Paedophile jailed after grooming ‘girl’ for sex
A PAEDOPHILE travelled to meet a 13-year-old girl to “take her virginity”, a court has heard.
Terrence Jenkins had spent the previous week grooming what he thought was a young schoolgirl he had met on social media.
But the 50-year-old had in fact been conversing with a member of a paedophile hunter group, and was confronted by members of the organisation when he turned up at a McDonald’s car park for the expected rendezvous.
Swansea Crown Court heard on July 16 this year an operative from a group called Elusive Child Protection Unit established a “decoy” profile on the social media sites Facebook and Badoo purporting to be that of a 13-year-old girl complete with an “age-appropriate” photo.
Dean Pulling, prosecuting, said the following day Jenkins contacted the profile. The court heard that from the outset the decoy profile made it clear she was 13 and in school, but Jenkins’ messages quickly became “highly sexualised”.
Over the following days the defendant sent intimate photographs of himself and asked for similar images in return and also described the sexual acts he wanted to perform with his new online contact.
Mr Pulling said Jenkins told the “girl” she should not tell her friends or family about their messaging, and then suggested they meet for sex.
The pair arranged to meet at the car park of McDonald’s on the A465 near Llandarcy on Saturday, July 20, with Jenkins telling the decoy the day before to bring condoms, adding: “You won’t be a virgin tomorrow.”
When Jenkins got to the rendezvous he was met by members of the paedophile hunter group and challenged about his online communications. Police were called and the defendant was arrested.
Jenkins, of Maerdy, Rhondda, admitted attempted sexual communications with a child and attempting to meeting a child after sexual grooming. The court heard he has no previous convictions.
James Hartson, for Jenkins, accepted custody was inevitable in the case. He said the defendant had been “blisteringly honest” during his probation interview and the subsequent report highlighted his “deviant thoughts” which he wanted help to address.
Judge Geraint Walters said it was clear to him Jenkins had groomed what he believed was a young girl with a view to “taking her virginity” and he described his thought processes as “hugely disturbing”.
He said: “I have not a shadow of a doubt that had this been an actual 13-year-old girl you would have carried out what you said you wanted.”
The judge said such cases were becoming “disturbingly common” and the message needed to be heard that people who engaged in similar activity would be found, prosecuted, and sent to prison.
Turning to the sentence, the judge said cases involving decoy profiles rather than actual youngsters were properly charged as “attempt” offences rather than the completed offence – and carried significantly lower punishments.
Giving the defendant a one-third discount for his guilty pleas, the judge sentenced him to six months for the attempted sexual communications offence and to 14 months for the attempting to meet offence. Both sentences will run concurrently, making an overall sentence of 14 months.
Jenkins will serve half that period in custody before being released to serve the remainder on licence in the community.
The defendant was also made subject to a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and will be on the sex offenders’ register for the same length of time.