POLICE TRAP PERVERT N
MAN, 52, TRIED TO MEET ‘14-YEAR-OLD GIRL’
A mental health nurse who tried to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex has been snared in a police sting and put behind bars.
Steven Green, who was working within a mental health crisis team, had shocking, explicit, chat and tried to arrange a “secret meeting” with the underage schoolgirl in Feburary.
But Newcastle Crown Court heard the 52-yearold “would-be predator” had been duped by undercover police, who had set up an operation to trace adults looking for illegal contact with children online.
In reality, the schoolgirl was a police officer, posing as a child, in internet chatrooms.
Married-dad Green, of Roker Terrace, Sunderland, pleaded guilty to inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and attempting to meet a child following grooming.
After his arrest, the once-trusted professional lost his marriage, home and job and has now lost his freedom. Mr Recorder Jamie Hill sentenced him to 12 months behind bars, with 10 years’ sex offender registration and a sexual harm prevention order.
The judge said he accepted Green had “numerous stresses” with his work and home life when he committed the offences, but said the jail term could not be suspended due to the “speed and determination” he had moved the conversation forward.
The judge added: “It is your own fault because you behaved in this way.”
Alec Burns, defending, said that Green “never left home” during the offending and made no physical attempt to meet the child.