SOUTHEND MAN SENT IMAGES TO '13-YEAR-OLD GIRL' ON WHATSAPP
A Southend man has been given a community order after he asked what he believed to be a 13-year-old girl to meet him in a hotel room.Stephen Hooper, 36, of Manchester Drive in Leigh, sent indecent images to the schoolgirl - who was actually a vigilante paedophile hunter posing as a child.
At a previous court hearing, they had been incorrectly described as an undercover officer.
Their online chats lasted almost a month in spring 2024 and took place on two social media apps – RandoChat and WhatsApp.
"At times the communication was sexual," prosecutor Amelia Norman told Basildon Crown Court on Friday.
"The defendant discussed sex with the profile, suggesting that he would like to have sex with her and on one occasion suggesting that they could meet up in a hotel room." Eventually, the vigilantes showed up at Hooper’s house, confronted him and called Essex Police.
When officers seized his electronic devices, they recovered a collection of child sex abuse images and extreme pornography.
He was caught with 124 images, of which 42 were of the most severe level.
Some of the images depicted children as young as four.
Hooper also had 68 pseudo-images of children and 40 extreme images involving animals.
The offences were "aggravated by the fact that the collection contained moving images," said Miss Norman.
Defense barrister Cyrus Shroff said his client’s conduct had been so "foolish" that he couldn’t understand why he had done it and had only recently admitted it to his family.
Hooper had now accepted his crimes and expressed remorse, said Mr Shroff, adding: "There is very little likelihood of him coming back before the courts." "I agree," said Judge Samantha Leigh.
Hooper had already served the equivalent of nine months in prison on an electronically monitored curfew – so even if she gave him the maximum jail term, he would serve no time.
She therefore gave him an 18-month community order, requiring him to complete 40 days of rehabilitation activities and a separate 26-day programme, of which no details were given.
He will also be on the sex offenders register and barred from working or volunteering with children.
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