man jailed after meeting 12 year old girl on a dating app who pretended to be 19

He definitely knew

I agree some 12yr olds could pass for 19 at a push but surely their emotional and intellectual immaturity would give them away? The guy obviously didn't care enough to get to know her even a little bit. And sending a pic to his mates! Ugh! At the very least this guy is a sleaze bag with no respect for females.

A 12 year old may look ‘over 16’ but it wouldn’t take Einstein to work our their true age after a short conversation surely?

If you have sex with someone you barely know you take a risk. As a man, one of those risks is that the 'woman' might be a child, lying. If that is the case, the consequences are on you.

I always think should always ask for ID if they look under 21 as creepy as that sounds ,I went to the pub with my sister who was 13 to meet our parents I was 20 I got ID’d for a pint and the barman said to her “are you having the same darling” I said she’s 13 and he said she looked older than me. She’s got a Body like Beyoncé no joke but also saying that I did work in a night club as a supervisor and we’d have girls 14/15 in the club all the time using fake ID’s it’s very convincing especially since they do look older ,They easily pass for 18/19 until they get grassed up. But 12! That’s hard to believe

A 12-year-old may well look 19 but if you take the effort to have a conversation with her I think it would be pretty obvious that she wasn't 19.
On a course that assumes that you make the effort to talk to her.

A 12 year old does not look or sound like a 19 year old.

This is almost always true, however amongst the thousands of children I've taught I've known an 11 YO who could easily have passed for 20 and I'm currently teaching an 11 YO who looks about 7. There is huge variation in the way children develop- girls more so as sometimes puberty can kick in very young.

That is not me minimising this case. I would assume the judge/jury had good reason to think he was (at least) a sleazy fucker who should have asked more questions. The unpleasant text and sharing her photo suggests he didn't care to find out whether she was under age. It's not a high threshold to say you should be very sure you aren't committing statutory rape before you have a one night stand.

The comments would have been totally different if it had been a 12 yr old boy.

Sadly, I imagine some of them would be about how lucky the 12YO boy was. Some people are dickheads.

Why did the judge say "You were to boast later that you had sexual activity though it is fact you had not."?
Then underneath his photo it says "Hodgson took the girl back to his apartment where they engaged in sexual activity".

The comments would have been totally different if it had been a 12 yr old boy.

the judge said he had reasonable grounds to believe she was over 16

I'm speechless

Disgusting- he obviously likes them very young. He must have known

He deserves jail for sharing explicit photos of her, so he got off light, even if he did believe her to be over 16.

A 12 year old does not look or sound like a 19 year old. He should not have done as he did.

Is your post anger that the child was raped by this man or anger that the child said they were older so the man should be let off?

Oh the comments! None of those (I’m assuming men) are fathers are they?