Locations
Henry Street, Cleator Moor, Cumbria, CA25
Description
A WEST Cumbrian man arranged to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex, unaware that the meeting was a sting organised by paedophile hunters.
The "teenager" that 42-year-old Cleator Moor man Leroy Sheehan was communicating with was in fact and adult decoy working with the Online Child Safety Team, Carlisle Crown Court heard.
The defendant, of Henry Street, Cleator Moor, admitted attempting to communicate sexually with a child and attempting to facilitate a child sex offence by meeting the “child” in Whitehaven.
Tariq Khawam, prosecuting, described what happened.
He said volunteers working with the paedophile hunter group use fake child online profiles to flush out adults who have a sexual interest in children.
This involved the creation of fake profiles.
In July of last year, the group created a Facebook profile for what appeared to be a 14-year-old girl, complete with a photo. On June 13, Sheehan sent the person a friend request.
He told her his age and said he was feeling “low,” after recently losing his partner. Mr Khawam said: “The witness said she was sorry to hear that; and she said she was 14.”
In subsequent messages, Sheehan asked if they could communicate on WhatsApp. Telling her she looked older than 14, he asked for a topless photo. He went on to discuss having sex with her.
The contact then agreed to meet Sheehan at Whitehaven railway station. When he arrived there, he was confronted by the Online Child Safety Team volunteer and two of her colleagues.
After making a “citizen’s arrest”, they called the police. The defendant had no relevant previous convictions, the court heard.
Tim Evans, defending, said that while Sheehan did not comment during his police interview, he had been honest with probation staff. A background report spoke of a “rapid deterioration” in his mental health and two suicide attempts.
At the time of his offences, he was drinking four litres of vodka a day, and he consumed eight litres of whisky over a period of days, as he tried to “drink himself to death.”
“None of that is an excuse but that is the background for what is described as the disinhibitory impact on his offending,” said Mr Evans.
The report explained that Sheehan, grieving after the death of his partner, was in a “very dark place” when he committed the offences.
The barrister added that Sheehan, who had a mild intellectual disability, was far from being a classic predatory online sexual offender of the sort often seen in the courts.
Judge Michael Fanning recognised the defendant’s psychological difficulties and the loss of his partner a week before the offending.
“It’s clear you were drinking vastly to excess,” the judge told Sheehan, accepting that this would have disinhibited the defendant. The judge continued: “But you are 42, three times the age of this supposed 14-year-old girl.
“You thought you were engaging with a genuine 14-year-old girl." Sheehan intended to have sex with her and there was no indication of him being influenced by alcohol when he went to Whitehaven to meet her.
“You knew what you were doing,” added the judge.
He jailed Sheehan for two years and eight months and ruled that he must be on the Sex Offender Register for a decade and subjected to a sexual harm prevention order for the same period.