A man who arranged to meet and sexually abuse children, including a 10-month-old baby, later claimed he only wanted the children to sit on his lap so he could sing a nursery rhyme, a court heard. A judge described Carl Martin’s claim as “one of the most fanciful stories I have ever heard”.
Swansea Crown Court heard Martin had discussed meeting and abusing the teenagers with someone he met online and believed to be their mother. He was actually chatting to an undercover police officer. A judge sentencing the defendant to prison said Martin had a “very dark side”.
Prosecutor Hannah George told the court that in January this year Martin used a name other than his own when creating an online profile – namely “Carpenter” – and used a virtual private network and the DuckDuckGo internet browser to ensure his online activity was private and anonymous. She said the defendant began interacting with a profile claiming to belong to a mother of two and that the conversation was of a “sexual nature” from the outset. She said Martin and the fraudster began discussing “playdates” and which of his children were “active”, but the defendant used “obscure language” to avoid incriminating himself. When the fraudster asked specifically what he wanted to do with the children, Martin said he wanted the teenagers to “sit on his lap and get on top of him”. The court heard he also reassured the mother that he did not want her children to suffer or get hurt.
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The 36-year-old was arrested on February 2 this year and gave officers a prepared statement during questioning in which he denied that the conversation with the fraudster was sexual. He was later charged with arranging for the commission of a child sex offence and pleaded not guilty, with the matter going to trial.
At the hearing, the defendant maintained the position he had given to police after his arrest. He said that the “playdate” references meant they were watching other people play computer games online, that he wanted to help the woman with her children because she was a single mother, and that telling the fraudster that he wanted the children to “sit on him” meant that he wanted them to sit on his lap while he sang “a children’s song with horses and horses”. He accepted that he wanted to meet the children but said he just wanted to take them to the park.
Carl Martin, of Cilmaengwyn Road, Cilmaengwyn, Pontardawe, was previously convicted by a jury of 11 counts of arranging or facilitating the commission of one to two child sex offences and returned to court to serve his sentence. He had no previous convictions.
Solomon Hartley, speaking for Martin, said the pre-sentence report submitted to the court highlighted the defendant’s childhood trauma and “adverse childhood experiences” from the age of 11. He said the conviction had had a significant impact on the defendant, who lost his job and home and spent seven months in more difficult conditions than he would have otherwise because of the current overcrowding situation. He asked the court to find that the only specific evidence of the defendant’s intentions was his reference to children sitting on his lap and climbing on top of him, and said the court would be “in the realm of speculation” when considering what might have happened if any meetings had actually taken place and what harm might have been done. Sign up to our crime newsletter here for the latest court reports.
Judge Geraint Walters said the defendant had not come across the fake account by chance, but had sought such an interaction and used a computer equipped with a fake name and facilities for private internet searches. He said Martin had used “cautious” language when interacting with the fake account and talking about how far he could go with children, an indication that he realised how wrong what he was suggesting was. Judge Walters said the defendant then tried to explain things “in a naive and patently untrue way” – for example, claiming that he had chosen the online name Carpenter because he loved carpentry – and presented a version of events to the jury that was “the most fanciful account I have ever heard as a judge”.
The judge said that after hearing all the evidence in the case, his assessment was that if Martin had met the children he had discussed online he would have “gone as far as the mother would have allowed” and that if the mother had consented this would have included penetrative acts. He said the author of the pre-sentence report had concluded that Martin was a potentially dangerous offender and told the man in the dock that he agreed with the probation officer’s judgment that “you have a very dark side”. Martin was sentenced to three years in prison and made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order. He will be a registered sex offender for the next 10 years.
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