Web sting jails paedophile
A trainee teacher who used the internet to try and buy a nine-year-old girl for sex, was jailed for a total of three years today.
Luke Sadowski, 19, a student at university in Canterbury, was caught in a police sting set up by British and US officers after he contacted an American website offering "to fulfil unique desires".
He emailed the site requesting "a girl aged roughly 10 of white race for three nights" and was told he would have to pay $350 for the child.
But in fact the website was a police front set up by US law-enforcement agencies. American officers immediately contacted their UK colleagues and told them of Sadowski's activities.
An undercover officer codenamed Ed arranged to meet Sadowski at Victoria Station in September last year. He had earlier offered to pay "Ed" £250 pounds for a nine-year-old child, Southwark Crown Court heard.
"Ed" drove Sadowski to a hotel where more police were waiting and he was arrested and found to be in possession of a replica handgun. En route to his arrest he spoke about murdered youngster Sarah Payne.
Sadowski's university room was searched and police uncovered a safe containing handcuffs, leg shackles, a roll of tape and an article about the abduction and murder of Milly Dowler.
Sadowski, of Bishop Stortford, Hertfordshire, pleaded guilty to attempting to incite another to procure a girl under the age of 21 and possession of an imitation firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence.
Prosecuting, Lisa Wilding told the court: "It's of enormous regret to all of those involved in the prosecution of Sadowski before you that he is charged with a rather convoluted allegation in the form of an attempted incitement.
"It is a third-party offence in that the criminality would have been by whoever in fact procured the girl for intercourse.
"The maximum sentence is one of two years and this conviction doesn't place the defendant on the sex offenders register."
According to defence counsel Emma Edham, Sadowski felt "disgusted with himself and realised he was making a mistake" on the way to the planned pick-up point.
Miss Edham described Sadowski as a loner who had always found it very difficult to socialise. Much of the background to his disturbed lifestyle was put down to the trauma of his parents' marriage breakdown.
Outside court, Detective Chief Inspector Matthew Sarti, of the Met's Paedophile Unit, said: "By conducting this operation we have identified and brought to justice a young man who posed a considerable danger to children.
"The contents of Sadowski's safe show what can only be described as sadistic implements of restraint, apparently assembled within days of his newfound freedom and financial liberty at college.
"Sadowski intended to study to become a primary school teacher and we can only be grateful that he was caught well in advance of this becoming possible".
