Swindon paedophile who made teen perform sex act on dog jailed for 14 years

Trevor Fernandes abused an American teenager online, demanding she perform sexual acts on herself and threatening to share intimate images to her contacts unless she complied with her every demand.

He made her call him ‘master’ or ‘master Trevor’, and demanded evidence that she was complying on his command ‘check’.

Among the depraved acts she was forced to carry out was a sex act on a newborn baby and on her pet dog.

Trevor Fernandes made his victim strip naked and perform lewd sexual acts. Photo: NCA.

Fernandes denied the charges and forced it to go to trial despite being told he faced an “uphill battle” to convince the jury of his account.

In a lengthy sentencing hearing at Swindon Crown Court on Thursday (August 11), Fernandes was jailed for 14 years. He will also be under close supervision for the next 19 years after Judge Jason Taylor QC found he was dangerous.

Judge Taylor said the 37-year-old’s demands were “shocking”, and dismissed his attempt to tell the jury that he was hacked as “palpably insane”.

“You were the abuser, you treated this poor 13-year-old girl like a sexual servant, treating her like you were her master.”

Fernandes entering Swindon Crown Court during his trial in May. Photo: Dave Cox.

He said the memories of the abuse “will be seared into her for the rest of her life, no matter how much she tries to blank it out”.

Judge Taylor said that he poses a high risk of serious harm to children which “could eventuate at any time, and would increase if you live a double life I have no doubt you are capable of”.

Fernandes was given a total custodial sentence of 14 years, as well as an extended licence period of 5 years. This means he will serve two thirds of the custodial term before becoming eligible for parole – which will only be granted if the Parole Board assess his risk has reduced.

He will only be “entitled” to be released at the end of the 14 years and whenever he is released, he will be subject to licence requirements until the end of the 19-year sentence.

Read more about this case:

• Swindon man who forced teen to perform sex act on dog found guilty by jury
• Alleged Swindon child sex abuser's phone hack claims rubbished by expert
• Alleged child sex abuser denies knowing he had Knox installed
• Swindon child sex abuse accused claims he let 'all and sundry' use his phone

In the trial last May, jurors at Swindon Crown Court had been told how police had been called to a convenience store in Texas where a teenage girl was in distress.

She explained how “she had been talking online to someone called Trevor, and Trevor had got her to send him nude photos of herself and he threatened to send them to people she knew if she didn’t do what he said”, prosecutor Daniel Sawyer said.

The conversation, on the messaging app Kik with an account called ‘cute and strict’, saw her told to “get naked now”, among other commands.

After sending photos of her in revealing underwear, the account, which was later tracked back to an encrypted partition on Fernandes’s phone, said: “That’s hot, but go get your dog.”

National Crime Agency officers arrested Fernandes and found apps including Snapchat and Kik, which he claimed were not installed, on a secret Knox partition of his phone.

He would later tell jurors he was hacked – a claim rubbished by experts who said not even the most sophisticated malware, deployed by the Israeli secret service, could allow that level of access over a phone.

It took jurors less than an hour and a half to unanimously convict him on all 16 charges – seven of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and nine of making indecent images of a child.

Mitigating, Beata Kopel said her client had made “partial admissions” and had an “unblemished record” before these offences came to light.

He also said that Fernandes, of Dixon Street, had been planning to return to Goa in India to care for his father.

“This incarceration is going to have a devastating impact on these indirect victims,” she said.

“In conclusion I would of course invite Your Honour to deal with Mr Fernandes as mercifully as possible and of course to impose a sentence the shortest that is possible.”