A sex offender from Banks was arrested as he arrived home on a flight from Vietnam after exchanging a series of depraved messages with what he believed was a 13-year-old girl. Matthew Garrod arranged to have sex with the supposed teenager at a hotel and suggested that his friends could also abuse her. Unbeknown to him, he was actually chatting to an undercover police officer operating a decoy profile on Snapchat and messaging app Kik.
Arrest at Manchester Airport
Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday, Monday, that Garrod, of Church Road in Banks, West Lancashire, was arrested at Manchester Airport on May 9 2024, with his mobile phone being seized by police. When analysed, the device was found to contain chats between the now 33-year-old defendant and an officer posing as a 13-year-old girl on the two social media platforms.
Peter Wilson, prosecuting, described how Garrod first messaged the so-called teenager on September 13 2021 using the account "Open British Man" with a display name of "Matty Alex", detailing how he was a 28-year-old man from Leeds. The girl's profile, which stated that she "loved chocolate, pizza and chilling on school holidays", contained a year of birth of 2007, pictures of a piglet and a lemur and a "red warning" which read: "Please don't send me dirty Kik sexting."
Explicit messages and arrangements
Garrod went on to "engage her interest in animals" by sending pictures of his pets before "beginning to speak to her in a sexualised manner", telling her that his penis was "considered really big" before sending an explicit image of himself and "asking her what she would like to do with it". While she told him that she was "going to her nan's house, because she was keeping an eye on her" and her dad was "well strict", he went on to "make arrangements to meet in person and have sex with her" at a hotel.
Garrod also told the girl that he wanted to "get her more experienced" and suggested that she could "practice with his friends sometimes too". His internet history subsequently contained searches asking "how do I permanently deactivate my account on Kik?". Under interview, Garrod claimed that he knew he had been speaking to an adult in his messages and was "acting out of fantasy, because he was involved in a group about daddy daughter and little girls". He has no previous convictions.
Defence and sentencing
Michael O'Brien, defending, told the court: "Whilst it was a guilty plea on the day of trial, that plea is, in my respectful submission, probably the most significant feature of mitigation for this defendant. He was able to reflect upon his admitted behaviour, reflect upon the position he advanced by way of a defence and the position to be advanced at trial."
Garrod admitted attempted sexual communications with a child. Appearing suited in the dock, he was handed a 12-month imprisonment suspended for two years with 200 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 25 days. Sentencing, Recorder Mark Cooper said: "You engaged, in that 10-day period, in communications with a person who actually was a law enforcement operative. You were fully aware that she was 13 years of age. You deliberately ignored a red warning, stating that she did not want to get involved in dirty sexting, so to speak."
Garrod was also told to pay court costs of £1,630 within 28 days and given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order. He will be required to sign the sex offenders' register for the next decade.
