attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming

 

 

A person aged 18 or over commits an offence if

 

·                    he has communicated with another person who has purported to be under the age of 16 on at least two occasions; and

 

·                    he then travels with the intention of meeting that other person; and

 

·                    at that time he intends having sexual intercourse or engaging in some other form of sexual activity with the other person; and

 

·                    the defendant does not reasonably believe that she is 16 or over.

 

 

In his case, there was in fact no other person.  The communication was with a man pretending to be a girl.  That is why D** is charged with attempting to travel to meet a girl.

 

 

The prosecution case is that ***

 

D** says

 

 

So, the key questions for you to answer in relation to Count 1, having regard to all the evidence and the directions which I give you, are these

 

 

Are you sure that when he was travelling to **, D** intended to have sex or engage in some form of sexual activity with the sender of the texts? 

 

Are you sure that he believed that the sender of the texts, the person he was going to meet was a girl aged 14? 

 

 

If the answers to both questions are “yes”, the defendant is guilty of Count 1.  If the answer to either question is “no”, he is not guilty.