Description
Tommaso Rasetti sent sexual messages to a teenage girl using an online application called Kik.
The 42-year-old even told her how he had set up a group called Southampton Cross Dressing.
Rasetti, of Harwood Close, Totton, was actually speaking to a police officer rather than a real teen.
Prosecution barrister, Richard Cherrill, said that when the defendant was arrested and interviewed he initially denied “he had been chatting with a child”.
However, when officers examined his electronic devices they found a total of 51 indecent images.
Appearing before Southampton Crown Court, Rasetti was charged with attempting to communicate with a child under the age of 16 for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification, intentionally attempting to cause or incite a girl to engage in sexual activity, making indecent images of a child and distributing indecent images of a child.
He pleaded guilty to the offences which happened in the summer of 2019 at an earlier court hearing.
Defending, Ellie Fargin, stressed her client would benefit from intervention.
She said: “He of course accepts this was a child and it was wrong.”
Ms Fargin argued the offences were relatively short-lived and there was turbulence in Rasetti’s life at the time.
The court heard that he has since withdrawn from the Nursing and Midwifery Council and found a new job.
His barrister urged the judge to suspend any custodial sentence saying there was a prospect of rehabilitation.
Judge Peter Henry jailed him for six months, suspended for two years.
Rasetti must complete 31 sessions on an accredited sex offender programme, ten rehabilitation activity days and 150 hours of unpaid work.
He will have to register as a sex offender for seven years and will also be subject to a sexual harm prevention order.