Dad caught in online sting sent sex act video to ’12-year-old girl’

Andrew Teale called the child, who was in fact an undercover police officer, ‘beautiful and sexy’ after setting up a profile with the username ‘Andy4Fun’.

The bumbling 43-year-old pervert also showed face while performing a sex act via webcam to the ’girl’, before apologising as he only wanted to give her a ‘quick flash’.

He was arrested however and charged with attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child and attempting to engage in sexual activity in the presence of a child.

Liverpool Crown Court heard on Thursday, December 8, how Teale has since changed his name, however his new identity was not stated, and he was allowed to walk free from the building.

Neil Bisarya, prosecuting, explained how the offences occurred between January 10 and 14 this year, with the defendant being ‘aware he was engaging in sexual communications with someone he believed was a child for his own sexual gratification’.

He was caught as part of Operation Meteor – an undercover operation to combat online child sex exploitation and identify offenders posing a serious risk to children.

The court heard how Teale was engaging in chats with an undercover officer from North West Regional Organised Crime Unit purporting to be a 12-year-old called Izzy.

The offender used usernames such as Andy4Fun and AndyMark89 on a number of different platforms, initiating the conversation by telling ‘Izzy’ he was called Andy and from Warrington.

He asked her what she was looking for and why she was not in school, and when she told him from the outset that she was only aged 12, he said she made him ‘feel old’.

During the offence period, mainly talking on Skype, he asked her about her sexual experience and what ‘naughty things’ she had done.

He then asked for photos of her to perform sex acts on himself to, and he did so in a private video chat to her, accidentally showing his face and then apologising for showing her more than a ‘quick flash’.

He would often apologise for being ‘horny’ and for his sexualised questions, and he would change the subject to cars or theme parks.

The conversation would revert back to type however, with Teale bragging to her that he had once had a threesome.

He also asked her for photos, called her beautiful, asked what colour her knickers were and said he was imagining her naked.

Andrew Teale was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court

Teale described himself as ‘nice looking but a bit overweight after Christmas’, before calling her sexy and saying he wished he was younger so he could be with her.

The defendant told the girl he was on a video call with a woman who was performing a sex act using a carrot, but said that he ‘preferred’ the youngster.

On January 28, officers from the online child abuse investigation team executed a warrant at Teale’s Warrington home to arrest him, where he promptly handed over his Samsung Galaxy phone and told police: “It’s all on there.”

He gave a mainly no comment police interview except confirming he was married, despite telling ‘Izzy’ otherwise, with children, while he also handed over his device passwords.

The phone was analysed and did not contain any ‘illegal images’, however police found material which ‘indicated an interest in indecent images of children’, alongside around 200 pictures of him ‘in sexual poses in various states of undress’.

In defence of Teale, who has no previous convictions and pleaded guilty to both offences, Simon Christie said: “He is a man of previous good character with a good family life, that was all going well until over a very short space of time it all came to grief.”

He said that the defendant stopped the conversation himself, has sought treatment by referring himself to the Lucy Faithfull Foundation – a charity dedicated to preventing child sexual abuse – and has not sought to be evasive or minimising.

“The defendant knows what he did was very wrong and quite vile, but there is an abundance of material showing his rehabilitation is entirely practical,” Mr Christie added.

The court was told that Teale had lost an ‘exceptionally well-paid job’ as head of innovation for a prominent financial firm, and that ‘boredom and self-stimulation was the motivation behind the offending rather than a sexual interest in children’.

Before sentencing, recorder Tania Griffiths said: “Your shame and remorse seems to be genuine. You stopped yourself and recognised the severity of what you had done.

“You also lost a very well-paid job, and no doubt this has caused major disruption to your family life. I consider it highly unlikely you will ever come back before these courts again.”

Teale, now of Abbey Road in Tyldesley, was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for two years.

He was also ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and up to 35 rehabilitation activity requirement days, as well as abide by a sexual harm prevention order and sex offender notification and registration requirements, both for 10 years.

In addition, the court approved an order for the forfeiture and destruction of the defendant’s mobile phone seized by police.