A 37-year-old Isle of Wight man will appear before the Crown Court in November after pleading guilty to attempting to meet a child for sex at Victoria Rec in Newport.
Paul Allen, from Hinton Road in Carisbrooke, was caught when he started talking to a 13-year-old boy online – but the child was actually an undercover Police officer.
The Isle of Wight Magistrates Court recently heard how Allen used the popular dating app Grindr to talk to the ‘child’, asking ‘what turns him on’. The conversation – which became more graphic – then switched to the app Snapchat.
Allen – a father himself – arranged to meet the 13-year-old boy at nearby Victoria Recreation Ground, suggesting they could then go back to the child’s home for sexual intercourse. The park is located close to 3 schools.
Hampshire Constabulary was alerted to the arranged meet and found Allen exiting the park with Snapchat open on his phone. He was swiftly arrested and a search of his property was carried out.
It was during a search of the address that officers found a quantity of cannabis, leading to a second charge of possession of a Class B drug.
Paul Allen pleaded guilty to arranging/facilitating the commission of a child sex offence and possession of a Class B drug when he appeared before Magistrates on 28th September.
The case has been committed to the Isle of Wight Crown Court for sentencing on 10th November.
Please for God’s sake, give him a proper punishment not just a slap on the wrist…
This pedo lives near a number of schools, his home is walked past by schoolboys everyday. Surely, that’s reason enough to A) jail him B) remove
him from the area ???
Idiot – that is his life down the toilet.
He now has to carry that c*ap around with him for the rest of his days – he will never escape it …forever known as a child sex offender. No matter what he does in the future, he will always be an outcast.
It always amazes me, that with the huge amount of vile, thugs, and violent low life we have walking our streets that you never here of any of them dishing out rough justice to even greater low lives such as this.
Once named you would assume that they would be bullied every day of their all too long life, yet nothing seems to happen to them, despite the above. Most odd.
I know this man.. often seen him cycling around.. I’ll count down the days until we meet again and proper justice is served..
Are you implying violence is the solution? It won’t be the cure I can assure you. The only consequence could be the time you may have to serve! Our justice system is flawed unfortunately however don’t leave yourself open to a criminal conviction. He will now be monitored for the rest of his day’s as well as not being able to see his own family etc..
no he won’t mandy – it will be his responsibility to inform the police of any change of address and whilst he may be subject to spot checks on internet usage, it will not be everyday. Also he will be free to walk around and try to speak with children any time he wants to, as electronic tags do not provide video and audio evidence.
Unless he moves off the island – he will be battered senseless sooner or later.
But why was there a police officer using Grindr pretending to be a child? Did they already have this person as a suspect? Or were they just using an app for gay/bi men in the hope to try and entrap someone as they have nothing better to do?
Not every pedo are known to the police. It’s a good way using this app to weed out and shine a light on these perverts and to have there day in court. Yes the sentencing is a complete joke, if only the death penalty was still around. They don’t deserve any human rights. At the very least jail them and throw away the key.
It’s called intelligence led policing, what a Neanderthal comment.
Amendment! Why children would/could/can access sites such as these!
Intrapment? This idiot and many others like him go online looking for kids, he got caught, good on the police
Nothing better to do? Nothing better than make this place ever for MY children? You know, I’d rather MORE police were employed in this kind of activity. You come across as being oblivious to the hidden threats in our society Betty. That in itself if a danger to us all.
I wondered why too. I wonder if they already suspected him of something. but it looks like they never found any cp in his place or that would have been mentioned. Thing is, this bloke might never have done anything to anybody and was stupid enough to reply to someone that I guess could be called catfishing themselves by pretending to be something they aren’t. So he might never have looked for anything like that but the temptation was put in his way and he took the bait. He should have known better. What a fool.
Seems a lot don’t understand what entrapment is. I hope it was done in a way that he made first contact or early on the fake child said “i’m only 13”. If he then continued that yes he should be done. But if the fake child first created a friendship before revealing their age then police could be in trouble.There needs to be a follow up story on how these sting operations work.
I think some think you’re defending the pervert, which I am sure you are not. Just want a safe conviction that will stick.
Why are police officers pretending to be 13 year old boys and why is grinder allowing 13 year olds to use their platform? Hampshire police and grindr would both appear to be acting in a very irresponsible manner.
merp – so I guess you have a solution to put up to prevent children, such as teenagers from accessing a site then.
The police purposely pretend to be children and actively make it known that they are doing it, to make pervs unsure as to whether they are talking to a copper or an actual child – it is a great intelligence led tool, that allows them to identify previously unknown pervs, those that are just embarking on this criminality and repeat offenders trying to commit their next atrocity. It prevents a lot of abuse taking place, just based on the fear of the unknown from the pervs point of view – is it a copper or a kid?
Perhaps you were never a kid yourself eh? A thirteen year old would have no problem at all telling porkies about their age to get on such an app. The police were pretending so they could catch a crook, it worked. Why even think about questioning that? Really, why?
But why would a thirteen yr old kid be wanting to go onto a site like Grindr in the first place? Unless they wanted to meet gay men? And why question what the police did? I think people have every right to question it. People should question anything and everything with the way things are today.