Visiting online groomer jailed for seven months

Visiting online groomer jailed for seven months

Holidaymaker Robert Connell (56), from New Romney in Kent, was given a seven-month prison sentence and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for five years when he was sentenced in the Magistrate’s Court.

He pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming contrary to the Sexual Offences (Jersey) Law 2007 and the Criminal Offences (Jersey) Law 2009.

The court was told by police legal adviser Lauren Hallam that on the day that Connell arrived in the Island on 30 July he went on to the gay dating website Grindr and began talking to someone he thought was a 14-year-old boy but was in fact Miss O’Connor.

She told the court that they entered into a sexual conversation which resulted in an arrangement being made for them to meet the next day across the road from the Grand Hotel, where he was staying.

The court heard that Connell waited on the hotel balcony and was watching for the ‘boy’, who did not show up. The defendant was arrested shortly afterwards.

Advocate Alexander English, defending, submitted that his client did not intend going through with meeting the youngster. He urged the court to show leniency towards first-offender Connell, a native of Glasgow, who the court was told has lived in England for many years.

However, in sentencing, Relief Magistrate Nuno Santos Costa said that the claim by Connell that he did not intend to go through with meeting the youngster was inconsistent with his guilty plea. He also said that the content of screen shots of text messages sent to the ‘boy’ that were produced as evidence also contradicted the assertion that the defendant was not intent on going through with it.

In sentencing, Mr Santos Costa said that he was taking into account the defendant’s early guilty plea and the fact that he had no previous convictions.

However, he added: ‘The court has to deal with these offences in a very serious way as it has a duty to protect the young and the vulnerable.’

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