A man who travelled to Chippenham with the intention of sexually abusing a child has been jailed.
Mark Pegram was sentenced at Swindon Crown Court today (Wednesday) after pleading guilty to the commission of a child sex offence and possessing indecent images of a child.
The 65-year-old engaged in a number of explicit conversations with an undercover officer online – who was posing as a woman with a nine-year-old daughter.
The defendant, of Chase Side Avenue in Enfield, London, was collared when he proceeded to arrange a meet and turned up believing he was going to be able to sexually abuse the youngster.
He denied he had any intention of carrying out any sexual acts on the child and went to trial, where he later changed his plea to guilty.
Pegram was sentenced to 48 months in prison and told the register as a sex offender indefinitely. He was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Wiltshire Police Detective Constable Kerry Foster said: “This was an extremely distressing case for the jury sitting on this trial.
“They had to view a large number of messages that contained graphic details about the sexual acts that he planned to carry out on the child when they met.
“The jury also had to listen to recordings that depicted the graphic detail of the sexual acts that he wanted to do with the child.
“Our Child Internet Exploitation Team works with other agencies such as children’s social care and health, to minimise the risk to children who may be vulnerable to harm.
“We would urge anyone who suspects a person of carrying out child sexual exploitation to get in touch with us straight away.”
Detective Inspector David Wells, from the Online Investigations Team at South West Regional Organised Crime Unit said: “This is vital work, identifying offenders who use the internet to groom children and, as in this case, attempt to arrange access to a child to abuse.
“It is our priority to protect and keep children safe in our communities and I encourage anyone worried about exploitation of a child online to report it to the police.”
