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Jamie Mobbs, 27, claimed he was lonely and had been looking for a girlfriend. He told the ‘girl’, with whom he chatted on Facebook and Instagram, his real name, age and profession – before peppering her with sexual topics and asking her to send explicit images of herself.
Sentencing him to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years, Judge Michael Gledhill QC told Mobbs he should be ‘thoroughly ashamed’ of himself.
He said: “You are a rather pathetic character who lives a very lonely, isolated life. You may very well want a normal life and to meet somebody to have a proper relationship with and I fully understand that. You do not go about that by seeking out 13-year-old girls.”
Prosecutor Isobel Delamere told Oxford Crown Court that Mobbs had begun chatting to the ‘girl’ on Facebook on February 6, 2020.
The ‘girl’ – actually a decoy account operated by a so-called paedophile hunter vigilante group – told him she was 13 and from Watford. Mobbs said he was 27, a factory cleaner and asked for a photograph of her in her school uniform.
Later in the day, he turned the conversation to relationships and asked her to send pictures of her underwear. He also sent her pornographic images.
He continued to send explicit messages and even asked offered to pay her £500 to ‘cuddle and kiss me and suck my w***y’. He offered to show her his genitals but warned her against telling others. Mobbs also sent three videos of himself performing a sex act.
The defendant spoke about coming to Watford to have sex with the girl and sent a link to Google Maps showing how long the journey down would take.
He was confronted at his home in Banbury on February 9 by members of the vigilante group and the police were called.
Interviewed by officers, Mobbs claimed he’d been trying to explain to her ‘how relationships work’ and said the video of him performing the sex act on himself was ‘more educational’. There were no indecent images of children on his phone, but he had searched for terms including ‘how old do you have to be to wear a thong’.
Mitigating, Gordanna Austin said her client had a number of learning difficulties including autism and Asperger’s Syndrome that would make an immediate prison sentence particularly difficult. He was remorseful and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.
Mobbs, of School View, Banbury, admitted attempted sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity, attempted sexual activity in the presence of a child and attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence. He had no previous convictions.
He was ordered to pay £1,000 costs, carry out up to 50 rehabilitation days and abide by a 10 year sexual harm prevention order. He will be a registered sex offender for 10 years.