Febuary 2012 Jail for Braintree father Robert Badcock who had child sex fantasies A FATHER of six who said he dreamed of abusing young girls has been jailed for two years after being caught in a police sting operation. In a series of text messages and online exchanges, Robert Badcock, of High Street, Braintree, told undercover police officers that he fantasised about molesting children as young as five. The 50-year-old was caught when he made arrangements with undercover members of the Met Police’s Paedophile Unit to travel from his home in Essex to London to abuse children. He told officers he had “a particular interest in children aged from six to ten years old”. After the hearing, Acting Detective Chief Inspector Noel McHugh, said: “We are working tirelessly to identify and arrest predatory paedophiles. “It is possible Badcock may have committed further crimes and I would therefore urge anyone who believes they may have been a victim to have the confidence to report the incident to police.” The Old Bailey heard that Badcock had “expressed a sexual interest in children and a desire to sexually abuse them” when an undercover officer claimed to have three children aged between five and ten he could meet. He failed to turn up to either of the planned meetings but was arrested when police swooped on his home. There, they found a laptop with 79 images of child pornography and one of bestiality. Prosecutor Lesley Jones told the court: “On September 26, 2011, an individual was discovered to have engaged in online communication with a person purporting to be a female. In fact, that was a covert internet investigator. “He had expressed a sexual interest in children and a desire to sexually abuse them.” The user was later discovered to be Badcock and during a series of exchanges he made plans to meet with the undercover officer. He also said he “loved to look at and see children naked”. Badcock told the police officer he “dreamed” of watching them sleeping naked while he performed a sex act on himself. Between September 29 and October 25 he arranged to meet the officer to abuse the children, but did not attend. Jailing Badcock for two years, Mr Justice Saunders said that these types of crimes were difficult to sentence. He said: “Of course it is perfectly true that, in fact, nothing happened to these three children. Indeed it may be that no children existed. “What you did, however, was the arranging of the commission of a child sex offence.” Mitigating, defence barrister Richard Conley said Badcock was a “long-standing naturist” and was “brought into more dangerous practices” via a number of websites and contacts. “He was dabbling and excited by the taboo of the subject he was discussing with the officer. This was a curiosity and not an obsession,” said Mr Conley. Badcock admitted two counts of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence. He asked for one count of making indecent images of a child and one count of possession of an extreme pornographic image to be taken into account. The Met’s investigation team can be contacted on 020 7161 2811. Alternatively call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, ChildLine on 0800 1111 or Essex Police on 101.