Leeds predator with 'criminal attitude' to child sex offences to be deported to Romania after prison sentence

Gheorge Paris, 33, was jailed for 22 months on Friday (February 3) for counts of attempting to communicate sexually with a child and attempting to cause a child to watch sexual activity, both of which happened in Harehills, Leeds. Leeds Crown Court heard that Paris had previously been jailed for child sex offences in his home country of Romania and that he would be deported back to the country after he has served his sentence at HMP Leeds.

After his arrest Paris denied the offences and suggested that someone who he had sold a faulty car to was trying to set him up.

For the prosecution, Bashir Ahmed told the court that Paris engaged in a sexually explicit conversation with a decoy profile on social media of a 13-year-old girl, which had been set up by an online vigilante group called Predator Exposure that works with the police.

Paris began chatting to the decoy – going by the name Lily Rose-Gibbs – on May 21, 2021, and “she made it clear to him that she was 13-years-old”. The court heard that the chat “very quickly became sexual in nature”, as Paris asked Lily if she wanted to meet and gave her his address. He then asked her to send naked photographs and, when she declined, he sent her a sexually graphic picture and video of himself.

In June 2021 members of Predator Exposure went to Paris’s home address to confront him but he wasn’t present. He was later arrested by Merseyside Police at Liverpool Airport after coming back from Romania in September 2022.

During the police interview he denied the allegations and said he was “a religious person who would not do that”. Mr Ahmed said: “He even suggested it might have been a disgruntled customer seeking revenge for buying a faulty car off him.”

Paris continued to deny the allegations and only pleaded guilty at Crown Court in January this year during a plea and trial preparation hearing.

The court heard that Paris had previously been jailed for three years in Romania for child sex offences and a further year for “sexual activity with a child”.

Representing Paris, Jim Littlehales said that his client acknowledged that he would be serving a jail time and would be “deported at the end of his sentence”. He asked the judge to take into account his guilty plea when passing sentence.

Sentencing Paris, Her Honour Judge Belcher said that a pre-sentence report described Paris as having a “pro criminal attitude” towards sexual offending and that he took “no responsibility” for his actions. The report added that there was a high risk of Paris committing further sexual offences.

Judge Belcher said: “Those findings are concerning and obviously mean that only an immediate custodial sentence is required.”

She sentenced Paris to 22 months in custody and placed him on the sex offenders register, with one of the terms being that he is prohibited from having unsupervised contact with any child under 16 without approval from the relevant services.