A PERVERT who groomed a 14-year-old ‘boy’ on Grindr before arranging to meet up so he could sexually abuse him has been jailed.
When Anthony Cunningham turned up to meet the child - who was really an undercover officer - police were lying in wait instead.
The 59-year-old of Long Ground, Oxford had already admitted attempting to meet a boy under 16 following grooming and attempting to incite a boy to engage in sexual activity.
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He was sentenced for those crimes at Oxford Crown Court today.
Outlining the case prosecutor Kim Preston said the online grooming took place between May 5 and 12 this year.
Cunningham met what he believed to be a 14-year-old boy while using the dating application Grindr.
Ms Preston said the conversation became ‘increasingly sexualised’ despite the undercover officer giving their apparent age.
Cunningham invited the decoy child to his home to ‘play around on the bed’ and said he would show him how to perform a sex act.
A meeting was arranged at Oxford’s Hollywood Bowl near the Kassam Stadium.
When Cunningham turned up for the rendezvous he was met instead with police officers and he was arrested.
Ms Preston went on to say: “The Crown take the view that there is minimising on the defendant’s behalf of his role in the offence.”
In mitigation Peter Du Feu, defending, said that his client had been ‘going through a very bad phase’ with ‘low mood.’
He said that Cunningham had been experiencing problems with a landlord at the time and said that his client had ‘some intellectual deficits.’
He added that his client was ‘completely shocked and embarrassed by his own conduct.’
The court also heard that Cunningham had no other ‘material’ previous convictions.
Sentencing, Judge Ian Pringle QC said: "I accept you were deeply ashamed by the way you behaved, and rightly so."
Cunningham was jailed for a total of two years and he must also pay a statutory victim surcharge which goes to a centralised fund in order to assist the victims of crime.
He will also sign the sex offenders register.
Judge Pringle told him: "Make sure that this is the last time you ever appear in court."
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