Teenager who attempted to get 13-year-old-girl to send indecent photos caught by under-cover officer

A Warrington teenager who asked ‘a 13-year-old girl’ to send him indecent photographs of herself was actually communicating with an under-cover police officer.

And when police came round to his house they seized his electronic devices and found he had downloaded 42 indecent images of young children, including videos.

A court heard that Tyler Porrett, who was 17 at the time was unwittingly communicating with the officer, had suffered mentally during the Covid lockdown and was immature.
Porrett, of Derek Avenue, Poplars and Hulme, Warrington, pleaded guilty to attempting to incite a girl to engage in sexual activity and four offences of possessing and making indecent images.

Iain Criddle, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that between September 28 and October 1, 2021 Porrett was communicating with whom he thought was a 13-year-old girl via the social media platform, Kidschat.
He told her he was 17 and then later said he was 22 and they moved their conversations to Snapchat. He gave her his real name and sent photographs of himself.
“He asked her to send pictures of herself in a onesie and unzip it. He asked what was the most she would do.”

Mr Criddle said that the sexual activity he was encouraging was her to unzip her onesie and send him photographs of her in underwear underneath it.
He said that all but one of the images found on his computer were thumbnails which meant they had been created by the user and then deleted.
When arrested and interviewed he admitted the offences, added Mr Criddle.

Judge Gary Woodhall told Porrett, now 19, that he accepted that during lockdown he had become isolated and there had been changes in his home.
He said there was a low risk of him re-offending and the offences were more than 18 months old.
He imposed a three year community order and ordered him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and 60 hours rehabilitation activities.
The defendant also has to attend a sex offenders treatment programme and to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for five years. A Sexual Harm Prevention Order was imposed for the same length of time.