MARIUS STAN

DARLINGTON MAN CAUGHT IN ONLINE STING FOR ATTEMPTING TO COMMUNICATE SEXUALLY WITH A MINOR

A man named Marius Stan, aged 43, from Victoria Road in Darlington, was caught in an online sting after he sent inappropriate messages to a girl he believed was 13 years old.

Stan thought he was requesting images and discussing intimate topics with the girl, but he was actually communicating with members of a vigilante group who posed as a minor.

According to the court, Stan was explicitly asking whether she used WhatsApp, if she liked older men, and requesting to see her eyes and photographs.

As the conversations grew more explicit, asking about his genitalia and turning sexual, he was confronted by another vigilante who tracked him to his home in December 2022.

Prosecutor Chris Baker stated that the decoy camouflaged as a 13-year-old girl on chat, with Stan calling himself 'John' and inquiring if she was single, leading to increasingly sexual exchanges.

Stan was charged with attempting to engage in sexual communication with a minor between December 24 and 27, 2022.

Despite attempting to withdraw his guilty plea, his application was dismissed, and he pleaded guilty to the charges.

Standing before the court without legal representation, he claimed he only started using online apps after his wife died in 2021 and during COVID lockdowns.

The judge, Francis Laird KC, sentenced Stan to five months imprisonment suspended for a year, ordered him to register as a sex offender for seven years, and imposed a five-year sexual harm prevention order restricting his online activities.