Officer admits trying to incite sexual activity with child

A police officer was arrested attempting to groom a ‘young girl’ online in a sting operation by his own colleagues. Police Constable Nicholas Pool – currently suspended from Cumbria Constabulary – made contact with the ‘girl’, who he thought was 12 years old. But instead a court heard she was in fact an undercover officer who was scouring chatrooms and the web trying to track down predatory paedophiles. PC Pool admitted three charges of attempting to incite a girl aged under 13 to engage in sexual activity. At Carlisle Crown Court on Friday (January 20) the officer, from Penrith, spoke only to confirm his name and enter his pleas. The court heard all the incidents occurred last year on November 27, December 11 and December 12. A previous hearing was told one of the offences was in Penrith, with the other two in nearby Ulverston, Cumbria. Cumbria’s most senior judge, His Honour Judge Peter Davies, adjourned the case for pre-sentence reports until March 8. However, barristers for both the prosecution and defence agreed that PC Pool would still not be ready for sentencing on that day. No application for bail was made and he was remanded in custody.