Paedophile claimed he was in Leeds Tesco during sex chat with 'play buddy' boy
A paedophile who thought he was talking to a teenage boy online told him he wanted a “play buddy” and pictures of his genitals.
Christopher O’Brian was stung by an undercover officer but later played down his interest by telling police that he was shopping in the Tesco store in Seacroft while talking to the profile.
He was given a suspended sentence at Leeds Crown Court after admitting attempted sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause a child to engage in non-penetrative sexual activity.
Using a sexually-suggestive name, 39-year-old O’Brian contacted the decoy profile in October 2023.
He talked about masturbation and said he was looking for a “play buddy”. He told the supposed youngster that he was masturbatind during one conversation and requested swapping pictures of genitals. The chat lasted for around a week.
O’Brian, of Sherburn Place, Swarcliffe, was later arrested and interviewed. He said he was going through a bad time in his relationship but denied having any sexual interest in children.
He claimed he could not have been masturbating because he was shopping at the time. In response, Judge Simon Batiste said it was “not uncommon for people to put forward preposterous suggestions” in these types of cases.
Mitigating, Sean Smith pointed to O’Brian’s lack of previous convictions and that he had not offended since.
Judge Batiste told O’Brian: “It was clearly sexual and he made it clear he was only a 14-year-old boy. It’s clear what you were doing was sexual and for sexual gratification.”
He gave him a 20-month jail sentence, suspended for for 24 months, with 160 hours of unpaid work and 25 rehabilitation days with probation.
He put him on the sex offender register for 10 years, and gave him a 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to allow his internet use to be monitored.