Gemma Baker – Leicester

A woman who repeatedly sexually abused a six year old girl has been jailed after a Facebook comment about another paedophile prompted her victim to come forward.

Gemma Baker, 42, had complained online that a paedophile had not been given a long enough prison sentence. But her victim recognised the staggering hypocrisy — because Baker had abused her when she was a child.

The victim, now an adult, sent Baker a message saying: “You’re lucky it’s not you doing a prison sentence.”

After learning that Baker had children of her own, she went to Leicestershire Police and reported the abuse she had suffered.

Baker, of Wheeldale Close, Leicester, was convicted by a jury at Leicester Crown Court on Thursday, 29 October, of 10 counts of gross indecency with a child. The offences took place between 1999 and 2004, when her victim was aged between six and 11.

The following day, Judge Timothy Spencer KC sentenced Baker to six years in prison.

During the trial, prosecutor Nicholas Corsellis KC told the jury that the victim had tried to put what happened behind her and get on with her life before reporting Baker in 2021.

In a video interview shown to the court, the victim recalled one attack in which Baker touched her underneath her nightclothes. She said she was crying and told Baker she was hurting her, but Baker ignored her.

The victim said Baker never spoke about the incidents or told her to keep quiet. She believed Baker knew she had been too frightened to tell anyone.

Years later, it was Baker’s own Facebook comment that helped bring her abuse to light — and led to a prison sentence of her own.