Colin Robinson 78

Description

He sent the girl a 55 second video clip of him touching himself and said, Do you want daddy, baby?

A retired Cammell Lairds worker engaged in filthy online conversations with a 13-year-old girl hoping they could meet up.

Colin Robinson, 75, encouraged the child to bunk off school, sent her an indecent video of himself and said he wanted to seduce her.

When told she lived in Manchester, he replied: "You are now in big trouble, its just down the M57."

But unknown to the Wirral grandad he was actually communicating with an undercover officer going by the name of Lucy, posing as the school girl.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that he has no previous sexual convictions and is now remorseful and ashamed, but Judge Gary Woodhall told bald Robinson: "Only a custodial sentence can be justified."

Robinson, of Borough Road, Seacombe, had pleaded guilty to five offences involving attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act, attempting to incite a child to engage in a sexual act and attempted sexual communication.

He had initially pleaded not guilty and had been due to stand trial in August but changed his pleas.

Paulus Barnes, prosecuting, told how the offences took place between September 12 and 18, 2019. The undercover officer set up a decoy profile on Kik Messenger using the handle Lulu Girly Girl and also set up Gmail and Skype accounts.

On September 12 that year she logged onto a free to use site called Chat To You. Mr Barnes said: "She received a private message from Aged Mariner, 66 years from Merseyside. She told him she was only 13 and he said 'Mmm that is so hot xxxYou are lovely'."

She accepted a friend request from him which also displayed the name Colin Robbo and he began sexualised conversations with her.

Mr Barnes said: "He wanted to seduce her.

"The officer told him she was still at school but off school. He asked her to touch herself and began instructing her to masturbate herself."

He made various other highly sexualised remarks and asked if he could call her. He said he had spent the weekend fishing and playing golf but had been thinking about her which had aroused him.

Robinson made similar comments in other conversations and told her what he wanted to do to her and asked her to miss school but when she said she could not travel to him he became aggressive and dominating.

The next day he apologised but continued telling her what he wanted to do sexually with her, said Mr Barnes.

He sent her a 55-second video clip of him touching himself and said: "Do you want daddy, baby?"

Robinson was identified and traced and interviewed on October 21 and confirmed he used the Chat To You site under the name Aged Mariner, but said he thought the site was for adults only.

Mr Barnes said: "He said if he had been chatting to someone 13 he would have told them to find someone of their own age."

He maintained he did not recall speaking to anyone aged 13 and when told he had been speaking to an undercover officer he said he had been entrapped.

The court heard that he has six previous convictions for 13 offences involving dishonesty, with the last one in 1978.

Judge Woodhall told Robinson: "You have expressed disgust at your behaviour and said you are ashamed. When interviewed you continued to deny sexual gratification. That is utter nonsense."

He said he accepted he has health problems, has no similar convictions and that the delay in the case reaching sentence was not entirely Robinson's fault.

But Judge Woodhall ruled that it was so serious there had to be an immediate jail sentence.

The judge said the chat conversations "from the outset were highly sexualised".

He said the grandad had encouraged her "to bunk off school" and "made reference to the fact she lived a short distance away down the motorway no doubt implying you could meet".

Zahra Baqri, defending, had told the court: "My client is utterly disgusted with his actions over those few day in 2019. He accepts he is at real risk of being sentenced to immediate imprisonment but I invite you to suspend the term."

She said: "He accessed dating applications on the computer in order to speak to adult women so his original use was legitimate.

"He accepts he did think and knew he was talking to a 13-year-old child and continued with these communications. He accepts that."

Ms Baqri pointed out that there was no real victim and no sexual activity took place between them.

She said: In his probation report he speaks about feeling confusion and shame.

"He had started employment at the age of 15 and worked for Cammell Lairds for 50 years. He has a strong close family including siblings, children and their offspring."

She added: "He unreservedly apologises for the humiliation and upset he has caused his family. He apologies for his vile and scandalous behaviour."

Robinson was jailed for two years.

He was also ordered to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years and will be subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for the same length of time.