Prison for man caught in child grooming ‘sting’

Friday 16 December 2016

A 25-year-old man has been sent to prison for nine months for attempting to meet a 14-year-old girl whom he’d been grooming on the internet.

Dutchman, Tim Woertman, was caught in what the judge, Deputy Bailiff, Tim Le Cocq, described as a classic newspaper ‘sting’ set up the Jersey Evening Post.

The court heard that in June the paper created a fake account on a number of web-dating sites. During a 15-day period more than 100 men contacted the fictitious 18-year-old ‘Lucy White’, who, after a number of ‘conversations’, told them she was really 14. On discovering this some of the men broke off contact whilst others carried on with normal, non-sexual conversations. But, as transcripts of the chat log suggested, Woertman made it clear he wanted sexual relations with her.

Woertman:  Do you want more than a kiss? X

Lucy: What do u want to do? X

Woertman: I don’t mind if you touch mine and I touch yours?

Woertman: If you want x

The conversation then went into even more graphic descriptions.

Eventually ‘Lucy’ suggested they meet at Winston Churchill Park in St Brelade’s Bay. An undercover reporter tailed Woertman getting on the bus and heading out east, and a photographer later snapped Woertman sitting on a bench in the park waiting for ‘Lucy’ who never turned up. The 'pixelated' picture of Woertman appeared on the paper’s front page on Saturday 25^th June. Two weeks later the police arrested him.

Initially he admitted to corresponding with ‘Lucy’ on the internet and going to meet her, but claimed he knew it was a fake profile and continued his conversations to provoke a reaction because he felt he was being tricked. He denied ever wanting to meet a 14-year-old.

Woertman’s defence advocate, Michael Hayes, alleged the JEP’s actions were motivated by a desire ‘to sell more papers’ and not for ‘moral reasons or to move on the baton of justice.' He went on to compare the paper’s actions with those of the News of the World’s discredited journalist known as the Fake Sheik; actions he claimed should be consigned to history.

Whilst Crown Advocate Richard Pedley recommended a 12-month prison sentence, Woertman’s defence felt that was excessive given he’d admitted the offence, had no previous convictions, had excellent references, and was very unlikely to re-offend. Whilst Deputy Bailiff, Tim Le Cocq, and the jurats agreed, they nevertheless said because the charge was ‘extremely serious’ they had no choice but to send Woertman to prison for nine months.