Taxi Driver Online

Chelmsford: Taxi Driver Guilty Of Child Sex Offences



A taxi driver from Chelmsford who used a social networking website to groom teenage girls has been jailed for nine years.

28 year-old Benjamin Spratt, from Laurel Grove, admitted offences against two girls aged 14 and 15.

He was arrested in November 2011 after using the website MYLOL, a website designed for teenagers to interact with each other, to approach young girls.

After meeting his 14 year-old victim online, he travelled to her home in southeast London. He then turned up at her school two days later.

When she told her teachers he was outside, they called police but he had left before they arrived. However, Spratt was then arrested and, when his computer was examined, officers discovered he had been in contact with several young girls.

They tracked down a 15 year-old girl who told them the 28 year-old conviced her to "engage in sexual activity online.

Officers tracked down a 15-year-old girl who told them that Spratt convinced her to engage in sexual activity online while he performed a sex act on himself.

Detective Constable John Daly from the Metropolitan Police said: "Benjamin Spratt is a predatory paedophile who has targeted a vulnerable young girl to satisfy his own sexual needs.

"The MPS is dedicated to protecting the public from sexual predators and encouraging victims to come forward. They will be fully supported by specially trained officers."

Detective Inspector Keith Ward said: "The victim was targeted, groomed and exploited by Spratt.

"This crime again shows how the internet and social media can be used by paedophiles to snare their victims. This conviction will provide reassurance that we will relentlessly pursue those who commit these dreadful crimes against children."

Spratt was also placed on the sex offenders register for life and given a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for five years.

He was also banned from using the internet to talk with children, communicate with any female under 16 without supervision and to allow the police to examine any device with either internet or digital image storage.

source: http://www.heart.co.uk/essex/news/local ... -offences/

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