A pervert set out armed with contraception and a sex toy with the belief he was meeting a 13-year-old girl he had chatted to online. Despite Keith Hogan being 60 years old, he attempted to meet the teenager at McDonald's, Markeaton Park, Derby, for what he thought would be for some sexual activity.
But police in plain clothes set up the sting and surrounded him as he arrived at the fast food joint, and arrested him. A shocked Hogan uttered the words: "I know I have been an idiot. I just got carried away. I won't be doing this again", Nottingham Crown Court heard on Tuesday (August 30).
Hogan was caught after he had signed up to Kik Messenger, a free instant messaging and social networking app. The "child" he thought he was chatting with was actually an undercover police officer.
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Although she pretended she was 13 years old, Hogan, of Patricia Drive, Arnold, carried on making sexual conversation and sent a phallic picture and a video of him performing a sexual act. Hogan later said he wanted to make an effort "with nothing in mind" and they were talking for three weeks.
It began as a genuine chat with sexual innuendo. When he was shown the images and videos he sent to her, he referred to himself as "a dirty old man who needs locking up" ,and agreed he was a threat to children.
Hogan, who currently lives with his mother in Nottingham but plans to move to Lincoln to try to rekindle a relationship, went on to plead guilty to three offences. They were: Attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act and attempting to meet a girl under 16 years after sexual grooming.
"You made a choice to do what you did"
Matt Hayes, mitigating, said Hogan's risk could be managed in the community and he had engaged with a counsellor. Judge Stuart Rafferty QC then told a shamed Hogan: "You made a choice to do what you did. You were prepared to take risks in doing that and you were targeting children who you believed to be as young as 13.
"You set out to go to meet a 13-year-old child armed with contraception and a sex toy, although how they can be called toys I can never understand". In the meantime, the judge referred to the defendant also having chats with two other children, who he believed to be 14 years old.
"This wasn't an isolated target," continued the judge. "This was you living a lifestyle that was wholly wrong and living a lie. Goodness knows what your present wife thought when she discovered all of this.
"We all like to believe that people we live with and are involved in relationships with are people we know. This case demonstrates that that is not true".
He reminded Hogan he is 60 years of age, so if this relationship happened, it would be akin to a grandfather and his grandchild, (if they were related), and he added "what an appalling prospect". "How did this case come about? Because you were sexually unfulfilled.
"You, like so many in your position, believed, deluded yourself into thinking, because this was all happening on the internet with you in your dark little room performing a sex act, that it did not matter, but if this child had been real...what then?"
And he warned that, if the child had been real, he would be going to prison for many years. Hogan wiped away tears as he was he would be on a sexual harm prevention order and will have to sign the sex offenders' register for five years. His community order was set at three years, he must do a sex offender accredited programme for 43 days as well as complete 60 rehabilitation activity days.
"All of that is intended to minimise the risk that you currently pose and, in my judgement, still pose a risk unless and if that programme succeeds"," said Judge Rafferty. Hogan's computers will be monitored and completely restricted.
If it is found he has been on Kik at least once, he will be breached and hauled back before the judge. The judge added that Hogan had "fallen a long way. In fact, one might say you have fallen so low, there is nowhere else to go. If that is true, the only way back is up. That can only happen if you are honest and sincere about wanting help and change. We will see".
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