Locations
Birbeck Road, Caldicot, Monmouthshire, NP26
Description
A CALDICOT predator sent sexually explicit messages and videos to who he thought were 12 and 13 year old girls online before asking if they would meet him at a hotel for sex.
Neil Rockliffe messaged ‘Freya’ on the Just Say Hi online dating app on March 6. The account was being run by a member of a paedophile hunter group, and they told Rockliffe they were aged 13.
Despite this, they exchanged numbers and the conversation moved to WhatsApp.
During the conversation, Rockliffe referenced that what he was doing was “illegal” and that he was “too old for her”.
However he exchanged pictures with ‘Freya’, and soon turned the conversation sexual – including asking her what she was wearing and if she watched porn.
Rockliffe then began instructing ‘Freya’ how to masturbate, and asked her to send pictures of her doing so – which she refused to do.
“It seems you saw yourself as some sort of instructor or teacher,” said Judge Lucy Crowther.
Over the next few days his messages became more explicit, as he told the decoy he wanted to have sex with them. He also sent explicit pictures and videos.
In one message Rockliffe referenced her dad and asked if she wanted to sex with a man older than her father, before adding: ‘I want to be your first’.
He asked the decoy about going to a hotel with him to have sex, but said she would have to say she was his daughter if questioned by members of staff. He also asked whether the ‘girl’ would be the first in her class to have sex.
Rockliffe asked ‘Freya’ if she had any friends she wanted to join them, and she gave him the number of ‘Sophie’ – another decoy account.
The defendant started a group chat with both decoys – and ‘Sophie’ identified she was 12 years old.
Rockliffe sent messages again referring to meeting in a hotel for sex, asking the ‘girls’ for photographs, and sending explicit images.
The messages were passed on to the police, and a paedophile hunter group attended the defendant’s address.
In interview, Rockliffe said he believed ‘Freya’ was 18. He accepted sending explicit messages, pictures of his penis and a video of him masturbating, but said he was “drunk” and “had no intention to meet” as “it was just talk”.
However, he later admitted two offences each of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to incite a child to do a sexual act, and attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act.
Rockliffe, 55, of Birbeck Road, had no previous convictions.
“Clearly the best mitigation available to this defendant is the fact that he pleaded guilty,” said Martha Smith-Higgins, appearing for Rockliffe.
She acknowledged there was “very little” she could say to mitigate the offences, but added he was “drinking very heavily” at the time – sometimes up to 2.5 litres of vodka a day.
The defendant had been on an 18+ dating website so did not seek out children, she said, but Rockliffe accepted what he did after he found out the purported ages of the ‘girls’ was “obscene”.
Judge Crowther jailed Rockliffe for three years and one month.
A hearing will be held on August 19 to consider an application for a sexual harm prevention order.