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22/06/2006
Sex offender caught via anti-paedophile website is jailed
A sex offender, who was caught through a police anti-paedophile website, has been jailed for nine years.
Lee Costi, 21, a media student from Haslemere, Surrey, was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday, after he admitted meeting schoolgirls after grooming them for sex.
Costi was the first person to be caught through a new international police agency website - part of the Virtual Global Taskforce operation - which allows children targeted by paedophiles to report their abusers.
The court heard how Costi met two girls, aged 13 and 14, through internet chatrooms and arranged to meet them for sex.
The 14-year-old spent the night with Costi in a hotel in Swindon in August 2004, while the younger girl had sex with Costi in January last year in an alleyway near London's Waterloo Station.
Costi was eventually arrested after he arranged to meet another 14-year-old girl at Nottingham railway station. However, the girl had told her mother about Costi and alerted police through the anti-paedophile website.
Costi was charged with three counts of sexual activity with a child, two counts of making indecent images of children and possession of over 40 indecent images of children.
At sentencing Judge Jonathan Teare told Costi that he had a "totally unhealthy and depraved interest in young girls". He said: "Those girls who you talked to and abused were 13 or 14, but I have seen some of the images on your computer and that shows a totally depraved interest in girls very much younger."
(KMcA/SP)
Lee Costi, 21, a media student from Haslemere, Surrey, was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday, after he admitted meeting schoolgirls after grooming them for sex.
Costi was the first person to be caught through a new international police agency website - part of the Virtual Global Taskforce operation - which allows children targeted by paedophiles to report their abusers.
The court heard how Costi met two girls, aged 13 and 14, through internet chatrooms and arranged to meet them for sex.
The 14-year-old spent the night with Costi in a hotel in Swindon in August 2004, while the younger girl had sex with Costi in January last year in an alleyway near London's Waterloo Station.
Costi was eventually arrested after he arranged to meet another 14-year-old girl at Nottingham railway station. However, the girl had told her mother about Costi and alerted police through the anti-paedophile website.
Costi was charged with three counts of sexual activity with a child, two counts of making indecent images of children and possession of over 40 indecent images of children.
At sentencing Judge Jonathan Teare told Costi that he had a "totally unhealthy and depraved interest in young girls". He said: "Those girls who you talked to and abused were 13 or 14, but I have seen some of the images on your computer and that shows a totally depraved interest in girls very much younger."
(KMcA/SP)
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