Mansfield pervert used false ID to pressure child to pose naked online

Judge Steven Coupland said the actions were “chilling and manipulative,” saying that 21-year-old Aiden Cooper poses a risk of causing serious harm to other people.

Nottingham Crown Court heard that Cooper’s victim was around the age of ten when the offences began. The judge told him: “She says you have changed her life, driving her to not using social media any more.

“She finds it difficult to trust anybody, particularly men, and it has left her feeling angry and frustrated. Only time will tell exactly what effect your behaviour has had on her for the rest of her life.

“There was considerable deviousness and manipulation on your part. There was considerable pre-planning and deception,” he said as Cooper was sentenced.

A probation report suggested that Cooper had “minimised the offences” and the judge added: “I discount utterly the suggestion you were not interested in young children. The evidence plainly demonstrates that.”

The court heard that Cooper contacted the girl over the internet. He persuaded her to carry out a sex act on herself and later strip. Cooper of Andover Road, Mansfield watched over the internet.

When he asked her again, the girl refused and Cooper appeared to stop making the requests. But he later contacted her again, inventing a false internet identity of a man because he knew she would refuse him.

In 2016, Cooper came up with another identity, pretending to be a 13-year-old boy. When the girl refused to do what he said, Cooper blackmailed her by threatening to tell her parents as well as calling her “a slut and whore.”

Cooper pleaded guilty to inciting a child to engage in penetrative sexual activity; inciting her to engage in non-penetrative sexual activity; downloading child pornography; having extreme images.

He was put on the Sex Offenders’ Register for the rest of his life. Cooper must also obey a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which restricts his use of the internet and bars him from children under 16.

The court heard that the pornography was found after his mobile phones were seized by police officers.

Simon Eckersley, mitigating, said Cooper had won Duke of Edinburgh awards and gained an apprenticeship on leaving school. This had led to a job which remained open to him although his employer knew of the offences.

“Before he was involved in these matters, he has lived an exemplary life. Many of his age would not have achieved so much.

“He is 21 now but was very much younger when the majority of these offences were committed.

“Happily, as identified in the pre-sentence report, he does seem to have reflected upon his behaviour,” added Mr Eckersley.