December 2018

62-year-old man caught in sex chat with undercover cop posing as an underage girl

A 62-year-old man asked for explicit pictures in sexual chats with an undercover police officer who posed as a teenager online.

Trevor Dodson used two fake names on the internet while he thought he was talking to an underage girl on social media.

The 14-year-old girl, named Olivia, was really an undercover police officer, Teesside Crown Court heard on Friday.

Dodson sent her explicit photos of his private parts after they talked on social networking platforms Tagged and Facebook Messenger.

“This defendant began to engage in sexualised chat with that police officer almost immediately,” said prosecutor Harry Hadfield.

“He encouraged the officer to send indecent images of herself to him.

“He also suggested to her it would be good if she could have sex with him.

“Throughout their conversations it was made clear she was in school and was messaging the defendant between her lessons.

“They talked about her age and him getting into trouble.”

The non-existent girl’s profile said she was 18, but when Dodson started sending her messages, she told him she was really 14.

At this point she said: “I’m 14 so you probably don’t want to chat.”

Dad-of-three Dodson – claiming to be 54 and using the false name Tom Tucker – replied: “That’s OK x”

He mentioned “naughty chat” and swapping pictures, and suggested moving their conversation to Facebook Messenger.

There, using a second bogus name, his remarks quickly became sexual.

He quizzed her: “What are you prepared to do? Are you naughty? Have you seen guys? Will you do anything?

“What size boobs have you got? If I asked you to send me a pic of them, what would you do?”

When the girl said she would consider it, he said, “good girl”, requesting photos of her with and without a bra.

The officer sent him pictures of a female body, to which he responded: “Oh fabulous… oh wow.”

He sent photos of his genitalia and more sexual comments, and when the girl said “sex”, he said “yes”.

The messages were sent over a four-day period in March and he was arrested in August.

He admitted he set up the Facebook profile to talk to women, while his family thought he did not use or like Facebook.

He denied having any sexual interest in children and said his actions were motivated by “pure curiosity and nothing more”.

Dodson, of Minsterley Drive, Acklam, Middlesbrough, admitted two counts of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, his first conviction.

After his guilty plea, he continued to deny any sexual motive for his actions to a probation officer.

Judge Deborah Sherwin told Dodson: “You’ve had to live with the consequences as far as your family is concerned.

“I appreciate in many ways that’s going to be as big a punishment as anything I can impose upon you.

“You appear to be embarrassed and ashamed of what you did.”

Dodson was given a 16-month prison sentence suspended for two years with 25 days’ rehabilitation activity.

He was given a sexual harm prevention order governing his contact with under-16s and use of the internet and devices, and will be on the sex offenders’ register, both for 10 years.