Nuthall pervert offered cash and drugs to 14-year-old girl in return for sex

Simon Rowley used a mobile phone he kept “secret” from police to engage in sexual chat online with a decoy child called ‘Emma’, created by a paedophile-hunter group, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

Matthew Hayes, prosecuting, said Rowley made the offer for 30 minutes of sex and when ‘Emma’ told him she was a virgin, he said: “Oh good baby, that’s why it has to be you.”

He sent ‘Emma’ pictures of his penis and his face, with his tongue hanging out, and asked for nude pictures, on September 9, last year.

Rowley, aged 47, arranged to meet her at Nottingham Train Station two days later, but when the paedophile hunters confronted him at his home, he said: "I didn't meet her, did I?"

He was arrested with £50-£60 of cannabis and amphetamine.

Nottingham Crown Court heard he was convicted of attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child, in May 2018.

The sentence was activated when Rowley breached it in 2019 and he was made subject to a five-year sexual harm prevention order.

Rowley, of Larkfield Road, Nuthall, admitted attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child, possessing the drugs and breaching the sexual harm prevention order.

However, Rowley did not appear at Nottingham Crown Court for sentencing, and David Watts, his barrister, said: “I am devoid of any instructions whatsoever.”

He said Rowley deserved 25 per cent credit for his early guilty pleas and he never went through with the meeting.

“The paedophile hunters found him at home,” he said. “The contact was purely online.

“While there was an offer of drugs, the fact Rowley did not meet what he thought was a young lady means he didn’t intend to go through with that.”

Sentencing, Judge Mark Watson said the sexual chat was “brief, but graphic”, and there were a number of aggravating features, including the phone he kept secret from the police.

Rowley was jailed for 23 months. He will serve up to half in custody and on post-sentence supervision for 12 months.