Man jailed over sex chat with '12-year-old girl'
Cumbria PoliceA man has been jailed for 20 months after making online sexual advances to a police officer he believed was a 12-year-old girl.
Jonsen Lamb did not realise he was chatting to and making sexual suggestions to an undercover officer in April, Carlisle Crown Court heard.
The 26-year-old, of Low Seaton Village, near Workington, pleaded guilty to attempted sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act.
He also admitted breaching sex offender notification requirements by failing to keep police up to date with personal information.
Lamb had been subject to notification requirements since April 2021 when he was given a community punishment and ordered to undergo rehabilitation work for previous sexualised online chat with a decoy he believed was a child.
The court was told during the latest incident and despite it being made clear the "girl" was more than half his age, Lamb sent a series of sexual suggestions as well as explicit still and moving images.
He also asked for pictures to be sent to him and asked about the pair meeting up.
'Pretty dangerous'
After two days of online exchanges, the operative terminated their chat.
Lamb was arrested and surrendered a phone on which police found the message thread after he provided the device PIN.
Defending Lamb, Marion Weir said a probation officer's pre-sentence report referred to him as being immature as well as having poor social communication skills.
The court was told he was also still coming to terms with an autism diagnosis.
Lamb had completed previous court-imposed rehabilitation work and remained offence-free for a time.
But earlier his year he reverted back to what a prosecutor called "carbon copy" offending amid "struggles and stresses" in his life.
Judge Michael Fanning said Lamb was a "pretty dangerous young man" who posed a "high risk to children".
As well as the jail term, he will remain subject to sex offender notification requirements for 10 years.