Phillip Norris 48

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A 48-year-old man who called himself “Paedo Daddy” while exchanging sexualised messages with an undercover officer posing as a 12-year-old girl has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Phillip Norris, of Ashlar Road in Waterloo, spent months chatting to the decoy on the social media sites Chatiw and Teleguard between July and October 2024. He told her he would travel more than 200 miles to meet, saying it would be “worth travelling that distance to meet someone like her” and urging her to keep their chats “secret from her mum”.

Liverpool Crown Court heard he used the username “Paedo Daddy”. Prosecutor Iain Criddle told the court: “The defendant, perhaps foolishly, used the name ‘Paedo Daddy’, which, frankly, was always going to alert the authorities to his activities.”

Norris sent explicit messages, telling the ‘girl’ he was “getting horny talking to her”, asking her to perform oral sex, suggesting they “f***” and carry out further sexual acts in the shower. He also sent an explicit picture and video and asked her to send the same.

He was arrested on 10 October 2024. Devices seized from his home contained 125 indecent images of children, including 44 in the most serious Category A, plus four computer-generated images of child sexual abuse and one extreme pornographic image involving bestiality.

Norris had already been banned from contact with children and ordered to notify police of his address and not stay at a property with a child for more than 12 hours. He breached both conditions by staying at his partner’s home on at least seven occasions between 5 and 17 March this year while her six-year-old daughter was present, and by picking the girl up from and dropping her off at school. His partner ended the relationship immediately upon learning of his obligations, the court was told.

He pleaded guilty to attempted sexual communications with a child, attempting to cause a child to watch sexual activity, possession of indecent images of children, three counts of making indecent images, possession of prohibited images of children, possession of an extreme pornographic image, and two counts of failing to comply with notification requirements.

Defence barrister John Dove said Norris fully accepted responsibility and was struggling with depression after a difficult divorce and substantial debt. He had no previous convictions and had worked for years as a business intelligence analyst. He had been on remand for seven weeks, was employed on his prison wing, and had enrolled on a personal development course.

Sentencing, Judge Stuart Driver KC said:

“You were left alone, at times, with a six-year-old girl. You slept in the home of her and her mother. You took her to and from school.

“It is clearly a very risky situation to be done by a man like you, who gave yourself the internet nickname ‘Paedo Daddy’, who downloaded and no doubt enjoyed films of children being raped and communicated sexually with someone who you believed to be a 12-year-old child… The sexual conversation went on for months and was highly sexual.

“In mitigation, you are of previous good character. References speak highly of you. You have got a good employment record and are making progress in custody… I find that you are a danger to children. The pre-sentence report says that you present a high risk of serious harm… The combination of three types of offending here means that appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody.”

Norris, who appeared via video link from HMP Liverpool with his head bowed and wiping away tears at times, was also made subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and must notify as a sex offender for life.