.