Locations
Hildyard Close, Quedgeley, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL2
Description
A 29-YEAR-OLD man who was exposed by a paedophile hunter group was later caught in a police sting attempting to chat to an underage girl, a court heard.
Matthew Appleton, of Hildyard Close, Hardwicke, was confronted by members of activist group the Guardian Angels when he lived in Leeds.
They caught him sending sexual videos to a decoy posing as a 12-year-old girl in October 2018.
Appleton was given a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years at Leeds Crown Court and ordered to complete a sex offender programme.
But within weeks of the suspended sentence order expiring Appleton was caught in a police sting which involved an officer posing online as a 13-year-old girl called Millie, Gloucester Crown Court was told on Thursday, December 14.
Prosecutor Alun Williams said Appleton was still on the sex offender register when, on February 1 this year, he contacted 'Millie' on social media and used 'highly sexualised' language.
Police visited Appleton's home on February 9 and found 91 indecent images and videos of children in all three categories on his phone, said Mr Williams.
An examination of the device confirmed he had contacted the decoy officer and used a cloud-based storage site used by sex offenders, the court heard.
In police interview Appleton claimed he did not know how the images got onto his phone.
Steven Young, defending, said: "He completed the sex offender programme that was aimed at preventing him from re-offending in the future. Obviously this was unsuccessful as he reoffended.
“He states that he doesn’t know why he was doing it and has difficulty accepting the position he is in."
Appleton pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child on February 1, 2023 for the purpose of sexual gratification. He also admitted possessing nine indecent images of children in category A, four images and four videos in category B and 72 images and two videos in category C on February 9, 2023.
He must complete 40 programme days, 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 200 hours of unpaid work and pay £340 costs and a mandatory surcharge and attend a monthly judicial review.
A sexual harm prevention order was imposed until March 18, 2030.