Former teacher and Scout leader is jailed for sex offences

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A former primary school teacher and Scout leader has been jailed after having a sexual conversation with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl.

Unbeknown to Samuel Robinson, of Butt Lane, Milton, he was actually talking to someone from an online child activist group, Cambridgeshire Police said.

The 27-year-old made contact with the person on social media chat platforms between April 7 and April 11 last year, the force said.

The decoy repeatedly told Robinson they were 13 but he continued with the sexual conversation.

Robinson was arrested after the activist group visited his home on the evening of April 11.

His electronic devices were seized, and examination of his Snapchat account found he had also communicated with a 15-year-old girl between May 2021 and June 2022.

The conversation was sexual, and Robinson offered to send inappropriate pictures of himself.

Robinson was sentenced on Wednesday at Cambridge Crown Court to two years and 10 months in prison, police said.

The force said he had pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual communication with a child, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause a girl to engage in sexual activity.

Detective Constable Caroline Murphy said the offences had no connection with Robinson’s teaching or his role as a Scout leader.

She said: “Robinson was well aware of the obligation we all have to protecting young people so to contact what he believed were children in this way and engage them in grossly inappropriate conversation was appalling.

“This case shows the seriousness with which we take protecting children from harm.”