A transgender paedophile claimed her wife messaged schoolgirls on Facebook in a plot to end their marriage after she started another relationship, a court heard.
Abigail Waller returned to court after she began reoffending just three months after her release from a five-year sentence for child sex offences when she was known under her birth name Jamie.
The 29-year-old, now known as Abi, breached court-imposed conditions by messaging three schoolgirls on Facebook using her wife’s phone.
Jurors heard that using a fake profile with photos of an “attractive” young man, Waller told the 13 and 14-year-old-girls that they were “so pretty” and “really beautiful”.
Waller, who now has long dark hair and wore a pink floral dress during the trial, tried to argue her wife of nine years Lucy Waller was behind the messages.
“She knows that I have been in trouble for it before in the past.
“I believe she was actually in another relationship with another, current boyfriend that she is with at this time and she wanted me out of the way without telling me.”
In 2020, Jamie Waller was jailed for five years for multiple offences which included blackmailing a 13-year-old girl into sending sexually explicit photographs of herself.
Waller was handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), banning any contact with children under 18 and the use of devices connected to the internet unless police were informed.
The following year, while in prison, the paedophile started identifying as a woman, the court was told.
In May 2022, Waller was released from jail and moved back with Lucy Waller to their home in Gosport, but within three months started her “grooming process” again, jurors heard.
Portsmouth Crown Court heard Waller used Lucy Waller’s second phone, a Samsung in a pink case, while she was out at work and used a Facebook profile under the name of Jake Smith.
Waller was caught by police on Aug 4 2022, when officers visited the house for a separate reason and discovered Waller hiding the Samsung in her lap.
Lucy Waller said she had decided to divorce Waller when giving evidence against her.
She said her Samsung was a secondary phone which she mainly used as an alarm clock, but that it was connected to the internet and had Facebook on it.
The phone had three Facebook accounts linked to it – Lucy Waller, Jamie Waller, and Jake Smith.
Waller denied four counts of breaching a SHPO but was found guilty following a three-day trial.
Sentencing Waller to three-and-a-half years in prison, Judge Michael Bowes KC said: “You have a serious record for offences involving children. Looking at your previous convictions, there is a very unpleasant background of seeking to blackmail children.”
“At your trial, you denied matters, seeking to blame your wife, but the jury convicted you.”
Hampshire Police have now released two mugshots of Waller, one under birth name Jamie and another as Abi, following the latest conviction.
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