March 2015
Paedophile snared in an undercover sting is locked up
SICK Terry Strange was jailed after telling police posing as a perverted stepfather that he wanted sex with two young children.
Undercover detectives started talking to the 52-year-old after he logged on to a website known to be used by paedophiles arranging child abuse.
Portsmouth Crown Court heard Strange even boasted to the officers he previously raped children.
At his trial, Strange claimed what he told the officers was just fantasy.
But sentencing him, Judge Roger Hetherington said: ‘From the very outset, and repeated on several occasions throughout the conversations, you emphasise you were not into mere fantasy and were only interested in real sex with real children.
‘You envisaged here having sexual relations with the two particular children put forward by the undercover police, namely a girl of 10 and a boy of eight.
‘You made clear you had experience of forced sex with very young children which is no doubt the reason why police became interested.’
It may never be known if Strange was telling the truth about his past experience, Judge Hetherington said.
He added: ‘The likelihood is that you envisaged some sort of forced sex, that’s to say against the wishes of the children, who were of course in no position to consent.
‘You hoped to use your own house for this purpose and you discussed possible periods or dates when that might be available.’
Police arrested him after the undercover officers – posing as the stepfather online – agreed to meet him in McDonald’s in Gosport.
The court heard police also found child abuse images and extreme pornography with animals on his computer.
Strange, who has a long-term male partner of 25 years, looked at the images in a single browsing session.
John Greany, defending, said there were no obvious aggravating factors in the case.
In relation to the sting he said: ‘There was no actual human person or child involved.’
He added there was a significant gap between Strange’s arrest and the end of his case, and that Strange suffers from three medical conditions.
Strange, of Burnhams Walk, Gosport, had denied one charge of attempting to arrange or facilitate commission of a child sex offence but was found guilty by a jury at trial.
Jurors were shown chat logs between the officers and Strange between April 8 and May 23, 2013.
He also pleaded guilty to seven charges of possessing indecent images of a child, ranging from category A to C.
Strange also admitted one charge of possessing 406 extreme pornographic images portraying a sex act with animals.
Judge Hetherington sentenced him to three years for the attempted facilitation and one year concurrent for each of the image charges
