BOROUGHBRIDGE MAN ANDREW SPINK JAILED IN YORK FOR OFFENSIVE ONLINE GROOMING ATTEMPT
| Red Rose Database
Boroughbridge Child Sexual Abuser
In February 2019, Andrew Spink, a 54-year-old man from Boroughbridge, was sentenced to 12 months in prison after he traveled from his home to York with the intent to meet a juvenile 'girl' for sex. Spink had been under surveillance by a paedophile-hunter group, which had set up a fake social media profile portraying a 14-year-old girl. The group’s aim was to catch webchat predators.
Prosecutor Dan Cordey explained that the group, posing as a teenager named ‘she,’ claimed to live in Newport, South Wales, and initiated contact with Spink. She asked if he wanted to meet while visiting a relative in York. Spink, a divorced father of two and a grandfather, responded positively, even suggesting she buy ‘nice underwear’ for their meeting.
On the allotted day, Spink arrived at a property in York expecting to meet ‘her,’ but was confronted by a paedophile hunter blocking his car. He then sped off and was later arrested at his residence in Kirby Hill.
Spink pleaded guilty to charges including attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and attempting to communicate sexually with a girl under 16, all occurring between July 21 and August 13, 2017.
The court heard that Spink, who used the username ‘Andy North Yorks,’ was highly engaged with the fake profile the day after its creation in January 2017. He initiated conversation by asking, “How’s you today?”, receiving a response that ‘she’ was 14. Despite knowing the age, Spink continued grooming behaviors, asking what ‘she’ was wearing and suggesting he would ‘pick her up and go shopping’ with her, claiming he would treat her and that he ‘adored’ her.
Throughout conversations, he lavished ‘her’ with compliments such as calling her “gorgeous, special and beautiful,” and asked if her age bothered him. When she inquired if her age was an issue, he replied, “Not as long as you are okay with mine,” and later asked her to send a photo sticking out her tongue. The messages included sexually-explicit discussions, with Spink making suggestive remarks about her body and encouraging her to perform a sex act on herself, even instructing her how to do so.
Judge Andrew Stubbs QC noted that a probation report indicated Spink tried to downplay his offending, claiming he thought he was interacting with a peer due to loneliness. The judge emphasized that, “You said you thought you were on a par with a 14-year-old girl because you were lonely and ‘she’ was lonely too. You were an adult and ‘she’ was a child, and that’s what you sought to exploit.”
In addition to the prison sentence, Spink was ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years and was placed under a sexual-harm prevention order for the same period, barring him from any contact with girls under 16.
Prosecutor Dan Cordey explained that the group, posing as a teenager named ‘she,’ claimed to live in Newport, South Wales, and initiated contact with Spink. She asked if he wanted to meet while visiting a relative in York. Spink, a divorced father of two and a grandfather, responded positively, even suggesting she buy ‘nice underwear’ for their meeting.
On the allotted day, Spink arrived at a property in York expecting to meet ‘her,’ but was confronted by a paedophile hunter blocking his car. He then sped off and was later arrested at his residence in Kirby Hill.
Spink pleaded guilty to charges including attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and attempting to communicate sexually with a girl under 16, all occurring between July 21 and August 13, 2017.
The court heard that Spink, who used the username ‘Andy North Yorks,’ was highly engaged with the fake profile the day after its creation in January 2017. He initiated conversation by asking, “How’s you today?”, receiving a response that ‘she’ was 14. Despite knowing the age, Spink continued grooming behaviors, asking what ‘she’ was wearing and suggesting he would ‘pick her up and go shopping’ with her, claiming he would treat her and that he ‘adored’ her.
Throughout conversations, he lavished ‘her’ with compliments such as calling her “gorgeous, special and beautiful,” and asked if her age bothered him. When she inquired if her age was an issue, he replied, “Not as long as you are okay with mine,” and later asked her to send a photo sticking out her tongue. The messages included sexually-explicit discussions, with Spink making suggestive remarks about her body and encouraging her to perform a sex act on herself, even instructing her how to do so.
Judge Andrew Stubbs QC noted that a probation report indicated Spink tried to downplay his offending, claiming he thought he was interacting with a peer due to loneliness. The judge emphasized that, “You said you thought you were on a par with a 14-year-old girl because you were lonely and ‘she’ was lonely too. You were an adult and ‘she’ was a child, and that’s what you sought to exploit.”
In addition to the prison sentence, Spink was ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years and was placed under a sexual-harm prevention order for the same period, barring him from any contact with girls under 16.