A Household Cavalry soldier who plotted to rape a young girl and a 10-month-old baby has been jailed for 12 years.

Graham Jarvis, 38, struck a deal with a woman he met online to sexually abuse her children, and planned to travel from his central London barracks to her home in Wales to commit the offences.

However, he was actually chatting with an undercover police officer posing as the mother.

At Southwark Crown Court on Thursday, Jarvis was sentenced to 12 years in prison for two counts of attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence.

Judge Adam Hiddleston told Jarvis ‘this was not a case of fantasy on your part’, and concluded that the soldier was serious about raping the children.

‘I have no doubt whatsoever that at the time you made the arrangements, you believed the children were real, a seven-year-old girl and a 10-month-old baby, you wanted to meet them, and when you did, with the assistance of their mother, you intended to rape them,’ the judge said.

He said Jarvis’ messages betrayed his ‘cold and clinical’ treatment of the children and willingness to ‘treat them simply as objects to satisfy your urges’.

The judge ruled Jarvis may pose an ongoing risk to children and ordered him to serve at least eight years of his sentence behind bars, with two extra years on licence added to his sentence.

The offences happened in mid-January 2024, when Jarvis started chatting online with a woman who said she had two daughters, one a seven-year-old girl and the other a 10-month-old baby.

The court heard Jarvis said he was ‘into girls’ and began to arrange a meeting, agreeing he would drive from London to the woman’s home.

He quizzed the mother on her older daughter’s sexual experience, and was told she had previously been abused by two men.

Turning to the baby, Jarvis asked the mother to help him carry out the rape.

Jarvis had planned to travel to Wales in February 2024, but police then moved in to arrest him.

Lisa Wilson, representing Jarvis, told the court he was kicked out of the military after his convictions.

She said Jarvis was ‘at a low ebb’ due to a ‘traumatic period’ when he committed the offences.

She added: ‘The court will be asking itself why a man with an extremely positive military career found himself committing such disgusting offences.’

He has now completed a degree in animal psychology at the Open University. Jarvis, who was living in barracks in Hyde Park, denied the offences and was convicted at trial.

He has been ordered to serve at least two-thirds of his 12-year prison term.

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