Suspended sentence for dad who sought prostitute for son, 14

A man who tried to hire a prostitute to take his 14-year-old son's virginity as a present has been spared jail. The Polish national drove the boy to a red-light district in Nottingham, suggesting he pick a woman they saw standing at the roadside. But the 42-year-old father was arrested because the teenager had chosen an undercover police officer, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was handed a ten-month prison sentence, suspended for a year. The full-time carer, from Bulwell, Nottingham, earlier admitted a charge of trying to solicit a woman to have sex with a child. The court heard that the father was arrested in the Mapperley area of the city at 11.30pm on July 26 last year during an undercover vice squad operation.

Adrian Harris, prosecuting, told the court how the officer kept up the pretence until a deal had been struck. 'An undercover police officer whose codename was Sarah said a car drove up to her,' he said. 'It was driven by the defendant who beckoned her over. He was not alone in the car and in the passenger seat was a boy. The defendant said: "Hello baby, how much?"

'She said, "It depends what you want." He replied, "Come on baby, what is it that you do? How much for a proper sh*g for him?" And then he pointed to his son.' Mr Harris said the undercover officer gave a price of £25 which was negotiated down to £20. 'The defendant said he would pull over and at this point he was arrested by plainclothes police officers and both he and the boy were interviewed separately.'

Mr Harris added: 'The boy said that they had driven past the girl and his dad pointed to her and said "Will she do?" 'He said yes and they had turned round. He said his dad did this because he was still a virgin and he was taking care of that for him.'

Judge Jonathan Teare said he was sparing the man from jail because of his otherwise excellent character. The judge told him: 'You have a duty of care to your son and that is to look after his moral welfare, not as you might think to break him in to the ways of sex through a prostitute.' The boy will be allowed to stay with his father, who must sign the sex offenders register for five years.