Mother 'allowed' teenage daughter's relationship with Northampton man despite police warnings, court told

A mother who lied to the police and let her underage daughter meet up with a Northampton paedophile because she thought they had a "platonic, supportive friendship" has been spared jail.

The woman - who cannot be named to avoid identifying her child - encouraged and facilitated her teenage daughter's relationship with sexual predator Matthew Addington.It included allowing her daughter to meet with the 19-year-old abuser even after he was served a Child Abduction Warning Notice, and helped the two swap letters while he was in prison for inappropriate contact with the girl.

It culminated in January 2019 when she allowed her daughter to spend a night with Addington at a hotel just days after he was released from prison - which she later lied to police about when asked where the girl was that night.

Her Honour Judge Adrienne Lucking told the woman in sentencing: "You are the mother of this girl. She is entitled to look to you to be her guardian and protect her from all manner of people.

"This was a emotionally and sexually inappropriate relationship...she was the victim of a sexual predator."

Addington, of Somerset Drive, Duston, was locked up in August 2020 to 31 months in a youth detention centre for targeting two girls and pulling them into manipulative relationships that isolated them from their family and friends.

Northampton Crown Court heard today (September 24) how the mother in the case only learned Addington had been preying on another girl after his second arrest, and thought her daughter had a "platonic, supportive relationship" with the abusive teenager.

She pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and encouraging/assisting Addington's offending.

Judge Lucking said: "When Addington was served the Child Abduction order, that should have been enough to make you understand that he was not good company for your daughter.

"You helped him breach this order by allowing him to meet your daughter.

"It's right that you have accepted responsibility for your actions...but I make it clear that people who breach these kinds of orders normally go immediately to prison."

The mother of the girl was was sentencing to 16 months in prison suspended for two years.

The court heard how Addington's victim has not had contact with him since his arrest and is receiving counselling to understand he was not "the boy she thought he was".