December 2014
Exmouth youth football coach admits inciting schoolgirls to send indecent images
A youth sports coach who tried to persuade a 14-year-old to send him explicit pictures was caught when the girl’s suspicious mother checked her computer.
Danny Gould, 20, who was a coach with Exmouth Amateurs, was sent a picture of the schoolgirl in a bikini but she refused his requests for more explicit shots.
Police found he had been in touch with another 13-year-old girl who had also turned down his request for images.
Gould has now been forced to give up his youth work at the football club and has been made subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order which restricts his contact with anyone under 16.
He was spared jail after a judge at Exeter Crown Court ruled he was immature and naïve rather than an internet predator.
Gould, of Brimpenny Road, Exmouth, admitted two offences of inciting girls under 16 to send indecent images and was jailed for 16 months, suspended for two years, and ordered to receive 12 months supervision and pay £250 costs.
Judge Jonathan Fuller told him: “It would be wrong to describe you as an internet predator. You are an immature man who committed a very serious error of judgment.
“Fortunately the images which you sought never materialised so you are only charged with incitement and to that extent greater harm was avoided.”
Richard Crabb, prosecuting, said police were called in last year when the mother of a 14-year-old girl became alarmed about her online chats with Gould.
He contacted her via social media but then moved their conversation to the more secure platform of Whatsapp, where he began asking for photographs.
She sent him about 15 but they showed her in nothing more revealing that a bikini, prompting him to ask her to remove more items of clothing. She reminded him of her age and he told her he would wait for her.
Police found other chat logs with a 13-year-old girl from Gould which asked her to flash her legs and breasts.
When she told him her age he replied ‘what’s wrong with that? No-one will know, you are still sexy.’ He went on to send other sexualised messages.
The defence gave the judge a sheaf of testimonials, including one from the chairman of Exmouth Amateurs, and others from parents of children he coached
