A Crown Court judge has questioned how a man could persistently bully a girl he believed was just 12 years old and demand nude photographs of her for which he was prepared to pay £10 each.
“What possessed you to engage in this type of behaviour is completely and utterly beyond me,” Judge Geraint Walters told Steven Farmer when the defendant appeared before Swansea Crown Court for sentencing today (Wednesday).
“How a father can behave like this towards another child is something that I have great difficulty in getting my mind around. And look at the price you’re about to pay for it.”
The court heard that on June 10, 2022, Farmer began messaging somebody he believed was a 12-year-old girl who he had found on a social media profile. The girl told him that she lived in Wales and was aged just 12 years old. The child, however, was a decoy undercover police officer.
On June 23 Fisher messaged the child once again, telling her to be careful, as she was only 12 years of age.
“He also told her that he was 18, despite the fact that he was 25 at the time,” counsel for the Crown, Brian Simpson KC, told the court.
“He asked the child if she masturbated and if she had had oral sex.”
The same day he began asking her if she would send him some nude photographs of herself, and repeated his request yet again on June 24.
“He offered her money for the photographs, and told her that the more she sent him, the more he’d give her,” continued Brian Simpson.
“He offered her £10 per picture.
“On June 27 he repeatedly asked her for naked photographs and he asked her if she’d let him ejaculate in her mouth.”
The same day Farmer sent the child a video of an adult woman performing oral sex, telling her that this was what he wanted.
“He offered her £100 when they met and asked for her friends’ details when she refused,” said Brian Simpson.
On July 13, the decoy officer stopped responding with the defendant.
Subscriber details attached to his mobile phone enabled the officers to identify Farmer and a search was subsequently carried out at his home near Tregaron. His mobile phone was seized and was found to contain 70 screenshots of the conversations he had made with the decoy officer.
Farmer, 26, pleaded guilty to inciting a child under 13 to engage in a sexual activity; attempting to engage in sexual communication with the child and of enticing a child to watch a sexual act, namely the video referred to by the Crown.
Farmer was represented in court by counsel David Singh, KC.
“The defendant has made a sizable error and this is something he bitterly regrets,” he said. “He’s ruined his future.”
Farmer was sentenced to three years in custody. He will serve half of this sentence in prison and the remaining sentence will be carried out on licence. A forfeiture order was made on his mobile phone.
“You must have been in a very dark place when you were doing this,” concluded Judge Geraint Walters when passing sentence.
