March 2016
Cumbria police sting snares Carlisle man for grooming ‘girl’, 13
A PERVERT sent an indecent image of himself to a 13-year-old girl, saying their online relationship would be their “naughty little secret.”
But unbeknown to 33-year-old Paul Ellis, the person at the other end of the computer was an undercover police officer, whose evidence helped put him in the dock of Carlisle’s magistrates court.
Ellis, of Myddleton Street, Carlisle, entered a guilty plea to attempting to cause a child to look at an image of sexual activity.
Pam Ward, prosecuting, told the court how the investigation began after police got information that the defendant was trying to have an online relationship with a 13-year-old girl.
He contacted the person he thought was the girl involved via a dating website, the court was told.
Mrs Ward said: “The nature of the conversation quickly became sexual in nature and when told she was only 13, he said: ‘Age is just a number,’ and ‘You don’t look 13 – more 16.
“He referred to her as sexy and told her not to tell anyone else about their conversations: ‘Just keep it as our naughty little secret.’ He said that nobody else needed to know anything.”
Ellis’s conversation with the ‘girl’ moved on to what would happen if they were in bed together, and involved clearly sexual details, the court heard.
He then sent the girl pictures of himself on a bed – one clearly showing him in a state of sexual arousal.
He added the message: “Just don’t tell your mum.”
The date of the offence admitted by Ellis, who spoke in court only to confirm his name and enter his plea, was between November 27 last year and January 14 this year.
Ellis was arrested on February 16. Sara Budniak, for the defendant, who works in a shop in Carlisle, said there was a lot of relevant health factors which formed a background to the offence.
District Judge Gerald Chalk told the defendant that his sentencing powers for the admitted offence – which has a sentence starting point of two years custody – were not sufficient.
He sent the case to Carlisle Crown Court for sentencing on April 8.
The judge granted Ellis bail on condition that he does not have any unsupervised contact with any person aged under 16.
In the meantime, the Probation Service will prepare a background report for the Crown Court judge who will pass sentence.
