Sukhpal Sidhu 51

Description

A dangerous and “devious” middle-aged paedophile posed as a teenage girl online to convince a 13-year-old to sexually experiment on herself.

But convicted sex offender Sukhpal Sidhu had no idea that the girl he was grooming was a decoy profile belonging to an online paedophile hunter group.

The 51-year-old, who was previously jailed for sex activity with a child, was handed an extended six-year jail term at Leeds Crown Court this week after the judge deemed him to be dangerous.

In November last year, just months after he was released from prison, Sidhu sent a friend request online to the profile who accepted it, but repeatedly told him she was just 13. He boasted that he was a businessman who was setting up a charity to help feed the homeless. He also turned to conversation sexually, saying he had women so turned on by his voice that they would say “dirty things” to him.

Having received a decoy photo from the supposed girl, he called her “beautiful”. He then bizarrely pretended to be a 14-year-old girl who had access to Sidhu’s account, and ramped up the sexual discussions, encouraging the victim to touch herself sexually, prosecutor Joel Wootten told the court.

He was eventually confronted by the paedophile group, C.O.S.T (Child Online Safety Team) after a week of swapping messages. They livestreamed the conversation over the internet in which he denied any wrongdoing. The police were called and he was arrested.

Sidhu had been jailed for eight years in 2015 for sexual activity with a teenage girl in Greater Manchester, having posed as a teenage boy to gain her trust. He denied the offences but was found guilty after a trial. It was heard that he would drive across the Pennines from West Yorkshire to meet the girl and have sexual encounters in his car.

As part of his sentence, he was given a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to limit his internet use, and put on the sex offender register for life.

For his latest offending, Sidhu, of Bradford Road, Stanningley, admitted attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, breach of his SHPO, and an attempt to breach his SHPO.

He appeared in court via video link from HMP Leeds where he has been held on remand since his arrest.

Mitigating, Amber Walker said Sidhu accepted it would be a custodial sentence, but little else was said on his behalf.

The judge, Recorder Ian Mullarkey told him: “It was a fictitious profile to engage a girl in graphic sexual conversations. That devious, manipulative and cunning.

"It relied on sophistication to commit sexual offences against children. You were quite determined to persist in these conversations. You do not express any remorse or recognition of the harm this kind of offending causes.”

He said that Sidhu had refused to take part in a sex offender programme to rehabilitate him and . He jailed him for three years, with another three years extended licence.