Paedophile jailed after vigilante Facebook sting
A PAEDOPHILE believed he was luring a schoolgirl to his home for sex – but ended up being confronted by Facebook vigilantes.
During the day Daniel Pickering was a respected manager at a high street store, but outside of work spent a month sending vile messages to a Facebook profile that he thought belonged to a 13-year-old girl called Amber.
He told her his real name from the outset, quickly engaged in explicit chat and sent footage of himself performing a sex act, convinced she was a Liverpool schoolgirl.
In a bid to lure her into sex, he offered to give her cocaine and alcohol if she met him in person.
But Pickering, from Oldham, was being lured into a trap himself – by a fake profile set up by a group of so-called paedophile hunters, who went by the Facebook name of ‘Keeping Kids Safe.’
Now Pickering has been jailed at a sentencing hearing at Manchester crown court.
Claire Brocklebank, prosecuting, told the hearing Pickering asked whether ‘Amber’ was single and suggested she ‘find someone experienced to be with.’ He also invited her to his house and told her he had cocaine and alcohol. They agreed to meet up in Manchester. But at the meeting point – a Lidl car park – Pickering was met and surrounded by six members of the vigilante group.
The court heard how the group performed a citizen’s arrest and detained Pickering before police arrived.
Initially Pickering said he had no intention to meet with a child but later pleaded guilty to six offences, and has now been jailed for 27 months. He admitted counts of attempting to meet a child after grooming, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act and attempting to engage a child in sexual contact.
He also admitted possessing cocaine and cannabis after snap bags of the drugs were found at his home, and offering to supply cocaine.
Defending, Andrea Lock, said: “To say Mr Pickering has had a spectacular fall from grace is an understatement.”
Sentencing, Recorder Simon Medland QC, said: “This sort of offence is something which rightly strikes people with dread.”
Pickering, of Poplar Avenue, Oldham, must sign the offenders’ register for ten years.
Police have spoken out against the activities of online ‘paedophile hunters’ claiming their actions do not always result in prosecutions and can potentially disrupt existing police investigations.
However, in recent years a growing number of prosecutions have relied on evidence from vigilante investigators. sex