Locations
Sheil Road, Kensington, Liverpool, Merseyside, L6
Description
A sexual deviant who propositioned a 13-year-old boy online was caught out as the child was actually an under-cover officer.
Mathew Cowley already had a conviction for sexually abusing a school boy and was banned from communicating with under 16-year-olds but it did not deter him.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that while a five year Sexual Harm Prevention Order was hanging over him Cowley got in touch via a chat room with someone he thought was a 13-year-old boy on August 5 this year.
He said he was 29 years old and then in conversation said he was 34 and asked if the boy thought he was too old for him and told him what he liked to do sexually.
Cowley told him, I dont mind first timers as long as its a secret, said Chris Hopkins, prosecuting.
The officer again told him that he was 13 and went to school and Cowley replied, So you are a virgin, thats better.
The next day Cowley again initiated an online conversation with him and told him he lived in Kensington and gave him his mobile number and the chat moved to WhatsApp.
He described the boy as fit as f**k and said he fancied him.
The officer asked if he could trust him with his secrets and he replied, No-one will ever know what we do and it is totally secret.
He was arrested three days later and made admissions in interview.
The court heard that the 37-year-old defendant was jailed for three years in September 2016 for penetrative sexual activity with a 14-year-old boy he met via Skype.
After grooming him they met at a train station and then went to a cemetery where sexual activity took place.
The Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) was made but the court was told that it had now expired and the charge he had now admitted did not allow for a new one to be made by the judge.
Mr Hopkins said that the police would have to apply to the magistrates court for a new order to be made.
Jailing Cowley, of Shiel Road, Kensington, for two and a half years Judge David Aubrey, QC, said, In my judgement you are a sexual deviant and in my judgement you are a paedophile and attracted to under-age boys. And regretfully you have not learnt your lesson since the sentence of three years imprisonment imposed in September 2016.
He said that he did not lose sight of issues in his life, adding, It may well be that you are a sad and lonely man.
The judge ordered him to sign the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and said, The police I have no doubt will be instigating an application for a Sexual Harm PreventionOrder in the lower court designed to protect others from you.
In my judgement they need such protection and hopefully it will seek to deter you albeit regretfully the order now expired did not achieve such ideals by deterring you.
Anthony ODonohoe, defending, said that Cowley had pleaded guilty to the offences of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and breaching a SHPO.
He suffers from anxiety and depression and I get the impression he is an isolated individual. He was living in rented accommodation with a rat infestation problem in Shiel Road and has no communication with is family or friends.
He feels he would be benefit from having a settled adult relationship which would perhaps put him more on the straight and narrow.
Mr ODonohoe said that a pre-sentence report says that Cowley presents a high risk of sexual offending but the defendant hopes to engage with any help and courses available to him in prison.
He is not an unintelligent man and understands if there is further offending of this nature or breaches of orders that he will bring upon his own shoulders ever lengthening custodial sentences.