Pervert back in jail after invite to ‘boy’
PAEDOPHILE HUNTERS SNARE MAN WITH FAKE WEB PROFILE
A PERVERT who thought he was enticing a child to his home for tea is back behind bars after being trapped by paedophile-hunters for a second time.
Paul Southern, who was jailed last year for trying to meet what he believed to be two underage boys, had been duped by vigilantes on a dating website.
Despite being banned for life from having contact with children as a result of that offence, the 40-year-old has been back at it – and was caught by the same group again.
Now Southern has been locked up for 16 months at Newcastle Crown Court after he admitted breaching his sexual offences prevention order.
Judge Tim Gittins said it was “likely significant sexual contact would have followed” if Southern had been able to meet an actual child.
The judge added: “This is not just a breach of a sexual harm prevention order in a minor way but by trying to commit the same sort of offence you tried to commit last year, effectively attempting to sexually groom a boy under 16.
“It is clear you are ready and willing, if there are underage boys on the site, to contact them with a view to meeting for sexual behaviour to take place between the two of you.”
The court heard Southern was on dating app Grindr when he communicated with a decoy profile set up by Guardians of the North.
Prosecutor Mark Giuliani said: “The group was able to establish his address, where he was living. They went around because he invited the 14-year-old boy, or the person he thought was a 14-year-old boy, around for tea.”
The court heard instead of a schoolboy turning up at the house for tea, members of the vigilante group arrived at the door and alerted the police.
Southern, of Hendon Burn Avenue, Sunderland, admitted breach of a sexual harm prevention order.
He remains subject to the sexual harm prevention order and must sign the sex offenders register, both on an indefinite basis.
Alec Burns, defending, said Southern “was not actively looking for children” when he went on the site, which is for adults, and said “his request was for tea”.
Mr Burns added: “Initially, he told the person he should not be on the dating website, that he could get harmed by adults, but then he carried on and asked him to come to his house.”
Mr Burns said Southern has been the subject of abuse by his neighbours due to his past and leads a “lonely” existence. The court heard Southern had been so drunk when he asked the boy for tea that he has “absolutely no recollection at all” of it.