TTTP client tells The Sunday Mirror how she shopped her peado boyfriend to the police after she found 35 videos of her 15 year old daughter on his laptop, taken from hidden spycams, and over 100,000 indecent images of children.
When Caroline Walsh met Martyn Darlington, she thought he was the perfect gentleman and father figure to her daughter, Jade, from a previous relationship. Charming, good looking and a respected rail engineer, the 49-year-old housekeeper thought he was the perfect match and role model to her beloved daughter.
The pair met through mutual friends but their relationship didn’t turn romantic until after five years. But once discovering they both felt the same, Caroline tells how she fell head over heels in love with him.
But in October 2013, after eight years together, she unearthed a devastating secret. The man whom she loved and had welcomed into her home was in fact a sick paedophile. What’s more, over the course of their relationship he had installed a camera in her then 15-year-old daughter’s bedroom and had been filming her undressing, washing and going to the toilet.
Police also retrieved over 100,000 indecent images of children and 365 videos of children – 35 of which included her daughter, Jade, now 20, a full time mum. This material included photographs of girls as young as six, some naked and some in bikinis and underwear, posing provocatively.
Caroline’s suspicions had been aroused when she noticed he was spent hours in his office on the computer and would ‘slam’ the top down if she suddenly entered the room. Feeling uneasy with his behaviour, she asked her cousin to come over and help her unlock his laptop to see what he was looking at.
Convinced he was hiding something, she was sickened when she discovered vile, pornographic images of children as young as six. In that moment, her world came crashing down and she ran to the toilet to be physically sick. She immediately called the police who seized her partner’s laptop, USB sticks and many memory cards. Packing her bags and moving out before he came home, he was arrested that night and she never saw or spoke to him again.
It wasn’t until a few months later, she received another heart breaking phone call. Later investigations had found videos of her daughter in the bathroom and her bedroom. Terrified he had interfered with her daughter, she was forced to have a harrowing conversation with Jade.
Fortunately he hadn’t, but the thought of him spying and ‘getting off’ on her behaviour sent shivers down her spine.
In February 2014, Martyn Russell William Darlington pleaded guilty at Mold Crown Court to three counts of voyeurism and 14 counts of possessing indecent images of children. The court heard that police found 38 video files of Jade, which all appeared to have been taken at a time when she was around 15 years of age.
Yesterday he was sentenced to 14 months in prison.
The judge described his behaviour “serious and disturbing” and ordered him to sign the sex offenders register as well as making him subject to a 10-year sexual offences prevention order. But for Caroline, she has been left with a life sentence. She no longer trusts men and blames herself for what happened to her daughter.
She says her daughter has been incredibly strong but also struggles to trust men and it has killed her to see her only daughter go from a bubbly and confident to quiet and introvert. The pair are now trying to rebuild their lives and are desperate to move on. She said: “I felt sick to the stomach when I found out. This is a man I trusted explicitly and now I know he was just using me for my daughter.
“I’ll never forgive myself for letting him into my life. I could kill him to be honest. I hate him to what he did to us and taking away my daughter’s privacy.”
We placed Caroline’s story with The Sunday Mirror and it’ll soon be appearing in Chat and Woman magazine. She’ll soon join Holly and Phil on This Morning’s sofa to talk about how she’s now rebuilding her life with her daughter. If you’ve got a story to share, please complete the quick contact form on the right hand side of this page and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours.
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