A PENSIONER who believed he was sexually communicating with four underage girls has been jailed by a judge.

George Sharpe, of Princess Street, Broughton-in-Furness, was instead talking to undercover police officers who were posing as decoys for girls aged between 12 and 13-years-old, a court heard.

Preston Crown Court was told the 68-year-old spoke to the decoys by using the Chatiw, Kik and Snapchat mobile phone applications between May and November last year.

Beth Pilling, prosecuting, said Sharpe sent a picture of his genitals to one 13-year-old decoy after the officer had sent him images of a child fully clothed in her school uniform.

Ms Pilling said Sharpe then asked another girl if she would like to go for a walk or a drive with him before asking if they could get sexual with another. The decoy said yes so long as the defendant used a condom and did not get her pregnant, the court heard.

He then asked the girls to delete their chat history as he acknowledged that he would get into trouble if he was found out due to his age, Ms Pilling said.

Sharpe was interviewed by police in June and placed under investigation.

The court heard on the day he was interviewed, Sharpe had been attempting to communicate with another 13-year-old girl.

Ms Pilling said he messaged the girl saying: ‘I should not like younger girls but I do’, before she sent him a picture of her in her school uniform.

The court heard there was a gap in the defendant’s offending until November 2023 where he then attempted to obtain sexual gratification once more by communicating with who he believed was another child.  

Ms Pilling said the defendant asked the girl if she was a virgin and promised not to laugh if she was.

The defendant was arrested at the end of November in relation to the second set of matters where he admitted he had relapsed.

In mitigation, Claire Lawton said her client did not seek to minimise his behaviour and that he was ashamed of his actions.

She said: “He sought help at the end of the first set of offending by engaging with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

“He is a man of previous good character with no previous convictions who has already spent six weeks in prison. The offending whilst he was under investigation led to the loss of his liberty.

“I ask you to consider what purpose it serves in sending the defendant back to prison.

“These are not offences that are the worst of their kind. This is relatively short-lived, and they are not real children.”

However,His Honour Judge Richard Archer sentenced Sharpe to an immediate custodial sentence.

He said: “You were told you were being released under investigation and you could not stop yourself from reoffending. It could not have been clearer that you needed to stop doing what you were doing.

“This is a startling fall from grace for you. In my judgement, you present a risk to the public.

“The appropriate punishment can only be achieved by an immediate custodial sentence."

Judge Archer sentenced Sharpe to 22 months imprisonment and imposed a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years, as well as notification requirements for the same time period.  

Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Constable Ryan Parker from the Cyber and Digital Crime Unit said: “Our main priority is to protect vulnerable people from sexual harm.

“Throughout the conversations Sharpe had with, what he believed were children, he was fully aware that what he was doing was wrong yet continued to send explicit messages anyway.

“I hope this case serves as a warning to those who think they can exploit children in this way.

“Our dedicated unit have a range of tactics at our disposal to identify those who pose a risk of sexual harm to children and bring them to justice.”