Paedophile support worker for vulnerable people who bombarded '13-year-old' with sex videos avoids prison

Paedophile Jack William Scott made contact with the girl - named 'Gabby' on message app, Kik, in September last year - that turned out to be an undercover police officer, Leeds Crown Court was told.

Prosecutor John Hobley said that 27-year-old Scott had been told by the decoy profile that she was only 13, and made references to being at school, but Scott began making sexual comments, including saying he wanted to "strip her and play with her".

Over the coming weeks he sent 10 videos showing him performing a sex act, and continued to send them even when 'Gabby' told him she did not like them.

He continued asking sexual questions over Kik and Snapchat and told her he wanted to be her boyfriend.

Police traced Scott to an IP address in the Castleford area. His mobile phone was seized and deleted messages were recovered from Kik.

Mitigating, Michael Devlin, said that Scott had been working as care worker for vulnerable people, but had lost his employment as a result. He has no previous convictions.

Mr Devlin said: "A lot has changed in his life since then, he is in a new relationship and she is aware of these matters. He was struggling in his relationship at the time, it was coming to an end and there was stress caused by debts."

Judge Robin Mairs told Scott that it did "not go anywhere near justifying sexual contact with a child".

He told him: "You are a paedophile, you have a sexual interest in children. She told you she did not want the videos, but you wanted to send them because you got satisfaction sending them.

"You know full well what you were doing and the full gravity of what you were doing. I'm sorely tempted to send you directly to Armley (HMP Leeds) to spend months in jail with other paedophiles, but that may exacerbate rather than help."

He jailed him for 20 months, but suspended the term for 24 months.

He also gave him 250 hours of unpaid work, a 10-year sexual prevention harm order (SHPO) that will limit his internet use, and ordered him to enter a rehabilitation programme where Judge Mairs told him he that would "have to face up to being a paedophile".

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