Martin Rhodes 52

Description

Pervert Martin Rhodes has been jailed after he tried to encourage a 14-year-old 'girl' to perform a sex act. The 52-year-old, who was jailed for similar matters in 2017, was in fact communicating with a paedophile hunter.

But Rhodes asked the 'girl' to send pictures of herself and he sent intimate pictures to her. The police were called in and he had deleted the conversation on his phone, which he was banned from doing under the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) imposed seven years ago.

Now Rhodes has been jailed for four-and-a-half years at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court. Prosecutor Jonathan Dickinson said the police were contacted by a member of a paedophile hunter group in February who said he was speaking to the defendant online.

Mr Dickinson said: "He was posing as a 14-year-old girl. The decoy was using an app which made it appear she looked like a 14-year-old child.

"The defendant initiated the communication by sending a Facebook friend request. The decoy made clear her age was 14.

"The conversation quickly turned sexual. The defendant asked to send pictures of herself. He explained how to perform a sex act on herself.

"He also sent her videos of pornography. He sent pictures of his private area and the private area of an adult woman. He encouraged her to buy a sex toy.

"He sent her his phone number, images of his car and himself. A police officer was able to identify him. There was a conversation about meeting up but it did not go far enough.

"The communication stopped on February 18. Police attended his address three days later. He was arrested. A number of devices were seized for examination. His phone did not have the conversation with the decoy on it. He must have deleted it. That placed him in breach of a SHPO he received in July 2017 when he was jailed for four years for attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity."

Rhodes, of Knights Croft, Keele, pleaded guilty to attempted sexual communication with a child; two charges of attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity; attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act and two charges of breaching a SHPO.

Martin Bloor, mitigating, said Rhodes, a dad-of-four, knew he would receive a significant sentence. He added the defendant has a number of health issues.

Judge Graeme Smith said: "You have convictions in 2017 for offences which followed a very similar pattern where you contacted someone online through Facebook and WhatsApp who you believed to be a child. In that case the child was 11, in this case a 14-year-old. In both cases there was no actual child.

"You sent a number of sexual photos and videos. You also tried to get the same from the person you were communicating with. You also discussed sexual matters and encouraged her to perform a sex act.

"There was no real child. It was people who deliberately set up profiles to ensnare people like yourself who look for young girls on the internet."

Rhodes remains subject to the SHPO and is on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.