41-year-old Matthew Parker, a former first officer at Red Funnel, has been handed down a suspended sentence by Southampton Crown Court after trying to meet a ’13-year-old boy’ after grooming him through the internet.
Parker, from Andover, previously pleaded guilty to arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence. This week he was given a 12-month prison sentence – suspended for 2 years – and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years. He has also been given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for a period of 10 years and ordered to complete 55 days of rehabilitation.
The court heard how the ex-senior maritime officer used Grindr and other platforms to contact who he thought was a 13-year-old boy. The boy was actually an adult paedophile hunter, who arranged to meet Parker at Thorpe Park in July 2018. The Police were soon alerted and Parker was arrested.
Although Matthew talked about kissing, cuddling and holding hands – deemed inappropriate messages – there was never any suggestion of anything further and no photographs were exchanged. Since his arrest, Parker has undergone counselling.
Red Funnel has confirmed that Matthew Parker left their employment in October last year. A spokesperson has said:
“As the court ruling against Mr. Parker does not pertain to his employment at Red Funnel, it would be inappropriate for us make any further comment for legal and data protection reasons.”
A spokesperson for the NSPCC has said:
“Cases like this highlight the serious risk that the online world poses to children.
Article continues below this advertisement “It is imperative that the Government introduces new online safety laws to prevent predators like Parker targeting vulnerable young victims.”
Mathew Parker represented Red Funnel at lots of school events and this was after concerns had already been raised to his management. He even kept photos of children he met on his desk and PC in his office. Needless to say the line manager who this was reported to no longer works for the company.
Were there concerns raised before July 2018 when he was caught by the hunters?
that is his career, life and all other opportunities over for him. He is completely unemployable, no one will want him anywhere near them or their businesses.
The only option available to him is to move somewhere else and accept the fact that his actions have destroyed everything he once had. He will be moving around, as people will get to know that there is a sex offender around and he will be hounded out of every place he tries to live in.
he didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to go looking on grindr etc for children – there will be more to this, that has not been uncovered yet, there always is with these people.
Thank God for people doing what the Police OUGHT to be doing.
Just a pity that they are not allowed to administer an appropriate punishment as well.
Perhaps you’d like to join the Police service and show us how it’s all done. Until you’ve done the job to appreciate how they struggle with such shortages of numbers then please don’t be critical.
perhaps the police would like to spend more time chasing down these pieces of sh*t, instead of setting up hate crime tents, so that people in tears can wail, that someone called them a name and that their feelings are hurt.
Instead of the police sitting in warm offices, sifting through twitter posts looking for an occasional reference that may potentially offend someone, at some point in all human existence, their time would be better served arresting these pricks and locking them up.
They do not seem to struggle to find resources to knock on someones door because some transgender snowflake has hurt feelings due to someone not speaking words that they find acceptable to them, however, the same police cannot seem to find resources to turn up and deal with shoplifters and burglars. Which is what the other 99.99% of the population who are gender content, male and female taxpayers that fund their salaries, expect of them.