Man jailed over sex chat with 'girl of 14'

A man engaged in lewd sexual online chat with what he thought was a teenage girl - suggesting they could meet to take a mix of vodka and cocaine.

Ryan Goulding, of Town View, Kendal, sent a friend request to a Facebook profile in the name of a girl whose purported age was 14.

The profile had been set up by a member of a voluntary group attempting to identify people seeking out children online for sexual gratification.

At Carlisle Crown Court, 37-year-old Goulding was jailed for 45 months after admitting offences of attempted sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity.

During initial exchanges, he described the "girl" as "sexy".

When told she was 14, he replied by saying he was aged about a decade younger than he actually was.

Goulding suggested he could pick her up from a train station and take her to parties, asking whether she liked alcohol.

After the chat switched to WhatsApp, he requested indecent pictures and also made a series of sexually explicit suggestions.

The exchanges were passed to Cumbria Police, along with voice notes containing more suggestive comments.

"He did answer questions in which he suggested he had been set up by a vengeful ex-partner," prosecutor Stephen McNally told the court.

"He denied knowing about the 'girl's' account and denied conversing with 'her'. He denied having any sexual interest in children."

The court heard he had 34 convictions for 113 offences, the majority for dishonesty. There were no past sex crimes on his record.

Andrew Gurney, mitigating, spoke of Goulding's disadvantaged upbringing and ongoing mental health issues in adult life.

"He is disgusted by his own behaviour. He is genuinely, truly remorseful for what he has done," said Mr Gurney.

Goulding was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register indefinitely.

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