Mother posed as girl, 13, to trap internet pervert

Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday police arrested Philip James Brown after he arranged to meet the 13-year-old unaware he was "chatting" to an adult.

They then found 10 indecent images of children on his laptop.

Robin Frieze, prosecuting, said the mother from Leeds acted in June last year after finding a memory card from her daughter's camera in the family's printer and found pictures on it of the teenager showing her breasts and in her underwear.

She asked her daughter about them on her return from school and discovered she had been asked to send them to a man she had met in an internet chatroom.

Mr Frieze said it was with some presence of mind the mother then obtained her daughter's logging on details and pretended to be her that evening. She found the man using the name Baz Bingham among others in the chatroom and began a conversation with him.

He turned out to be Brown. She also saw his picture on his profile showing him with his shirt off.

Brown told her online that he "needed a hug" and if she took a particular bus she could come and visit him as he lived in Castleford.

She agreed to visit and Brown then asked if she would stay the night and when she indicated she would, they arranged to meet at the bus station. He gave her a telephone number to contact him when she got there.

At that point, said Mr Frieze, the mother contacted the police but kept Brown online. She then told him she could not meet him that night but he gave her more personal information.

He told her he worked in Normanton, Wakefield, as a forklift truck driver. He said he sat down all day and needed exercise "with a hot young lady like her".

Mr Frieze told the court Brown was traced and subsequently arrested. His laptop which was on at the time showed the name Baz Bingham and he appeared to be engaged in conversations of a sexual nature with other young girls.

He told officers there were pictures on it which he should not have. The laptop was seized and the indecent images, downloaded through a file sharing application, were found.

On a scale from one to five, where five is the most serious, six of the images were at level one showing girls aged from 12 to 14 posing, one was at level three, two at level four and one at level five, involving a girl aged about seven.

Brown admitted adopting the name Baz Bingham on Netlog and said he had been asking girls aged 13 to 16 since March last year, about three months, to send him naked pictures of themselves but none were found.

He said it was not for sexual gratification but because it made him happier. He also accepted sending pictures of his penis and of himself masturbating using his webcam.

Brown, 29 of Graham Drive, Airedale, in Castleford, admitted attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming, 10 charges of making indecent photos and one of possessing them.

Sentencing him, Judge Scott Wolstenholme said the offences were serious and showed he had an interest in pre-pubescent girls and would have enticed one to a meeting and sexual activity. The guidelines indicated a short prison term but after around nine months he would be out without any work done to address the risk he might pose.

Instead he imposed a three- year community order with supervision by the probation service and a condition he attended the Northumbria sex offender group work programme, along with 250 hours of unpaid work.

Brown was also ordered to register his address for five years and barred from unsupervised contact with young people or networking with them over the internet.