Man caught in sting op as he went to meet ‘girl’

GROOMED 14-YEAR-OLD WAS TRAP LAID BY PAEDOPHILE HUNTERS

A RAILWAY worker who tried to groom a 14-year-old girl on social media was arrested after he was caught in a sting by a paedophile hunter group.

Neil Shearer thought the child, who accepted his friend request on Facebook, was a real person.

The civilian vigilantes turned up at the rendezvous point, Leicester station, on May 10 last year.

Tom Heath, prosecuting, said the fictional Facebook account accepted a friend request from the defendant.

Mr Heath told Leicester Crown Court: “Shearer messaged, ‘How are you?’ She (the bogus girl) asked how old he was and he said he was 48. She said she was 14 and from Derby.”

He asked her if she wanted a boyfriend and if she wanted him to go to Derby to meet her, or if she could travel to Leicester, where he was working. As the messaging continued, he said he’d take care of her if she fell pregnant.

He asked her to accompany him to a hotel in Wigston. The girl asked what she should tell her mother and Shearer said to tell her he was 18.

Mr Heath said the defendant mentioned sex three times in conversations and asked for a naked picture. When she asked what they would be doing at the hotel, he told her “have sex”.

He messaged the girl’s account on the afternoon of the arranged meeting to confirm he would be there and sent a photograph of himself, so she would recognise him.

Shearer arrived at the train station at 5.30pm and was confronted by the hunter group, who became “aggressive,” the court was told.

Members of the public, witnessing the confrontation, called the police.

When British Transport Police officers arrived, Shearer said: “I shouldn’t have done it.”

The defendant, formerly from Northampton, who later moved to Northallerton, North Yorkshire, is now 49 and had no previous convictions.

Shearer admitted attempting to meet a girl under 16 and attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

Michael Garvey, mitigating, said: “He has a mild learning disability and was assessed as being on the autistic spectrum. He presents as a loner.

“He decided to try to make contact with someone on the internet and he’s had a most salutary lesson.

“He had a backlash from this. The hunter group filmed him and put it on the internet.

“He returned to Northampton and it attracted a lot of adverse reactions.”

Sentencing, Judge Ebrahim Mooncey said: “You were engaging in very deliberate conduct and believed you were talking to a 14-year-old girl. You made your intentions clear.

“You were prepared to abuse a young person, but I bear in mind it was not a real person.”

Shearer was jailed for 12 months.