CARLISLE SEX OFFENDER DAVID HARRISON RECEIVES COMMUNITY ORDER

In March 2014, a Carlisle man named David Harrison, 58, was convicted of attempting to communicate with a girl he believed to be 13 years old through an online chatroom, in a case involving a police sting operation. Harrison used the internet to have increasingly sexual conversations with what he thought was a teenage girl, unaware he was interacting with undercover officers conducting an internet crackdown in Cumbria.

Over a span of five weeks, Harrison sent numerous obscene messages to the supposed teenager. It later emerged that the account he was messaging was created by a Cumbria police officer as part of an undercover operation, with the profile clearly stating it belonged to a 13-year-old girl.

At Carlisle Crown Court, prosecutor Gerard Rogerson explained that the police officer set up the fake account in January of the previous year. The account included a profile for a 'schoolgirl,' age 13. On the morning of January 8, the officer logged onto this account, and shortly after received a message from a man calling himself 'Hurdy Gurdy 2.' The man identified himself as David, aged 57, from Carlisle, and started engaging her in conversation.

The officer noted that David Harrison quickly made suggestive remarks about the girl’s underwear and asked why she was not at school. As the conversation progressed, it became sexualised, and Harrison requested her private email address. Over subsequent weeks, Harrison’s messages grew increasingly lewd, with him urging the girl to engage in sexual acts.

The most explicit exchanges occurred on January 19, February 21, and February 25. During these chats, Harrison expressed nervousness about the legality and secrecy of their communications before making further lewd suggestions, as detailed by Mr Rogerson.

Police executed a raid on Harrison’s home at 7.45am on March 7, finding him still on his laptop. Harrison claimed he knew he was speaking to an adult man rather than a child and expressed that he had been caught up in internet chatrooms. He explained to officers, “I’m just a daft man about the internet. I just got sucked in,” and said he used chatrooms for people over 40. Although he admitted to saying hello to 14-year-olds online, he insisted he never engaged in sexual conversations or accessed child pornography, which was corroborated by the police who found no such material on his computer.

Representing Harrison, lawyer David Wales stated that his client believed from the start he was not communicating with a child, despite the contrary implications. He acknowledged, however, that the offense was serious enough to warrant a custodial sentence.

Judge Peter Hughes QC sentenced Harrison to register as a sex offender for five years and imposed a three-year community order with supervision. The judge commented, “You engaged in sexualised conversation of the most lewd and disgusting sort.” Following the case, Cumbria police emphasized their dedication to safeguarding children online. Detective Chief Inspector Rob O’Connor said, “Harrison’s arrest was as a result of a proactive operation to ensure that young children can use social media and remain safe.”