Locations
Church Road, Newport, South Wales, NP19
Description
A PAEDOPHILE asked a “14-year-old schoolgirl” to send him naked pictures of herself in the bath after contacting her online.
Serial sex offender Robert Mellon thought he was speaking to an underage child called Ella.
But he was in fact chatting to paedophile hunters Dank Dragon carrying out a sting operation.
The 57-year-old from Newport has been in and out of prison for more than two decades after committing a string of crimes.
His latest offending happened this year between March and April, prosecutor Abigail Jackson told Cardiff Crown Court.
The teenager he thought he was contacting on social media was a decoy who had a fake profile picture of an underage girl.
His first message to her was: “Hi sexy!”
Miss Jackson said: “The defendant thought she was a 14-year-old girl from Cardiff.
“He asked her if she had a sexual boyfriend and the conversations carried on for a number of weeks.
“The defendant asked Ella if she shaved her genitalia and he told her she was beautiful and sexy.”
She added: “He talked to her in detail about having sex and asked for some pictures of her naked when she was in the bath.
“The defendant thought he was speaking to an actual 14-year-old girl.”
Mellon, of Church Road, Newport admitted attempting to breach a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) and attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.
He has 14 previous convictions for 27 offences.
In 2011 he was convicted of three counts of sexual activity with a child under the age of 16 for which he was eventually jailed for breaching the community order imposed in that case.
Seven years later in 2018, he was sent to prison for 12 months for attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.
In May 2021, Mellon was locked up for 15 months for breaching an SHPO and attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child by arranging to meet a 14-year-old girl.
That was another paedophile hunter operation.
A year later in May 2022 he was jailed for 12 months for breaching an SHPO and again for 16 months in February 2023 for the same offence.
“This latest offending was a serious and persistent attempt to breach the order,” Miss Jackson told the court.
“It is aggravated by his prevention convictions.”
Harry Baker for Mellon asked that his client be given full credit for his early guilty pleas.
Judge Paul Hobson told the defendant: “It is very plain to me that you are a paedophile whose sexual interest in children shows no sign of abating.”
Mellon was jailed for 32 months and told he would serve half of that time in custody before being released.
He will have to register as a sex offender and made the subject of an SHPO indefinitely.