PAUL PARSONS, LINCOLN PAEDOPHILE, SENTENCED TO NEARLY SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON
In April 2018, a man from Lincoln with a long history of sexual offences was sentenced to nearly seven years behind bars after being caught in a sting operation conducted by an online child protection team.Paul Parsons, aged 56 and residing on Laurel Close in Lincoln, was found guilty of attempting to engage with what he believed to be underage girls over the internet, only to be confronted by paedophile hunters from the National Child Protectors (NCP) group.
Parsons’s criminal record is extensive, with convictions dating back to the 1970s.
His first known conviction for indecent assault occurred in 1975, and throughout the 1980s, he was convicted on seven additional occasions for similar offences.
The court was informed that in 2003, Parsons received a seven-year prison sentence at Portsmouth Crown Court for offences committed against two 14-year-old girls.
Overall, Parsons has accumulated 26 convictions encompassing 61 separate offences, 37 of which are sexual in nature.
During the investigation, Parsons believed he was communicating with young girls on internet forums.
In reality, he was in contact with members of the NCP, who posed as minors to catch potential offenders.
Prosecutor Tony Stanford detailed that Parsons engaged in conversations with what he thought was a 12-year-old girl, asking her about her clothing and where she lived.
He also requested photographs and explicitly discussed having sex, stating, “I’m looking for more than just chat.
I’m looking for sex.” He even made arrangements to meet the girl at a bus station but later claimed that his children had arrived, preventing the meeting.
Parsons also contacted five other individuals he believed to be young girls, making sexual comments and requesting photographs.
Mr.
Stanford emphasized that these offences stemmed from internet interactions with paedophile hunters pretending to be minors.
Following his arrest and subsequent police interview, Parsons dismissed the allegations as mere fantasy talk, asserting he would not have acted on his intentions.
The court heard that Parsons’s criminal history includes multiple convictions for indecent assault, with his most recent significant sentence being in 2003.
His record shows a pattern of sexual offending spanning several decades.
At Lincoln Crown Court, Parsons pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including attempting to meet a child following grooming, four counts of attempted sexual communication with a child, attempting to incite sexual activity with a child, and breaching a sexual offences prevention order.
The judge, Andrew Easteal, sentenced him to a total of six years and eight months in prison, which includes a two-and-a-half-year extension on his prison licence.
In addition to his custodial sentence, Parsons was subjected to a lifelong sexual harm prevention order and was placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.
Judge Easteal described Parsons as a dangerous individual, highlighting his persistent and determined sexual interest in young girls.
The judge remarked that Parsons’s behaviour showed little empathy for his victims and demonstrated little effort to change, despite numerous previous convictions and interventions.
The sentence underscores the ongoing concern about Parsons’s potential threat to the community and the importance of stringent measures to prevent further offences.
