Locations
Painswick Road, Matson, Gloucester, GL4
Description
A Gloucester man who posed as a teenager to look for 'sexual fantasy' on social media was trapped by paedophile hunters, a court heard. Ian Guest, 45, of Painswick Road, Robinswood, has been handed a community order and placed on the sex offenders' register.
At Gloucester Crown Court on Friday (April 22), prosecutor Neil Treharne said that Guest's 'child victim' was in fact an adult posing as a teenager and was a volunteer with the Stand Together as One organisation, which sets up decoy accounts to snare paedophiles. The profile of 'Olivia' was accessed by Guest between February 6 and 11 last year and he was told at the outset that she was aged 14, the court was told. Guest told her he was 16.
"The first couple of messages were innocent enough, but it soon became clear to the 'girl' that he was not 16 and he was challenged about this and admitted that he was 42," said the prosecutor. "When he was asked why he lied about his age he said was just messing about.
"He then started to drop out of the conversations until he took on a new pseudonym as 'John', a 14-year-old, and claimed he was a friend of Guest. The 'girl' felt he was trying to manipulate the situation further."
Judge Ian Lawrie QC interjected: "This shows a degree of calculation in his actions." Mr Treharne said that the conversation as 'John' started going down the route of asking the girl for topless photographs of herself. "But the decoy called his bluff and the conversation soon tapered off," Mr Treharne added.
The organisation contacted Gloucestershire Police and Guest was arrested on February 26 last year. His phone was seized and analysed and was found to still have the text messages to the decoy on his device.
The court was told that in his police interview Guest admitted that he had lied to the decoy about his age and trying to get the girl to take pictures of her breasts. The court also heard that having been interviewed by police, Guest tried to open a similar Facebook account and because of this, he was going to be subjected to a sexual harm prevention order.
Barry White, defending, said: "Guest has been candid about what he has been doing and admitted his guilt. He has no previous convictions.
"He is a man who has limitations. However, he is in full-time employment and works in a warehouse, a job he has done for almost three decades and he operates within his difficulties. He has no issues with drink or drugs."
Judge Lawrie observed: "I question his maturity, despite him being aged 45. It is bizarre behaviour from this man and meeting up with a girl in this scenario is unlikely to become reality in this situation."
Mr White added: "This is not the standard type of case. He denies any sexual intent. He expects to be publicly humiliated over this which will prevent him from doing it again."
Guest pleaded guilty to attempting to incite a girl aged between 13 and 15 to engage in sexual activity, without penetration, between February 6 and 11, 2021. Judge Lawrie told Guest: "You are a man with a good character and I am impressed that you have held your job for a very long time. You have an understanding partner and mother.
"However, you indulged into another life, probably due to a lack of appreciation of the real world, where you exercised a degree of immaturity and indulged in an exercise of fantasy. Because of your issues, I believe you have learned a valuable lesson as you know this is wrong and you will not be repeating it."
The judge sentenced Guest to a 24-month community order which includes attending 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days. He was placed on the sex offenders' register for five years and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the same time period. He was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of 95.