BANBURY MAN AVOIDS JAIL FOR CHILD SEX ATTEMPT AND POSSESSION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
A man who pleaded guilty to attempting to arrange the rape of a child under 13 has avoided jail at Oxford Crown Court.Thomas Gale, of Parklands, Banbury, was sentenced for four counts of child sex offences yesterday, (Thursday, May 22).
The 28-year-old pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to one count of attempting to arrange or facilitate the commission of a child sex offence between October 13 and October 24, 2022.
He attempted to arrange the rape of a child in Liphook, Hampshire, which was actually a covert operation where a “decoy” police officer pretended to be a sex offender online.
The officer approached Gale on a child pornography website and indicated that he “wished to abuse his 13-year-old daughter” who did not really exist.
Gale interacted with the undercover officer, and they moved their conversation to Twitter.
The offender asserted that he would be able to arrange the abuse, going so far as to look up hotel prices in the area, and indicated that he was in possession of a quantity of child pornography.
Three further counts relate to a quantity of child pornography, which was found on Gale’s seized devices, including a mobile phone and electronic tablet device.
This included 135 category A pictures and videos, 44 category B images and 50 category C images and videos.
Further extreme videos were found on the devices, which were not included in the charge, prosecuting counsel Adam Williams said on behalf of the Crown.
Gale was arrested on November 29, 2022, and made his first appearance before Oxford Magistrates’ Court on February 18 this year.
Representing the defendant, Marie-Armance Renaud explained that since the offences more than two years ago, Gale has not reoffended and has taken steps through rehabilitation programmes to ensure he does not commit similar crimes again.
She said he wanted her to convey his “remorsefulness and how he is trying to change his life for the better so that he is not in the position he was at that time in 2022, at a low point in his life.” In his sentencing remarks, Recorder James Hay said: “I am not going to be sending you to prison today.
You seem to have done everything you could have done, that anyone could hope you would do, in order to put these offences behind you.” He sentenced Gale to two years in jail for the lead offence, attempting to commission the rape of a young girl, with the other offences of child pornography to be taken in totality with prison sentences to run concurrently.
However, the Recorder suspended the sentence for two years, meaning if Gale reoffended in this time he would have to serve the sentence.
He was also ordered to complete a rehabilitation programme, 150 hours of unpaid work, and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order was imposed for 10 years.
