Suspended sentence given to 60 year old found guilty of child sex offences

A 60 year old Totton man appeared in Southampton Crown Court this week for sentencing. This followed his arrest back in January 2021.

Mark Mengham of Alfred Close faced charges of one count of attempted sexual communication with a child, and one count of attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act.

In court, it was said that Mengham exchanged messages with a girl over a period of weeks. The girl was just 13 years old, which Mengham was aware of, and the messages were of a sexual nature. In this instance, the victim was not real. Nevertheless, the engagement was.

Mengham was sentenced to nine months in prison, but this has been suspended for two years. He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for five years. In addition, he had to pay court costs and a victim surcharge, and has to complete 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

Following the sentencing, Detective Constable Paul Hills said: 


“In a world where people have the ability to exchange messages through a variety of social platforms with people across the country unknown to them, and further afield, with relative ease, it is vitally important that we, as the police, are in a position to investigate if we believe that criminal offences have taken place during these exchanges.

We want to continue to protect any vulnerable people, including young children, against possible sexual exploitation and I hope that this conviction shows the lengths that we will go to investigate any such claims.

We hope that today’s sentencing highlights the dangers that can be lurking on social media when engaging with people you do not know. This case serves as a reminder, and to also alert the parents of young children, that the digital world isn’t all it seems and that people may be seemingly acting innocently in exchanging messages initially, but that this can very quickly change, taking a turn to often dark, often sexualised, conversations and messages. 

We want to encourage any victims of child sexual abuse to come forward and speak to us, no matter when it happened.

Hampshire Constabulary take allegations of this nature extremely seriously and will always seek to bring those responsible for committing these offences to justice.

We would encourage anyone who has been a victim of child sexual abuse to contact police on 101 where you can speak with our specialist detectives in confidence.”


If you’re ever concerned about a child’s behaviour, either in the real world or online, you can speak to trained professionals who may be able to offer support.

This really does serve as a reminder that even though people kids meet online might feel like friends, they may not be who they say they are. It’s always worth reviewing what apps children are using, together with checking the parental controls and privacy settings.