Scarborough man Joshua Foley avoids jail after 'sex chats' with police officer 'posing as a 13-year-old girl'

Joshua Foley, 30, from Scarborough, told the ‘girl’ she sounded “really cute” and urged her to “call me daddy” as he performed a lewd act on himself, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Mike Greenhalgh said that Foley, a father-of-two, tried to teach the ‘girl’ how to perform a sexual act on herself, not realising he was chatting with an adult decoy.

The undercover officer set up a fake account called ‘No School’ on an internet chat site – initially claiming to be an 18-year-old girl and using a fictional name – with the aim of “trying to identify people using online chat platforms who had a sexual interest in children”.

“It wasn’t long before [Foley], with a username ‘Scouse Lad 28’, messaged her,” added Mr Greenhalgh.

Foley told the ‘girl’ to carry out a lewd act on herself and followed up with a series of messages over a period of about one-and-a-half hours.

These were interspersed with phone calls to the ‘girl’ during which Foley could be heard “breathing heavily down the phone as he was [carrying out a lewd act]”.

In the third message sent by the adult decoy to Foley, she told him she was really 13 years of age.

“The defendant replied that her age didn’t bother him,” said Mr Greenhalgh.

There was “mention of her school” and Foley asked her if she had ever performed a sexual act on herself and that he “wanted to teach her on the telephone how [to do so]”.

He said he wanted to have sex with her and that a “little 13-year-old girl sounds really cute”.

Foley told the girl: “Call me daddy, call me daddy.”

The officer traced Foley from the calls made to her phone and he was subsequently arrested. He was questioned by police in March 2022 but protested his innocence, saying he “thought it would be fine to try and blag her”.

However, he ultimately admitted one count of attempted sexual communication with a child. The offence, which occurred on January 10 last year, was charged as attempted because the victim was a fictional girl.

Foley, of Carr Lane, East Ayton, appeared for sentence on Monday April 17.

The court heard he had eight previous convictions for 11 offences including sending a menacing message to a man whom he threatened to “stab through the chest with a knife”, but nothing for sexual matters.

Defence barrister Eddie Steele said Foley was “very remorseful” for his behaviour and that he was addicted to Codeine at the time of the debauched chats.

“He considers himself to be a village idiot,” added Mr Steele.

He said there was a “degree of hopelessness about a large part of [Foley’s] life” following his separation from his ex-partner.

He said Foley was now trying to find work in restaurants in Bridlington.

Judge Simon Hickey described the online chats as “obscene” but said he could spare Foley an immediate prison sentence because had weaned himself off Codeine and was seeking counselling.

Instead, Foley was handed an eight-month suspended jail sentence with 30 days’ rehabilitation. He was also placed on the sex-offenders’ register for 10 years.