The young computer genius who helped design the aw
The young computer genius who helped design the award-winning game Tomb Raider was jailed for just 18 months at the Old Bailey today (mon) after he was unmasked as a paedophile in a transatlantic sting.
But Kenneth Lockley, 28, arrested after a detective in California set up a website designed to entrap perverts, will be back on the streets in three months.
Judge Peter Fingret said there appeared to be a loophole in the law after he saw Lockley plead guilty to a charge which carries the maximum term of only three years imprisonment.
Lockley made concerted attempts to obtain a nine-year-old girl for sex after saying he feared he would rape a youngster if his demands were not met.
But the landmark case led to calls for a change in the law after Lockley, an employee of the computer games firm Core Design in Derby, escaped prosecution under charges which could have kept him locked up for years.
The Crown was forced to drop charges against Lockley, including attempting a serious sex assault – attempted buggery, which carries the maximum term of life imprisonment – because of his ‘lack of proximity’ to such an offence.
His barrister had successfully argued that there was insufficient evidence to prove such a charge because he was nowhere near a girl at any stage.
The court heard that after Lockley took the bait of the American website a sheriff teamed up with New Scotland Yard to bring him to justice.
The computer programmer was finally arrested last December in a London hotel after he was lured to a meeting with a fictitious nine-year-old girl after exchanging dozens of e-mails detailing his warped child-sex fantasies.
Lockley, of Milldale Court, Ashbourne, Derbyshire, admitted attempting to incite another to procure a girl for him so he could have unlawful sexual intercourse with her – a charge carrying the maximum term of two years – and distributing indecent photos of a child under 16 – a charge which carries the maximum penalty of three years jail.
He denied a further charge of making indecent photos of children and the Crown offered no evidence against him in relation to that matter.
That count related to photos of children downloaded from a computer seized at his home address.
Unfortunately those hard disks have become corrupted.
The Crown had offered no evidence against him in relation to the attemped sex assault and a further charge of attempting to have unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 13.
After the more serious charges, were dropped Andrew Campbell-Tiech, prosecuting, said Parliament may now be minded to introduce legislation to cope with the unique situation by drafting an offence ‘such as soliciting a child for sexual purposes.
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After jailing Lockley for a total of 18 months Judge Fingret agreed, and said:
‘The law does not cater for this type of conduct.
It is time, in the light of the pernicious influences of a large number of websites, for Parliament to consider dealing with this lacuna in the law.
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Lockley has already spent more than six months in custody and he will be released on licence in three months after serving half the 18 month term.
His name will remain on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
Jailing Lockley the judge said it was fortunate for him but ‘unfortunate for the public’ that the maximum term for distributing indecent photos was only three years.
Mr Campbell-Tiech said in 1994 the Sheriff’s Department of San Bernadino County, California in connection with the US federal and state authorities set up an internet site with the express purpose of catching ‘active and would-be active paedophiles.
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The site named ‘Valerie’s Escorts’ has proved to be ‘highly successful from the Americans’ point of view leading in America to the prosecution of a number of would-be and active paedophiles,’ said Mr Campbell-Tiech.
The court heard in April last year Lockley, who worked for Core-Design in Derby, contacted the site, set up by Deputy Sheriff Michael Di Matteo, purporting to ‘specialise in very young attractive escorts.
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Over the next seven months Lockley sent 36 e-mails to Valerie’s Escorts and ‘made manifestly clear his desire to indulge in vaginal, anal and oral sex with a child, preferably as he described, a small girl, hairless and a good little body, blonde or dark haired, preferably short.
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Lockley then e-mailed over a picture of the kind of girl he wanted so Sheriff Di Matteo could make the choice for him.
But the prosecutor explained that at that time the American officer had no idea of Lockley’s identity or where he was from so he set up an operation in which he hoped to entice him to California.
Sheriff Di Matteo arranged for Lockley to come to San Bernadino on May 15 after saying he had a nine-year-old girl ready for him called Amy.
He told Lockley he could have sex with the girl for US Dollars 300, but of course, no such youngster existed.
But the defendant never turned up at the meeting.
But the e-mails continued and in one Lockley, using the name, Deacon, wrote:
‘Please can you help fund someone over here in the UK.
I’m desperate for a young girl.
I need to find someone or I might rape a little girl soon and I don’t really want to do that.
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As a result of this e-mail Sheriff Di Matteo ‘became deeply concerned’ and contacted New Scotland Yard’s Paedophilia Unit, who used an undercover officer to lure Lockley to a meeting.
In an e-mail to the policeman, who used the name George Ray, he said: ‘Hi George.
.
.
I’m looking to have sex with a young girl.
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Lockley later said he would prefer a girl between the ages of six and 12.
A meeting was initially set up for July 17 but Lockley did not turn up because he had a minor car accident.
Correspondence ended for a time but on December 3 Lockley sent a number of e-mails this time asking for girls between the ages of eight and 12 and saying he was coming to London.
A meeting was arranged on December 8 for Lockley to turn up at the Regent Palace Hotel in Piccadilly where he would pay pnds stlg 200 for the sexual services of nine-year-old Amy ‘for a period of two hours.
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Lockley walked into the foyer and was met by George who was wired for sound.
George asking him: ‘Are you sure you want to do it? I mean it’s up to you.
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Lockley, who had four condoms in his pocket, replied that he did and handed over pnds stlg 200.
The pair then went up to room 4052 where the officer knocked on the door, and said: ‘Amy, it’s George.
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The door opened and Lockley was arrested.
After his arrest he said simply: ‘I’ve been set up.
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Outside court DI Dave Marshall said: ‘Paedophile activity has always been characterised by the deliberate seeking out of children.
This preparatory stage is referred to as the ‘grooming process’.
The growth of the internet and the anonymity it affords clearly creates further opportunities for this type of activity.
‘We know that paedophiles are now actively soliciting young children through the internet chatrooms and newsgroups.
These developments are not fully covered under existing criminal legislation.
We are sure that the relevant departments and agencies will re-visit this in the light of today’s result.
Society as a whole must assume a collective responsibility for the protection of children and the prevention of this type of offence.
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Lockley lost his job and his fiancee of two-and-a-half years as a result of the case.
Jailing dark-haired Lockley, dressed in blue jeans and a blue shirt, the judge told him:
‘It is difficult to envisage a more sordid and depraved activity than arranging for a child to be made available for you for sexual purposes.
‘Your requests were couched in the most explicit terms and accompanied by photographs of naked children in what are clearly provocative poses.
‘It is clear this was no fantasy on your part.
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The judge said the e-mails were meant seriously and it was not mere titillation.
‘The culmination of these evil negotiations was that you attended the hotel to meet an undercover officer with a child armed with pnds stlg 200 which was handed over to the officer, four condoms, and not carrying any evidence of identification.
‘The level of risk’ Lockley presents to children was made clear in the e-mail of June 11 in which he said unless he found a girl to have sex with he would rape a little girl.
The judge described it as a ‘horrifying document.
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And Judge Fingret told Lockley that is loss of job and family disgrace were not matters which concerned him in passing sentence.
‘It is said on your behalf that as it was a sting operation no victim was involved.
Certainly no child was forced to suffer as you intended and that is to some extent a valid point.
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But the judge continued: ‘You were an enthusiastic participant in the negotiations right up until the hotel door was opened and you were arrested.
I repeat – you were not in a fantasy world.
‘It was so far as you are concerned reality and the fact remains that you were a paedophile intending at the time to have sex with a child.
‘Nothing would have prevented you from carrying out your wicked intentions.
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Lockley was sentenced to 18 months for distributing indecent photos of children under 16 and to 16 months concurrent for attempting to incite another to procure a child for sex.
Earlier Edward Fitzgerald, QC, defending Lockley, had said it was a case in which there never was a victim.
‘There was no Amy and there was no nine-year-old girl.
Police created the fiction of one in order to detect him and bring these charges to light.
There was no child who was in danger.
She was a complete fiction of the police.
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The QC said it was the first time he had ever ‘put his fantasies into action.
‘It simply can never be said that he would have turned fantasy into reality.
The fact that the whole activity is contrived in an artificial situation brought about by the police activity is something that the court can take into account.
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Mr Fitzgerald said Lockley lost his job and his future in the computer programming industry will be seriously affected by the case.
He added that Lockley’s fiancee of two-and-a-half years left him after his arrest.
‘These were fantasies he was indulging in as a result of exploring them through the internet.
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The QC added that Lockley will have to address his problems when he is released.
ends
