Sex offender snared after online sting
PAEDOPHILE DROVE 200 MILES NORTH TO MEET‘YOUNGSTER’
A CHIP shop worker was trapped by paedophile hunters after driving more than 200 miles hoping to meet a young girl for sex.
Paul Ellis travelled from North Wales to Newcastle with condoms in his pocket, taking sweets and crisps to ply his intended 13-year-old victim with.
It followed months of online conversations with her.
But, when he arrived in the North, he was confronted by Dark Justice, who were behind the online profile.
The group approached Ellis, 58, and grilled him about why he had travelled to the city.
The group told Ellis, of Rhyl Road in Denbigh, that it knew he had been talking to the “girl” since August 2016.
Within minutes, a police officerffi arrived,d arrestedd Ellisll and led him away in handcuffs.
At Mold Crown Court, Ellis, who was a qualified nautical engineer but had fallen on hard times and was working in a chip shop, was jailed for other offences committed before his Newcastle crime.
At the time he was snared on Tyneside, he was on bail for talking to underaged boys and girls on the internet.
His home had been raided in 2015 and police found a large number of graphic sexual chats with children, some as young as 12.
In those cases, unlike his Newcastle crime, the children did actually exist.
Extensive policel enquiries had been carried out and, in September last year, Ellis pleaded not guilty. He was supposed to be tried in February – two months before he travelled to Newcastle hoping to meet the fictional 13-year-old – but that case was adjourned.
His defending barrister Simon Mintz told the court Ellis knew he had a problem, that what he had done was wrong, and that he needed help.
He admitted five charges of attempting to arrange a child sex offence over the internet in 2015, with 11 other similar offences committed between January and October last year.
He also admitted that he had The moment Paul Ellis, inset, is arrested in Newcastle after being trapped by Dark Justice planned to incite a child into sexual activity between August last year and April this year, when he was arrested in Newcastle.
In online conversations, he made it clear what he wanted to do to her, photographs were exchanged and arrangements were made to meet up on April 28.
He bought diesel in Rhyl, drove to Newcastle and, when 20 miles away, sent a message to say that he had condoms with him.
Judge Rhys Rowlands told Ellis he had engaged in “lurid, sexual conversations” with children, adding: “You continued with what was totally depraved behaviour, even after you had been arrested and appeared in court.
“You travelled up there in the belief that you were going to meet up with and have sex with a 13-year-old girl.”
He was jailed for four years and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.
Commenting on the sentence DC Lee Harshey-Jones, of North Wales Police, said: “We welcome this sentence. Ellis is a prolific offender.
“People committing this type of offence have to realise that eventually they will be identified and caught and will have to face the consequences of their criminal actions.”