A registered sex offender from Tunbridge Wells has been caught using a fake online profile during attempts to groom and abuse a child.
Peter Johnson has now been jailed after he ignored previous measures imposed by the courts to prevent him from reoffending and targeted a teenage girl over several days.
Johnson, formerly known as Peter Austen, had been convicted in 2017 of possessing indecent images of children. For these offences, he received a suspended sentence and was added to the sex offender register for 10 years.
In October 2023, officers from Kent Police’s Offender Management Unit discovered Johnson had been using the social media platform Snapchat and was posting under an alias of Matt Harper.
He had been contacting another user who told him she was only 13 and sent her a series of explicit images over several days, which included videos of himself. Under the guise of Matt Harper, he had also sent voice messages, and images of himself fully clothed.
Unbeknown to Johnson, the child did not exist – her profile was part of a fictitious account. Some of the images he had sent showed his face and officers were able to recognise him as being Peter Johnson. He was arrested on 15th November at his home near Liptraps Lane, which was recorded on a body mounted camera from one of the police officers. A phone was seized and checks led to the discovery of an illegal image of a child, in the most serious category.
Johnson, 37, was charged with engaging in sexual communication with a child, causing a child to engage in a sexual act, causing a child to view an image of sexual activity, making an indecent image of a child and failing to comply with sex offender notification requirements.
He pleaded guilty and on 10th October 2024 Johnson was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court to three years’ imprisonment, having already served almost a year on remand.
This case acts as a reminder to parents of children who have mobile phones and tablets to help them understand the precautions they should take
When he has served his sentence, Johnson will be subject to a 12-year sexual harm prevention order and will have to comply with sex offender notification requirements, for life.
Detective Constable Steph Kirkin said ‘Johnson made persistent and repeated efforts to contact a child for the purposes of his own gratification. He made it explicitly clear that he intended to commit very serious sexual offences involving a young girl. We will do everything in our power to proactively target people who seek to commit sexual offences against children and ensure they receive a prison sentence. It is clear Johnson poses a risk to the public, and he now faces the consequences of his abhorrent desires.’
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