Sex offender called himself “Paedo Pay Piggy” and attempted to arrange for sexual activity with baby

A sex offender was caught by undercover police attempting to arrange for sex with extremely young children, including a baby, thinking he was talking to their mother.

Daniel Devlin, adopted the title “Paedo Pay Piggy” in an online profile and shared extremely disturbing fantasies about what he wanted to do with young children.

Devlin had already been jailed for 15 months in 2017 for seven indecent images offences and was given a sexual harm prevention order and sex offender registration requirements for an indefinite period. Newcastle Crown Court heard that in January last year an undercover police officer set up a decoy profile online and sent a message to a profile called “Paedo Pay Piggy”, which was Devlin.

During the subsequent conversation, Devlin’s sexual interest in children was apparent. Omar Ahmad, prosecuting, said the chat was “almost exclusively sexual” and he shared fantasies about young children, including making references to a four-year-old girl.

Inquiries revealed the IP address he was using was that of his partner and officers attended and arrested him. He had breached his sexual harm prevention order because the internet history on two phones seized from him had not been recorded and the acquisition of the phones had not been notified to the police.

In relation to that set of offences, the 38-year-old, of Coburg Street, Blyth, admitted publishing an obscene article and two counts of breaching the sexual harm prevention order.

While on bail for those offences, he committed a further offence in chats with what turned out to be another undercover officer who had set up a decoy profile called “mam for play dates”. Using the name Phil, he sought to arrange to meet the “woman’s” daughters, aged seven and 11 months.

Mr Ahmad said Devlin and the decoy mother had a phone conversation during which, in relation to the two female children, he said he “would be into anything” and outlined sexual acts.

An inquiry showed the phone he was using had been topped up with his bank card. He pleaded guilty to attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence and failing to comply with the sex offenders register by failing to register the pseudonym Phil.

When arrested, he said he had no friends, did not intend to meet the children and said it had been fantasy role play. However, passing sentence, Judge Tim Gittins told him: “You saying this was no more than a fantasy discussion is not borne out by the history of your behaviour.

“If it was really fantasy, you would be talking about dungeons and dragons, not penetrative sexual behaviour with very young children.”

Devlin was jailed for four years and nine months and given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and must sign the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Ian Cook, defending, said Devlin’s best mitigation was his early guilty plea. He said he was socially isolated, rarely left his house and had no contact with family members. His only source of support was a Reverend, Mr Cook said.

He added that he has been dealing with childhood trauma and a personality disorder and had attempted suicide in prison. He said he wants to better himself while in custody.