A CEREDIGION man repeatedly asked who he thought was a 12-year-old girl for oral sex and offered cash for explicit photographs.

Steven Farmer initiated a conversation with a girl on the Kik social media site on June 10 last year.

The ‘girl’ replied telling Farmer she was a 12-year-old living in Wales, but it was in fact an undercover police officer behind the account.

He told the ‘girl’ he was 18, when actually he was 25 at the time.

“She sent a photograph to him, and he said she looked way too young and it would have to stay between them,” prosecutor Brian Simpson said.

Farmer asked whether she had a boyfriend and if she had performed sexual acts on him, as well as asking if she would perform oral sex on him.

He asked the ‘girl’ multiple times for naked photographs, offering her “£10 a picture”, and offered to meet up – including at her house if her parents were not home.

Swansea Crown Court heard that Farmer sent the ‘girl’ pornography, as well as a picture of an erect penis which he said was his.

The messages continued through to July, where he asked again about her sexual experience.

The last message was sent on July 19, after the ‘girl’ had stopped replying to Farmer, and police raided his Tregaron home on July 28, seizing his mobile phone.

“He has made a sizable error, something that he bitterly regrets,” said David Singh, defending.

“His behaviour was wholly inappropriate. He has no intention of repeating his behaviour.”

Farmer, now 26, of Rowton in Telford, had no previous convictions.

Last month, he admitted attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause or incite a child under the age of 13 to engage in penetrative sexual activity, and attempting to cause a child under the age of 13 to look at an image of sexual activity. 

Sentencing Farmer, Judge Geraint Walters said: “Your own child is a good deal younger than this girl. How her own father can act like that I have a hard time getting my head around.

“You have jeopardised your family life. You have jeopardised your time with your own children. You have already paid somewhat of a price, effectively being chased out of your own village.”

Farmer was jailed for three years for attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in penetrative sexual activity, and received six month sentences for each of the other offences, running concurrently.

He must also register as a sex offender for life, and was made the subject of a life-long sexual harm prevention order.