Record details
A PERVERTED Carlisle man has been jailed and put on the Sex Offender Register after he chatted online with a "child" about sex.
Ben Howat, 40, pleaded guilty to three offences at the city’s crown court, where a prosecutor said the defendant was caught in an online police sting during which he believed he was chatting to a 12-year-old girl.
It was actually an under-cover police officer.
Howat, of Thirwall Gardens, Carlisle, admitted downloading child abuse images, and attempting to communicate sexually with a “child” and attempting to make the same child watch sexual activity.
The court heard that he committed the sexual communication offence between April 12 of this year and April 27. He tried to make the child watch online sexual activity on April 13.
The images offence related to 10 Category C child abuse images, which the defendant downloaded on dates in December 2021.
Howat was jailed for 19 months.
The judge also put the defendant on the Sex Offender Register for 10 years and made a sexual harm prevention order which will restrict the defendant’s online behaviour for the same period.
