'Lucky' Leeds paedophile avoids jail after telling girl, 13, he wanted her to 'go on the pill'
A pervert who latched onto the profile of a 13-year-old girl and suggested she “go on the pill” was told he was lucky not to be charged with more serious offences.
Steven Malone asked the girl to travel to Leeds to meet him and made repeated inappropriate comments, asking her to have sex with him.
But the 46-year-old had little idea that the profile was run by an undercover police officer.
He admitted attempting to incite a girl into sexual activity and attempted sexual communications with a child, appearing at Leeds Crown Court for sentencing.
But Judge Timothy Clayson said he was “fortunate” that more serious charges were not put to him, although they were not disclosed in court.
Prosecutor Joe Culley said Malone had two accounts on social media and sent a private message to the profile in April last year.
He asked her if she liked older men, then quizzed her about being on the pill because he did not want to get her pregnant.
He asked her to come to Leeds, but she declined, but continued to make lewd suggestions about oral sex.
Communications between them stopped, but he then contacted the profile again in August last year from his second account.
Again, he turned the conversation sexual, asking if she would like to have sex with him. He later asked if she would like to come to his house.
He was arrested in September and denied having a sexual interest in children.
The court was told he was now homeless, but had been living on Ainsley Mews in Stanks.
Mitigating, Ed Youlton said he had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and had “expressed a lot of shame and remorse”.
He said the experience had been an “unpleasant ordeal”, to which Judge Clayson quickly retorted: “So it should be.”
Judge Clayson referred to the probation report about Malone claiming to have no sexual interest, telling him he did not believe him.
He added: “Your explanation was simply not credible.”
He gave him a three-year community order, telling Malone he would be closely monitored.
He told him he must complete 30 days rehabilitation with probation and ordered he complete the 26-session programme, Building Choices, to address his offending behaviour.
He was also given a 12-month exclusion order banning him from attending his former address, given a sexual harm prevention order and put on the sex offender register for five years.