Former Coronation Street director thought chat with '13-year-old' was role-play with adult, court told

By PA
Published 27th Feb 2019, 14:36 BST
Updated 27th Feb 2019, 15:47 BST
Former Coronation Street director thought chat with '13-year-old' was role-play with adult, court toldFormer Coronation Street director thought chat with '13-year-old' was role-play with adult, court told
Former Coronation Street director thought chat with '13-year-old' was role-play with adult, court told
A former Coronation Street director has said he believed he was partaking in role-play with an adult when he talked sexually online with an undercover police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl.

Prosecutors allege that Tim Dowd thought he was talking to an under-aged girl called Chantelle when he asked intimate questions about "phone sex" and requested images of her breasts.

A jury at Leeds Crown Court heard that the 66-year-old asked the undercover officer, who was posing as a teenager living in a care home, whether she had partaken in sexual activity before.

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Prosecutors said the defendant, of Chatsworth Grove in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, had contacted a user named Chantelle13Cymru on a chat site called Lycos on January 12 last year.

Former Coronation Street director thought chat with '13-year-old' was role-play with adult, court toldFormer Coronation Street director thought chat with '13-year-old' was role-play with adult, court told
Former Coronation Street director thought chat with '13-year-old' was role-play with adult, court told

The court heard that Dowd, who has also worked on episodes of Emmerdale and Heartbeat during his 30-year career, immediately asked the person to clarify their age, before remarking that them being 13 was "not a problem".

Extracts of the conversations, which quickly moved on to WhatsApp, show Dowd asking about the other person's breast size.

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Giving evidence on Wednesday, Dowd said that when he starting talking to "Chantelle", he believed it was an adult woman looking to enjoy "younger girl-older man role-play".

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