Court Report: 8th September 2020 @ Snaresbrook Crown Court
I am in Court 5 before His Honour Judge M Zeidman QC (The Honorary Recorder of Redbridge) for the 11am sentencing of a 31-year-old Mr Sergio Esposito, (2010 Politics graduate of Queen Mary University).
This is another case where there is one charge of attempted sexual communication with a child under the age of 16. Readers with a good memory may recall the previous case which was heard in this very courtroom albeit before a different judge.
The court hears that between 21st Jan 2019 and 30th Jan 2019 Mr Esposito was using the dating app ‘Grindr’ with the username ‘Lad25’. He started communicating with an undercover police officer who purported to be a 14-year-old boy called Tobias.
We hear the defendant requested “chilled discreet fun” from Tobias before sending a series of explicit and non-explicit pictures. The messaging transfers onto Whatsapp and continued for some 8 days before slowly petering out.
We hear that Mr Esposito suggested to Tobias that they meet in a park to have drinks and commit sexual activity. Mr Esposito would be prepared to bare the travel time of 40 minutes he tells the boy who had purported to have lived in Basingstoke. Further requests for Tobias to send explicit pictures were also made.
The defendant was arrested on 15th March 2019 and a search warrant was executed at his home address. He has since told his family including his wife and mother who were both present in court.
We’re told that it took some time for the defendant to be told that he was in fact communicating with a decoy police officer rather than a real 14-year-old boy which apparently caused Mr Esposito a deal of guilt and shame.
In mitigation the defence submits that if you look at the broad context of the messaging it’s only fantasy play. We are told he has had many similar conversations with other adult males and it’s “extremely rare for him to meet up”.
The judge considers the aggravating factors are that the offending showed significant planning over several days and exhibited a degree of grooming. The judge also looked at the age difference between Mr Esposito, 31 and Tobias, 14.
We hear Mr Esposito had a degree in Politics from Queen Mary University and worked in Westminster until the date of the offence. Research from the website rocketreach.co suggests he was an Executive Officer at Public Health England as well as a Parliamentary Researcher for Steve McCabe MP.
The court is told he now works as a night shift leader in a supermarket as well as a welfare officer for a homeless charity – although the court is reassured this does not involve contact with children.
Significant rehab work has been carried out and includes over 200 appointments with Sex Addicts Anonymous albeit some via zoom during lockdown. Defence counsel submit that “there is nothing more the defendant could have done to rehabilitate himself.“
We hear the wife is proud of her husband and of what he has become. We hear he is a devoted husband and father to a young daughter (although he’s deemed low risk by social services and they will not be monitoring the family).
In passing sentence His Honour Judge M Zeidman QC says to Mr Esposito that this “really was disgusting behaviour”. He considered that this offence justified an immediate prison sentence but balanced with mitigating factors which includes an early guilty plea, previous good character, and the “powerful evidence” of eight positive character statements.
His Honour told the court he considered that a prison sentence would not “assist the public” and would be disadvantageous to his rehabilitation.
The punishment is one of 200 hours unpaid work and 40 sessions as part of a 3-year community order.
Mr Esposito will be required to sign the Sex Offenders Register and be subject to a sexual harm prevention order, both for 5 years.
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