Prison for 'predator' who groomed teenage hockey player he was helping to coach

30-year-old jailed for eight years and 10 months

*This story contains information which some readers may find distressing. 

A sexual predator who groomed a ‘talented’ teenage hockey player he was helping to coach has been jailed.

Andrew Vernon-Browne, of Brunswick Road in Douglas, was described as a ‘predatory individual’ as he was sentenced at Douglas Courthouse today (29 September).

The now 30-year-old befriended his victim – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – at the sports club they both attended.

Explicit Communication

The court heard the pair began messaging each other in 2013 when she was 13-years-old and he was 20; the communication quickly becoming ‘explicit’ and sexualised.

A catalogue of sexual activity followed, until December 2016, taking place in public places and in Vernon-Browne’s car.

The court heard a family member of the victim had reported Vernon-Browne to the police when the girl was 15 but, after interviewing her in front of her parents, she denied anything had taken place.

After receiving counselling the woman reported him last year and he was arrested in December after returning to the Isle of Man from his home in Nottingham.

Vernon-Browne later admitted 10 offences, over the three-year period, including buggery, having unlawful sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 16, indecent assault and gross indecency.

“I felt all I was good for was sex”

In a victim impact statement written by the woman, and read to the court by the prosecutor, she revealed she’d found it ‘hard to put into words’ the impact of Vernon-Browne’s offending.

“I feel as if I have had years of my life taken away from me,” she said: “I did not enjoy my childhood. I will never get this time back.”

“I abused drugs to try and block out what he did to me.” – Victim of Andrew Vernon-Browne

Revealing she’d been consumed by ‘drug addiction’ as a result of the trauma, and being ‘oversexualised’, she added: “I will never trust a man again. I felt all I was good for was sex.”

Vernon-Browne had also, she said, taken away an opportunity for her to ‘grow and develop’ in a sport she loved and one which she can no longer play. 

Breach of Trust

Vernon-Browne’s advocate told the court it was a ‘platonic relationship’ between the two that had gone too far.

“They were friends at the hockey club and one thing led to another,” he said: “The defendant accepts his offending has had a most traumatic effect on her.

“There is no way of getting around it – this is a breach of trust case.”

He revealed Vernon-Brown had been in the British Army for almost five years but left after convictions for sexual-offences committed against a 14-year-old girl in the UK in 2021. 

“It’s fair to say they weren’t best pleased with his offending,” the advocate noted.

Sentence

Sending Vernon-Browne to prison for eight years and 10 months Deemster Graeme Cook said he'd committed a ‘multitude of sexual offences’.

Referencing the ‘absolute devastation’ he’d caused to his victim's life the deemster added: “She didn’t really know what she was consenting to – she was a child.

“You used your position to groom her.”

“You are someone who, in my judgement, is a sexual predator.” Deemster Graeme Cook

Deemster Cook also imposed a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, and a restraining order, which will be in place until further order.

Vernon-Browne's licence, when he leaves prison, will also be extended by five years.