PAEDOPHILE CAUGHT AFTER GOING TO MEET DECOY GIRL IS SENTENCED
A paedophile who was caught and handed over to police after going to meet what he believed was a 13-year-old girl has been placed on the sex offender register for ten years.Bradford Crown Court heard how, over five days between June 11 and 16, 2023, Mark Newell, now 46, of High Croft Way, Farnhill, Keighley, sent messages and photographs to a 13-year-old child he had met online.
The child was in fact an adult decoy.
As their chat progressed Newell asked the girl for a full-length photograph of herself, then a picture of her wearing pyjamas, and then a picture of her in her underwear.
He described her as “sexy” and “very attractive”.
He had previously asked the girl how old she was, knew that she was 13, and he had said he was 44.
During the course of the messages Newell’s conversation became sexualised.
He said he had dreamt about having sex with the girl, gave “step-by-step instructions” on how she should masturbate, and engaged in “graphic” role-play.
He told her he was “horny”.
The pair arranged to meet on June 16 but Newell was confronted by adults who detained him and took him to a police station.
Newell was interviewed by police and gave “no comment” answers.
His phone was seized and examined and found to contain 326 indecent images of children in various categories including Category A, the most serious.
There were also 17 prohibited images of children and other images of extreme pornography.
He was interviewed a second time and had “no explanation” as to how the indecent images ended up on his phone.
He later pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to incite a girl aged 13-15 to engage in sexual activity, attempted sexual communications with a child, three counts of making indecent images of children, possessing prohibited images of a child, and possessing extreme pornography.
In mitigation, the court heard that Newell, a man of previous good character, had not talked of sex with the girl on the day of the rendezvous.
It was described as “a non-contact offence”.
His Honour Judge Colin Burn sentenced Newell to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered him to complete 55 rehabilitation activity requirement days including completing the Building Better Choices programme.
He was also made the subject of a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
