A PERVERTED pensioner who was already on the sex offenders’ register for indecent assaults on a young girl offered to pay a 14-year-old schoolgirl to meet him for sex.
In fact the girl did not exist – and when Anthony Johnson turned up at Leamington railway station to meet her and a friend, he was arrested.
Despite that, he originally denied offences of attempting to meet a child intending to commit a sexual offence following grooming and breaching a sexual offences prevention order.
But on the day he was due to stand trial at Warwick Crown Court, the 72-year-old, of Verney Close, Lighthorne, changed his pleas to guilty.
Prosecutor Mark Williams said Johnson had been made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order in 2010 as a result of a conviction for sexual offences in 2003.
Under the order, which was to last for ten years, he was prohibited from communicating or attempting to communicate with any child under the age of 16.
But on July 7 he began exchanging online messages through a chat site with someone he believed was called Tanya who lived in London, and had a 14-year-old friend called Jackie.
In fact it was an adult posing as Tanya who then sent the police screenshots of their exchanges.
Mr Harrison said: “The content is highly sexual, and it is apparent he was intending to meet Tanya and Jackie for sexual activity the following day.
“In the course of the messages with Tanya he offered to pay them £40 each for an afternoon of sexual activity.”
During the chat, which went on into the early hours of the following morning, Johnson sent an image of his private parts and tried to get her to send him an intimate image of Jackie, but was told he would have to contact her directly.
It was arranged that the girls would arrive at Leamington station on the 11.24 train.
The person posing as the girls contacted police who arrested Johnson at the railway station.
When he was interviewed Johnson, who had £91 in cash on him, answered ‘no comment’ to the majority of questions.
Mr Williams added Johnson had convictions for dishonesty in the 1960s and 70s, but in 2003 he was jailed for five years for offences of indecent assault on a girl under the age of 14.
It had been anticipated that Johnson, who had been remanded in custody, would be sentenced straight away.
But after hearing the case, Recorder Anupama Thompson said: “There is no alternative to immediate custody, but his previous conviction concerns me.”
So she adjourned the case for a pre-sentence report to be prepared on Johnson, to consider whether he poses an on-going danger to young girls, and he was again remanded in custody.
