A knife-carrying paedophile was snared after a “graphic” and “extraordinary” exchange with someone online he thought was a 13-year-old girl.
Ian Tankard, 49, of Norton Hill, Windmill Hill, Runcorn, was in reality communicating with an adult decoy from a “hunter group”. The messages continued for what would later form around “500 pages” of evidence.
Frances Willmott, prosecuting, told Chester Crown Court on Friday things came to a head when Tankard was confronted and police were called to “an ongoing incident” on August 12 and arrested him. In custody, officers found he was in possession of a “Stanley knife”.
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A search of his phone revealed an “extensive” exchange of sexual messages with the supposed teenager - whose profile picture showed a “child” and who said she was 13 in “a number of messages”.
The communication began in July.
Tankard told her had had “fallen in love” with her and wanted to marry her at 16, and proceeded to suggest “going to a hotel”, to ask for pictures of her in her underwear and expressing a desire to “have sex” with her.
Tankard told her he became aroused when he received a message from the supposed girl, told her he wanted to “get her pregnant” and discussed possible baby names.
He also sent her an image of male genitalia in a state of arousal and “pornographic drawings”.
In custody with officers from Cheshire Police, he claimed she had initially said she was 17 years old and that he didn’t believe her when she said she was 13.
Tankard later pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to attempting to incite or cause a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity, attempted sexual communication with a child under 16, and possessing a bladed article.
The knife was not brandished or used at any point during the paedophile hunter group intervention.
Ms Willmott said Tankard had two previous convictions, both for drink driving from 2010 and 2011.
She said the sexual offences were aggravated by factors including the sending of pictures, the disparity in age and having apparently persuaded his purported victim to act sexually,.
She placed it in the worst categories for “harm” and “culpability” with a sentencing range of four to 10 years with a five-year starting point, with a “modest” reduction to reflect the absence of a real victim.
David Rose, defending, said he did not dispute the categorisation but said it should come down from the starting point due to Tankard’s early guilty pleas, his lack of relevant convictions, and for being “remorseful”.
He told the court Tankard was “vulnerable” and was “humiliated” during his apprehension by the paedophile hunter group, and then attacked in prison.
Mr Rose said: “This is a man who’s clearly vulnerable.
“He was vulnerable when he was apprehended by the hunter group.
“I don’t know if you’ve read the description, it’s very distressing to read and very concerning as to what might happen in the future.
“He was humiliated, and assaulted. He’s been assaulted in the prison environment. He’s explained in graphic detail how it happened.
“He was hospitalised and concussed and moved to another wing.”
The defence barrister added Tankard had “tried his very best” to put his time in custody to use including enrolling on an English GCSE, computer course and prison letters scheme.
He said Tankard was classed as a “low risk of reconviction”, adding he had lost his long-term home and “can’t go back to his community”.
Previously Tankard had served in the “armed services” and had even spotted himself on screen while watching a documentary in prison, but had fallen into an “alcoholic pattern” and “downward” spiral.
Noting the “very significant disparity in age”, Recorder Anna Vigars, KC, sentenced Tankard to 32 months in prison, and placed him on the sex offenders register and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order indefinitely.
She said she was “satisfied” that Tankard thought he was “communicating with someone under the age of consent” in “graphic terms” and about “what you thought she should be doing, that you thought she should be preparing herself sexually for you”.
Recorder Vigars said: “The volume of the exchanges between you and that person are extraordinary - it’s extraordinary.
“You eventually made arrangements which brought you into contact with those who had in fact set up that persona on the internet.
“You were confronted by them in what is an extremely ugly and no doubt concerning scene.
“When you were taken into custody, you were found in possession of a Stanley knife.”
She added: “I accept there was no real child - that was by luck rather than by judgement on your part.
“I bear in mind you have no relevant recent convictions, you are a vulnerable man and are vulnerable in prison.
“You have embarked on some work in prison to improve your own situation and to improve that of others.”
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