A Household Cavalry soldier who plotted to rape a seven-year-old girl and a 10-month-old baby was sentenced to 12 years in prison after he was caught by an undercover police officer posing as the children's mother.
Graham Jarvis, 38, agreed to drive from his barracks in London to a home in Wales to sexually abuse the children, but the woman he was messaging was in fact an undercover officer.
Judge: 'Not a case of fantasy'
At Southwark Crown Court on Thursday, Judge Adam Hiddleston told Jarvis that "this was not a case of fantasy on your part," concluding the soldier was serious about raping the children.
The judge said: "I have no doubt whatsoever at the time you made the arrangements, you believed the children were real, a seven-year-old girl and a 10-month-old baby, you wanted to meet them and when you did, with the assistance of their mother, you intended to rape them."
He said he read Jarvis's messages "with horror," saying they betrayed his "cold and clinical" treatment of the children and willingness to "treat them simply as objects to satisfy your urges."
Offences in January 2024
The offences happened in mid-January 2024, when Jarvis started chatting online with a woman who said she had two daughters, one a seven-year-old girl and the other a 10-month-old baby.
The court heard Jarvis said he is "into girls" and began to arrange a meeting, agreeing he would drive from London to the woman's home. He quizzed the mother on her older daughter's sexual experience, and was told she had previously been abused by two men. Turning to the baby, Jarvis asked the mother to help him carry out the rape.
Jarvis had planned to travel to Wales in February 2024, but police then moved in to arrest him.
Sentencing and military dismissal
Lisa Wilson, representing Jarvis, told the court he was kicked out of the military after his convictions. She said Jarvis was "at a low ebb" due to a "traumatic period" when he committed the offences and said: "The court will be asking itself why a man with an extremely positive military career found himself committing such disgusting offences."
He has now completed a degree in animal psychology at the Open University.
Jarvis, who was living at barracks in Hyde Park, denied the offences and was convicted at a trial. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for two counts of attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence.
The judge ruled Jarvis may pose an ongoing risk to children and ordered he serve at least eight years of his sentence behind bars, with two extra years on licence added to his sentence. He has been ordered to serve at least two-thirds of his 12-year prison term.
