Pervert dad ‘in denial’ after sending photos to a ‘13-year-old girl’

A DERBY man who sent nude pictures of himself to someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl has been told he could face an “extended sentence” in prison due to the risk he poses.

Stephen Trenery insisted he knew he was not talking to a teenage girl when he sent sexualised messages and explicit pictures in February this year, claiming he was trying to unmask a scammer.

In conversations with the profile, which was actually being run by an undercover police officer, the 40-year-old called the supposed girl “beautiful” and urged the person behind the account to send naked photos of her breasts and body.

The Alvaston man would later claim in police interviews that he was playing a “game” to see how far the person behind the account would go along with the conversation and knew it was not a child.

The dad-of-one had told the court he accidentally sent a friend request to a Facebook profile purporting to be that of a 13-year-old girl called Freya in February this year.

After beginning a conversation with an admission he knew she was 13, the 40-year-old quickly steered it towards whether she had a boyfriend or girlfriend, a court heard.

It then turned sexual, with Trenery asking her for pictures of her naked and semi-naked body and breasts, and telling her she looked “beautiful”.

The chats progressed to Snapchat, where Trenery sent obscene pictures of himself, asked for more pictures and said he “loved” her.

When he was interviewed by police later that month, Trenery told police he was “100 per cent” certain he had been speaking to an adult who was pretending to be a child and told the court he thought he was being targeted by a potential blackmailer.

Sarah Slater, prosecuting, told the court: “His excuse about the blackmail just does not make any sense at all. My suggestion is that he does have a sexual interest in children. Despite the suspended sentence and sexual harm prevention order, he cannot stop himself doing this. I suggest it’s all a fabrication to justify what he was doing.”

The Alvaston man has a previous conviction for sending indecent images of himself to a 14-year-old girl’s Instagram account, which were found by her stepfather, for which he received a suspended sentence and a sexual harm prevention order, and said this experience had made him want to find out who was behind this account.

However, a jury at a Derby Crown Court trial in Chesterfield took just 45 minutes to find him guilty of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to incite the sexual exploitation of a child and attempting to breach a sexual harm prevention order.

Recorder Adrian Reynolds adjourned sentencing to await the completion of a pre-sentence report.

“I want a report on dangerousness,” he said. “I am very concerned to the extent to which this man is completely in denial about what was going on in his own head. I’m seriously considering an extended sentence.

“He’s clearly learnt nothing from his previous conviction.”

Trenary, of Cadwell Close, Alvaston, was remanded into custody ahead of a sentencing hearing at Derby Crown Court on November 19.