Paedophile caught at station
A MAN engaged in sexually explicit conversations with someone he believed to be a 13-year-old schoolgirl before travelling to meet her for sex, a court has heard.
But Andrew Berry – who calls himself “Randy Andy” on a dating website – had in fact been talking to an undercover policewoman, and when he arrived at the rendezvous point at Cardiff Central Railway Station he was arrested by waiting officers.
The 49-year-old then denied being in contact with any girl, claiming his emails must have been hacked and saying it was just a coincidence that he had gone to the station that day.
Cardiff Crown Court heard that in July this year Berry began messaging a profile on the Fast Flirting site purporting to belong to a 13-year-old girl called Molly.
Marian Lewis, prosecuting, said the profile was actually being run by an undercover policewoman, and “Molly” made her age clear to Berry. The pair exchanged phone numbers and email addresses, and over the following days Berry engaging in a series of “sexual conversations” with her. During the communications the defendant urged what he believed to be a schoolgirl to perform sexual acts on herself, and in some of the calls could be heard “moaning” as he apparently peformed a sex act on himself. The court heard the pair talked about meeting, and Berry told her to wear a skirt and no underwear, and said he wanted to have sex with her.
The prosecutor said that on August 6, the pair made arrangements to meet the following day at Cardiff railway station, with Berry telling Molly he would accompany her back to Swansea “to show her his city”. The next day Berry took a train to Cardiff and said he would go to meet her on platform seven. Officers saw Berry alight from the train at the allotted time and make his way to platform seven where he was arrested.
In his subsequent interview Berry denied ever having contacted Molly and said his email must have been hacked. He denied he had travelled to Cardiff on the train in question to meet the girl, saying it was just a coincidence, and said he had only gone to platform seven in search of the toilets. Berry accepted using the Fast Flirting site – that was how he had met his partner – but denied being “Randy Andy” and refused to disclose his password.
Andrew Paul Berry, of Ozanam Court, Portmead, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to attempting to arrange a child sex offence, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to incite a girl to engage in penetrative sexual activity, and attempting to meet a child following grooming. The Preston-born man has two previous convictions on his record including one from 1999 for indecently assaulting a woman.
Helen Randall, for Berry, said the defendant had accepted his wrongdoing in his pre-sentence interview.
Judge Niclas Parry told Berry he had engaged in “highly sexually explicit conversations” with Molly, and he was in no doubt that had the person the defendant been messaging been a real girl, he would have had sexual intercourse with her.
Giving the defendant a discount for his guilty pleas the judge sentenced him to four years in prison. Berry will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence. He will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life, and was made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order to control his access to the internet and access to young girls.