ELLAND MAN SENTENCED FOR SENDING NAKED PICTURES TO 13-YEAR-OLD DECOY
His Honour Judge Jonathan Rose was speaking whilst sentencing 42-year-old Gary Howlings, who was handed a two-year community order after pleading guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a 13-year-old girl.The person he was messaging on Snapchat over seven days in November 2022 was, in fact, a police officer acting as a decoy.
During their exchanges, Howlings sent naked pictures of himself and asked the girl to show him her breasts.
Howlings, of Dewsbury Road, Elland, was also found to have made 13 Category C indecent images of children, the lowest category.
They were found on a hard drive after he was arrested in 2023, and when police searched his home.
When interviewed, he said he couldn’t remember having any conversations with 13-year-olds and denied having any indecent images on his devices.
Howlings will now have to register as a sex offender for the next five years and is subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for the same period.
Bradford Crown Court heard how Howlings had been struggling with alcohol when he accessed online pornography.
He later reached out for help and there had been no further offending since, which was described in court as “a game-changer”.
He pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, which, with credit meant he would receive a third off any short sentence handed down by the court, of which he would serve around half.
During that time, he would receive no ongoing assistance with what Judge Rose described as his “ongoing addiction.” He said: “It’s still there.
It’s going to be with you until you die.
“But you’d receive no help.
What incarcerating you would do is bring about much greater problems for you with very little reward for the public.
“You’re a recovering paedophile.
You’re not cured.” Addressing Howlings, who was often tearful standing in the dock, Judge Rose said “a nuanced approach” was required rather than a blanket approach of locking up paedophiles.
And he was mindful that his comments would resonate with the general public.
He said: “The public regard men like you under one umbrella: the umbrella of paedophilia.
“They draw no distinction between the man who looks at some images online, the man who makes contact with a real child or, in this case, a decoy, and the man who commits what are known as contact offences.
“There’s no distinction.
You are all a danger to children.
You have the capacity to be a danger to children.
Be under no illusions about that.
“You have committed these offences where the overwhelming majority of the public would never countenance downloading child pornography still less speaking in a sexual manner to a child.
“That’s where the risk lies.
“There’s no such thing as someone who used to be an alcoholic.
There are recovering alcoholics.
From the day they finish drinking to the day they die, they are always at risk.
“You may regard yourself as a recovering paedophile.
But you are in recovery, and I have found that to be an extremely persuasive part of the mitigation put forward.
“You are in all other respects a respectable man.” He said Howlings’ predilection for viewing pornography whilst under the influence of alcohol took him “down a very dark road” and had “blurred the lines” between speaking to an adult online and speaking to a 13-year-old girl.
Judge Rose added: “It’s a dark road … that ends in contact offences with children.
“That’s why the public say, ‘lock them all up’.
And please don’t think that I don’t get that.
Anyone who abuses a child warrants punishment.
Please don’t think you’re going to escape punishment, but it’s not prison.” In addition to registering as a sex offender and abiding by the community order Howlings must complete 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days and carry out 180 hours of unpaid work.
Judge Rose ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the devices seized by the police.
