A YOUTH who tried to persuade a 14-year-old girl to have sex with him while he was already on bail for having sex with two 13-year-old girls has walked free from court.
Lewis Walker was told it was only because the offences took place in 2015 that he was not being jailed – even though the delay was partly because he had denied two of the charges.
He only changed his pleas to guilty on two charges of sexual activity with a child following his arrest after failing to turn up for his trial at Warwick Crown Court in February.
The 19 year-old, until recently of Saltisford, Warwick, had previously admitted two charges of making indecent images of children and one of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
He was given a three-year community sentence and ordered to take part in a sex offender programme for up to 100 days and a rehabilitation activity for 40 days – and to register as a sex offender for two-and-a-half years.
Prosecutor Ben Gow said when Walker was arrested he admitted the first girl had told him she was 13, but claimed he believed both girls were 16.
He said she had asked him to have sex with her and he had said ‘go on then’ – but he then claimed they had not done so and had only kissed.
The police seized his phone, and when they examined it they found web searches showing an interest in under-age girls as well as 11 indecent images of girls aged from 11 to 15.
Walker was granted bail, and in September a girl he was dating lent him her new phone.
But when he returned it, because she believed he had been cheating on her, she checked for messages – and found a Facebook chat in which he had asked a 14-year-old girl to meet him for sex.
But that girl’s response had questioned why would she want to have sex with him, added Mr Gow.
Lee Masters, defending, said after entering his guilty pleas Walker had been subjected to ‘abuse and physical intimidation’ to the extent that the police helped him to move.
But he lost that address when he was remanded in custody in early April when he was arrested for failing to attend court, and the probation service would be providing him with a list of emergency accommodation.
