Christopher Webb 38

Description

A paedophile who carried an envelope filled with girls’ underwear while attempting to meet a 12-year-old girl he had groomed online has been jailed for four and a half years.

Christopher Webb, 38, of Tilesford, Worcestershire, was sentenced at Worcester Crown Court after an undercover police operation.

He began communicating with someone he believed was a 12-year-old girl on social media, sent explicit images of himself, asked for similar images in return, and arranged to meet at Gloucester railway station on 26 March 2025. He made clear his intention to have sex with the child.

Officers arrested him on arrival. He was carrying a black bag containing an envelope of girls’ underwear bearing his home address. Phone searches later confirmed he knew his intended victim was underage, including web searches for “do under 16s need a train ticket?”

Webb pleaded guilty to attempted sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause or incite a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity involving penetration, and attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.

He received concurrent sentences of 10 months, four years and six months, and two years and three months respectively. He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register indefinitely and given a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Det Con Rich Britton, from West Mercia’s Online Child Sexual Exploitation Team, said:

"We are pleased to put this paedophile behind bars before he could carry out any of his disgusting intentions on an actual child, so this operation was a good result to protect potential victims from his depraved behaviour.

"Webb was caught red-handed, thinking he was speaking online to a girl, and we would warn any other individuals thinking of communicating with a child and attempting to arrange sexual activity like this to be warned it could be the police and you too could be sent to prison."