A Norfolk stable hand found with hundreds of indecent images of children preyed on teenage girls' love of horses and riding to lure them into sexual chats.
Anderson Morales Ramon, 32, groomed two 15-year-olds he met when they went horse riding at the stables where he worked.
He sent messages asking one girl whether she wanted to be “best friends with benefits” while suggesting to the other that they could have sex while on a ride in the countryside.
The father-of-four was arrested in May 2019 after the girls reported him to authorities after they confined their experiences with one another at school.
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Norwich Crown Court was told the messages had begun in January 2019 as friendly exchanges but had gradually become more explicit with references to sex acts.
He also sent an image of part of his body and had solicited one of the girls to send pictures of herself.
Joe Bird, prosecuting, said: “It is plain he used his position as an apprentice at the stable yard to befriend these girls who shared an interest in horses.”
When arrested, police discovered 224 indecent images of children on his laptop, including 33 of category A - the most serious type.
They also found 29 prohibited images and 49 extreme porn still images and videos, some involving dogs and horses.
Morales Ramon, who now lives at Havering-atte-Bower in Essex, pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual communications with children and five images offences.
Six allegations of child sexual assault which he had denied were ordered to lie on file after the prosecution offered no evidence.
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Recorder Simon Taylor sentenced him to 18 months suspended for two years saying he had “substantial mitigation”.
“That doesn’t excuse what you did,” he added.
He was placed on sex offenders register for 10 years and made subject of a sexual harm prevention order that limits his access to children.
Eleanor Laws, mitigating, said at the time he had been aged 26 and had shown a “level of immaturity” while "feeling isolated and depressed”.
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