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

[BorneBackCeaselesslyIntoThePas]

Carl Hodgson, 27, brought the girl to his Manchester quayside apartment after he met her on a dating app - not realising she used a fake profile which claimed she was 'experienced'.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6679531/Office-worker-spent-night-12-year-old-girl-jailed.html

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

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?

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

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

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

I'm speechless

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

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".

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.

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.

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?

Neither, it was a dispassionate summary of a possibility interesting case

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

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.

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?

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.

He definitely knew

Even if he didn't, is ignorance an excuse

Statutory rape is a criminal offence. Regardless of whether or not he knew, justice needs to have a deterrent effect. Pour encourager les autres.

Besides which he hardly comes out covered with glory. His comments about her were repulsive.

No, not having that. He might not have realised she was only 12 but he would’ve been well aware that she wasn’t 19. Children lie and do dangerous, ill advised things, because they’re children. Adults should exercise the appropriate level of caution, especially where sex is involved.

Some men really do believe they can stick their cocks’ wherever they want with impunity, and unfortunately society reinforces this entitlement all the time.

@Owl247 that's a repugnant statement of support for this convicted sex offender.

His comments do make him sound vile, and I think people always have a duty to ensure their partner is of legal age, but he did have reason to believe she was, since she was on an adult dating site.
Years ago when out in a nightclub a male friend of mine was approached by a woman and they hit it off and ended up kissing in a corner.
After a while he came back to our group pale as a sheet.
Apparently she'd asked his age and when he said 26, she said "oh, only twice my age then".
She had us all fooled, we were a mixed group of women and men, all aged 22 to 26.
I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't been fooled myself.

I struggle to believe someone could mistake a 12 year old for 19 even if she lied but may have been pissed and lost some judgement. However it doesn’t seem they had actually had sex or anything hence the light sentence but everyone seems to be under the impression they did

If I took it at face value I’d feel sorry for him but struggle with the didn’t know defence as hell of a difference between 12 and being 19! But that’s what the judge said. And in the same breath he’s a horrible paedo signing the sex register for life. It doesn’t seem right but can’t sympathise as could never Imagine any decent bloke ending up in that position completely accidentally

Weird case. I guess with apps (guessing it was Tinder as the barrister described it as in widespread use) there is always the chance the person you meet is married, underage, mentally ill, re-enacting previous abuse, looking to rob or kill you, etc. It speeds up/cuts out the process of getting to know someone before you sleep with them.
It seems like this chap was a shallow guy, taking a pic to send to his friend was shitty behaviour too. And I guess legally speaking ignorance is no defence. She's still a child even if he didn't know. I believe that he didn't know, and it's unlucky for him, especially as his life is ruined (lost job, lost home, registered sex offender, custodial sentence, etc).
The sentencing for convicted sex offenders just varies so much, it doesn't make sense to me. Here's an example of sexual touching with a suspended sentence
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10707279/Koran-teacher-who-abused-girl-is-spared-jail-to-help-his-family.html
And a sex offender who abused a child and then downloaded child sex abuse images but no jail, he shows up to court in a hoodie www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/previously-convicted-sex-offender-avoids-12810153
Another ridiculous excuse www.wigantoday.net/news/crime/wigan-sex-offender-avoids-jail-as-porn-addiction-lands-him-back-in-the-dock-1-9570886

Sentencing Steele, Judge Hamill said he was "reluctant to impose imprisonment on someone who has the mental age of a nine-year-old".
He said that with a maximum sentence of six months available at magistrate's court level, allowing for discount for mitigating features, "I could give him four months and he will be out in two so what protection will that give the public?" That's this one: www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/serial-sex-offender-avoids-jail-after-groping-vulnerable-woman-in-flat-37499795.html

So I don't see how deliberate, prolific sex offenders can keep avoiding custodial sentences and some shallow dickhead who genuinely believed the person he was using was an adult gets two and a half years? The other cases are far more of a risk to the public.

The details of what happened are in the article, and he did perform a sex act on the child, he photographed her in a sexual pose and then sent it to his friends. There are multiple offences there, the child was only 12, so I can see why the sentence was as it was.

The other cases you've linked to do seem to have very lenient sentences. I would support any efforts to review sentencing in this area and make the sentences much tougher. Especially when very young children are involved.

As for this case, the point is that this man didn't know the child's age because he didn't think he needed to check or worry about it at all. It's not some accident, it is a total lack of care or concern. The onus is clearly on adults to have a minimum level of responsibility and consider the age of any sexual partner. If you can't verify their age definitively then refrain from having sex with them until you can. It's not complicated.