A man who works as a security guard has avoided prison after being caught by a paedophile hunting group attempting to meet what he believed was a 15 year old boy, while also having hundreds of indecent images of children.
Trevor Rees was talking to a decoy profile operated by paedophile hunters Dark Justice. When told he was talking to an underage boy, Rees did not end the chat as he should have done but continued and the conversation soon turned sexual.
Instead he arranged to meet the “boy” on the industrial estate where he worked at the time. He was confronted by the group and arrested, after which police found he also had hundreds of indecent images of children.
Recorder Tom Moran said: “The conversation became sexual when you still had no reason to think he was not at least 18. It was only once the conversation had started and was sexual that the profile said he was 15.
“Once you did find out his age, that should have been an end to the conversation but you carried on and suggested you got together to masturbate.
“An arrangement was made to meet at a hotel and then the venue was changed to an industrial estate were you worked as a security officer. You went, thinking you were meeting a 15-year-old but you were met by members of this organisation.”
Various devices were seized from Rees and hundreds of indecent images were found, including more than 600 of the most serious type – category A. He also had extreme pornography and prohibited images.
Rees, 69, of Granville Gardens, Stakeford, Northumberland, pleaded guilty to arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and indecent images offences. He was sentenced to two years suspended for two years with a mental health requirement. He will also be subject to a sexual harm prevention order and sex offender registration for ten years.
Jennifer Coxon, defending, said Rees is retired but no further mitigation was put forward after the judge told her he was going to suspend the sentence.