A St Albans paedophile turned up at the Galleria in Hatfield with a packet of Haribo for an 11-year-old girl called Demi whom he thought he was going to have sex with.
For the previous month, Paul Cartwright, 56, believed he had been talking to the child’s aunt, called Liv, who was in fact a decoy police officer.
Prosecutor Timothy Devlin told St Albans crown court on September 14 that they had exchanged explicit messages on the Kik app. On one occasion Cartwright had said he was “looking forward to her (the girl’s) newness.”
On January 20 this year, Cartwright arrived at the shopping centre with a bar of Galaxy for the aunt and the Haribo for the child. He was met by Liv who walked with him to the car park where he was arrested. He told the police it was all fantasy.
Cartwright, an engineer, appeared for sentence having pleaded guilty to arranging or facilitating the commission of child sex offences between December 20, 2021 and January 20, 2022.
Defending, Nathalie Carter said Cartwright had accepted responsibility and expressed remorse. She said the married father of two adult children was “totally ashamed of himself.”
She said he was of previous good character and at the time had been drinking “a huge amount of rum” at the time of the offence.
Ms Carter said he had not drunk for 9 months and had sought help from the Lucy Faithful Foundation, a charity that campaigns against child sex abuse.
Judge Lana Wood told Cartwright that during his conversations with the decoy officer he had been given “multiple opportunities” to step back.
She passed a 24-month jail sentence suspended for 24 months. Cartwright must attend 35 rehabilitation days and carry out 200 hours’ of unpaid work. He must also abide by an alcohol abstinence monitoring programme for 3 months. His Samsung phone was forfeit.
In addition, he must register as a sex offender and be subject to the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years.
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