A DANGEROUS paedophile who had planned to sexually assault a 12-year-old girl has been jailed for more than eight years.
Kevin Walsh travelled to Nottingham on November 11, 2023, believing he was meeting the father of the girl at a hotel prior to raping her.
However, the girl did not exist and he had unknowingly been chatting to specialist law enforcement officers, who arrested Walsh when he arrived at the hotel.
At Nottingham Crown Court on Friday, the 59-year-old, of HMP Nottingham, was jailed for a total of eight years and eight months.
"Walsh is a dangerous paedophile who by his own admission poses a serious risk to children," said Detective Constable Tom Nuttall of Nottinghamshire Police.
Arranging assaults
Following Walsh's arrest, specialist search officers seized his mobile phone and laptop, with analysis of the devices showing he had been offending over a prolonged period.
Detectives discovered Walsh had been active on social media, distributing indecent images of children and communicating with adults online about the sexual abuse of children.
During the investigation, it became clear he had also been communicating with a suspect in Wales where he had arranged to drug and rape a young child.
He had also been talking to the mother of a 13-year-old girl in Surrey and was looking to arrange to travel and meet the girl in order to sexually assault her.
'Expose and punish'
Prior to his sentencing, Walsh pleaded guilty to seven counts of distributing an indecent photograph of a child, six counts of making an indecent photograph of a child and three counts of attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child.
He also admitted one count of attempting to cause a child to watch an image of sexual activity, one count of arranging the commission of an offence of sexual activity with a child, one count of possessing an extreme image, one count of engaging in sexual communications with a child and one count of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.
"As his own messages made clear, he knowingly set out to meet a child for his own sexual gratification," said DC Nuttall.
"For as long as people like him exist in our society, we will carry out this kind of operation to expose and punish them."
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