EX-GOVERNOR PATRICK WESTMORE OF RYDE JAILED AFTER POLICE UNDERCOVER OPERATION ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT

In November 2008, Patrick Robert Westmore, a former school governor and trustee of the charity Gingerbread, was sentenced to prison following a police sting on the Isle of Wight. An undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old girl engaged in an internet chat with Westmore, during which he arranged to meet her for sex, believing she was a minor. Ann Smout, prosecuting, stated that Westmore, 52, contacted the officer in the chat room, sending pictures of himself, filming himself performing a lewd act, and encouraging her to do the same.

Westmore, of Tennyson Close in Ryde, was arrested in January after police found hundreds of indecent images on his computer, including two at level four — near the maximum severity on a scale of five — with some images manipulated to include parts of his own body. He admitted to the charges of arranging a child sex offence and possession of indecent images at Isle of Wight Crown Court.

He had planned to meet the girl for sex but did not follow through with the meeting. Jamie Porter, defending Westmore, highlighted that Westmore was the sole carer of his child, stressing the impact of the case, and noted that Westmore had expressed troubling views and appeared to need help.

Judge Jeremy Burford sentenced Westmore to two years and four months in prison. He also imposed a lifetime ban from working with children and ordered him to register as a sex offender for ten years. Furthermore, Westmore was prohibited from using the internet or phone to contact children, apart from his own son.