Description
A man who enticed a person to sexually abuse a victim he believed to be her six-year-old daughter has been jailed.
Christopher Clinton was in fact talking with an undercover police officer when he engaged in the conversations between November 2024 and January 2025.
Clinton, aged 60, befriended the 'woman' on a social media network.
Posing as a middle-aged woman he then guided her to engage in sexual activity with a child he believed to be her daughter.
He also expressed a desire to develop an ongoing physical relationship with the child as she grew older.
Clinton was aware of the child’s purported age and had no idea he was in fact talking to a police officer.
Police investigators were able to track him down via his username to an address in Edwalton, where he was arrested on March 4 last year.
During his initial police interview, Clinton declined to answer questions and spoke only to deny that he posed a danger to any children.
He later pleaded guilty to arranging the commission of a child sex offence.
Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday 1 April he was jailed for two years and eight months.
He was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order which will closely restrict his future use of the internet as well as his access to children.
PC Summer Smith, of Nottinghamshire Police’s Internet Child Exploitation Team, said:
“Clinton genuinely believed he was talking to another like-minded individual who would help him to realise his depraved sexual fantasies.
“He claimed in his police interview not to be a danger to children, but sadly this is exactly what he is.
“Because if he had his way then he would have facilitated very real harm to a real child somewhere in the word, which is why I am so pleased that he has now been sentenced.”