Locations
Warrington, Cheshire, WA5
Description
A Catholic priest's career was in ruins after he was jailed for a serious child sexual offence at Liverpool Crown Court .
Fr Matthew Jolley, who was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Liverpool in 2015, pleaded guilty to one offence of arranging the commission of a child sex offence.
Jolley, 32, of Rhona Drive, Great Sankey, Warrington , appeared by videolink from HMP Altcourse to be sentenced this afternoon.
At the time the offence was committed last month, Jolley, who served as Catholic priest in Widnes , had just returned to the UK from Belgium and was due to travel to Rome for a two-year period of study.
The court heard Jolley came to the attention of authorities when he engaged in disgusting chat on various online platforms - including Grindr -about having sex with a two-year-old boy.
Jolley thought he was communicating with the child's father, but in fact it was an undercover law enforcement officer trained to root out such perverts.
Alaric Walmsley, prosecuting, said Jolley "created a profile as a 13-year-old bisexual male on Grindr, using the name Breed Me".
Over a series of exchanges with the undercover operator, Jolley spoke about his sexual interest in young children, both male and female, with no age limit "so long as they're cute."
When the undercover operator mentioned a two-year-old son, Jolley's response to the fictitious child was "whether I could share him".
The interaction then moved to the Kik messenger service, and continued on the Wickr encrypted platform, with Jolley asking for indecent pictures and videos.
Mr Walmsley said Jolley then arranged to go to the dad's address in Hale Village, in order to sexually abuse his son.
During the meeting Jolley again discussed how he planned to abuse the child.
When the undercover operative revealed his true identity to Jolley, the shamed priest struggled and tried to escape but was restrained and arrested on suspicion of child sex offences.
Mark Shanks, defending, said Jolley felt "utterly ashamed and appalled" by his behaviour. Mr Shanks said that if a two-year-old boy had been produced, Jolley said "he would have run a mile."
Mr Shanks added: "His job and his interests were separate and he did not join the church to engage in activity with children.
"His career is ruined and he intends to take another job on his release."
Sentencing Jolley to 40 months in prison, Recorder Jeremy Lasker said: "Your words and actions and intentions seem to me wholly inconsistent with the teachings of the Catholic church.
"You have done nothing but a great disservice to the Church."
On top of the custodial sentence Jolley was ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.
Following sentencing, Detective Constable Louise Murphy, of Cheshire's On-line Child Abuse Investigation Team, said: "Jolley committed this terrible offence whilst holding a position of trust.