A man who abducted a teenage girl in York has been spared prison despite ignoring police warnings to stay away from her.
Charlie Casimir, 21, took no heed of the police notice and continued meeting up with the victim, culminating in a “stand-off” with officers at his workplace.
The girl, described as “vulnerable”, went missing on several occasions over a 14-day period in September last year, York Crown Court heard.
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Prosecutor Laura Addy said that on each occasion she was in the company of Casimir who, despite the police warnings, carried on regardless.
She said that Casimir was issued with the notice in August last year, warning him not to contact the girl after she “regularly” went missing over a month-long period when she either returned to her parents’ home of her own volition or was found by officers.
However, he continued to meet and text her and she kept going missing, often in the early hours of the morning when her parents were unaware.
On occasions, she would return to her parents “in drink”. On others, she would be wearing designer clothes or “inappropriate” underwear.
Missing for five days
On September 9, the girl went missing for about five days. On the first day, her mother thought she had been at school but in fact she was with Casimir.
She was found and returned home at about midnight on September 14, prompting police to ramp up their investigation.
They spoke to Casimir’s employers at a garage in York who showed them CCTV footage of Casimir with the girl in the early hours of September 6, after he had been issued with the police notice.
Officers went to arrest Casimir at his workplace but during a “stand-off” lasting about 15 minutes, he refused to let them into the garage.
Casimir’s store manager tried to persuade him to let police in, but Casimir tried to pull down the metal shutters.
He eventually let the officers in and was arrested for breach of the notice. He was bailed but continued to contact the girl.
Messages on Snapchat
On September 18, he was caught on CCTV buying one adult ticket and a child’s fare for a train journey from York to Leeds and back. He and the girl returned to York at about 7pm. He was arrested again the following day but made no comment in police interview.
Police found texts and phone messages which showed that Casimir had been contacting the girl on Snapchat during the six days from his initial arrest, in breach of his bail.
The prosecution said that Casimir, who was 20 at the time, had deliberately used Snapchat because messages disappeared after a few seconds.
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The text messages showed that on 18 September, the day of the train journey, Casimir was planning to camp out for the night and “mislead the authorities” as to his whereabouts after he was reported missing again. They also revealed he was planning to “ditch” his phone, which he did.
Casimir, of North Lane, York, pleaded guilty to one count of abducting a child. The offences occurred between September 5 and 19.
Ms Addy said that Casimir had previous convictions for theft and was on a community order at the time of the abduction.
The victim’s mother said there had been some “relief” and improvement in her daughter’s behaviour since Casimir’s arrest and remand in custody pending sentence.
Robert Doswell, mitigating, said Casimir had mental-health problems and a doctor’s report suggested he could be on the autistic spectrum which meant he could have difficulties in responding to “social signals”.
Judge Simon Hickey said that despite the “significant” age gap between Casimir and the victim, her “vulnerability” and the fact he had deliberately ignored police warnings not to contact her, the inevitable prison sentence could “just” be suspended due to the time Casimir had already spent in custody and the authorities’ recommendation that he could be rehabilitated by way of counselling.
The 12-month jail sentence was suspended for 18 months, but Casimir was slapped with a six-month curfew which prohibits him leaving his home between 9pm and 6am daily. He was also ordered to complete 40 days of rehabilitation activity.