'Lonely' Leeds truck driver who wanted to help Facebook 'girl' masturbate denies sexual interest
A HGV driver who targeted an underage girl on Facebook and encouraged her to masturbate later tried to claim he got no sexual gratification.
But Liam Kelly was told by a judge at Leeds Crown Court that his claim was “not accepted”.
The 28-year-old had little clue that a profile he latched onto was run by the paedophile hunter group, Predator Exposure.
The court heard that Kelly had sent a friend request on Facebook to the alleged 14-year-old on September 8, 2023.
Once accepted, he quickly turned the conversation sexual and asked her about masturbation and repeatedly asked if she “wanted help with it”.
He told her he was masturbating and sent her links to pornographic websites. He encouraged her to download Snapchat so he could “talk more freely”.
He was arrested days later after being confronted by the hunter group.
Kelly was “full and frank” during his police interview, admitted he was lonely but denied any sexual interest. He said he never intended to meet her until she was 16.
Kelly, now of no fixed address, admitted attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to incite a girl into sexual activity.
Mitigating, Martin Morrow said Kelly was working as a driver, but had split from the “love of his life”, moved to a new city and was “lonely”.
He said that Kelly “accepts fully his culpability” and had not committed any crimes before or since.
The judge, Recorder Simon Kealey KC told Kelly: “From the outset you have admitted your involvement. You have a showed a degree of remorse for it.
“You told officers you were lonely it gave you no sexual gratification, but I can’t accept that because of your guilty pleas to the two offences.”
He gave him a two-year jail sentence, suspended for two years. It is the maximum suspendible sentence available to the courts, and Recorder Sealey told him it was a “close-run thing”, whether he went directly into custody.
He ordered him to complete an accredited sex-offender programme, 30 rehabilitation days with probation and 150 hours of unpaid work.
He was also put on the sex offender register for 10 years and given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to help monitor his internet use.