A man from South Gloucestershire has been jailed after booking a B and B room in Swansea and planning to use it to have sexual activity with what he believed was a teenage girl.
49-year-old Rodolfa Galvao, from Yate, had been communicating online with the account purporting to be the underage girl. However, the account was in fact operated by a decoy group.
Galvao was arrested after being confronted by the group in Parc Tawe ahead of his planned stay in a Mumbles B and B. A review of Galvao’s phone showed he had sent messages which were sexual in nature to the account.
Galvao pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a girl under 16 years of age following grooming.
He has been committed to prison for 14 months.
Detective Constable Rebecca Brain said:
“Rodolfa Galvao believed he was communicating with a child and still sent explicit sexual messages to them, even going to the lengths of arranging to meet them.
“It is clear that he poses a danger to children, and it is fortunate that the “child” at the other end of the conversation was not real.
“He is fully deserving of a spell in prison.”
We never underestimate how difficult it is for survivors of sexual abuse to speak out and report.
But we hope cases like this one provide reassurance that victims will be listened to, treated with dignity and respect, and will be supported throughout the judicial process.
If you have been sexually abused, and you are not yet ready to report to police, please don’t suffer in silence. A wealth of information and details of support services can be found here.
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