FELIXSTOWE BUSINESSMAN BENJAMIN ADCOCK JAILED FOR SEX OFFENCES
A Felixstowe businessman who had conversations about sex with an undercover police officer posing as a fictitious 12-year-old boy and arranged to meet him has been jailed.Sentencing 42-year-old dad-of-four Benjamin Adcock, Judge Richard Kelly said he had groomed the decoy child by littering their conversations with compliments such as telling him he was handsome and had beautiful eyes, Ipswich Crown Court heard.
Benedict Peers, prosecuting, said an undercover police officer working for an organised crime unit had posed as a 12-year-old Ukrainian boy living in Hull on Kik messenger in December 2023.
He said during their chats Adcock had mentioned meeting him for a “cheeky kiss” and anal sex.
He went on to say he would be working in Hull in a few days' time and discussed meeting up in a park.
When the decoy child said he "wanted to be safe", Adcock said he would bring condoms and police had subsequently found condoms in his wallet, said Mr Peers.
Adcock was identified from his telephone number and when police went to his address he wasn’t at home.
On that morning, Adcock had cancelled a meeting because the police were at his flat.
Mr Peers said Adcock had been on the A14 between Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds heading for Boston for a work appointment when he turned back to Felixstowe.
He said officers who examined Adcock’s tablet found he had planned a two-hour meeting in Boston at 10am which would have given him sufficient time to go to Hull.
Adcock, of Garfield Road, Felixstowe, admitted attempted sexual communication with a child and attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence.
In addition to being jailed for two years and 10 months, he was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for eight years and ordered to sign the sex offenders register.
Damian Warburton, for Adcock, said his client had no previous convictions and the offences were committed over two days in a “moment of madness”.
He said Adcock was remorseful and an immediate prison sentence would cause hardship to his wife and children.
Mr Warburton said Adcock employed members of his family in his business which might fold if he was jailed.
The court heard that family members and people who knew Adcock described him as a kind and a devoted family man.
