MAN SENT SEXUALISED MESSAGES TO WHO HE THOUGHT WAS A FEMALE CHILD
At Mold Crown Court on Thursday (June 25), Marcus Catlin, aged 59 from Foryd Road, was sentenced to three years and three months in prison after being found to pose 'a very high risk to children.' He had previously admitted to committing 11 criminal offenses, including four counts of breaching a sexual harm prevention order, three counts of creating indecent images of a child, two counts of neglecting to register as a sex offender, attempting to communicate sexually with a child, and engaging in sexual acts in front of a child.Prosecutor Karl Scholz demonstrated that on January 8, Catlin interacted with a police decoy, pretending to be the mother of a six-year-old girl named "Vicky." Later, on January 31, he engaged with another decoy, "Betty," believing she was the daughter of Vicky.
Authorities arrested him at his home on February 17, where they seized two tablets and a mobile phone during a search.
This arrest was a breach of a previous order issued in 2020, which had banned him from possessing indecent images of children and required device registration with police.
Police found 49 static and 18 moving indecent images that ranged from the most serious (category A) to less severe (category C).
During police interviews, Catlin claimed he was only talk and claimed he had no intention of acting on his urges.
His legal representative, Ryan Rothwell, urged the court to consider his guilty pleas and noted that the offenses did not involve direct contact with children.
Rothwell also mentioned that Catlin had experienced a significant personal loss when a close friend, for whom he was acting as a carer, passed away.
He suggested that serving time would be particularly challenging for him.
Sentencing, Judge Timothy Petts called Catlin’s offences “alarming,” and said he has a “sustained, admitted sexual interest in children”.
He told him: “You know it’s got to be a prison sentence for what you did.
“You pose a very high risk to children.
You don’t seem to be able to control your desires.”
