Karl Cliff, 58, was jailed after messaging a ‘girl’ he believed to be 14 – he said he pictured her wearing nothing but a towel and told her he’d ‘do something to make her a woman’
A pervert engaged in sexual conversations with what he believed was a 14 year old girl. Karl Cliff, 58, encountered who he thought was a child on a dating application.
In reality, it was an adult decoy. Their exchanges began with him describing her as ‘absolutely stunning’. When the ‘girl’ revealed she was 14, Cliff claimed she ‘looked older’, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Minshull Street Crown Court was told the decoy utilised historical photographs of a woman known to her, with permission. As their conversation progressed, it became sexually explicit.
Cliff informed the ‘child’ he was ‘thinking about her in just a towel’. He described her as a ‘beautiful young lady’ and admitted to fantasising about her without clothes.
“He said he was thinking about her touching herself and said he wished he was there to show her what to do,” prosecutor Eleanor Gleeson revealed.
Cliff requested the ‘girl’s’ telephone number and their exchanges moved to WhatsApp. Following a hiatus of several weeks, he re-established contact.
“He told her he had been on holiday in Tenerife and invited her to stay over,” Ms Gleeson continued.
“He said she would have her own room and bathroom unless she wanted to stay with him. The girl asked him what would happen and he said to keep it a secret.”
Cliff proposed they could engage in sexual acts together before declaring: “I would treat you like a woman.”
He suggested they communicate via Kik, a messaging service. When questioned about his reasoning, he responded it was to ‘show you something… something that makes you a woman’. Cliff subsequently provided the girl with his home address.
Within days, a vigilante group arrived at his location, prompting police intervention.
Defence barrister Megan Tollitt explained that Cliff, who had no prior criminal record, was experiencing difficulties in his personal circumstances at the time.
She told the court: “He was working long hours and it was taking it’s toll on him,” adding: “His family were also struggling due to a decline in his mother’s health.
“He was looking online for social interaction. He struggles to put into words how much this has affected him.”
The hearing was told that he has subsequently been dismissed from his position as an engineer.
Sentencing Cliff to three years behind bars, Judge Tina Landale remarked: “You are a lonely and isolated man.”
Cliff, from Brookhey, Hyde, received a three-year prison sentence and was placed under a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years.
He is also required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.