A paedophile who ordered the murder of his nine-ye
A paedophile who ordered the murder of his nine-year-old victim from behind bars was jailed for life today (FRI).
Stuart Spring, 33, offered a fellow inmate cash to kill the young girl in revenge for his fifth conviction for child abuse.
But the plot was leaked to prison officials and police launched an undercover operation using a female officer as a ‘hitwoman.
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Spring was recorded on tape telling her that he wanted the girl ‘terminated’ and her dead body left in woodland.
He said: ‘Right, I want a body missing, permanently.
Right, this is the one that put me in here.
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The pervert even organised the robbery of his own mother to pay pnds stlg 10,000 for the murder.
Spring, who openly admits his perverted desire for young girls, has five convictions for indecent assault dating back to 1985.
Judge Jeremy Roberts QC said it was the most ‘disturbing’ case he had seen in his forty year career.
‘It beggars belief that anybody, having sexually abused a little girl should then blame the little girl and set out to have her murdered for the way in which in your perverted mind she was responsible for your predicament.
‘The only possible sentence is life imprisonment.
You are likely to remain unstable and a potential danger for a very long time if not for the rest of your life.
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The Old Bailey heard Spring abused the girl, then eight and suffering from learning difficulties, at her Camden home in July 2001.
Her parents had left to take her epileptic brother to hospital and trusted Spring, a friend of a friend, to take care of the girl while they were gone.
Spring was arrested when she told her parents and he was remanded in custody to Pentonville prison.
Prosecutor Christopher Hehir said Spring immediately began talking to his cellmate about the girl.
‘He had conceived a violent hatred for her and he was blaming her for his plight.
‘He was talking about how she was sitting opposite him with her legs open, in effect leading him on.
‘He believed the child had stabbed him in the back by complaining about what happened.
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Disturbed at what he had been told, the fellow prisoner later contacted the prison authorities.
A probe was then launched by the Murder Suppression Team from the Serious Crime Group West, and a female officer put herself forward to trap him.
In the meantime Spring pleaded guilty to indecent assaulting the girl and was jailed four four years on October 22, 2001.
The officer, Jo Scott, first sent a letter to Spring’s cellmate and on February 26 she received a letter from the paedophile about ‘finalising talks on matters of great urgency.
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She made two visits to Spring wearing a concealed tape recorder to discuss the job.
He told her: ‘I want a person, I want missing, a girl missing.
‘Her mum a slap, if her mum gives you any hassle, just give her a slap.
‘Right, I want a body missing, permanently.
Right, this is the one that put me in here.
‘Permanent missing as in, er, disposed of, if you catch my drift.
I want her terminated.
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Spring gave her details of the home and a description of the girl as well the addresses she was likely to be seen at.
Mr Hehir said: ‘The officer went out of her way on a number of occasions to give him an opportunity to back out of what what proposed.
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But Spring replied: ‘I understand, yeah, I want it done 110 per cent.
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The officer said: ‘And you are not bothered about how she goes?’
Spring said: ‘No, I’m not.
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He also designed a ‘bizarre’ plan to pay up to pnds stlg 10,000 for the job by robbing his mother, a newspaper delivery agent.
‘Spring gave the officer detail of his mother’s address, vehicle and movements,’ said Mr Hehir.
‘His mother confirmed she had carried this money but was not at the time of Spring’s meeting with the officer.
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The pervert finalised the plans by writing two letters giving the addresses of the girl, the friend’s house and his mother.
In the second on April 16 he sent a picture of the girl among a group of schoolchildren taken from the Camden New Journal.
The nine-year old girl’s head was circled.
At a final meeting on April 25 last year she asked him a final time whether he wanted to go ahead.
He said he wanted her ‘terminated’ and ‘erased’ and said: ‘Why should you worry about a little reprobate like that?’
Spring added: ‘My mind is crystal, solid, clear.
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He was arrested on May 14 last year and admitted soliciting to murder in November.
Defence barrister Amanda Cotcher QC told the court: ‘He is clearly very, very disturbed.
‘His appalling frankness as to his interest he still has in children must come into the equation.
‘Thankfully the little girl knew nothing.
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ends
