RICHARD CHAPPELL AND CHERIE SCOTT

WEST YORKSHIRE COUPLE JAILED FOR CHILD SEX OFFENCES AFTER POLICE STING

A sex offender caught trying to meet children in an undercover police sting has been jailed for 12 years.Richard Chappell, aged 44, from Thornhill in West Yorkshire, was messaging officers under the impression he was speaking to parents offering their children for sex.

He was convicted of attempting to arrange a child sex offence and inciting child exploitation.His partner, Cherie Scott, aged 29, was also imprisoned for sex offences.

The couple, who lived in the Crigglestone area of Wakefield, committed the crimes between 2016 and 2019, police confirmed.Chappell exchanged messages with accounts he believed belonged to parents of young children but which were actually undercover officers.

He described obscene acts he had committed and detailed plans involving children.After Chappell’s arrest in April 2020, police searched his home and seized children’s underwear, sex toys, phones, and computers containing thousands of images of children.

Scott was caught describing to Chappell her own sexual touching of a child.

The police later identified the involved child.Chappell was found guilty in November of 11 counts of attempting to arrange a child sex offence and five counts of inciting child exploitation.

Following their sentencing at Leeds Crown Court, both were issued indeterminate Sexual Harm Prevention Orders.

Scott was convicted of sexually assaulting a child, making and distributing indecent images, and was jailed for three years and nine months.Det Ch Supt Carl Galvin, head of the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit, described Chappell as a "depraved individual with sexual perversions involving very young children".