‘This is our little secret, princess’
WHAT PERVERT GRANDAD TOLD ‘13-YEAR-OLD GIRL’ HE GROOMED FOR SEX – NOW HE’S BEEN LOCKED UP
A PERVERT grandad was caught trying to groom 13-year-old girls for sex in paedophile sting operations.
Phillip Thompson, 63, has now been disowned by his wife of 40 years and their two children after he was exposed by adults posing as young girls on internet chatrooms.
The dad, who served in the Army and Greater Manchester Police, arranged to meet one of his intended victims, sent her filthy pictures and told her: “You will have to lie to your mummy. This is our little secret, princess.”
He has now been jailed following two separate sting operations, one by a police officer and the second by a group of paedophile hunters who both posed as young girls online.
Thompson, using the identity
Abseiler Zero, met ‘Charlie’ on the internet chatroom IB in October 2018 – his contact described herself as a 13-year-old-girl from Dorset.
He admitted he was a 62-year-old man from Manchester but had no clue that ‘Charlie’ was actually a police officer. When ‘Charlie’ confirmed to Thompson the age on her profile, the language ‘descended rapidly into sexual conversation which was provoked by and led by the defendant,’ prosecutor Colin Buckle told Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.
Thompson told her he wanted to swap pictures and would like to meet for sex, the court was told. He asked lewd questions and told her he wanted her to ‘ultimately to meet up with him,’ said Mr Buckle.
Thompson gave the undercover cop his email address and shared pictures of himself. He said he wanted to become her ‘boyfriend.’ The court heard this ‘grooming’ was repeated in November 2019 when the defendant met ‘Natalie’ online who told him she was 13 - but actually she was a ‘paedophile hunter,’ the court was told.
“Just don’t tell anybody about our secret then we can meet up as often as we want,” he told the ‘girl.’ Thompson said he would get in trouble, admitting: “Because it’s illegal.”
The pair arranged to meet outside Morrisons in Heywood on November 24 last year. But the defendant didn’t show up and so the paedophile hunting group tracked him down and confronted him at his home in Royton, Oldham. In a police interview, Thompson was shown the chat logs but he said he didn’t believe he had been talking to a child because of the speed of the typing. He insisted that he had not intended to meet any child.
Patrick Williamson, defending, said his client, who walks with the aid of a stick and has diabetes, had served in the Army for 12 years, completing five tours of Northern Ireland. He spent 17 years working as a detention officer for GMP before going on to work as a driver, he said.
Thompson was jailed for three years and six months after he admitted two counts of attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act, attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity and arranging the commission of a child sex offence.
He was ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life and made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.