Jail for pervert who used chat site in sex bid
A PERVERT who repeatedly asked a 12-year-old girl for sex over an internet chat site has been jailed for 18 months.
Thomas Durden, 21, also arranged secret meetings with the girl so that her parents would not find out what he was doing.
He took the youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on trips to the cinema and McDonald's.
Durden was eventually caught when the girl's father came across a string of sordid chat logs between the pair on their home computer.
He contacted the police, and Durden was arrested.
In interview he claimed he was just having a joke with the child and didn't mean anything by it.
But a jury at Portsmouth Crown Court took just 10 minutes to find Durden, of Langstone Walk, Fareham, guilty of inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity.
During the two-day trial the court heard that Durden had previously made a 15-year-old girl pregnant.
The chat logs between Durden and the 12-year-old girl were read to the jury. In them Durden repeatedly asked the girl for sex.
In a written statement the girl's father said he was shocked and stunned to discover the chat logs between his daughter and Durden.
Durden claimed he never intended doing anything with the girl but admitted sending the crude messages.
The jury rejected his account and convicted him of encouraging the child to engage in sexual activity.
Jailing him for 18 months, Judge Gareth Cowling told Durden he had taken advantage of a crush the girl had on him.
He said: 'Young girls that age may well be greatly flattered that an older man is taking a sexual interest in them.
'They need to be protected from that.
'It is quite obvious that she had a crush on you but you took advantage of that childish crush. You are an adult, and she a mere child.'
Durden showed no emotion as he was taken down to begin his sentence.
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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