‘PAEDO HUNTER’ STING SNARES SCHOOL WORKER

COMPREHENSIVE LAB TECHNICIAN AND YOUTH VOLUNTEER JAILED

A MEMBER of staff at a large comprehensive school wanted sex with 13-year-old girls and had a video on his phone of a child as young as five being raped, a court has heard.

Paul James Davies worked as a lab technician at the school, and was also a youth volunteer with St John Ambulance.

Though Davies’ offending was not connected to the school or St John, a judge said he believed it was not a coincidence that the defendant held such positions given his sexual interest in youngsters.

Swansea Crown Court heard Davies was caught in a “sting” operation run by members of an online group called Welsh Children Protectors. Dean Pulling, prosecuting, said an adult member of the group established a fake profile purporting to be a 13-year-old girl on a social media site called Chatiw, and waited for someone to make contact.

In October last year, Porthcawl Comprehensive School lab tech Davies began to message the profile, introducing himself as “Paul from Neath”. The court heard the conversation soon became sexual, and that when the decoy reminded 32-yearold Davies of her age “it seemed to spur him on”.

The prosecutor said over the course of the following weeks Davies talked about meeting the girl, going for drives together and described the kinds of sex acts he wanted to perform on the girl – and have her perform on him.

Davies was again reminded of the supposed aged of the decoy, and replied: “That would not matter to me – I am good at keeping things secret”.

The court heard Davies arranged to meet the person he thought was a teen on November 10, but failed to turn up at the rendezvous point – members of the group went to his house instead, and when they knocked on the door the defendant’s wife answered. Police were called, and officers seized computer equipment, and found a Samsung mobile phone under a bush in Davies’ garden.

When the phone was forensically analysed, hundreds of images were recovered, including three films of Category A – the most extreme kind – one of which showed a girl aged between five and seven being raped by men. On the phone and on a Dell computer police also found chatlogs from online platforms including Kik, WhatsApp and Skype showing Davies had been having sexually explicit conversations with a number of young girls stretching back as far as January 2016.

Davies, originally from Neath but now of Forge Road, Port Talbot, had previously pleaded guilty to attempting to incite a child to commit a sexual act, three counts of making indecent images of children, and one count of distributing an indecent image when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.

The court heard he had no previous convictions. Paul Hobson, for Davies, said it was no exaggeration to say his client’s life “is now in ruins” – including the loss of his marriage – and he had brought “utter disgrace” on himself in the eyes of those who knew him.

He said Davies was seeking help from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation which works to stop sex offending.

For each of the image charges Davies was sentenced to four months in prison, the sentences to run concurrently. For the attempting to incite a child offence he was sentenced to four months to run consecutively with the other sentences, making a total of eight months.

Davies was also made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order to limit his access to children and control his internet use, and will be on the sex offenders’ register for the same period.

A spokeswoman for St John Cymru said: “We follow a safer recruitment process as part of our duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people. All checks regarding PD [Paul Davies] were completed satisfactorily, and he was suspended as a volunteer when we were advised of his arrest.”

A spokesman for Bridgend council confirmed Davies no longer works at Porthcawl Comprehensive School, adding: “While the offences remain unrelated to the school, teachers and staff are expected to conduct themselves in a manner which sets a positive example to pupils, colleagues and the wider community alike at all times.”