MAN JAILED OVER ONLINE GROOMING OF GIRLS
2013.A man has been sentenced to prison for grooming young girls on the social media platform Badoo after being caught by an undercover police officer who was pretending to be a teenager.
Howard Blackburn, aged 27 and residing at St Leonard's Court in Cockermouth, was detained in August after planning to meet a 13-year-old girl in Whitehaven.
He was unaware that he was speaking with an undercover police officer at the time.
Blackburn pleaded guilty to multiple sexual offence charges and was handed a four-year sentence at Carlisle Crown Court.
In addition, he admitted to possessing cocaine.
The court proceedings revealed that Blackburn used the platform to arrange a meeting with someone he believed was a young girl, but he was arrested at the meeting point.
Subsequently, police investigations checked whether Blackburn had targeted actual teenage girls.
During the trial, Blackburn confessed to five counts of attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity, as well as one charge of attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.
He was ordered to register as a sex offender for life and to comply with a sexual offences prevention order aimed at limiting his internet use upon his release from prison.
