BERNARD MCPHILLIPS

GOSPORT PENSIONER SENTENCED TO 3 YEARS FOR CHILD SEX OFFENCE AFTER ONLINE GROOMING

An ex Royal Navy sailor who told a ‘child’ to meet him at KFC for sex has been jailed.Pensioner Bernard McPhillips was communicating online with what he believed was a girl under 13 named Lily when he arranged to meet her.

The 57-year-old was actually conversing with an undercover police officer in October 2023.Prosecutor James Kellam stated that McPhillips immediately disclosed he had an ‘intimate piercing’ shortly after the conversation started.

The court heard that McPhillips asked the ‘child’ to meet at KFC in Antelope Park, Southampton, for sex.

The article reports, ‘The defendant then asked to meet the ‘girl’ and they agreed to meet at KFC in Antelope Park, Southampton,' said Mr.

Kellam.He also sent indecent images of himself to the police officer.

After the arrangement was made, McPhillips drove from his home in Gosport to Southampton on his motorbike.

Police arrested him upon his arrival at the KFC.During police questioning, the only remark he made was, ‘I am not going home tonight, am I?’ The court described the act as an ‘arranged meeting to have penetrative sex’ with a considerable age gap.Donate his actions, Adam Furze, representing McPhillips, said the offender struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder following his service in the Gulf War.

Mr.

Furze explained that the tragedy of losing a friend in the conflict and a failing marriage had greatly impacted McPhillips’ mental health.

He characterized the incident as a ‘stupid mistake’ and asked for another chance.In sentencing, Judge Christopher Parker KC stated that McPhillips openly expressed a desire to have sex with what he believed was a child and had arranged a meeting in Southampton.McPhillips was sentenced to three years imprisonment and placed under a 10-year sexual harm prevention order, with notification requirements.