by A man who arranged to meet and sexually abuse children including a 10-month-old later claimed he wanted the children to sit on his lap so he could sing nursery rhymes to sing, the court heard. A judge called Carl Martin’s claim “about as fanciful an account as I have heard”.
Swansea Crown Court heard that Martin discussed meeting and abusing the young people with someone he met online who he believed to be his mother. In fact he was chatting with an undercover policeman. Jailing the defendant, a judge said there was a “very dark side” to Martin.
Hannah George, prosecuting, told the court that in January this year Martin used a name other than his own when creating an online profile – namely “Carpenter” – and used a virtual private network and DuckDuckGo internet browser to try to make sure. online activity was private and anonymous. She said the defendant began interacting with a profile purporting to be that of a mother of two and said the conversation was “sexual in nature” from the start. She said Martin and the decoy began discussing “play dates” and which of the children was “active” but she said the defendant “used invisible language” so as not to affect himself. When Martin asked him specifically what he wanted to do with the children, he said he wanted the youngsters to “sit on his lap and get lost”. The court heard that he also assured the mother that he did not want her children to suffer pain or damage.
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The 36-year-old defendant was arrested on February 2 this year and in his interview he gave a prepared statement to officers in which he denied that the conversation with the decoy was sexual. He was later charged with arranging to commit child sex offenses and pleaded not guilty and the case went to trial.
At the trial the defendant maintained the position he had laid out to the police after his arrest. He said references to a “play date” meant they were watching other people play computer games online, said he wanted to help the woman with her children as she was a single mum, and told him to tell for the decoy that he wanted the children “traddling. him” he meant he wanted them to sit on his lap while he sang “horsey, horsey nursery”. He assumed he wanted to meet the children but told himself to take them to the park.
Carl Martin, of Cilmaengwyn Road, Cilmaengwyn, Pontardawe, was previously convicted by a jury by a majority of 11 to two counts of arranging or facilitating the sexual offense of a child when he returned to the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.
Solomon Hartley, for Martin, said in a pre-sentence report before the court to highlight the childhood trauma and “adverse childhood experiences” the defendant suffered from the age of 11. He said the conviction had already had a significant impact on the defendant. he lost his job and his home and spent seven months re-imprisoned in conditions made more difficult than otherwise by the current overcrowded situation. He invited the court that the only specific evidence the defendant intended to receive was the reference to children sitting on his cot and crossing him and said the court would be in “speculation” when considering what could have happened and what harm it could have caused. that any actual meeting took place. For the latest court reports, sign up to our crime newsletter here.
Judge Geraint Walters said the defendant did not come across the decoy account by chance but sought such interaction and used a false name and a computer equipped with private internet browsing facilities. He said Martin had used “challenging” language when interacting with the decoy and when talking about the lengths he would go to with the children, suggesting he understood how wrong and which was what he was proposing. Judge Walters said the defendant then tried to explain everything in a “naive and patently false way” – such as claiming he chose the online name Carpenter because he liked carpentry – and added version of the proceedings forwarded to the jury was. “about as fanciful an account as I have heard as a judge”.
The judge said after hearing all the evidence in the case that his assessment was that if Martin had met the children he had been discussing online he would have “gone as far as the mother allowed” and that his actions would have Penetration included if the mother consented. He said the author of the pre-sentence report concluded Martin could be a dangerous offender and told the man in the dock he agreed with the probation officer’s judgment that “you have a very dark side”. Martin was sentenced to three years in prison and made subject to a 10-year sexual harm prevention order. He will be a registered sex offender for the next 10 years.
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