July 2009
Prison for Tamworth paedophile who groomed girl, 14
A ‘CUNNING’ middle-aged Tamworth paedophile pressured a 14-year-old girl into sending naked webcam pictures of herself by masquerading as a teenage Internet buddy, a court heard.
Forty-six-year-old Mark Green contacted the girl through the MSN social network, pretending to be a 17-year-old boy.
But he was caught after the girl’s mother went into the chat-room, pretending to be her own daughter.
Green, of Ivatt, Glascote Heath, was jailed for a total of 16 months after admitting inciting a child to sexual activity and a separate offence of possessing indecent images of children.
Judge Paul Glenn branded Green ‘cunning and devious’.
“Networking sites provide a platform for people like you to infiltrate the lives of children, causing them anguish,” the judge told the defendant.
“Like many young people, this girl was in the habit of communicating through MSN – you befriended her by using a false name and telling her you were 17.
“You knew her age. You saw her via her webcam, being careful never to disclose images of your own face.
“You persuaded her to send naked photos of herself, you complimented her on her looks, you flattered her.
“You intentionally formed a relationship with an under age girl for your own sexual gratification.
“You seem to have an ongoing sexual preference for children – there is plainly a risk.”
Stafford Crown Court heard that Green had a previous conviction for unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl in 1988, when he was in his mid-20s.
Mr Pat Sullivan, prosecuting, said the mother, posing as her daughter and using a laptop the girl had been given as a Christmas present, told Green she was only 14, but he continued the conversation.
The mother, from London, rang Green on his mobile number and then called the police. The day before police arrested Green at his home on May 27 last year, he deleted a number of videos from his computer using a programme designed to get rid of evidence.
But the computer retained the first frame of each video.
Green admitted possessing 104 indecent images, some classified as the most serious depictions of child abuse. Judge Glenn said Green had visited child pornography sites.
In a victim impact statement the girl, who cannot be identified under an order of the court, said she now realised how stupid she had been.
She said she felt ‘dirty and violated’ and now realises how careful she has to be when using the Internet.
Mr Stefan Kolodynski, defending, said Green, a former soldier, was not ‘a cold-hearted, cynical predator’.
There was no request from him to meet the girl, he added, and there had been no copying or distribution of the pictures of her.
