A man has been jailed for two years after sending sexually explicit images and videos to a decoy purporting to be a 13-year-old girl.
Connor Grant (27) was handed a two-year sentence on Friday, after he pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual communication with a child and attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity before he was due to start trial.
Between August 20 and 21, 2024, Grant had directly messaged an account belonging to a 13-year-old girl. Unbeknownst to Grant, this account was a decoy account.
After initially engaging in conversation with the ‘girl’ on Facebook Messenger, she told Grant that she was 13 and he responded by saying “damn you’re young” and that he was 27.
Grant have her his phone number and asked if they could chat on WhatsApp for fear that social services were monitoring his account. On WhatsApp, the exchange quickly became sexual.
The child made it clear that she was under the age of consent, but this did not stop Grant from going into graphic detail about sexual intercourse and even sending her graphic videos and images of sexual acts and explaining the actions in them.
Grant then began to request images of her, told he could help her lose her virginity and to send sexually explicit videos and images.
Throughout this conversation, Grant repeatedly told the girl to delete the chats between them, and asked whether her parents had gone through her phone.
His behaviour finally came to an end on August 21, 2024, when police were called by a paedophile hunter group, who said they were outside Grant’s address and going to confront him.
Two officers attended the scene and found the group outside with Grant.
Grant, refusing to be handcuffed, lashed out at officers whilst he was being captor sprayed.
Following Grant’s arrest, officers searched his digital devices and found the messages sent on both Facebook and WhatsApp were linked to his devices.
Grant was jailed and handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order that will remain active until 2035. Under the order, the offender is banned from being in any household where a child under 16 is present unless with the express approval of Social Services and having unsupervised communication with any female child under the age of 16.
Grant is also banned from using any device that can access the internet unless he notifies officers that he has access to it and can immediately provide it to them for inspection.
Detective constable Becky Warburton said: “Grant, by his own admission, was most definitely aware that what he was doing was wrong and was only out to satisfy his own warped sexual desires.
“Whilst, in this instance, there was no direct victim involved, Grant’s conviction means that we have taken a dangerous paedophile, who was intent on using the internet and social media to sexually exploit vulnerable people, off of the streets.
“Not only this but following his release from prison, Grant will be continually monitored by our officers under a Sexual Harm Prevention Order to ensure that he does not reoffend.
“We are committed to pursuing and bringing to justice those who engage in online child sexual exploitation and play a part in the sexual abuse of children, and I hope that the sentence that has been handed to Grant deters others from committing similar offences.”
