Online groomer from Tipton jailed for child sex offences

Corey Anderson was jailed after at trial at Ipswich Crown Court

A 50-year-old man who groomed a teenage girl before sexually abusing her at his house has been jailed.

Corey Anderson, of Tipton, West Midlands, was sentenced to six years and 10 months at Ipswich Crown Court.

He was convicted in February of sexual activity with a child, meeting a child following a sexual grooming, sexual communication with a child and child abduction.

Suffolk Constabulary said he had met his victim online in 2018.

It said he then communicated with her for two years until arranging to meet her in the summer of 2020, when she was 15.

He met the victim in Suffolk before taking her back to his home.

'Significant risk'

Police located Anderson, of Castle Street, and the girl after the teenager was reported missing by her family, who had raised concerns she was with Anderson.

He was stopped while in a vehicle with the 15-year-old, arrested and taken back to Suffolk where he was later charged.

Along with his prison sentence, handed down on Friday, Anderson was given a sexual harm prevention order and instructed to sign the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Speaking afterwards, Det Con Sam Chandler said: "The defendant in this case poses a significant risk to children.

"Throughout the trial he insisted his motivations were purely honourable, in that he was concerned for the welfare of the child to whom he was not related."

But he said the reality was he had groomed her before "abducting her and sexually assaulting her at his home, all for his own sexual gratification".

He added: "I hope in time the victim can heal from the harm that was inflicted upon her at such a young age."