‘I don’t know his real name. He seemed to know about me and who I was. I’m just presuming it’s a he, it’s got to be, hasn’t it? It’s always men who like to…’ His voice trailed away. ‘Look, I made a terrible mistake, but I really need to go home now.’

‘Have you physically touched her, Paul?’

‘Never, I swear!’ A gasp of despair made him shudder. ‘I made a mistake, I’ve admitted it, please may I go?’

‘Paul, a mistake is forgetting to buy milk or leaving the oven on.’ Sasha leaned forward slowly, as she imagined a judge passing sentence would do. ‘What you’ve been doing – making pornographic images of a minor – isn’t a silly mistake. It’s a serious crime, and it’s going to ruin your life and the lives of the people who love you.’

‘May God forgive me.’ His face crumpled. ‘What is my wife going to say? What am I going to tell Megan?’

‘How many times did you text Sammi, Paul?’

‘I really want to help, but my head is swimming.’

‘You bought a phone specifically so you could arrange to meet her.’

‘I don’t know why I got the phone now. There was a reason.’

‘How many times did Sammi go to your house?’

‘Just a couple. She came round for a cup of tea. The first time we sat and chatted.’

‘About what?’

‘About how difficult she found it at school. She asked my advice about some problems she was having, and I spoke to her about Christian values.’

Craig pressed fingers into his eyes and rubbed.

‘And the second time?’ said Sasha.

‘I asked her to pose for photos, nice ones, I’m a keen photographer.’ Paul shifted miserably in his seat. ‘It was never my intention to… but things went too far, somehow I got her to take off her… I’ll never forgive myself for asking her to undress, but I never touched her, you have to believe me!’

‘Here’s what I’m thinking, Paul,’ Craig said suddenly. ‘If you’re the kind of man who could groom a girl, convince her to come to your home, persuade her to strip, then I’m thinking you’re the kind of man who would go further.’

‘No!’

‘You probably couldn’t help yourself and you touched her, or assaulted her…’

‘No, no, no!’

‘Raped her.’

Paul began to cry. ‘That’s not true.’

‘But then you got scared, as well you should. You realized taking those photos was going to get you sent to prison. You would spend the rest of your life on the Sexual Offenders Register, you’d lose your wife, your kids, and your good name among all your church friends. Megan isn’t going to forgive something like that, how the hell could she, and she’d certainly never let you near your own children ever again.’

‘That’s not—’