Simon Rouen
Simon Rouen was fond guilty of the facilitation of a child sex offence and possessing indecent images of children Kent Police

A man has been jailed after being found guilty of arranging to sexually abuse an eight-year-old girl while working in the South Pole.

Simon Rouen, 36, from Redruth, Cornwall has been sentenced to three years in prison after he was convicted of arranging the facilitation of a child sex offence and possessing indecent images of children.

He was arrested at Heathrow Airport last March after communicating with two undercover police officers posing as an underage girl.

Kent Police exchanged a number of emails with Rouen while he was working in the South Pole in a scientific capacity, including one where expressed his desire to sexually abuse an eight-year-old girl.

The final message was sent last March from Chile as Rouen made his way back to the UK.

Following his arrest at the airport terminal, a search of his computer showed he had also been storing indecent images of children.

Rouen was sentenced to three years in prison when he appeared before Southwark Crown Court. He will also be subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order and will be on the Sex Offenders Register.

Det const Jo Gordon from Kent Police said: "Throughout the course of the emails he sent, Simon Rouen demonstrated a very real desire to sexually abuse the child when he returned to England. Fortunately, through our proactive investigations we were able to identify the risk he posed to children and intercept him before any child could be abused.

"We will use all the techniques available to us to apprehend people who prey upon children online, and who use the internet as a tool to find children to sexually abuse or to view indecent images of children."