Latest Offenders

Description

A sexual predator who made a 14-year-old girl drunk on her birthday so that he could rape her has been jailed.

Khayrul Islam, of Ropley Street, Tower Hamlets, was known to the victim’s family when he contacted the teenager on her birthday and invited her to his home to celebrate.

The child went and was given alcohol until she was drunk, which is when Islam attacked her.

She managed to run away, leaving behind some of her belongings, and she cried out that she had been raped.

Members of the public came to help the girl and flagged down a passing police car.

As the girl was shocked, she couldn’t remember the address she escaped from but Islam’s phone number was used to trace his address.

The 29-year-old was arrested that same day on suspicion of rape.

Detective Sergeant Michael Dixon, of the Met’s Central East Safeguarding Team covering Tower Hamlets, said: "Khayrul Islam is a dangerous sex offender who deliberately targeted a young vulnerable girl and lured her into a situation where he could sexually assault and rape her."

Appearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Wednesday (June 5), Islam was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for two counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault by penetration and one count of sexual assault by touching against a 14-year-old girl.

He was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order with strict conditions that will allow the police to monitor him for 15 years.

Islam had previously been convicted following trial at the same court on January 8.

Description

A convicted trans sex offender who repeatedly punched, kicked and stamped on a lone woman in what a judge called an 'unprovoked and frightening' attack has been jailed for two years.

Louise Thomas, 24, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm on Tilly Lloyd-Jones on a canal path in the Newtown area. 

Prosecutor Jemma Gordon said the victim had been set upon by Thomas, who had been sitting on a bench, after she walked past in broad daylight in April.

Judge Timothy Petts at Caernarfon crown court said the victim, who now has difficulty concentrating on her university studies, was left with nasty bruising to the face and four chipped teeth.

Thomas, of Llanllwchaiarn Road, Newtown, is being held in Berwyn men's jail at Wrexham, and received an extended licence period of two-and-a-half years.

Judge Petts told the defendant: 'It's a very concerning case. This isn't the first time you have been in trouble. You have got a poor record of assault stretching back over several years. I have read the pre-sentence report which is very concerning.

'Out of the blue you assaulted a young woman who had done absolutely nothing to deserve what you did.' 

Miss Lloyd-Jones, whose assailant was identified from CCTV footage, had nightmares about her ordeal and felt uneasy about leaving her home alone.

Thomas had convictions for violence, sexual assault and child porn offences.

Defence barrister John Wyn Williams accepted it was a 'concerning' case and said Thomas had unstable moods and post-traumatic stress. 

But counsel said: 'Before she was remanded into custody she was doing well, gained employment.'

Mr Wyn Williams added: 'She doesn't accept this offence was sexually motivated in any way. There's quite a sad background to this young woman.'

Description

A man from Neath Port Talbot has been jailed for multiple child sexual offences.

Gareth Phillips, 32, from Skewen, had sex with his then-14-year-old victim in his car in March 2019. Two months later, he began meeting the same victim for sex on a regular basis. In November 2019, they made their relationship ‘official’ – but Phillips asked the victim to keep this a secret.

In May 2021, Phillips raped the same victim while staying at a hotel.

He has been sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison at Swansea Crown Court after being convicted of four counts of sexual activity with a child and one count of rape.

Description

A sexual predator who raped two women after bringing them home to his flat has been locked up for more than 11 years.

James Wilkinson, now 27, met both the women through social media and had arranged to meet up with them in person during May 2021.

On May 9 that year, Wilkinson brought his first victim back to his flat in the Wideopen area, after the pair had met up for the first time and visited a shop together.

The woman – who was 20 at the time and had not expected to go into his home – felt concerned, sharing her location and messaging family members while she was out.

Wilkinson then encouraged the woman to go into his bedroom to watch TV, before proceeding to rape her.

And on May 24, a similar incident occurred whereby Wilkinson had arranged to meet the second woman for a date, after exchanging messages online.

When the then 18-year-old arrived at his flat, Wilkinson insisted she watched TV with him before they went out for food as they had discussed. He then proceeded to rape her twice.

Both terrified victims left his address shortly after each of the incidents occurred and later reported what had happened to police.

Wilkinson, of Dunston Road in Gateshead, was arrested and subsequently charged with three counts of rape.

He continued to deny his guilt, claiming the sex on both occasions was consensual, and boasted that he would often meet girls through his social media accounts.

The case initially went to trial at Newcastle Crown Court, however Wilkinson was later found guilty on three offences of rape.

He appeared before Durham Crown Court on Monday, June 3, where a judge sentenced him to 11 years and six months in prison.

He was also handed a restraining order to forbid contact with both women, and ordered to sign the Sex Offender Register indefinitely.

Description

A paedophile told the police that he watched videos of kids aged as young as three being raped because it was "a lift and a release".

Michael Swann downloaded thousands of indecent images over the course of around 15 years in order to feed his "insatiable, deviant and depraved interest in children". The three-time convicted sex offender also secretly filmed young girls naked and in their underwear.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the 55-year-old's home on Lockerbie Close in Warrington was raided by police on the morning of March 3 last year. Officers seized several electronic items from the property including five computers, six memory sticks, two hard drives, an SD card and a mobile phone.

Zahra Baqri, prosecuting, described how a "vast collection" of 7,532 indecent images of children was discovered on these devices. Of these, 334 pictures and 821 videos were graded as being in category A - those showing the most serious form of abuse, including a clip of a girl aged between three and four being raped.

A further 879 photographs and 326 films in category B were also discovered, as were 5,023 pictures and 74 videos in category C. Swann was meanwhile found to have recorded 34 category C images of girls in states of undress.

He was shown to have been downloading his vile stash since July 2008, including collecting 2,950 "cartoon depictions" of children engaged in sex acts. More than a million further images had been saved on his devices, but it is unknown whether any of these were illegal materials as they were not assessed due to their sheer quantity.

Under interview, Swann "admitted having a sexual interest in children and obtaining sexual gratification while searching for and finding indecent images". He also told detectives that he "found viewing such images as a lift and a release".

The pervert meanwhile stated that the girls were "unaware they were being filmed and photographed" while in their underwear and naked. In a statement which was read out to the court on her behalf, their mum said she had been left "shell shocked" and "broken" after he "preyed on" her children.

During a second round of questioning in December last year after the contents of his electronics had been analysed, Swann added that he "knew what he was doing was wrong but he was too frightened to ask for help". He has a total of seven previous convictions for 22 offences, including receiving nine months for possessing and making indecent images in 2003 and a community order for like offending in 2004 - an order which he was later locked up for five months for breaching.

Helen Chenary, defending, told the court: "He readily accepts that he has issues with this kind of behaviour. It is troubling.

"This is not a man coming before the courts for the first time in connection with these offences, yet he is still struggling. He accepts that he was given an opportunity almost 20 years ago now.

"He would very much like assistance, but he knows that option is unlikely to be available. He makes nothing but apologies for his behaviour, but he knows he needs help.

"It appears he has struggled for some time with both his deviance and a general feeling of being overwhelmed and struggling to cope. He made a very serious attempt on his own life.

"He accepts that he has squandered help on a number of occasions. He has had a difficult few years."

Swann admitted taking indecent images, possession of indecent images, possession of prohibited images and three counts of making indecent images. He was jailed for five years on Monday.

Sentencing, Judge David Aubrey KC said: "There is a constant pattern of a sexual preoccupation with accessing indecent images. In my judgement, you have an insatiable, deviant and depraved interest in young children.

"You were downloading, storing, possessing and taking such images for your own sexual gratification. All of these images you downloaded perpetuate the abuse and exploitation of young children.

"They are all victims and - by doing that which you were doing over a protracted period of time - you were not only perpetuating the abuse and exploitation of young children, it perpetuates the market. These offences also have to be assessed against the other material which was not categorised which was found on your electronic devices when the police searched your home address.

"There was in excess of a million other images that were not assessed, and thus not categorised. In my judgement, the offences to which you have pleaded guilty must be assessed not only against your previous convictions and the protracted period of time, but also assessed against the images that were not ultimately categorised because of the volume of them."

Swann was also handed a 15-year sexual harm prevention order. He will be required to sign the sex offenders' register for life.

Description

A drunken sexual predator who who had been on a heavy "drinking spree" has been jailed for six-and-a-half years after he targeted a vulnerable woman.

"Functioning alcoholic" George Toner had been downing large amounts of vodka and beer before he cynically took advantage of the woman. He later tried to talk his way out of trouble with the brazen "fabrication" that she had consented to sexual activity, Hull Crown Court heard.

Toner, 48, of Knightscourt, Orchard Park estate, Hull, denied offences including sexual assault and also assault by penetration on November 8 but he was convicted by a jury after a trial of some of the charges. He was cleared of others.

Claire Holmes, prosecuting, claimed that the incident happened after Toner put his arm around the woman while they were talking. She told him: "Give over" and she did not welcome his advances.

Toner tried to kiss her and he put his tongue inside her mouth. "He ignored her protests," claimed Miss Holmes. "She was not consenting." The woman told him: "Pack it in." Toner sexually touched her and the woman told him to get off.

"She was crying and was trying to push him off," claimed Miss Holmes.

Toner was said to have pinned the woman down and committed a sex act. The woman suffered an injury and reported the incident to the police.

Toner later repeatedly apologised. "He handed himself in to Clough Road," said Miss Holmes.

Toner claimed: "It was just a drunken night." He made no comment during police interview but claimed that any sexual activity was with consent.

Miss Holmes claimed that this was a "fabrication" by Toner. "It's either a deliberate lie or he just can't bring himself to admit what he did, so heavily in drink," claimed Miss Holmes.

The evidence was "overwhelming" and Toner "made up his account" as he went along. "He knew that his account wouldn't stand up to scrutiny and it didn't stand up to scrutiny," claimed Miss Holmes.

"He was undoubtedly, this night, very heavily in drink. What a drinking spree he had been on. Bottles of vodka and cans of beer were everywhere.

"He was very drunk. Heavily in drink, he sexually assaulted her in a number of ways. She told him repeatedly to get off and to stop. She was crying. Why was the defendant repeatedly apologising if this was consenting sexual activity?"

Defence barrister David Godfrey said that Toner had been drinking before the incident but, although Toner was a "functioning alcoholic", he claimed that he had a clear recollection of the sequence of events involving the woman.

The defence case during the trial was that any suggestion that Toner had drunk so much that he could not remember events was denied. Toner claimed that any sexual activity was consensual.

The jury, however, rejected this and convicted Toner of two of the four charges but cleared him of the other two. During the trial, the defence disputed the woman's claims about what happened during the sexual incidents.

Toner, who was already in custody on remand, was given a 10-year restraining order.

Description

A paedophile from Derbyshire who sexually abused a girl when she was aged just eight has been handed a 14-year jail sentence.

Derby Crown Court heard how the victim had to relive her ordeal at the hands of Wayne Lilley giving evidence at a trial where he was found guilty of charges against her.

In a victim impact statement, the now teenager said what happened to her “impacts every part of her life” and that she did not report the abuse at the time as the defendant told her he would hurt her if she did.

And while he was on bail and under investigation for the sexual offences, the 39-year-old twice physically assaulted a woman he was in a relationship with and broke her wrist. Handing him a 13-year jail term, plus an extra 12-month extended licence, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “The victim impact statement outlines all of the ways this has affected this young lady.

“She is almost unrecognisable from the girl she was. She has gone from being a well-liked and popular student who was getting great school reports to one that is now so damaged.

“She is being bullied at school and suffers night terrors and nightmares. You stole what remained of her childhood.”

Vanessa Marshall KC, prosecuting, said Lilley refused to accept he carried out the sexual abuse. She said following a trial earlier this year, after hearing all of the evidence, a jury found him guilty of sexual assault of the girl.

The prosecutor read the victim’s statement, which was made by her mother. In it she said: “Our lives have been turned upside down. She was well-liked and now she is in crisis every day.

“The kids at her school heard rumours about what had happened to her and began bullying her. She moved school and now finds it incredibly difficult to make new friends.

“She suffers psychological issues, is sometimes not eating and other times overeating and even now is anxious around men she does not know even looking at her.”

Miss Marshall said Lilley, of Station Road, Bolsover, was arrested in January 2023 and bailed. But that month and then, in May last year, he assaulted his then partner, the second attack being captured on someone's mobile phone and was played at this week’s sentencing hearing.

He pleaded guilty to assault occasioning grievous bodily harm and actual bodily harm in relation to those attacks. Siward James-Moore, mitigating, said his client still maintains he is not guilty of the sex attacks but pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity to the physical assaults.

As well as the jail sentence, the judge handed the defendant a lifetime sexual harm prevention order and placed him on the sex offender register, also for life.

Description

A registered sex offender who continued to target young girls online has been jailed.

Police were alerted to Alfie Murray’s reoffending after receiving a report from a girl last October about indecent messages she had received from a man online.

Investigators identified Murray, who is from Medway, as the offender with the usernames KLOWN.7010 and ALFIEMILWALL85.

He had asked for indecent images, made threats and caused the victim considerable distress until she blocked him from contacting her.

Murray was convicted on June 1, 2022, of sex offences involving children and was made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

This had a number of conditions which included notifying the police if he took possession of an internet-enabled device or had any unsupervised communication with a child aged under 16.

He also had to make his devices available for inspection by a police officer and allow monitoring software to be installed.

“Murray has exhibited a willingness to breach the conditions of his court order and subject further children to his appalling obscene conduct…”

Murray was arrested on January 4 this year and when officers searched his house they recovered undeclared internet-enabled devices and proof he had been contacting many other children.

Murray, of Queens Road, Gillingham, was charged and pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court to six counts of breaching his SHPO, one count of breaching his sex offender notification requirements and one count of communicating sexually with a child.

The 32-year-old was sentenced last Thursday (May 30) to three years’ imprisonment.

This included the activation of a suspended sentence and he will have to serve 18 months in prison with the remainder to be completed on licence.

PC Leona Valsler, of the Medway Offender Management Unit, said: “We regularly visit registered sex offenders who are subject to court orders and notification requirements, to monitor their behaviour and prevent them committing further crimes.

“We also install software on their phones and computers to monitor activity online and will make unannounced visits at their home addresses to check their compliance.

“Murray has exhibited a willingness to breach the conditions of his court order and subject further children to his appalling obscene conduct. He has shown himself to be entirely untrustworthy and the court has quite rightly sent him to prison.”

Description

A man hid his past as a sex offender from his new partner and tried to conceal the relationship from police by deleting phone messages, a court has heard. But the truth was revealed by an eagle-eyed offender manager who spotted apparent gaps in text conversations between Huw Edwards and the woman.

Swansea Crown Court heard that in February last year Edwards was given a suspended prison sentence, put on the sex offenders register, and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order after being caught with a haul of child sex abuse images.

In May this year the defendant's offender manager carried out a visit to his home address and asked him if he was involved in a sexual relationship with anyone - Edwards said he was not.

The court heard the defendant "appeared nervous" during the visit, and when the officer examined his phone he saw a thread of messages with a contact which appeared to have had some of the messages in the conversation deleted.

The officer also noted that the WhatsApp messaging app which had previously been on the phone had been removed.

The officer again quizzed the defendant and he admitted he had met a woman in a Wetherspoon pub but had only seen her a few times and insisted their relationship was non-sexual.

The court heard police were able to trace the woman in question - who was described by officers as being "child-like and vulnerable" - and she confirmed Edwards had been her boyfriend since October 2023 and they were in a sexual relationship.

The woman also confirmed she did not know that 55-year-old Edwards was a registered sex offender, and said she had a young nephew though the boy and the defendant had not met.

Huw Edwards, of Border Road, Sandfields, Port Talbot, had previously pleaded guilty to breaching the terms of a sexual harm prevention order when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.

He has six previous convictions for 13 offences including the offending which led to the imposition of the sexual harm prevention order as well as a previous breach of the order.

This breach had involved him staying at an address in the Waunceirch area of Neath without notifying the authorities. 

He was was given a suspended prison sentence for that breach, and was still subject to that sentence when he committed the second breach.

Dan Griffiths, for Edwards, said it was accepted the motivation for deleting the messages was to try to hide the defendant's relationship with the woman, and he said the decision to delete the texts and app had been driven by panic and done "on the spur of the moment".

Judge Wayne Beard said he was concerned at the contents of a report which said the defendant's engagement with probation on the original suspended sentence and the work he was supposed to do to address his "sexual proclivities" had been "superficial".

With a one-third discount for his guilty plea, Edwards was sentenced to six months in prison for the breach.

The judge also activated the full six months of the suspected sentence for the first breach and activated two months of the original eight-month indecent images sentence - these latter two sentences will run concurrently with each other but consecutive to the new sentence making an overall sentence of 12 months in prison. 

Edwards will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.

Description

A convicted sex offender claimed he had numbers for celebrities in his phone and so refused to hand it over to officers, police said.

Northamptonshire Police conducted an unannounced raid at Aaron Bell's home in Rockingham Road, Kettering, on 3 April.

The force said he repeatedly lied to officers.

The 35-year-old pleaded guilty to breaching his sexual harm prevention order at Northampton Crown Court last month and was jailed for one year and four months.

“As part of Bell’s sexual harm prevention order, he was required to notify us of everyone he planned to associate with and provide us with their details, to allow suitable safeguarding checks to take place," said PC Mark Edkins.

“But, after claiming to be friends with a number of celebrities, he was continuously evasive in handing over any details, and repeatedly lied to officers."

Police said they also discovered a hidden unregistered mobile phone in his possession.

Description

A man from Old Swan has been jailed for 14 years after being found guilty of child sex offences. 
 
Anthony Morrissey, 69, of St Oswald’s Street, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court today, Tuesday 4 June, when he was sentenced after being found guilty of rape, causing/inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity and causing a child under 13 to watch sexual activity.
 
He was also given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and will be on the Sexual Offender Register for life.
 
Morrissey carried out the offences in Liverpool in December 2021 and he was arrested in February 2022. 

Description

A man has been jailed for 15 years for raping a homeless woman while he was on a night out and filming the attack.

Liam Stimpson, 24, from Llanrumney, Cardiff, was convicted of two counts of rape and one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent on Thursday.

The attack on the 40-year-old, which Stimpson filmed on his phone, happened on 27 December last year in Cardiff city centre.

During sentencing at Cardiff Crown Court on Monday, Judge Jeremy Jenkins said the attack was “gratuitous, repeated and sustained violence against a woman in no position to defend”.

“You completely humiliated her – you took the last ounce of dignity from her,” Judge Jenkins told Stimpson, describing the attack as “bordering on sadistic”.

In a statement read out on her behalf, the victim said it had “changed my whole opinion of men”.

“I want this male to end up in prison for what he has done. I worry about him doing this to another female,” she said.

“I’m unable to socialise with others at the moment. I just want to be alone, to block out what has happened to me.”

Rhianydd Jones from the Crown Prosecution Service said the case "highlights the extreme violence and disregard for human dignity exhibited by the defendant", thanking the jury for their “careful consideration”, as well as the victim for coming forward.

A jury had already found Stimpson guilty of a separate charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

'Shocking, heinous' attack

Det Insp Katherine Barry, from South Wales Police, said the footage of the rape was the "most shocking, heinous" she had seen in her 21-year career.

"The fact that the jury was exposed to it concerns me, because I have never seen anything like it," she said.

"It was sadistic, it was prolonged, this lady was humiliated, and it will stay with me for a very long time."

Det Insp Barry said Stimpson’s defence, that the victim had suggested filming as part of role play, was “ludicrous”.

"Any person with a shred of humanity watching it would see if for exactly what it was, which was a depraved, brutal attack, on a lone vulnerable female," she said.

She added that incidents like this in the city centre were "exceptionally rare" and she hoped the sentence would encourage victims of sexual offences to speak to the police.

Stimpson denied the charges, claiming the woman suggested the filming as part of role play after he paid her for oral sex.

Stimpson’s victim was punched and kicked during the attack under a bridge near Cardiff Central railway station in the early hours of the morning.

She begged her attacker to stop as she was stripped naked, beaten and raped twice.

Videos taken from Stimpson's mobile phone showed the woman with a severely swollen and bleeding face, her right eye completely closed.

She lifted her hands to her attacker and said: "Don't beat me up baby, don't beat me please. I've got kids."

Stimpson could be heard replying: "I'll tell you what to do. I'm the boss."

He then demanded she remove her coat, despite the cold and wet conditions.

She eventually escaped and ran naked into a nearby pub, telling early morning cleaning staff “I’ve been raped”.

The videos were discovered by police on the defendant's mobile phone.

He refused to provide the PIN, but officers guessed it was his date of birth.

Stimpson also admitted possession of cannabis.

Many of the jurors were in tears as they watched the footage.

Ruth Smith defending, said her client had been diagnosed with disabilities of a neurodiverse nature.

A psychiatric report had confirmed a longstanding diagnosis of ADHD, and he was more recently diagnosed with autism.

Ms Smith said her client found custody very difficult, adding he had been picked on and bullied in Parc Prison, Bridgend.

The court was also told his girlfriend is pregnant with his child.

As he was sentenced, Stimpson cried and rocked in the dock.

He refused to leave and had to be carried out by staff.

Description

A brave survivor has heaped praise on police and criminal justice partners after her abuser has been put behind bars after almost 40 years.

Andrew Blake subjected his victim to a tirade of sexual assaults in the 1980s and 1990s – starting from when she was just nine years old, and he was a teenager.

Now an adult, the brave survivor spoke out against her abuser in 2020 after having been left completely traumatised by the abuse for her entire life.

An investigation was launched by the Force’s Safeguarding Department and Blake, now 52, attended a police station to be interviewed where he initially admitted to two instances of sexual abuse.

However, the investigation continued and in 2022, he was charged with a total of 16 offences of indecent assault – being that the offences took place before the Sexual Offences Act was introduced in 2003.

He continued to deny the allegations, however in February this year a jury at Newcastle Crown Court saw through his lies and he was convicted unanimously of all 16 offences.

On Thursday (May 30), Blake, of Parc Pentywyn, Deganwy, Conwy, Wales, was handed a three-year sentence behind bars at the same court.

He will also spend the rest of his life on the Sex Offenders’ Register and his victim will be protected by a life-long restraining order.

Description

A sleazy bus driver sat a 15-year-old girl on his lap and carried out sex acts with her while he was driving a late night passenger bus.

Paedophile driver Christopher McIntosh, 38, hit speeds of nearly 50 miles per hour as he crossed Fife with the vulnerable teenager sitting on him.

A court was shown footage from the internal bus camera which showed McIntosh and the girl cramped in together in the driver's cab during a two hour journey.

Dundee Sheriff Court was shown 16 minutes of clips from the journey which revealed that they were also using a mobile phone while McIntosh was at the wheel.

The court heard that McIntosh was driving late night buses for Moffat and Williamson between St Andrews and Glenrothes when he would meet the girl.

During the course of several journeys - when there were no other passengers on board - they would engage in sexual activity while McIntosh was driving.

McIntosh, from Dundee, admitted engaging in sexual activity during the course of a number of journeys between 20 March and 10 April last year. He admitted kissing and embracing the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, during repeated sexual trysts.

He was also found guilty after a trial of driving the number 64 double decker bus carelessly on various roads around Fife on 10 April 2023. He was found to have driven with a child in the driver's seat alongside him, with his arm around the child, and while repeatedly looking at a mobile phone.

Fiscal depute Michael Robertson told the court: "The CCTV is from an older bus and is not the best of quality, but there is a 16-minute video clip.

"The Crown have libelled that the accused drove dangerously as a child was sitting in the driver's seat alongside the accused, who had an arm round the child, and repeatedly looked at a mobile phone whilst driving.

"You can see the accused driving with a female passenger in the cab while he was in his official capacity working as a bus driver. You can see the illumination of the mobile phone.

"The Crown argue that there are risks to driving a large vehicle while using a mobile phone, whether there are passengers or not.

"Looking at a mobile phone is a distraction and a risk and having a passenger in the cab whilst driving the bus is a risk. The Crown submit it is dangerous."

Solicitor Larry Flynn, defending, said: "There is no argument that he was the driver. The driving was captured on CCTV."

McIntosh was charged with dangerous driving, but found guilty of the lesser charge of careless driving. Sheriff John Rafferty said the quality of the driving was unclear from the CCTV.

He deferred sentence on McIntosh for the preparation of social work reports and added his details to the Sex Offenders Register. He was granted bail.

It is understood McIntosh was well aware of the girl's age because she had initially shown her child's identity card to obtain free travel on the bus.

Description

An online sexual predator who thought that he was exchanging messages with a young girl aged under 16 was later found with more than 1,600 indecent images of children on his phone.

Daniel O'Connell believed that he was chatting with a real girl when he became involved in sexualised conversations on Snapchat – but really it was an undercover police officer who was working covertly to identify possible sexual offenders. The haul of indecent images that was discovered included 466 in the most serious category, Hull Crown Court heard.

O'Connell, 26, of Hull Road, Withernsea, originally denied attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity, for the purposes of sexual gratification, via online chat between March 28 and April 10, 2021 and three offences of making indecent images of children between January 1, 2019 and April 22, 2021.

The case had been adjourned on September 28 last year for a trial that was due to be held on May 7. Defence barrister Benjamin Donnell told the court at the original hearing that O'Connell denied the offences at that time because he claimed that the IP address that had been linked to his device had seemingly been "cloned" by someone else.

But at a resumed hearing on April 30, arranged ahead of the scheduled trial, the court was told that O'Connell was now pleading guilty to the charges and he was abandoning the cloning claims. He accepted the full prosecution case and he now did not want to take the case to trial.

The court heard that O'Connell was in communication with a decoy 12-year-old girl whose profile on Snapchat had been set up by undercover police in a bid to catch possible online sexual predators.

Messages were exchanged between the fake girl and O'Connell. He believed that he was chatting online with a real girl. The conversations became sexual and O'Connell asked the fake girl to send him a picture of her chest.

No suggestions of a meeting between them were made and nothing of that type was arranged. The conversations came to an end and O'Connell was later arrested.

Police found indecent images of children on his phone. They included 466 in the most serious Category A, 384 in Category B and 791 in Category C – a total of 1,641 images. The pictures were said to have been inaccessible because they had been deleted previously.

O'Connell, a carer, had no previous convictions. Mr Donnell was not asked to provide any mitigation after the judge indicated that he intended to impose a suspended prison sentence.

O'Connell was given credit of 15 per cent for his late pleas of guilty, which was less than he would have been given for early pleas. He lost some credit because the case had originally been listed for trial.

O'Connell was given a 66-week suspended prison sentence, 31 days of a sex offender treatment programme and 20 days' rehabilitation. He was given a six-year sexual harm prevention order and must register as a sex offender for 10 years. The images on the phone will be erased.