Mail Online
A paedophile with HIV who arranged online to have sex with three young children has been jailed after not realising he was talking to an undercover policeman.
Steven King, who worked in the accounts department in a solicitors’ office, made the two hour journey from his home thinking he was going to abuse the children aged five, six and 10.
The sick 30-year-old also bragged to the undercover officer that he had already raped a young boy aged just 13 years.
King was jailed for four years after admitting arranging the commission of child sex offences and two further counts of possessing indecent images.
The judge, sitting at Southwark Crown Court, was told how King began talking to the undercover officers in July this year when the officer claimed to have three young children.
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During the online chats the defendant revealed how he had previously raped a 14-year-old, who he later claimed was just 13.
On July 19 he said ‘any age, younger the better’. in a message and told the officer he was willing to travel the 80 miles from his home in Southampton to London in order for the pair to meet.
When they met at Waterloo Station on July 27, King confessed that he wanted to abuse the five-year-old boy and six year old girl.
A second meeting was arranged when the paedophile believed he would be taken to the undercover officer’s home and be allowed to abuse the children.
On August 2, King was arrested and in interview confirmed he planned to go to the policeman’s home and sexually assault the children.
He said he had lied about abusing children in the past during his conversations with the undercover officer.
When he was arrested he was in possession of flavoured condoms and some toys for the children.
A number of items were also seized from his home, including a laptop, USB stick and external hard drives, which contained indecent images of children.
King of Southampton, Hampshire, was jailed for four years.
Speaking after the sentencing Detective Chief Superintendent Reg Hooke, head of the MPS Child Abuse Investigation Command, said: ‘The plotting of child abuse over the internet is a sickening crime and one that poses a serious and ongoing threat.
‘Officers from the Met’s Paedophile Unit conduct operations, such as the one that caught King, on a weekly basis.
‘Luckily, this time, King’s appalling intentions remained just that. The result reflects the Met’s continued commitment to fighting child abuse in all its forms.