A FORMER Carlisle College employee had a series of explicitly sexual conversations online with a person identified as a 13-year-old girl.

But Andrew Trollope, 59, was unwittingly communicating with an undercover police officer, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

Over three weeks, he sent the covert officer numerous sexual messages and even attempted to arrange a meeting, telling the girl he wanted to ‘cuddle’ while naked.

The defendant, a married man from Heads Nook, near Brampton, admitted three offences: sexual communication with a child; attempting to incite a child to commit sexual acts; and attempting to arrange the commission of a sexual act with a child.

Charles Brown, prosecuting, said the defendant began sexually grooming what he thought was a child on April 2 last year.

Using an online website popular with children, Trollope contacted a person identified as 'Hannah', who said she was 13-years-old. The defendant disclosed his age, but said he was “naughty,” and loved young girls.

The following day, Trollope told the ‘child’ he would like to take her on holiday but acknowledged her parents would not like this. The following day he spoke of wanting to cuddle her.

“He described her as gorgeous,” said Mr Brown.

Over the following days, Trollope’s conversation with the ‘girl’ became increasingly sexual, and he encouraged her to commit sex acts. “He even arranged to meet her that Friday at Wolverhampton Railway Station,” said Mr Brown.

Trollope even provided train times, telling the girl he would meet her in his BMW car. When she failed to turn up, he messaged her, saying he had waited for more than an hour.

Mr Brown continued: “The defendant was arrested on May 2 at Carlisle College. He accepted it was him talking to ‘Hannah’ and, despite her telling him she was 13, he said he thought she was an adult and they were engaging in 'role play' together.

“He said that this was sometimes what happened on chat lines.”

Trollope also claimed he never had any intention of meeting the girl and claimed he had engaged in such ‘role play’ before. The court heard that the defendant had no previous convictions.

Sean Harkin, for Trollope, said the defendant did not object to the Sexual Harm Prevention Order that the court would impose.

Imposing a three year community order, Judge Nicholas Barker told Trollope: “In April of last year, your decision-making took a turn for the worse.

"In that period, in the month of April, you went online, in my judgement, deliberately seeking out young individuals with whom to engage sexually. There can be no other reasonable explanation.

“You are a 59-year-old married man.”

The judge described Trollope’s explanation to the police – that he was engaging in role play – as “pathetic”.

The judge added: “Between April 2 and April 25 you repeatedly engaged [on the social media platform involved] in a sexual way.” Trollope was assessed as being a ‘medium risk’ to children.

“You undoubtedly have an unhealthy sexual interest in children,” Judge Barker said. “And given that fact, it seems to me that the appropriate course to take is one of intervention to seek to prevent this despicable interest of yours becoming worse.”

The judge imposed a 36-month community order with 25 days' rehabilitation and a sexual offenders’ treatment programme.

The defendant must do 60 hours' unpaid work in the community and his name will be on the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years. A Sexual Harm Prevention Order will run for the same period.

Any repetition of such offending will lead to an immediate jail term, the judge warned. The court hearing was conducted over a Skype video link.

Grant Glendinning, principal at Carlisle College, said: "The college is aware there has been a trial of a former employee, and we are unable to comment on this further. We can however confirm we have well established procedures in place to ensure the safety of our students, and have a good working relationship with the police."

* There was in fact no 'trial' since the defendant admitted his guilt.