AYTON PENSIONER ORGANISED TO SEXUALLY ABUSE CHILD BECAUSE HIS PUB BUSINESS WAS STRUGGLING
In 2023, a perverted pensioner was caught trying to organise sex with a child after Wolverhampton police officers posed online as a 14-year-old boy, a court heard.John Atkinson, 72, sent sexually explicit messages to "Tommy" but was arrested on Monday, June 19 and charged with attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and arranging the commission of a child sex offence.
Atkinson, of High Street, Ayton in Scotland, pleaded guilty two days later after being told "Tommy" was not a child and shown all the messages between the two.
Atkinson included phrases "sucking and touching" in his messages which were obviously of a sexual nature, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
However, married man Atkinson avoided jail and was instead given community service and several restrictions.
He blamed his behaviour on "strains and difficulties" in his marriage and his business struggling.
The judge, Recorder Anthony Warner, said: "You did believe this was a 14-year-old boy.
He was a 'decoy' and not a child but you believed he was a child and in the exchange of messages which included the phrases 'sucking' and 'touching'.
"You have expressed regret and promised not to go down this road.
In this case the public is best protected in the future by a community order and you undertake rehabilitation, if you were to be sent into custody this rehabilitation would not happen.
"I am giving you a community order for two years.
You must attend rehabilitation activity 55 days and I am giving you a sexual harm prevention order for five years.
If you are in breach of this you will be back in front of this court.
"The types of orders are checked up on, so you must adhere to the restrictions of the order." Atkinson will have to notify the police if he moves house, needs permission from social services to enter a home where a child lives and must not delete any searching history on his computer's browser.
The judge also sentenced Atkinson to 150 hours of community service.
He said: "You must also undertake community payback work, which is like working normally but you do not get paid for it.
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