Shop man sent lewd selfies to ‘teen girl’

A GROUP of paedophile hunters confronted a supermarket employee at work after he sent a picture of his privates to a “14-year-old girl”.

Garon Owen, 45, began talking with “a schoolgirl called Emily” on a dating website and began sending sexually charged messages to her, despite being told she was underage.

But unbeknown to Owen, “Emily” was a fake profile set up by paedophile hunters.

The defendant later arranged a “date” with the fictional teenager, asking her to miss school to go to McDonald’s in Cardiff, before heading to the cinema.

He also asked her if she wanted him to be her boyfriend and told her not to show her parents their conversation, which included photographs of his genitals and obscene requests for naked photos and sexual favours, as well as asking to “take her virginity”.

Prosecutor Rachel Knight told the sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday that Owen contacted “Emily” on the Meet4u dating app on January 28 and spoke to her over the following week, with the meeting in Cardiff arranged for February 7.

But First Line Defence South Wales, the group behind the decoy account, confronted Owen at Asda in Coryton, Cardiff, where he worked as a trolley collector, on February 5, and carried out a citizen’s arrest.

Police attended and arrested Owen, and were given a copy of his conversations with “Emily”.

When the case came to court he pleaded guilty to one count of attempting sexual communication with a child, one count of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity and one count of attempting to arrange to meet a child following grooming.

Defence barrister John Ryan said his client suffered from autism and Asperger’s syndrome which meant he was “young in mind”.

He added: “He went looking for love on an over-18 website and he came across the decoy who quickly said she was 14.

“He has lived, apart from this offence, an honest life and there are references that back this up.”

Sentencing, Judge Timothy Petts told Owen, of Tyn y Coed Road, Pentyrch, he had to learn what he had done was wrong.

He said: “What you did was very wrong and fortunately you weren’t talking to a real girl but that doesn’t make it right.

“You wrote some disgusting things and you should be ashamed of yourself.”

Owen was made subject to a 24-month community order with a rehabilitation requirement of 35 days.

He will also be subject to an electronic curfew and a sexual harm prevention order for five years, as well as requiring to sign the sex offenders’ register for the same period.