December 2013

Girl, 13, asked to perform sex acts by Cheltenham man on Facebook – Offender walks free from court

A 13-year-old girl was asked to perform sex acts by a man she met at a Halloween party.

Cody Nicholas, 22, contacted the girl via Facebook after meeting her at a friend’s party, Gloucester Crown Court heard.

The girl had been a sexual innocent until Nicholas started “talking dirty” to her via the social networking site, the court was told on Friday.

She was “charmingly naive” and did not understand what Nicholas was suggesting to her so she asked others to explain.

Nicholas, of Moors Avenue, Hester’s Way, admitted inciting the girl to engage in sexual activity and was placed on a two-year community order with 60-days attendance of a sex offender programme.

Judge Jamie Tabor QC told him: “You engaged in sexualised conversation with a girl who really was still just a little girl. Such behaviour is predatory and reflects very badly on you.”

“You will now be on the sex offender register for seven years and that means you are a marked man.

“This young girl did not deserve your attentions in this way. She should have been allowed to grow up quietly in her own time rather than have some young man describing himself as you did and getting her to perform acts.

“She was charmingly naive and that has been stripped from her at a fast rate by the likes of you.”

The judge praised the girl for having the moral strength to refuse to do the things Nicholas asked.

Prosecutor Janine Woods told the court the girl met Nicholas at a friend’s Halloween party last year and he began contact with her on Facebook the next day.

“He talked about wanting to talk dirty to her,” said Mrs Wood. “He wanted to meet up with her but they never did meet.

“But he kept contacting her and asking her to do things to herself which she did not understand. She said no and then found out from a friend what it was he was asking.”

The messages between them were discovered because the girl’s mother heard from a friend that her daughter was in contact with Nicholas, said Mrs Wood.

Judge Tabor said: “The mother did what any sensible mum would do – she stepped in and and looked at her daughter’s Facebook account”

Mrs Wood went on “The girl was then seen and she said she had been embarassed too tell her mother.”

When Cody was arrested he claimed to have had blackouts and not to remember anything about his contact with the girl. He has a previous conviction in 2005 for a sexual assault, the court heard.