Ellie Rixon, 20, was arrested in August last year where officers found she had taken 43 Category A images and must now sign the sex offender’s register for the next 10 years
An OnlyFans model is now on the sex offender’s register after filming herself engaging in sexual activity with a child, which she then sold on WhatsApp.
Ellie Rixon was said to have created the «content» in order to fund her drug habit, despite the other girl involved being «incapable of consenting» due to her age. Joanne Daniels, prosecuting, described how the two teenagers had agreed to «share the proceeds generated between them» from the sale of these pictures and videos. Rixon, now 20, was said to have learned of the girl’s age around five months into this activity, having previously believed that she was also 18, but then «continued to create content with her». Mr Daniels added: «The defendant creates pornographic content which she sells online on social media and OnlyFans.
«The defendant would record [the victim] performing acts or being naked and post this online. [The vicim] asked the defendant to take them down, but the defendant refused. The distribution can only be evidenced on WhatsApp and not on OnlyFans.»
Rixon was arrested in August last year and officers subsequently found that she had taken 43 category A images – the most serious category involving penetrative sexual activity – involving the complainant, as well as 11 in category B and 119 in category C. Of these, seven category A images had been distributed as well as two category B and 25 category C, the Liverpool Echo reports.
Ms Daniels outlined how the starting point for production of category A indecent images of children, as per the Sentencing Council’s guidelines, is one of six years, with a range of four to nine years, Rixon appeared to cry. A woman in the public gallery shouted «f**k off» as the potential jail term was announced.
Responding to the outburst, Judge Neil Flewitt KC said: «Just calm down a moment. She is not getting a sentence anything like that.» The court heard Rixon has no previous convictions, but is spending a period in custody at HMP Styal due to breaching her bail conditions.
Lloyd Morgan, defending, told the court that Rixon’s time behind bars had led to a «difference in her attitude and behaviour, a realisation perhaps». He added: «If there is any such thing as a standard type case, this certainly is not it. Your honour will have seen the trauma she has suffered. She herself has been very vulnerable. These are two vulnerable girls, both agreeing for them to be distributed for some financial gain.»
Sentencing, Judge Flewitt said: «She, like you, was a vulnerable young person. She had spent time in the care of the local authority, as you had. She had become addicted to class A drugs, as had you. What appears to have happened is that, with [victim’s name’s] consent, and I suspect encouragement, you made recordings of the pair of you engaged in sexual activity with each other and another person. Each intended to make money to support your drug habits with the distribution of these images by WhatsApp.
«She was capable, in law, of consenting to all of the sexual activity in which she took part. What she was not able to consent to or make lawful was the production and distribution of these images while she remained under 18. Even though she did consent, what happened was still unlawful. I accept that, when it started, you did not realise her age, but you continued after you did find out how old she was.
«I am equally satisfied that you did not make very much money from this. The overwhelming likelihood is that you were being exploited, both of you, by somebody else, but it is not clear who that is. While you had an OnlyFans account, it is accepted that none of these images were distributed through that particular forum.
This is, therefore, a particularly unusual case of its type. Everything that was done was done with the consent of the person shown in these images, but, because of her vulnerability, she was entitled to the protection of the law.
«If you did not realise before how serious this is, you will have realised when the prosecution counsel took me through the sentencing guidelines. For producing category A images, there is a starting point of six years imprisonment and a sentencing range of four to nine years imprisonment. I am satisfied that, when these sentencing guidelines were drafted, they were not drafted with this particular situation in mind.
«I am satisfied that the circumstances I have described allow me to reduce the starting point from six to four years, that your personal circumstances amount to mitigation that allows me to reduce it still further to three years and your guilty plea, entered at the first available opportunity, entitles you to a reduction of one third, which brings the sentence down to two years. That sentence is capable of being suspended.
«I am satisfied that there is significant personal mitigation here. I am satisfied that, if you take the support offered to you, there is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation. I am not satisfied that you pose a risk to the public, or at least not a risk that cannot be managed by the order I am about to make.
«I do not think that appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody. For those reasons, I am going to suspend this sentence. The object is to help you. I am quite satisfied that, after hard reflect in custody, you are now willing to engage in the support offered to you.
«You have had, in my judgement, sufficient punishment by the time you have already spent in custody. I hope that has caused you to think about the life you were leading and where it will take you if you carry on leading that sort of life, and to think about taking the support being offered to you.
«I am going to keep an eye on you. If you breach it, you will find yourself coming back to me and I might not be so sympathetic on the next occasion. There are a lot of people wanting to help you. I hope you take that help.»
Rixon admitted three counts of production of indecent images of a child and three charges of distribution of indecent images. Appearing in the dock wearing a grey prison issue jumper and sporting blue hair, she nodded and smiled as she was handed 24 months detention suspended for two years.
Rixon was also handed a 12-month drug rehabilitation requirement and a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 30 days. She will be required to sign the sex offenders’ register for the next 10 years and was handed a sexual harm prevention order lasting the same period.
