Wigan Man Jailed for Grooming Teenage Girl Online

23 September 2011, 13:54 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

A 59-year-old Wigan man has been jailed for using the internet for grooming and arranging to meet a 14-year-old girl.

A 59-year-old Wigan man has been jailed for using the internet for grooming and arranging to meet a 14-year-old girl.
Thomas Jones - who's from Clap Gate Lane - was sentenced to 12 months at Liverpool Crown Court.
He had earlier pleaded guilty to sexual grooming of a child, arranging to meet a child following sexual grooming, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, making / possessing an indecent photograph of a child - level three and making / possessing an indecent photograph of a child - level one.
He has been ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years.
In September 2010, Jones logged onto an internet chat site and made contact with a person he believed was a 14-year-old girl.
He was caught out by a covert operation carried out by trained Greater Manchester Police officers, who set up fake profiles of children on social networking sites.
Jones used a website called 'Just Chat' to find the girl and then used the MSN chat facility to contact the girl in private.
Between September 2010 and October 2010, the facility was used 25 times, his conversation was centred around arranging to meet the girl; he constantly made sexual references towards her. During one MSN conversation Jones exposed himself to the girl on a webcam.
Having failed to turn up at his first arranged meeting, he arranged another meeting at McDonald's in Eccles,Salford. Jones travelled to meet the girl but could not find the restaurant.
On Friday 29 October 2010 officers from Greater Manchester Police's Sexual Crime Unit arrested Jones on suspicion of attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming. The police found a written note on a scrap of paper in Jones' works' van. The note was the postcode for McDonalds in Eccles.
Detective Constable Steven Walker said: "Jones' intentions were clear, from the nature of his internet chat conversations, his subsequent actions on the webcam and his travelling to Eccles from the Wigan area. We hope this sentence will act as a deterrent for anyone that uses the internet with the intention of preying on children.  Potential groomers are warned that they could be chatting to a police officer and I would urge parents and children to take steps to ensure their safety on the internet, particularly with the use of MSN and other chat networks".