Locations
Church Road, Dartmouth, Devon, TQ6
Description
A former steward at Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth has been jailed after he was caught in sting by paedophile hunters.
Michael Watton, 56, thought he was meeting a 14-year-old girl for sex at Paignton train station, but was instead confronted by a group of men with a video camera.
They asked him about messages he had exchanged with several children – who were in fact fake profiles – and he admitted arranging to take the girl for a Chinese meal and booking them into a bed and breakfast for sex.
The defendant, who lives in Dartmouth, admitted three offences relating to his online activities and was jailed for 16 months by the judge at Exeter Crown Court.
The defence barrister, Ms Mary McCarthy, argued that in the real world no teenage girl would have found the bearded and balding Watton attractive enough to have sex with. She said the punishment should be a community order.
She also questioned the role of online vigilante groups who ‘encourage’ lonely men like Watton to commit offences. The defence barrister, Ms Mary McCarthy, argued that in the real world no teenage girl would have found Watton attractive enough to have sex with. She said the punishment should be a community order.
She also questioned the role of online vigilante groups who ‘encourage’ lonely men like Watton to commit offences.
But Judge Erik Salomonsen said the number of fake children he contacted meant he should be sent straight to jail.
The offences took place in October last year.
Prosecutor Julia Cox said the three charges related to chats the defendant had with ‘Katy’ ‘Jess’ and ‘Ellie-May’.
Katy had been set up as a decoy by the group Dark Justice.
Watton soon struck up a conversation on the dating site Qeep asking if she was single and how old she was, said the prosecutor.
He told the 14-year-old that he would love to have sex with her and get her pregnant. He then talked about meeting her in Newcastle but did not attend.
Jess, 10, was also a decoy. Watton again asked how old the girl was and whether she’d ever had sex.
Ellie-May, 14, was a decoy set up by Internet Interceptors.
Ms Cox told the court that Watton quickly moved the conversation on to sex, asking if she was a virgin and arranging to meet at Paignton Railway Station on October 21.
“He was met by individuals from paedophile hunter groups,” she said. “They spoke to him and recorded what was going on.”
Watton accepted he was there to meet a 14-year-old. He said he planned to take her to the cinema, buy her a Chinese then use a B&B for sex.
The court was told the defendant had no relevant previous convictions.
Ms McCarthy, mitigating, said: “He was on an adult dating site and out of loneliness wanting to meet adult women. The concern expressed by other judges is the concern of decoys appearing on this adult site as actively encouraging people who wouldn’t otherwise talk to young people down the lane of these offences.”
She said Watton was a bearded 50-year-old man and his profile picture made this clear.
“Without being rude to Mr Watton in the real world no young child would engage with him,” she said. “He didn’t pose as a young attractive person.”
She said he found ‘to his astonishment there were apparently young girls out there wanting to engage with him’.
“In the real world matters wouldn’t have progressed as they did. He is a lonely man living with his mother.”
Judge Salomonsen said he appreciated the point made by Ms McCarthy but the number of girls Watton tried to speak to made the offences more serious.
“You embarked on these exchanges with not one but 10 in all. Given that fact it seems to me this sentence must be served in prison.”
The defendant pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted sexual communication with a child and one of attempting to meet a child for sex following online grooming.
He asked for seven further offences to be taken into consideration.
Watton, of Church Road, Dartmouth, was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.