Sex offender jailed after trying to meet 14 year old girl

A sex offender is behind bars after he was caught trying to meet a child he had met online for sex who was actually an undercover police officer.

Robert Ive, of Camberley, Surrey, arranged to meet a person he believed to be a 14 year old girl for sex and travelled to a train station with cans of Strongbow cider to give her.

But the profile was actually an undercover officer and Ive was arrested as he stepped off the train on to the platform.

Following his arrest 42-year-old Ive admitted to police he shouldn’t have done it.

Ive started talking on Wednesday, 18 May this year to the online profile and he was immediately informed she was 14 years old.

Despite this, Ive asked her about sexual acts she has performed and asked her to perform sexual acts on herself.

He continued to groom the girl, who told him she was from Leicestershire, into travelling 100 miles to Hampshire for the purpose of staying with him and having sex.

Ive told the girl how to travel without people becoming suspicious and pretended to be the girl’s friend’s dad in a phone call to her ‘mum’, another undercover officer.

On Tuesday 31 May Ive was arrested at Farnborough train station where he was expecting to meet the girl.

Appearing at Winchester Crown Court on Thursday 11 August, following a guilty plea, Ive was jailed for four years and eight months for arranging/facilitating the commission of a child sex offence and breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

PC Kirsti Innes, of the Internet Child Abuse Team, said: “Robert Ive is a manipulative sexual offender who has various other convictions for child sex offences and attempted to meet who he thought was a 14 year old child for his own sexual gratification.

“Our specially trained officers are experienced in tracking these types of offenders and bringing them to justice.

“Had it not been for the work of dedicated officers this man could have gone on to groom a real child instead of being behind bars.”