Man, 28, jailed for spending the night with girl, 12
COURT HEARS PERVERT BELIEVED VICTIM WAS AGED 19
A MAN who spent the night with a 12-year-old girl he said he thought was 19 has been jailed for two-and-half years.
Carl Hodgson, 28, invited the child to his flat in Manchester city centre a few days after they first made contact via a popular adult dating app.
He filmed her on his mobile phone as she wore a body stocking and sent it to a friend, Manchester Crown Court heard. Hodgson also pleasured himself while the girl watched.
He pleaded guilty at earlier hearings to causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity; engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child; distributing an indecent photograph of a child; and making indecent photographs of a child.
Judge David Stockdale QC, the Recorder of Manchester, told Hodgson: “[The victim] was by reason of her age highly vulnerable to exploitation and was no doubt impressed by you.
“The effects on a child of such a young age of offending of this sort are really well too known and well too documented.
“These effects, in many cases, last for the rest of the child’s life.
“I take into account that while [the victim] was 12 years of age at the time of these offences, you did not believe that to be the case. You thought, and on reasonable grounds, that she was over 16.”
The court heard the victim used a different name on her dating app profile and falsely stated she was 19.
Hodgson made one moving image of the girl and also captured three still images of her on his phone at his flat.
He also messaged a friend, saying: “Mine was decent. Nailed that bird, unreal bod.”
The court heard Hodgson described the girl as ‘filth.’
His barrister, Alexander Leach, told the court that those comments ‘imply male bravado and bragging’ and that he did not have sex with the girl.
The Crown offered no evidence against a charge of rape and Judge Stockdale ordered a formal not guilty verdict be returned.
In mitigation, Mr Leach said: “Effectively, Carl Hodgson was not aware he was engaging in any sexual activity with a child.
“He is genuinely ashamed and remorseful for the circumstances he finds himself in but does not seek to minimise his behaviour.
“He has lost his employment, his home and suffered the stigma brought with offending of this sort.”
Judge Stockdale said the girl had been seen by a consultant psychologist and a social worker and was shown to be in a ‘withdrawn state’ and unable or unwilling to communicate.
Hodgson, of Jordan Street, Manchester, was also banned from contacting the victim and ordered to sign the sex offender register for life.
Following the hearing, Detective Constable Tina Jackson, of GMP’s Project Phoenix Bury team, said: “Carl Hodgson would have known the schoolgirl was under 16 and showed complete disregard for the law for his own sexual gratification.
“In reality he did not care and saw an opportunity to satisfy his own sexual urges which he then bragged about to his friends.”