Pallion man previously convicted of sex offenses caught sending sexualised chats and images to what he thought was a teenage girl
A Pallion man has been jailed after he sent sexualised messages and images to what he believed was an underage girl, but was actually a decoy operated by police officers.
Kevin Rowland, formerly Tomlinson, was caught following a complex police operation by officers from the North East Regional Organised Crime Unit (NEROCU) and Northumbria Police.
This was not his first pursuit into sexually messaging children, with him having been caught by Guardians of the North in 2017. After this, he changed his name.
The 44-year-old believed he was talking to a 14-year-old girl online and sent her sexually explicit messages and images of himself.
But what Rowland didn’t know was he was actually speaking to a NEROCU police officer. Once sufficient intelligence and evidence had been collected officers descended on his home address on Eastmoor Road, Pallion, Sunderland, in May 2024 and arrested him.
Rowland appeared at Newcastle Crown Court in May and June and pleaded guilty to attempting to arranging/facilitating child sex offences, sexual communication with a child, breach of sexual harm prevention order and breach of sex offender notification requirements.
On Monday, he appeared before the same court and was sentenced to three years and three months behind bars.
