A 24-year-old swimming instructor from Birmingham will be branded a sex offender for life after he inadvertently sent a sext meant for his partner to his entire BlackBerry contact list.

Craig Evans had just finished typing out a solicitation for "skin on skin" sex with his unnamed girlfriend, when "a slip of the fingers" caused the message to be sent to everyone he knows — including two girls aged 13 and 14 who were in his swim class.

This landed Evans in Birmingham Crown Court, where he was convicted of "causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity" and sentenced to 18 months behind bars.

It took some time, but Evans' attorneys finally managed to convince the Court of Appeal in London that their client wasn't targeting the teen girls when he sent out the sext.

Unfortunately, while Lord Justice Elias acknowledged that Evans was "evidently misguided in the use of his BlackBerry," he refused to erase the stain from his record completely, instead slapping him with a nine-month suspended sentence and a spot on the sex offenders list.

And all because, as one Daily Mail reader put it, "he's got sausage fingers." Sexters beware.

[H/T: Slashdot, photo via Shutterstock]