June 2021 Paedophile groomed girl, 13, online and had ‘sexual activity’ with her on beach and on train to London A man has been sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison for grooming and engaging in ‘sexual acitivty’ with a 13-year-old girl from Brighton. Kerien Rudland, 24, of Alwold Crescent, Eltham, was sentenced at Chichester Crown Court on Friday, June 25. He had pleaded guilty at Brighton Crown Court in November 2019 to inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, meeting a child following sexual grooming and two counts of engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a child. Rudland met the girl on the Internet, groomed her online, arranged to meet her in Brighton and had sexual activity with her on the beach and on the train back to London. In a separate trial he was also convicted of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, attempting to engage in sexual communications with a girl under 16, and attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act. These offences related to his online activity from his family address in Hull, sending messages to someone pretending to be a 13-year-old girl. He was arrested on suspicion of that offence by Humberside Police in August 2018. The language used by Rudland when communicating with the Brighton girl on Facebook was very similar to messages sent to the ‘decoy’ account. Rudland will be a registered sex offender for life and was given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), severely restricting his access to children and computers until further court notice.