Michael Shablinger 36

Description

A man travelled from Germany to Norfolk with the intention of having sex with a young girl he met through an online children's game, a court has heard.

Michael Shablinger, 36, spent months grooming the 13-year-old victim - who cannot be identified for legal reasons - after finding her on the video game platform Roblox.

Norwich Crown Court heard Shablinger, who had told the victim he was 21, met up with her in a park in Hethersett. He spent five hours with her, until she was tracked down by her mother.

Oliver Haswell, prosecuting, said the victim has refused to say what happened between them during the hours she was missing while at the park.

But a picture of the pair kissing was later found on a "secret" phone given to her by Shablinger.

Mr Haswell said the meeting at the park followed months of "grooming", which had started in May 2023 when she was just 12.

At 11am on June 16 2024 the victim told her mother she was "going to take the dog for a walk" with a friend. 

But when she failed to return the parent got her son to look for his sister, while she tried almost 20 times over a two-hour period to call her daughter.

The mother then went out to try and look for the missing girl herself, and found her in a park with Shablinger.

The defendant, who said he had "only just met her", then left the area on a bus.

The victim then lied to her mother about what happened, prompting the concerned parent to contact police.

Once home the victim claimed she felt unwell and went to her room.

But the mother later found her daughter "hiding something in her bed", which turned out to be a "secret" mobile phone given to her by Shablinger when they met up.

Looking at the phone the woman saw part of a live chat between her daughter and the defendant in which he asked her "do you regret Sunday?" and she replied "no".

There were also messages containing requests from him for "further meetings", a picture of them kissing and telling her to "hide the phone" from her mum.

Police were contacted and given the phone. It was also found to contain conversations about the defendant seeking a passport for the victim in order that she could "leave the country to be with him".

Shablinger was arrested by Border Force officers at Heathrow Airport as he tried to board a plane to Munich on June 23.

Police seized his phone and found on it indecent images and videos of unidentified children, as well as indecent images of the victim.

Mr Haswell said analysis of his phone showed he had been chatting online with the victim for "some time" prior to them meeting up.

The prosecutor said "many" sexualised images and messages were exchanged between the two of them.

Mr Haswell said Shablinger encouraged and "instructed" the victim to commit sexual acts and recorded her as she did so.

He said the victim has refused to tell police what happened when she and Shablinger met and she even sent a message to him stating "be lucky, I lied to the police".

Shablinger, who was born in Austria but lives in Germany, appeared at court on Wednesday (January 9) after he admitted meeting a child following sexual grooming.

He also admitted sexual activity with a child and six offences of possession of more than 800 indecent images of children.

Three of those offences related to pictures and videos of the victim - including five category A, the most serious - and another three to unidentified children, including 346 category A.

Imposing an extended eight-and-a half-year extended sentence, made up of four and a half years in custody and four years on licence, Recorder Paul Garlick said it was a "very serious case".

Finding Shablinger to be a dangerous offender, he said there had been "deliberate targeting and grooming of a young girl" by the defendant whose intentions were "clear and sexual".

Ed Renvoize, mitigating, said the defendant accepted "this is an extremely serious case" but deserved full credit for his pleas to the offences.

He said Shablinger "was untruthful about his age" but insisted there was "no abduction or detention" in this case.

Shablinger was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and put on the sex offenders' register, both indefinitely.

He was also banned from contacting, or attempting  to contact, the victim directly or indirectly until further order.