Edenbridge: Man jailed for grooming girl through Facebook
Published: 16:00, 01 September 2015
Updated: 16:19, 01 September 2015
A married man struck up a relationship with a schoolgirl on Facebook and arranged to meet her after claiming he was a teenager, a court heard.
Douglas Warren booked a hotel in North Yorkshire where the 15-year-old girl lived but then cancelled it.
The 42-year-old grandfather exchanged indecent photos and video clips with the girl and when arrested he was found to have child sex abuse images and extreme porn of adults having sex with animals on his computer equipment.
Warren, of Pine Grove, Edenbridge, was jailed for 21 months after admitting arranging or facilitating a child sex offence, inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity, making indecent photos of a child and possessing extreme pornography.
The girl’s shocked father called the police after finding she had exchanged lewd video clips with Warren. There were some 8,000 messages and some were from a man calling himself Dougie Doug.
“He said he was going to take her away, possibly to get married, when she was 16. He instructed that the messages should be deleted" - Anna Arnone
“He told this young lady he was 19 and living in London,” prosecutor Anna Arnone told Maidstone Crown Court. “He gave her his mobile number and email address. He as aware she was 15 and at school.”
Warren told the girl he would visit her and booked a hotel room in April this year. He talked about physical contact but she said no to that.
“There was discussion about long-term plans,” said Miss Arnone. “He said he was going to take her away, possibly to get married, when she was 16. He instructed that the messages should be deleted.
“The girl told him her father had found out about correspondence and reported it to the police. Even at this point when he knew the police were involved he doesn’t stop contacting this girl.”
The victim told officers Warren sent her photos. One was of him aged 13 but he also sent one of his private parts.
She sent him a photo of her fully dressed in her bedroom, but then forwarded more intimate pictures.
A restraining order was made banning further contact with the girl and Warren’s name will appear on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
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Keith Hunt