Mum catches man exposing himself to daughter online (From Thurrock Gazette)

Mum catches man exposing himself to daughter online

7:00am Tuesday 19th March 2013 in News

Sam Gooden

A MOTHER caught a web pervert who exposed himself to her 12-year-old daughter by pretending to be the girl and tricking him into giving out his e-mail address.

When police raided the home of Sam Gooden, 24, in Rayleigh Road, Stanford-le-Hope, they found screenshots of other children on his computer, with whom he may also have had internet conversations.

Gooden was jailed for three years and six months at Basildon Crown Court after admitting inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and making indecent images of children.

Judge Owen Davies QC, sentencing, said: “The public is rightly outraged by this sort of exploitation of children and this is a serious matter.

“Had it not been for the intervention of the mother, who went into the bedroom at the time, who knows what would have happened?”

Gooden was using the false name Callum H when he met the girl in an internet chat room and asked her to continue the conversation privately on instant messaging service MSN Messenger in April 2011.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, agreed as she had been to primary school with a Callum H.

As soon as the girl joined him on Messenger, Gooden exposed himself for 30 seconds and asked her to perform a sex act.

At that moment, her mother entered and took over the web conversation in her daughter’s place. She asked for Gooden’s e-mail address, which she passed to police.

They uncovered a catalogue of images of children on Gooden’s computer, including one in the most extreme category.

Most photographs were downloaded from the internet, but some were screenshots – saved images of a computer screen at a particular time – showing the background of Gooden’s screen, a child and a web conversation.

Peter Gair, prosecuting, said: “They were taken from the screen itself. There is clear evidence from these photographs of meeting people in chat rooms and taking photographs.”

There was no evidence Gooden had distributed the images.

He will be subject to a sexual offences prevention order indefinitely.