Ex-charity worker on sex charge
JON MACPHERSON
AFORMER charity shop worker was caught trying to engage in text sex chat with an underage girl after being provided with numbers from a television channel, a court heard.
Mark Henderson, formerly of Whalley Road in Accrington and High Street in Rishton, thought he was messaging a sevenyear-old girl when it was actually an adult.
The convicted sex offender, 33, was caught by Lancashire Police after officers in Kent found ‘concerning’ text messages from Henderson on the phone of another offender they were monitoring in that area.
When they challenged Henderson about the texts he initially claimed to only have one mobile phone which wasn’t working but ‘eventually’ handed over a second phone from underneath his bed.
Emma Kehoe, prosecuting, told Preston Crown Court: “There was a conversation where the defendant admitted to police that he had been having text conversations having received numbers from a TV station which he had contacted and they had provided him with numbers which gave him access to young children.
“This was openly offered to the police and when his mobile phone was analysed it did throw up a conversation from the defendant with ‘a child’ who he believed to be seven years of age and was very detailed in sexual content.
“It’s clearly very evident and very detailed about what he was going to do should he be given the opportunity.”
The court heard how the prosecution accepted that Henderson was talking at the time with an adult rather than a child.
He pleaded guilty to attempting to incite girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity and was sectioned under the Mental Health Act for medical treatment with a restriction order.
Robert Elias, defending, tried to challenge the extra imposition of a restriction order after the doctor in charge of his care raised concerns about the ‘hurdles [Henderson] would have to go through to get released’.
The barrister said ‘prison would be fairly catastrophic for this defendant’ but doctors said there ‘are enough powers within the regime of a hospital order for appropriate supervision to be maintained’.