Scarborough paedophile Andrew Carrington jailed for attempting to meet fictitious girl off Facebook after vigilante group sting

Andrew Carrington, 56, from Scarborough, contacted the ‘girl’ after seeing a fake profile on Facebook set up by an online child protection group, York Crown Court heard.

In fact, the ‘girl’ was an adult decoy posing as a teenager to whom Carrington sent a Facebook request, said prosecutor Richard Herrmann.

“On the same day, the [Facebook] profile received a message from [Carrington],” added Mr Herrmann.

Carrington asked her how old she was and despite her telling him she was 13-years-old, he continued messaging her and the conversations “very quickly became highly sexual”.

“He asked [the fictitious girl] if she’d ever been asked to do anything [sexual] she didn’t want to do,” said Mr Herrmann.

“On the same day, he asked her to send him photos of her in her underwear.”

Carrington, of Washbeck Close, Scarborough, bombarded the ‘girl’ with further messages including one in which he asked her: “Do you want to see me naked?”

He told her he wanted to have sex with her and said, “If I raped you, would you tell?”.

“He said, ‘don’t tell anyone because I’d go to prison’,” added Mr Herrmann.

In another message, Carrington asked the ‘girl’ if she was alone before offering to teach her to perform a sexual act on herself.

“He asked her to meet [him] in a hotel to have sex and said…it would be a secret,” said Mr Herrmann.

In a subsequent message, Carrington asked her to meet him in York, where he was living at the time.

“He told her they would go somewhere for sex and he would bring her clean underwear,” added Mr Herrmann.

However, when the ‘girl’ told Carrington she had bought rail tickets to meet up with him, he cancelled the meeting after getting “cold feet”.

Carrington, who is a father, told the ‘girl’ he had a “work commitment” on the day they were supposed to meet, although there was “evidence of some planning [to meet up with the ‘girl’] because he had been looking on the internet, shopping for underwear in small sizes”.

He sent the ‘girl’ two videos showing him performing a sexual act on himself. In one of the videos, he had left the ‘girl’ a message saying he “wanted her to do that when they meet”, added Mr Herrmann.

The explicit messages were sent between June 30 and July 3, 2020, “typically in the morning, before work, and in the evening, after work”.

Carrington was arrested on July 3 after being confronted at his home by members of the vigilante group which live streamed the confrontation on its Facebook site and called police to the address.

He was taken in for questioning and told police: “I’ve been stupid and I’ve been caught.”

He was charged with attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, attempted sexual communication with a child, trying to arrange a meeting with a view to committing a sexual offence and attempting to cause a child to watch an image of a person engaging in sexual activity.

The offences were charged as attempts because, unbeknown to Carrington, the ‘child’ was fictional. He admitted all matters and appeared for sentence on Monday October 17.

Mr Herrmann said Carrington had tried to groom the ‘child’, not realising he had been caught by the child protection group.

Defence barrister Emily Hassell said Carrington had never been in trouble before and had been in a relationship for many years.

Although it had floundered after the offences came to light, he had since resumed a relationship with his partner and they were now living in Scarborough together after leaving York.

“His offending became well known in his community and he made the decision to move out of York,” said Ms Hassell.

Judge Sean Morris slammed Carrington for the “filthy” chats with the fictional girl, although he accepted the defendant’s expressions of remorse and “shame” for his vile behaviour.

Jailing Carrington for two years, Mr Morris said it had to be an immediate sentence because “people who think they are in conversation with 13-year-old girls and incite them to do sexual things can damage people”.

Carrington was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and slapped with a 10-year sexual-harm prevention order to curb his contact with children.