Timothy Downie 52

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A York company director who tried to give a '12-year-old girl' sex instructions and told her to think like a slave is today starting a jail term.

For six weeks, Timothy Michael Downie, 52, masqueraded online as a 19-year-old woman as he gave the 'girl' advice on how to perform sexual acts and encouraged her to find older boys to treat her sexually, Matthew Moore-Taylor, prosecuting, told York Crown Court.

“Stop thinking of yourself as a little girl and start thinking like a Roman slave girl who needs to please her master or get thrown to the lions,” he told her on an online social media platform.

He also told her performing sexual acts with older boys would give her self confidence.

But the “girl” was an undercover police officer taking part in an operation to track down and arrest online sex offenders and Downie was arrested.

Downie, who ran a management consultancy, of Chestnut Avenue, Heworth, pleaded guilty to attempting to incite an underage girl to perform sexual acts and attempted sexual communication with a child.

He was jailed for 32 months, put on the sex offenders’ register for life and barred from working with children or vulnerable adults.

Judge Simon Hickey said Downie had believed he was talking to a real girl. 

For Downie, Sean Smith said he had never tried to meet the 'girl' or get her to send photographs of herself. He had also taken substantial steps in rehabilitating himself since his arrest in 2022.

Mr Moore-Taylor said the detective set up a false profile on Kik social media of a 12-year-old girl called 'Mia'.

On January 12, 2022, 'Mia' was contacted by a profile claiming to be Katy Brown, a 19-year-old York woman on a gap year. But it was really run by Downie. It had been on Kik for 2,866 days.

Early on in the conversation Downie asked 'Mia’s' age and when she said she was in Year 8, Downie started sexual messages, including asking about her sexual experiences.

Police amassed 34 pages of messages between the two between January 12 and February 28 in which Downie gave continuous sexual instructions and tried to persuade “Mia” to perform acts that she said she was reluctant to do.

In the messages were references to 'Mia’s' age of 12 years. The messages were not sent every day.

Police went to Downie’s home, arrested him and confiscated his internet equipment. He didn’t answer their questions about his sexual crimes. He had no previous convictions.

Mr Smith handed in letters from Downie's family that the judge said showed a different side of him and how shocked and surprised they were by what he had done. 

Co-director of Safer Lives sex offender rehabilitation agency and qualified probation officer Andrew Green gave evidence on behalf of Downie and the rehabilitative work he had done with the agency.

He said he believed Downie would not reoffend.

Mr Smith said Downie had also worked with a psycho-sexual-therapist and completed 48 sessions.