ANDOVER MAN SENTENCED AFTER GROOMING ONLINE
AN INTERNET predator from Andover has been sent on a sex offenders’ course after being trapped by a group of online paedophile hunters.Robert Knox was confronted in the hallway of the flats where he was living by members of the Child Online Safety Team who travelled 300 miles to confront him.
Knox sent sexually explicit messages to what he believed was a 13-year-old girl who he met through a local dating app before their conversation moved onto WhatsApp.
The decoy posing as the girl repeatedly gave her age and pretended to be very naïve about sex but Knox responded by sending an image of his penis and asking for a photo of her breasts.
The entire exchange was saved by the paedophile hunters and handed over to police after they had travelled to Knox’s former home in Exeter to make a citizen’s arrest.
Knox, aged 36, now of Weyhill Road, Andover, admitted attempted sexual communication with a child and was jailed for 10 months, suspended for two years by Judge James Adkin at Exeter Crown Court.
He was ordered to undertake a sex offenders’ treatment course during 35 rehabilitation activity days and put on an alcohol abstinence tag for three months.
The judge imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which enables police to monitor his online activity and put him on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
He told Knox: ”You were caught in an online trap after you began soliciting what you believed to be a 13-year-old girl.
You were not deterred by her age and engaged in sexual conversation.
“You requested photos and sent photos of your penis.
You were tracked down and arrested.
There is some personal mitigation and I have read a psychologist’s report.”
