HULL MAN JAILED FOR ONLINE CHILD GROOMING VIA POLICE STING
A Hull man has been jailed after explicit messages to an underage girl were sent to officers during a covert police sting.Stephen Barnes, 61, of Cottingham Road, was given a 14-month prison sentence after he was caught chatting to a 12-year-old girl known as ‘Grace’ in March last year.
The girl was in fact a decoy put in place by police officers in an undercover operation revolving around online child sexual exploitation.
Barnes, pretending to be a woman with the username ‘Hull Mummy’ messaged the girl saying ‘hi’ and initially said ‘no thanks’ when he was told that she was only aged 12.
However, he would message again 30 minutes later and engaged in a conversation where he attempted to encourage her to engage in sexual activity, Hull Crown Court heard.
Prosecuting barrister Catherine Robinson told the court: “When he was arrested and interviewed he accepted he communicated with someone in a sexual manner.
He said he used a female persona in chat rooms in order to p*** men off.” Barnes, who has no previous convictions, appeared at Hull Crown Court on Monday, March 23, to be sentenced for one count of attempting sexual communication with a child and one count of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.
Mitigating barrister Mark Savage told the court that this incident was a “one-off” and that Barnes had sought help to understand his offending.
“There was one matter only found on his electronic equipment, which is the matter before the court.
There was nothing before and nothing since.
After he was arrested, at the police station he was given a document which gives guidance and advice to seek help.
He wants to know why he offended.
He can’t offer to this court a rational explanation.
He committed an offence he despises.
He has taken steps to ensure he doesn’t offend like this again.
It was a one-off.
No incriminating documentation with links to pornography or downloads has been found on any of his electronic equipment.
He can’t take back what has happened and would he be able to he would.
I urge your honour that this is an isolated incident and it is out of character.
He can’t take back what has happened and would he be able to he would.
The circumstances speak for themselves.
Thankfully, this was not a young child.
Thankfully, it was a police sting.
“You thought you were inciting a 12-year-old child to engage in sexual activity and for that reason the sentence has to be of immediate custody.” Barnes will be placed on the sex offenders register and must adhere to a sexual harm prevention order for a period of ten years.
