Ex-Royal Navy officer is jailed for child sex crime

ADECORATED naval officer and pillar of the local community has been jailed for attempting to meet a 14-year-old girl for sexual activity.

Christopher Harding, 36, served his country by intercepting boats operated by human smugglers. But after leaving the service he indulged his paedophile desire for children and groomed what he thought was a teenage girl.

He also used the internet to view images of children being abused by adults.

Exeter Crown Court was told his reputation as a church-going valued member of society was now in tatters.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to communicate with a 14-year-old girl for penetrative sexual activity. He could not commit the offence because the child was actually an undercover police officer.

Harding, of Clinton Road in Exeter, was jailed for two years and eight months.

Judge Timothy Rose said: “Your plan was to arrange to meet what you believed to be a 14-year-old girl and you arranged it over a sustained period of time of about a month. The event you tried to arrange was doggedly pursued by you with an increasing level of planning and grooming behaviour.

“The wording you used in a number of messages was really quite careful, trying to make sure there was no deception, making sure this was a real situation.”

Harding used increasingly sexual language in the messages. By the time he arranged a meeting he was convinced the situation was real. He even told the ‘girl’ not to wear perfume so his wife would not smell it when he returned.

Ms Rachel Smith, defending, said Harding had been a decorated naval officer having worked as part of team intercepting migrants. She said he left the navy for an administrative role in the South West. He attended church, took part in charity work and finds his situation very difficult.

Harding did not want to avoid responsibility for his actions. He understood he had a sexual interest in children and needed help.

“He does not wish for me to mitigate in any way,” said Ms Smith. She said he ‘gave in to temptation’ and downloaded images during a time when his self-esteem was low. When the opportunity came to speak to what he thought was a child he ‘couldn’t control his urges’.

Judge Rose said: “Looking at your background it’s hard to understand the dreadful state you had got yourself into at that time. It has been said that you have had an essentially positive and productive life and were a valued member of the local community. This terrible weakness you had in your personality that you contrived to act upon has been the most devastating undoing of an otherwise decent life.”

Harding pleaded guilty to five offences in total. The indecent images included some in the most serious category of child sexual abuse, involving children as young as two.

“Each one was a real act of appalling sexual abuse that will have damaged, scarred and potentially devastated lives. You provided a market for that,” the judge said.

‘This terrible weakness has been the most devastating undoing of a decent life’