Paedophile dance teacher 'robbed' Mayo children of their childhood and innocence

A DANCE teacher who videoed two young girls while sexually assaulting them in the changing rooms of his dance studio was jailed for seven years.

Leighton Morrison (49) with an address at Woodfield, Galway Road, Tuam, Co Galway appeared before Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court where he was sentenced after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting two girls who were aged nine and eight at the time on separate dates. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child porn, possession of child porn and sexual exploitation of children.

Judge Eoin Garavan was informed that the two girls were pupils at the defendant's ballet class and on separate occasions asked them to wear 'inappropriate clothing' which included underwear which exposed the girl's genitals. He then recorded them on his phone and footage retrieved by gardaí showed him 'stretching' one of the girls vagina with his fingers and thumb and also unzipping her top and fondling her exposed breasts.

In sentencing Mr Morrison, Judge Eoin Garavan said that this was an 'appalling breach of trust' and that the two girls were entirely exploited by Mr Morrison. He added that Mr Morrison had engineered the abuse of the two girls for his own 'defiant sexual gratification' and robbed these young children of their innocence and their childhood.

Complaint

The abuse came to light on March 9, 2024 when one of the girls who was aged nine was upset when leaving the class and her parents knew something was not right. The court heard the girl had attended a stay safe programme in her school which enhanced her awareness of appropriate behaviour and told her mother that Mr Morrison had made her wear revealing underwear and touched her inappropriately.

The parents contacted gardaí the following day and on the same day a second parent informed gardaí that something similar had happened to her daughter in 2023.

The two girls were interviewed by specialist interviewers and one of the girls revealed that while in class Mr Morrison asked her to try on a costume. She said it was silver shorts and a silver cropped jumper jacket and very 'inappropriate knicker things'.

The girl said she felt very uncomfortable but when Mr Morrison returned into the changing room he said he really liked it. The girl proceeded to explain that he pulled down her shorts and said 'it needs to be stretched' before putting his fingers on his private parts. He then used his left hand to zip down her top and touched her breasts. The girl said she started crying when he left the room.

The second girl told gardaí that the year previously the children were in the dressing room and going through different costumes. All the girls were laughing at one costume in particular which was 'was short and dazzly'.

When Mr Morrison came into the room he asked the girl if she wanted to wear it and she said yes as she did not want to be rude. The other girls left the room and Mr Morrison 'helped' her undress her down to her underwear and vest. He then touched her on her vagina area for a few seconds which the girl said made her feel uncomfortable. She said she felt embarrassed wearing the outfit in front of the other children.

Mobile phone

A senior officer was appointed to look into the complaints and on March 12, 2024, a search warrant was obtained to search Mr Morrison's home and his dance studio.

Two Samsung mobile phones and a Dell laptop were recovered from his home and clothing described by the girls was taken from the studio. One of the Samsung phones was damaged and Judge Garavan was informed that gardaí believe it was damaged deliberately and sent to be repaired in order to examine it.

Judge Eoin Garavan

The other Samsung was examined which showed a video recording capturing the sexual assault of the girl on March 9 at 12.22pm and was two minutes and 33 seconds long. The incident as described by the girl was captured on the video.

Garda Fiona Reilly told the court that the girl's legs were separated and her vagina exposed to camera. She added she could be heard saying 'I'm dying' while Mr Morrison responded 'you are okay'.

The court heard that when the damaged phone was examined, Gardaí managed to extract thumbnail sprite images from a video which showed abuse to the second girl. Garda Reilly said that one sprite showed the girl completely naked with her genitals exposed in images and Mr Morrison had his hand on her stomach.

A second sprite showed her wearing underwear with her genitals exposed and Mr Morrison was touching them.

Mr Morrison was arrested and interviewed by gardaí but on legal advice made no comment answers to the questions.

Victim impact statement

The mothers of the two girls both gave victim impact statements where they outlined how the abuse has had a devastating affect on the girls and their families.

One mother stated she is haunted by the thoughts of what her daughter had to endure and that her child's health suffered as a result of the abuse.

“My young daughter has been subjected to very serious sexual abuse and assault and this haunts me. It haunts me in my sleep and I regularly walk up in the middle of the night and I worry so much about what went on in those classes. It haunts me to this day to think back on the day the assault took place,” she said, adding that Mr Morrison had built up a trust with the parents.

The second mother said that she and her husband spent nights crying as they tried to comprehend 'what our little girl had endured and how it impacted her'. She said the girl went from a happy bubbly child to being withdrawn and not wanting to dance or sing.

The court heard the family went to counselling and 20 months on they are much more relaxed again and they are managing better.

Both mothers asked Judge Garavan to take into account the effect the abuse has had on the girls and their families when sentencing Mr Morrison.

The court heard that Mr Morrison was born in Derby in England and was described as having a 'Billy Elliot life' in that he grew up in poverty with abusive parents but managed to become a professional ballet dancer.

He moved to Ireland with his partner and had two children and opened his first dance school in 2008 and opened more in towns in Galway and Mayo.

Mr Desmond Dockery, senior counsel for Mr Morrison said that business was thriving until Covid and this isolation led to reliance on alcohol and a gradual descent into viewing of pornography.

Mr Dockery said that a psychological report by Dr Catherine Norton showed that his remorse is genuine but has features consistent with a paedophilic disorder and urgently requires one to one counselling.

He is also regarded as having a high risk of reoffending but Mr Dockery asked Judge Garavan to give his client credit for his early plea and structure a sentence which will give light at the end of the tunnel.

Sentencing

Judge Garavan said it was every young girl's dream of becoming a ballerina and Mr Morrison had a controlling influence over those children in his role as their teacher and had betrayed that trust.

“These events totally robbed these young children of that innocence and that childhood and the mothers said this was the moment they had to grow up very quickly,” he said.

Judge Garavan added that he accepted Dr Norton's report which stated that Mr Morrison is a paedophile who is sexually orientated towards female children and he can never have any unsupervised access to children and must undergo counselling and go on the sex offenders programme.

He also accepted that there was no evidence that Mr Morrison shared or distributed the videos and that there was no suggestion he committed the crimes on his own daughters who he still has a good relationship with.

Judge Garavan imposed two four year sentences for the sexual assault of each of the girls which are to run consecutively but agreed to suspend the final year for a two year period. He said he was doing so to ensure that Mr Morrison undergoes a sex offenders course and has professional counselling as part of the sentence as he remains a paedophile and grave danger to children. The sentence was also backdated to July 2, 2024 when Mr Morrison first went into custody.

Judge Garavan described what happened as a very sad chapter for the two families and hoped the sentencing will bring some closure to them and congratulated them for their courage to come forward and tell their story.