Paul Elvins 48

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46-year-old Paul Elvins has been jailed for more than 4 years after pleading guilty to attempting to meet an underage boy for sex and sending sexual communications to 21 other children on social media platforms.

Elvins, formally of St Johns Road in Sandown, was sentenced on Friday after admitting to arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence, 2 counts of sexual communication with a child, 17 counts of attempted sexual communication with a child, and attempting to pay 40 for the sexual services of a child.

The disgraced care worker, who worked with disabled adults, thought he was communicating with a 13-year-old boy and arranged to meet with him for sex, but it was actually an undercover police officer.

When Elvins was arrested at his place of work, the police checked his phone and found evidence of other communications he had sent to 21 different children all of whom were under 16 years of age.

Judge Barry McElduff sentenced Elvins to 4 years and 8 months behind bars and made him subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Emma Lile, CPS Wessex Senior Crown Prosecutor, said:

We worked with Hampshire police officers from a very early stage in the investigation of this case to ensure we had all the evidence we needed to prove Elvins was guilty.

As a result of this early engagement and our strong partnership working, Elvins admitted his guilt to all offences at the first opportunity.

Thankfully, Elvins was caught by an undercover officer rather than meeting with a real 13-year-old boy, but thats not to say that the other children Elvins contacted on social media will not have been deeply affected by his behaviour.

We are committed to keeping children safe from those who seek to prey on them using the internet and social media platforms. Perpetrators should know that we will prosecute you whenever our legal test is met.

With time on remand taken into account and an automatic early release, Paul Elvins could be back on the streets by June 2024.