SHAMED SEX STING EX-COUNCILLOR SPARED JAIL
MAN THOUGHT HE WAS TALKING TO TWELVE YEAR OLD
A disgraced former Sunderland councillor who had explicit online sex chat with who he thought was a 12-year-old girl – then claimed it was ‘jokey banter’ – has been spared jail.
Paul Middleton, who represented the Washington South ward, believed the child was living in a care home when he sent the shocking messages to her in 2017.
But Newcastle Crown Court heard the 44-year-old dad had actually been communicating with a police officer, who was involved in an online operation to snare paedophiles.
The girl in the online conversations never existed.
Prosecutor Jonathan Devlin told the court Middleton had made contact with a profile in a chatroom and was told the user “Maddie” was “13 in the following April”.
The conversation quickly became “sexually suggestive” and Mr Devlin said: “He asked Maddie what kind of fun she liked, asking whether that was naughty fun.
“She told him she lived in a care home.”
Middleton asked the girl, in graphic terms, about sexual contact she had had with boys in the home, and, added Mr Devlin, “the conversation went on in that way”.
The court heard as the chat became more explicit, the decoy teen described it as “gross”.
Mr Devlin added: “He said any behaviour like that with him wouldn’t be gross.”
The court heard Middleton brought the conversation to an abrupt end. He sent her a friend request on a separate occasion, but there was no further correspondence between them.
The court heard Middleton was arrested last summer.
Mr Devlin said: “He said it wasn’t for sexual gratification. It was done in a jokey conversation way. He said he took a dim view of that sort of behaviour. “
Middleton – who is no longer a councillor and has since been expelled from the Labour Party – pleaded guilty to attempting to sexually communicate with a child.
Judge Tim Gittins sentenced him to four months’ imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, with programme requirements and a three-month night-time curfew.
Middleton must abide by a sexual harm prevention order and sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for seven years.
“He said it wasn’t for sexual gratification”
PROSECUTOR