When she used FaceTime to speak to them she would sit in a darkened room so they could not see that she was a woman. She would then ask them to perform sex acts on themselves for her. However, her second victim realised that her profile was fake and notified police who then discovered that she had done the same thing to another girl. The first victim only found out when police told her.
Timms, 23, said she didn’t realise she had broken the law but was jailed for three years after admitting a person to engage in sexual activity, causing child pornography and causing or inciting child prostitution or pornography. She pleaded not guilty to blackmail and another charge of causing or inciting child prostitution or pornography which were accepted by the prosecution. Judge Charles Macdonald QC said: ‘She claims to be confused by her sexuality and inspired by the programme Catfish to adopt a false identity in the hope of finding a happy ending with a female partner. ‘I accept entirely this account the defendant currently believes but I don’t accept it was her real thinking at the time of the offences. ‘Doubts about sexual orientation are common in relatively young people and that can be widely tested without pretending to be a man and deceiving a young girl. ‘It is obtaining sexual gratification by deception.’
Prosecutor Claire Huntley told the court one girls, aged 16 and from the Tonbridge area of Kent, saw the ‘Joey Knight’ Instagram profile created by Timms when she was aged 20 in September 2015. They exchanged mobile phone numbers, texted and spoke to each other and made arrangements to meet up but every time Timms either made an excuse or did not turn up.
She would apologise and send flowers, including 50 red roses costing £160, and gifts, including a Marc Jacobs watch. Timms told her on one occasion: ‘I really like you. I don’t want to lose you. I will make it up to you.’ She even contacted the girl while on holiday in New York, telling her in a message: ‘Show me your tits.’ The teenager sent her photos of herself in her underwear and agreed to touch herself intimately. She also persuaded her to perform a sex act with a deodorant can. After again failing to show up for a date, Timms phoned the girl claiming to be Joey’s sister Daisy to tell her: ‘He really likes you.’ Timms also sent the teenager a pink vibrator and told her to use it while they spoke on the phone.
Miss Huntley added: ‘The sexual messages increased. They would be sexting a lot more. She sent more explicit photographs. She also sent videos.’ On the girl’s birthday, Timms sent flowers, Champagne and a birthday balloon saying: ‘Happy birthday, gorgeous, love Joey.’ There were further gifts on Valentine’s Day.
On FaceTime, the teenager could only see a dark room and television screen as she used the vibrator. When asked why she couldn’t see ‘him’, Timms replied it was because ‘he’ did not look very good. Timms was eventually rumbled when checks were made on Joey Knight and it turned out to be one of her Facebook friends.
Miss Huntely said Timms had three years earlier behaved in the same way with another teenager over 14 months when she was 16 and 17. Again, she persuaded her to send her indecent images of herself and perform sex acts. She did not discover Joey was actually a woman until a police officer took a statement from her.
She said the voice sounded male and she never saw the person on FaceTime because the screen was dark. Judge Macdonald said Timms threatened to publish indecent images of the first girl if she did not return the watch she sent as a present. He told Timms, who wept on being jailed: ‘There is a significant impact here featuring loss of trust and reluctance to form relationships. ‘There was a sense of betrayal and loss of confidence. ‘There is mitigation in the form of genuine remorse and positive good character, but punishment and deterrence are required.’ ‘Even if the sentence was short enough to consider suspension, I would not do so.’ Timms of Crawley, West Sussex, was also put on the sex offenders’ register and given sexual harm prevention order, both for 10 years. She was also barred from working with children and vulnerable adults.
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