July 2020 Chatroom pervert called ‘girl’, 12, babe and wished she could sit on his knee A pervert was snared by an undercover police officer posing as a 12-year-old girl in an online chatroom. Craig Hooton, 58, asked the ‘child’ to perform a sex act on herself during a series of messages between October 9 and 25, 2018. Prosecutor Holly Clegg said an undercover officer at South Wales Police was posing as the child on Lycos Chat when Hooton messaged the profile. On October 10, 2018, the officer replied to the message, which had said “Hi babe”. The pair began exchanging messages, with the decoy telling Hooton that she had been suspended from school for causing damage. They discussed clothing and Hooton said: “I would love you to be sat on my knee in those”. Leeds Crown Court heard he asked the ‘girl’ to perform a sex act on herself then left the chatroom, saying he was going to perform one on himself. Hooton later went back online, messaging her saying: “Hi babe, how are you?” The officer did not reply and his IP address was tracked to his home. Hooton, of Canada Crescent, Rawdon, was then arrested. He largely made no comment to questions in his police interview except to admit that he used Lycos Chat but did not know if he had used the usernames of the person who had messaged the decoy. The defendant was not charged until April this year. Hooton pleaded guilty to attempting to cause a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity. Hooton was handed a community order with a 20-day rehabilitation activity requirement. He was made subject to a five-year sexual harm prevention order and placed on the sex offender register for five years.