MAN 'INTENDED TO SEXUALLY EXPLOIT GIRL HE BELIEVED TO BE 14-YEAR-OLD'
A 25-year-old man from Bradford who groomed an online decoy in the belief she was a 14-year-old girl has been given a six-year extended sentence.Luke Kendall sent the girl photos of his erect penis as well as a 25-minute pornographic video and told her repeatedly that he loved her despite knowing she was a child.
He was arrested in January after a paedophile hunter group calling itself Saving Child Futures passed his details to the police.
Jailing Kendall at Bradford Crown Court, His Honour Judge Ahmed Nadim said his behaviour amounted to “textbook methods of grooming a child that you thought was real.” Assessing him as posing a significant risk to members of the public of serious harm, particularly children, he handed him three years and nine months in custody plus two years and three months on licence.
Kendall, who is in HMP Leeds, refused to attend the hearing and was sentenced in his absence.
Prosecutor Alisha Kaye said Kendall saw an online profile that purported to be that of a 14-year-old girl and sent a friend request in late December last year.
In fact, the profile was a decoy created by an online hunter group.
The conversation very quickly became sexual with Kendall sending multiple photos of his naked erect penis and asking the girl for pictures of her vagina and bottom in return.
He asked if she liked sex, if she would be his girlfriend, and called her “cute”, “baby”, and “sweet”.
He repeatedly told her he loved her and told her not to tell anyone because she was 14 and he was 25.
He sent a 25-minute pornographic video to her, saying he wanted to see her bottom and vagina.
He also mentioned paedophile hunter groups, describing them as “people who trap people who do stuff like rape children.” When Kendall was arrested his phone was seized and found to contain a private browser that prevented web history from being tracked.
Kendall, a registered sex offender who was prohibited from having such an app, said he had been given permission to have it by the police.
That was rejected by the court.
He also claimed people had broken into his room and may have sent the images to the child decoy.
He later pleaded guilty to attempting to engage a child in sexual communications, attempting to cause a girl to engage in sexual activity, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act, and breach of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
The court heard that Kendall, of Campbell House, Sunbridge Road, Bradford, had 25 previous convictions for 78 offences including battery, criminal damage, public order offences, possession of an offensive weapon, violence, and possession of an imitation firearm.
In 2020 he was sentenced to 45 months in a Young Offender Institution for almost identical offences to those he faced today.
Mitigating, Maryam Ahmed said Kendall had experienced “an absolutely terrible childhood” in care during which he had been sexually abused.
She said he suffered from various psychological disorders and a low IQ but since being remanded in custody had made started to make progress with his offending behaviour, which was predominantly internet-based.
Judge Nadim sentenced Kendall to three years and nine months in custody with an extension of two years and three months on licence to make a total of six years.
He said: “The defendant did all he could to manipulate the person he was engaging with and believed to be a child.
He intended to corrupt, use, and sexually exploit a person that he believed to be a 14-year-old girl.” Judge Nadim ordered Kendall to register as a sex offender for life and imposed a new 15-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
He ordered the forfeiture and destruction of Kendall’s mobile phone.
