March 2011 Net pervert caught by undercover officer A pervert from Wolverhampton who tried to “groom” a 13-year-old girl for sex over the internet, unaware his prey was an undercover police officer, has been jailed. Father-of-five Gavin Rhodes tried to get the “teenager” to commit sexual acts and eventually attempted to lure her to a hotel where they could have sex, Stafford Crown Court heard yesterday. When police moved in to arrest him, they found he had been making similar attempts with a real 10-year-old girl. Rhodes, aged 28, of Old Heath Road, Wolverhampton, was jailed for three years after admitting three charges of attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child and four of attempting to cause a child to look at images of sexual activity. In addition, Rhodes was ordered to register as a sex offender for life and made subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order that bans him from contact with under-16s and use of any internet device. Judge Mark Eades told him: “The picture this case paints is deeply disturbing. You communicated with an undercover officer pretending to be a 13-year-old girl. “It is quite clear from the emails you believed her to be 13. It involved you discussing sexual activity, encouraging her to commit sexual acts on herself.” The judge said Rhodes then “went further, suggesting intimate sexual acts” between himself and the teenager and suggesting they should meet at a hotel. “It is a classic grooming process,” said the judge. Mr Darron Whitehead, prosecuting, said the emails between the officer and defendant went on for three months, from June to September 2009. A search warrant was executed at his home in October that year. On his computer was email traffic with a real 10-year-old girl, asking her for photos. Fortunately, the girl’s mother discovered the online chat and she took over the “conversation” with Rhodes, pretending to be her daughter. She wanted to discover how much information the defendant had managed to get from the girl. Mr Whitehead said no charges had been laid against Rhodes in respect of the 10-year-old, but it formed part of the background to his offending. When questioned by the police, Rhodes said he had no recollection of the internet messaging and when shown the photos of himself sent to the “girl”, he said he must have “a double” who looked just like him. Mr Glyn Samuel, defending, said: “This is a man who clearly needs some assistance. He did not try to hide his identity on the internet he used his own name and photograph. Only he knows his motivation behind this offending. He was in the past suffering from a depressive illness.”