A PERVERT who was filmed having sex with a 12-year-old boy was today starting a jail sentence.

Paul Emsley, 32, "bought" his victim with money and cigarettes and was said to have threatened to kill him if he told anybody what had gone on, Burnley Crown Court heard.

Sentencing Emsley to three years and nine months, Judge Raymond Bennett said whether the boy wanted to do what happened was immaterial.

He said: "He was entitled to have the protection of you, an adult, and you should have said no."

Emsley, of Travis Street, Burnley, earlier admitted a serious sexual offence, taking indecent photographs of a child, attempting to distribute indecent photographs of a child and two charges of indecent assault, committed over a six month period.

Simon Temple, prosecuting, said the schoolboy lived with his family in the Burnley area.

When they searched the home of another man, police found a video which showed Emsley and the 12-year-old carrying out various sexual activities.

After recovering the video, officers traced the boy and interviewed him.

He later told police there had been repeated sex activities between himself and the defendant.

A medical examination confirmed a serious sexual offence had taken place.

The victim told police that the defendant had told him he would kill him if he told anybody about what had happened. Emsley said he had been asked to make the video and thought the tape had been for the man's own use and that it had been destroyed. Mark Stuart, defending, said a prison sentence was inevitable.

Emsley had pleaded guilty and saved the complainant the ordeal of having to be cross-examined in court.

The defendant had no previous convictions for this type of offence.

The serious sexual offence happened once only.

Emsley's background was an explanation as to why the offences may have happened, but was certainly no excuse. It was often a situation where "those who are done to seem to do to others."

Emsley had settled down and formed relationships with women for a long time and there was no evidence of homosexual behaviour until his involvement with the complainant.

In the last few years he had become addicted to drugs and had been taking them at the time the offences occurred.

Mr Stuart said Emsley claimed he never threatened to kill the complainant.

The defendant felt he was being blackmailed into involvement with the video. That was no slight at all towards the victim or his family, but in relation to another person.

He said Emsley had behaved "terribly, terribly, badly."

Mr Stuart went on: "He wants to tackle his offending behaviour. He knows he needs treatment and is willing to receive it."

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