April 2008 Prison officer sentenced for grooming ‘teen’ A former Wandsworth Prison officer has been jailed for using the internet to sexually grooming a person he thought was a 14-year-old schoolgirl. Mark Abberley, 43, of Peter Place, Crewe, was working at the prison at the time of the offences, was sentenced to 15 months in prison today. Southwark Crown Court heard how Abberley had tried to groom a person he thought to be a child, but they were in fact an adult who was working with police. The court heard Abberley had told the “schoolgirl” to wear sexy underwear, go on the pill and to skip school. During online conversations he said admitted sitting in front of his computer naked and eventually got the “teen” to agree to meet him at a Tube station. But when he arrived there he was greeted by several police officers and arrested. Detectives later found a movie of an 11-year-old being tied up and raped on his home computer. Abberley admitted one count of attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming last June. He also pleaded guilty to downloading the video, which the court heard fell into the most serious category of child pornography.