No to sentence cut for child porn wife

A teaching assistant who helped her husband film young girls at their home — after luring them there for pool parties— has failed in a bid to have her two-and-a-half-year jail term cut.

Rosemary Foxall, aged 50, of Brownhills, deserved every day of her sentence, top judges ruled. London's Criminal Appeal Court heard she was guilty of a "monstrous breach of trust" and, although her role in her husband's abuse of young girls, had probably been "passive", there could be no criticism of her sentence.

Foxall befriended children as a teaching assistant and youth worker, then invited them to play and sleep over as husband Martin secretly filmed them from the loft.

She lost her husband, career, and good reputation as a result but Mr Justice Stadlen ruled there was nothing "excessive" about her jail term.

Pornographic magazines and sex toys were left in the hope of catching victims, some as young as eight, on camera as they bathed or changed.

A fire at their Sadler Road home in 2008 saw firefighters find a network of cables, recording equipment and videos in the loft. Recording had been going on for about eight years, from 2000.

Shortly after they were arrested and questioned, Martin Foxall, then 50, committed suicide. Rosemary Foxall was jailed after being convicted of 10 counts of making indecent photographs of children and one of possessing indecent photographs of children at Wolverhampton Crown Court in July this year.

Jonathan Challinor, for Foxall, yesterday told judges her sentence was "manifestly excessive" and that she had been "emotionally abused" by her husband .

She had lost her career and was suffering from depression and anxiety.

Mr Justice Saunders said the case had caused an "overwhelming sense of outrage in the area".

The judge had been in the best position to decide on an appropriate sentence.

By Ben Lammas