SNAPCHAT PREDATOR, 34, SENTENCED FOR ATTEMPTING TO CONTACT 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL
Sick pervert Martin Simpson was snared by an undercover police officer posing as a schoolgirl on Snapchat.The 34-year-old dad-of-three asked the girl - who he believed to be aged just 13 - to take a picture of herself performing a sex act.
He also told her to send photos of her breasts.
But Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard the girl was in fact a decoy.
Now Simpson has been sentenced to a two-year community order.
Prosecutor Alison Whalley said an undercover police officer set up a profile on Snapchat and Simpson contacted her on November 13 last year.
Miss Whalley said: "The defendant told her he was 18.
She told him she was 13." During the conversation Simpson invited the girl to perform a sex act and take a picture of herself doing it.
He later asked her to send pictures of her breasts.
He was arrested on December 21.
He admitted having the conversation.
He said he knew it was wrong.
His phone and tablet were seized but no offences were uncovered.
Simpson, of Newhouse Road, Abbey Hulton, pleaded guilty to attempted sexual communication with a 13-year-old girl.
Mitigating, Hamish Noble, said Simpson did not make any arrangements to meet the child and no wrongdoing was found on his devices.
He said Simpson is on long-term sick.
He has no contact with his three children and no social outlet.
He said there was no intimacy in his relationship and there was a parting.
Mr Noble said: "He was on Snapchat.
He received a request.
It became sexualised quite quickly.
There was some engineering of the conversation by the undercover officer to illicit what happened but he accepts being told she was 13 that should have been it.
He is ashamed about what he did." He said Simpson has suffered online abuse as people have found out what he has done.
He said he would lose his accommodation if he went to prison and very little rehabilitation would take place in custody.
Mr Noble added: "I invite you to suspend the inevitable custodial sentence.
There is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation." As part of the community order Simpson must complete 43 programme days; a rehabilitation activity requirement for 55 days and a two month residence requirement.
Recorder Sunil Khanna said: "You explained your behaviour was due to a deterioration of your mental health and a lack of sexual intimacy in your relationship.
You said you had no sexual interest in children and expressed regret and shame.
You came off your medication and that led to this offending." "You knew you were speaking to a 13-year-old but were at a loss to explain why you did what you did." "A short or moderate sentence is not going to help in your case.
The best way is to deal with the underlying issues.
You are lucky that this was a police operative and this was an adult rather than a real child." The judge made Simpson the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years and placed him on the sex offenders' register for the same period.
He made a deprivation order for the phone.
