A university lecturer and children’s author has been sent to prison for sending explicit messages to an undercover police officer who was posing as a teenage girl. A court has been told that the university lecturer Ashley Lloyd Smith began chatting with who he believed to be ‘Sophie’ whilst in the knowledge that she was under the age of 16.
During one of the online conversations the 45-year-old, who is also a father asked her if he could be shown her private parts and asked her to touch them so that she could see. UNN’s Oliver Down understands that Mr Lloyd Smith also self-published three children’s novels as well as running writing workshops in Derby.
Lloyd Smith’s website describes himself as ‘an award-winning, writer, director and actor’. It emerged in court at the Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court that the accused contacted ‘Sophie’ on April the 1st 2019. After contacting ‘Sophie’ it was made clear to Lloyd Smith that she was under the age of 16. Despite this, he asked if he could touch himself sexually while she watched.
In court, he plead guilty to one charge of intentionally communicating with a person under 16 for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification. The judge at the court jailed him for 26 weeks and described the offence as ‘disgusting, depraved and aggravated by the location of the offence and his concerted efforts to avoid detection’.
In addition to the jail sentence that was handed down Lloyd Smith was ordered to pay a £122 victim surcharge and was placed on the sex offender register for seven years.
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Current Affairs Correspondent | My name is Oliver Down I am 22, and a staunch brexiteer. I am a Bristolian lad who studied politics in Leicester. I believe in free speech and accurate journalism and I won’t be afraid to give you “the other side” of the story!
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