Paul Ellis 65

Description

A paedophile arranged to pick up who he thought was a 13-year-old girl from her Liverpool school for sex. Paul Ellis, 64, thought he was speaking to a girl called Courtney, but it was actually a police decoy.

He cancelled the meeting with the "girl", but was later arrested. The defendant, of Market Street, Abergele, admitted arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence in September 2021.

A judge at Mold Crown Court said he poses a risk of serious harm to children and jailed him for five and a half years. The judge - Mr Recorder Simon Mills - said: "The risk of serious harm to children is obvious."

The court heard Ellis had received a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) for earlier offending. But he started to re-offend within three months of the end of his Probation Service supervision.

Prosecutor Simon Mintz told how in September 2021 Ellis started an online conversation with "Courtney", claiming he was a 45-year-old man called Dave. Ellis used WhatsApp to ask sexualised questions and whether she was in a school uniform.

He arranged to pick up "Courtney" from her school in Liverpool on September 24 and take her back to his flat in North Wales. He also offered to help get her on the pill.

Days before the meeting he cancelled it but asked "Courtney" to keep it a secret. Mr Mintz said Ellis was arrested and initially claimed he did not know "Courtney" was a child.

But he later admitted the arranging offence and also breaching a SHPO. One of two iPhones, which police seized and which "mirrored each other", had had a virtual private network on it, the court heard.

Sarah Badrawy, defending, said her client had admitted his offences and that there had been a lack of offending since these crimes in 2021. The judge told Ellis he had lied about his name and age and had had "sexualised" online conversations with the "girl".

He had then arranged to have sex with her. The judge said: "You pose an imminent risk of serious harm to children.

"I accept your offending revolving entirely around decoys (but) you believed you were talking to a child and arranging to meet them. The risk of serious harm to children is obvious.

"You are now and you will continue to pose for the foreseeable future a significant risk of serious harm to members of the public and small children." The judge said if Ellis offended again he could face life imprisonment.

Imposing the five and a half year prison term he said he would be supervised for an extended period of four years. He also gave Ellis a ten-month concurrent jail term for breaching a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).

The SHPO will continue for life, he added.