A Medway man has been jailed for attempting to arrange a sexual encounter with a child.
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Kyle Pepperell, 36, formerly of an address in Gillingham, exchanged several explicit messages with who he believed to be a 13-year-old girl between January and February 2021.
He requested that intimate images be sent to him via WhatsApp, which he also used to post an indecent video of himself.
The messages were later reported to Kent Police and Pepperell was arrested on Friday 5 March 2021. He was subsequently charged with three counts of attempting to commit a child sex offence.
Pepperell denied the offences but was found guilty following a trial at Maidstone Crown Court, where on Friday 7 July 2023 he was sentenced to five years and three months’ imprisonment.
Detective Constable Deniz Aslan of the Paedophile Online Investigation Unit said: ‘Criminals such as Pepperell should be under no illusion that online chat rooms and social media are a safe space for them to groom vulnerable young people. If you go online with the intention of committing a child sex offence, you will be arrested and sent to prison.’