Former cricketer caught trying to meet girl, 14, for sex
A FORMER county cricketer has been jailed for arranging to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex after being caught by self-styled paedophile hunters.
Richard Sladdin, of Burnley Road, Mytholmroyd, was ensnared by the vigilantes who pretended to be the teenager on a dating app, Lovoo.
The former left-handed spin bowler, who played for Derbyshire, Somerset and later Walsden, was accosted by the group in a car park when he travelled across the Pennines and attempted to meet the fictional girl, who was named Claire.
The encounter was filmed and posted on the internet where it was viewed more than two million times.
Bolton Crown Court heard Sladdin, 48, who had the username TrickyDicky69, had asked Claire if she was “looking for a daddy” and if she would have sex with him.
Jailing Sladdin, the Recorder of Bolton, Timothy Clayson, said: “You were expecting to meet this young child, expecting her mother to be out and you expected to have intercourse. You took condoms and alcohol and you told her not to tell anyone.”
David Bentley, mitigating, said there has been a “high degree of remorse” by Sladdin. Mr Bentley said no real child was at risk and that the defendant may not have gone through with it, adding Sladdin’s home had been bricked and his car damaged.
Judge Clayson said he accepted Sladdin was remorseful and pleaded guilty at an early stage.
Sladdin was jailed for 12 months of which he will serve half in custody and half on licence after admitting attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming. He was made subject of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.
Speaking after the case yesterday, a NSPCC spokesman said: “Sladdin set out to groom and meet a vulnerable young girl, knowing full well she was under the age of 16. While his intended victim was fictitious, his behaviour highlights the dangers posed to youngsters by offenders online.”