A REDDITCH man has been jailed for four years after pleading guilty to sex offences with a girl aged between 13 and 15.
Matthew Jenkins, aged 35 of Flaxley Close, appeared at Worcester Crown Court on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to all offences. These included attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause a child aged 13 to 15 to look at an image of sexual activity and attempting to cause or incite a girl aged 13 to 15 in sexual activity.
For the later offence he was sentenced to four years in prison. For the other two offences, he was given a further two sentences of 18 months each to be served concurrently. It means he will serve four years in total.
Jenkins, who was previously known by the alias Marcus Benjamin Pearson, has been placed on the sex offenders register and has been given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.
Jenkins had been involved in sexual communication with the profile of a 13-year-old child online. He had sent videos of himself masturbating and had also incited the child profile to masturbate.
He was arrested in May 2022 by West Mercia Police’s Online Child Sexual Exploitation Team (OCSET) at his home in Redditch. Photographs were taken at the scene and of clothing that matched with the photographs sent during the chat.
‘Online predator’
Det Con Rich Britton from OCSET said “Jenkins is an online predator who could have caused significant harm to children.
“Fortunately on this occasion, we were able to intercept him before he was able to prey up on an actual child, but this does not lessen the seriousness of his offences.
“We will continue to take online offences just as seriously as offences in our communities and bring offenders like Jenkins to justice.”
Help for victims
Police have released details of the following organisations for anyone who has been a victim of – or is concerned about – sexual abuse.
Contact the Stop It Now! child sexual abuse helpline – Stop It Now –
Help & Support during Indecent Images investigations (saferlives.com) –
