Hove paedophile Martin Latimer appears on Channel 4 show

Martin Latimer from Hove appeared on Channel 4 programme Undercover Police: Hunting Paedophiles on Monday.

He travelled to Essex to meet what he thought would be a 13-year-old girl called “Keira” who he had been grooming online.

It turned out to be an undercover sting to catch the sick pervert.

But viewers were left shocked that after admitting facilitating and arranging a child sex offence, causing a child to watch a sexual act and engaging a child in sexual chat, he was sentenced to just three years in prison at Basildon Crown Court in May 2019.

Despite confessing to having Easter eggs, popcorn, a vibrator and butt plug on him, he insisted that he had just planned to “watch TV” with Keira.

The Daily Mail reported on viewers’ reactions to the court sentence on social media. One said: “Three years is a joke, he will do a year and a half and then get out to do it again. Chemical castration has to be part of the punishment.”'

A second said: “Three f****** years?? I have no doubt that if this was real life that the girl wouldn't of got out alive! F****** horrified! Absolutely disgusting. What a joke of a sentencing!”

On the programme, an undercover officer described how within minutes of creating a social media account, “Keira” was bombarded with demands for sex images, many of whom were from adult men purporting to be teenagers.

Hove paedophile Martin Latimer was arrested attempting to meet a 13-year-old girl in Essex. He appeared on Channel 4's Undercover Police: Hunting Paedophiles.

Among them was Latimer, then aged 35, of Connaught Road, Hove, who was not known to the authorities at the time and was not a registered sex offender.

He went to Essex and booked himself a hotel room in the expectation of meeting the 13-year-old girl.

An undercover officer on the Channel 4 programme said: “We've quite quickly this morning got into sexualised chat.

“He's been quite graphic, what he wants me to do, how he wants to do it. He likes the fact that I'm childish and thirteen-years-old. That clearly appears to be a driver for him.”

Latimer told the undercover officer he was pleasuring himself at the same time as sending the messages.

The investigation team swooped on the hotel where he was staying and arrested him.

Read more on The Argus:

• Martin Latimer jailed after taking sex toys and sweets to rendezvous with 'girl, 13'

• Faces of Sussex defendants jailed in October 2019 for their crimes

Latimer told police: “I arranged to meet someone who was thirteen. We were planning to meet and to be honest, we were probably going to watch TV and see where things went. I would have been fine just talking.”

Officers asked if he was hoping for something sexual to happen, Latimer replied: “No, not really, no.

“I'm attracted to children because I get on with them - it's not complicated. It's not a grown up.

“Grown ups judge you for everything. I'm more of a loner, and alone because I tend not to get on with grown up people.”

Latimer was then asked to tell the cops what he had brought with him for his meeting with Keira.

He said: “Err I bought Easter eggs and popcorn, which are obviously food and then a vibrator and butt plug just so I had them.

“My intention was more to have them if it came up, which obviously it wouldn't have so…

Hove paedophile Martin Latimer was jailed for trying to meet a 13-year-old girl for sex in Essex, he featured on Channel 4's Undercover Police: Hunting Paedophiles programme, leaving viewers shocked at his lack of remorse

“But I still wouldn't have done anything if it wasn't wanted.”

When probed what he would have done if the girl had wanted it, Latimer replied: “Then I probably would and I can't say I have lots of respect for the laws.

“Yeah, I really don't care, but, yeah, if it was wanted I probably would, but I wouldn't have forced it.

“I don't really care about laws. I feel about what feels right to me.”

Latimer said he did consider himself a risk to children, but officers told him: “Even if it’s voluntary, it’s still abuse.”

On social media, viewers said: “This is tough to watch, no regret in his face at all. Disgusting.”

The NSPCC said: “Latimer set out to groom and sickeningly abuse a 13-year-old girl showing just how easy it is for predators to target vulnerable children online.

“Last year in Essex, police recorded 170 sexual offences against children with an online element, which is why we are calling for statutory regulation of social media to compel tech companies to protect children on their sites as a priority.

“Latimer has shown no remorse for his actions and he will now be put on the Sex Offenders' Register for life.”