May 2009 Lancing chatroom pervert spared jail A chatroom pervert spent weeks grooming what he believed was an 11-year-old girl – only to discover it was an undercover police officer. Wayne Poll, 29, of Glebe Way, Lancing, called himself ‘Uncle Wayne’ before launching into online conversations with the youngster. When he was sent a supposed photo of the schoolgirl he remarked: “You look good in your school uniform”. A meeting between the pair was discussed but never arranged and police moved in to arrest him at his home. They found three indecent photographs of children on his computer including one of a naked 15-year-old boy. At Southwark Crown Court Poll was spared jail. Lesley Jones, prosecuting, said: “This was a specialist Metropolitan Police operation and they were conducting an investigation into those who go into internet chatrooms to seek out children. “One of the covert officers was posing as a young girl. “The first communication from this defendant was in a chatroom and at the behest of him the conversation moved to MSN. “Within seconds she told him she was 11 years old. “A number of these messages indicated there was an obvious and clear confirmation she was 11.” He asked her: “You’re not going to tell your mum you talk to me will you?” The barrister said they talked for weeks before he suggested a rendezvous. She added: “There was an escalation into sexually explicit communications.” Police swooped to snare him and he claimed she said she was 17 but later confessed the truth. Poll has learning difficulties and has an IQ of 50, the court was told. Poll admitted inciting sexual activity with a child, three counts of making indecent images of children and one of possessing the images between February 19 and June 10 last year. Passing sentence Judge Peter Testar told him “though these are serious offences”, he was not going to jail because he was not deemed a danger to children. Instead he received a three-year community order with supervision. The judge also imposed a Sexual Offences Prevention Order banning him from using chatrooms or instant messenger and working with children.