ABERGELE MAN JAILED FOR ATTEMPTING TO ENGAGE IN SEX WITH MINORS
THIS is the moment Philip Broadbent was confronted by paedophile hunters after he'd been caught sending illicit messages to what he thought were teenagers online.The clip, which was streamed live over the internet, shows the year-old remain stony faced as is quizzed by the vigilantes about behaviour.
Broadbent, of Maes Canol, Abergele, believed that he had been chatting to at least four 13 to year-old girls on Facebook messenger.
However, unbeknown to him at time, he was actually speaking to "decoys" from the Totnes Justice.
They then sent members of another paedophile hunting group - called Leave Our Kids Alone - to confront him at his home.
Leave Our Kids Alone and Totnes Justice are online groups made up of individuals who say they gather evidence against individuals believed to be a danger to young children.
Members of the group had been acting as "decoys", pretending to be young children online to attract and catch predators like Broadbent.
The group live-streamed the incident through their Facebook page.
The team confronted Broadbent with what they claimed were "at least 200 pages" of chat history containing illicit messages.
In the video, they are seen to tell Broadbent he will not be harmed or "beaten up" by members and that police had been called.
When confronted Broadbent appears to be visibly agitated, constantly shifting and unable to stand still.
When questioned, Broadbent admits his guilt on video, saying: "I know it was wrong, I shouldn't have done it.
I'll just have to take what's coming to me." He goes on to give a range of "excuses" as to why he sent messages of a sexual nature and pornographic images to underage children.
The group then explain they would hand over all evidence that they have gathered against Broadbent to police when they arrived at the scene.
Based on that evidence, Broadbent was later sentenced to six months in prison at Caernarfon Crown Court.
He admitted 15 charges of attempting to incite children to engage in sexual activity.
The judge said: "You sent them images of yourself and other pornographic images and tried repeatedly to get pictures of themselves.
You didn't know they were decoys." As well as his six-month sentence, Broadbent was also given a seven-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and has been placed on the sex offenders' register for a minimum of seven years.
