Description
A paedophile thought that he was having "naughty chat" online with a 12-year-old girl and had a series of "graphic and explicit" conversations about sex with her but really it was a decoy girl and he was trapped.
Perverted sex offender Luke Alder later tried to talk his way out of trouble by pretending that he was actually only trying to catch other sexual predators through his sexualised messages. He was caught with stashes of sickening child pornography that involved children as young as two, Hull Crown Court heard.
Alder, 30, of Eastgate, Goole, admitted attempting to cause a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity and attempting to communicate sexually with her between August 14 and 21, 2020.
He also admitted three offences of making indecent images of children and another of possessing prohibited images of children on September 15 last year.
Stephen Robinson, prosecuting, said that police were alerted by the regional organised crime unit that Alder had been having sexual conversations with a decoy internet profile of a 12-year-old girl on a children's chat account. He asked the fake girl if she had ever had a boyfriend and told her that he would be her boyfriend.
He asked her intimate questions and asked her for a photograph. The decoy sent a picture of her in pyjamas but Alder told her to take them off and asked for a picture of her topless.
On another day, Alder quickly asked the girl if she wanted "naughty chat" and whether she might become pregnant if they had sex. He made sexual suggestions and asked her to send a picture.
Alder was arrested on September 15 last year and police found 19 indecent images of children and two videos in the most serious Category A on his computer equipment, 18 images in Category B and eight in Category C as well as 38 prohibited images of children.
"Some of the images showed children in pain or distress," said Mr Robinson. Some of the children were aged as young as two years old, with others aged up to 15.
During police interview, Alder claimed that he was trying to catch other sexual predators by having sexual conversations online. Charlotte Baines, mitigating, said that no actual contact with a child took place because of the sexual communication.
"This was a decoy but he was engaging with the decoy as though he was speaking to a 12-year-old girl," said Miss Baines.
Alder had no previous convictions and had suffered problems over the years. Judge Sophie McKone said that Alder was not communicating with a real child but he began a conversation with someone that he "very much hoped to be 12" and the conversations were "graphic and explicit" including talk about sex.
"It's very clear that what you intended was some form of sexual communication with this child," said Judge McKone. He clearly had a "sexual interest in children" despite what he had claimed to the probation service. The indecent images showed real children.
"They really are being abused, some child somewhere is being abused," said Judge McKone. "You have contributed to the abuse of that child because, wherever there is a market out there that you feed into, children will continue to be abused. You intended penetrative sexual activity."
Alder was jailed for three years and he was given a sexual harm prevention order for life. He will have to register as a sex offender for life.