Teen who intended to have sex with 13-year-old put on probation

Jan 14 2010 Hamilton Advertiser

A TEENAGER who intended to have sex with a 13-year-old girl he met over the internet was last week placed on probation.

Nineteen-year-old Paul Davies escaped a custodial sentence after he admitted planning to engage in unlawful sexual activity with the schoolgirl in a hotel room during a visit to Scotland she was planning.

He also pleaded guilty to sending a photograph to her that was grossly offensive and of an indecent, obscene or menacing character.

Last week at Hamilton Sheriff Court, the court heard that Davies, of Bellshill, had been in regular contact with the girl over a long period of time after she contacted him via social networking site Bebo.

The pair bonded over their taste in music and their similar interests and their relationship developed during a considerable amount of contact during the summer of 2008, said defence solicitor Elspeth Forrest.

However, Ms Forrest explained that it was the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who hatched the plan to use money given to her for her 13th birthday to travel with a friend to Lanarkshire from her home in Wales to meet Davies.

The court heard that she told her parents that she would be going on a camping trip with her friend’s family.

Davies later posed as her friend’s father during an arranged telephone call to discuss the false plans with the girl’s dad.

However, the court heard that the plans began to unravel after the girl’s mother found text messages on her daughter’s phone from ‘Poppy’ - Davies’ pet name.

Later, a teacher overheard a conversation between the girl and a friend and alerted her parents, leading to Davies’ eventual arrest.

Ms Forrest asked Sheriff Thomas Millar to take into account the “responsible attitude” Davies had shown in relation to the charges.

She also added that the accused hadn’t encouraged sexual activity, but it would have been reasonably inferred that he knew it would happen.

She added: “This hinges on the accused’s disregard for the acceptable boundaries between himself and a minor.

“Obviously, things pass between young people on the internet that not all parents would like. It is very easy for young people to pass beyond what is considered acceptable.”

She added: “This is his first offence and I’m not sure a custodial sentence would provide the help and assistance Mr Davies needs.

“Education and monitoring would assist him in underlining boundaries and showing to him that he can’t transgress.”

Sheriff Millar said that, although he had considered a custodial sentence, he felt that the relatively small age gap between the two helped mitigate matters somewhat.

He said: “These were two young people, as opposed to an older man and a young person.

“However, although you did not encourage sexual contact, neither did you discourage it at an early enough point, which you should have done immediately.

“I will not go down a custodial route but you will be supervised for a considerable amount of time to ensure you don’t succumb to temptation through electronic communications.

“This was on the edge of a custodial sentence and if you do not co-operate with probation then custody will be the next likely option.”

Sheriff Millar sentenced Davies to three years’ probation and ordered that he should have no unsupervised acces to the internet during that period.