Locations
Ilkeston, Derbyshire, DE7
Description
A 35-year-old groomed who he thought was a 14-year-old girl, sending her a message which read: “Would you like to get naked and snuggle?” Derby Crown Court heard how Csaba Tokes also asked the "teenager" what her sexual fantasy was after he began chatting to her online following a split from his long-term partner.
But unbeknown to the Ilkeston man “Ava” was really an undercover police officer posing as the teen. Handing him a two-year community order, Judge Robert Egbuna said: “What is clear is that the decoy made it clear they were aged 14 (and) from the communication you had between yourself and the decoy it’s apparent there’s an element of sophistication in respect of the grooming behaviour which took place.
“You even ask ‘would you like to get naked and snuggle?’ and it’s apparent there’s some quite clever grooming. (But) it is also clear there’s an element of reticence from you when the decoy, on a number of occasions, messages you and you do not reply.
“I do not accept that a break-up from an adult leads to someone having an interest in children (but) the pre-sentence report concludes that you are at a high risk of communicating with young children.”
Sarah Allen, prosecuting, said the officer set up Ava as a decoy, who Tokes started messaging firstly on the app Kik in November last year and then their conversations moved to WhatsApp. She said Ava told him she was aged 14 and from Nottingham and he told her he was 35 and lived in Ilkeston.
The prosecutor said the early messages were not of a sexual nature and included talk about what video games they both liked to play. Miss Allen said: “On November 28 she sent him a message saying ‘I thought you liked me?’ as there had been no communication for three days and he replied ‘I do like you but you are very young’ and he asked her if she’d had any boyfriends to which she replied she’d had two.
“He then asked her what she had done sexually and asked if she was a virgin. They then spoke in person and they spoke about meeting up and maybe going to see a film, going for a walk or going for a McDonald's.”
The prosecutor said Tokes was arrested at his place of work in January of this year. He pleaded guilty to attempted sexual communication with a child between November 7 and December 3, 2022.
The defendant has no previous convictions. Benn Robinson, mitigating, said his client was born in Romania but had moved to Hungary when he was aged three and has no family here in the UK. He said: “He had a four-year relationship but unfortunately that broke down which led to some isolation and loneliness and he reached out online.”
As part of the community order, Judge Egbuna ordered that Tokes attend a 43-day sex offender treatment programme and 55 rehabilitation sessions. He also ordered him to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work, placed him on the sex offender register for five years and handed him a five-year sexual harm prevention order.