Roger Hicks, 58, used a chatroom to chat to what he believed to be teenage girls. | Photo: Lincolnshire Police
A married dad has been jailed for 16 months after being caught talking to teenage girls by a paedophile sting set up by the Metropolitan Police.
Roger Hicks, 58, who was living in Long Sutton at the time, used a chatroom to contact what he thought were two 13-year-old girls.
But the pair were actually officers from the Met Police who had set up decoy accounts to trap paedophiles.
Stuart Lody, prosecuting, said that the police operation was then interrupted by a members paedophile hunting group who had separately been carrying out their own investigations into Hicks.
Mr Lody told the court: “He was arrested as a result of a so-called paedophile hunting group turning up at his home where he lived with his wife. He also has adult children who are no longer living with them.
“He was confronted. Neighbours became rather agitated and police were called. At that stage he was arrested and taken into custody not only for questioning but for his own safety.”
The prosecutor said that it may have been that the paedophile hunting group’s activities affected what was already an ongoing police investigation.
Mr Lody added: “It may well be that if the paedophile hunting group had not acted in the way they did then inquiries would have been broader. Other people who were perhaps of interest to the police have potentially not been dealt with.”
Mr Lody told the court that Hicks was the administrator for the chatroom and told the two Met Police decoys that they could trust him because of his role within the group.
Hicks went on to share photographs of himself, his workplace, his car and even his driving licence before turning the conversatyions to sex while insisting “I’m not a paedophile”.
He went on to have explicit sexual conversations with the decoys and sent photographs of his penis.
Mr Lody said: “He told one of them he would like to see her dressed in a school uniform from Asda. It seems that he had a particular predilection for schoolgirls.
“He said he wanted to engage in fantasy messaging. Teacher-pupil scenarios. Caning, spanking, that sort of thing.”
The court heard that the decoy account set up by the paedophile hunting group purported to be a 14-year-old girl.
Hicks engaged in sexual conversations with her and asked to be sent photographs which he could use to masturbate.
Hicks, 58, formerly of Anfield Road, Long Sutton, admitted two charges of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, one charge of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity and one charge of attempting to cause a child to look at an image of sexual activity between June 11 and 19 this year.
He also admitted further charges of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act between June 14 and 26.
He was jailed for 16 months and given a seven year sexual harm prevention order.
Judge John Pini QC, passing sentence, described the messages sent by Hicks as “highly sexualised” and told him: “The sentence has to be one of immediate custody as the offences are too serious to be dealt with in any other way.
“You do need help. If you really want to get that help then it is up to you to seek it.”
Sunil Khanna, in mitigation, said that Hicks got involved in chatrooms two years ago and initially chatted with adult women but that led to issues within his marriage.
“He was then watching pornography. That led him to start trying to chat to young girls. That snowballed and led him to become involved in extremely sexual conversations with these young girls.
“He was in the app for two years but the sexualised talk was only going on for the last four months.
“He was living out his own fantasy. He had no intention of ever meeting these girls. He couldn’t help himself having started down this road.
“He has now spent the best part of six weeks in custody and has had time to reflect on what he has done. He needs help.”
In a statement, the paedophile hunting group that helped expose Hicks said: “We are disappointed with the sentence, Mr Hicks was in an alternative group with ourselves whereas in the case with the Met Police decoys he was the group admin.
“Mr Hicks spoke to our decoy until June 26, the day he was confronted, for some unknown reason the Met Police decoy contact ended on June 19.
“We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to the police for any disruption we may have caused as implied in court, however that is and never will be our intention.
“Furthmore, we handed this suspect over to police on June 14 due to safeguarding concerns, this was the very first day he spoke with us.
“The police were aware of our involvement and we took no action until 12 days later when we attended and ensured arrest.
“We strive to obtain better working relationships with the police, this case demonstrates how prolific one person can be.
“In light of the sentence, Our Team have submitted a review to the Attorney General under the unduly lenient scheme.”
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People aged 56 to 59 in the East Midlands, including across Greater Lincolnshire, are being invited to book their life-saving coronavirus vaccination this week.
The latest batch of letters have been sent after more than eight in 10 people aged 65-69 took up the offer of a jab as part of the NHS’ biggest ever vaccination programme.
People receiving the letters are invited to go online to the national booking service to arrange a jab. Those who cannot go online can call 119 free of charge.
They will receive a health status check and a pre-vaccination assessment before they have their jab.
People aged between 50 and 55 are set to be invited shortly after.
This comes after last week nearly a fifth of all Lincolnshire residents have now received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The latest NHS England figures show that more than 271,604 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Lincolnshire so far — of which were 5,281 second doses.
Alison Tonge, Regional Director of Commissioning at NHS England and NHS Improvement in the Midlands, said: “We are now inviting people aged 56 to 59 to get their jabs and I urge everyone eligible to come forward as soon as possible.
“The NHS vaccine programme is committed to protecting the country against coronavirus and it is testament to our incredible staff that we can now move on to the next age group.
“The vaccines are both safe and effective, so if anybody who is eligible but hasn’t been vaccinated yet, I’d urge them to go online or call 119 and get themselves booked in.”
A wildlife rescue farm near Gainsborough has vented its anger after two injured pigeons, who it believes were shot, arrived in its care.
Bedlam Farm Wildlife Rescue in the village of Marton said two poor pigeons from the same area/flock were brought in by the people who found them last week.
Both pigeons appeared to have leg issues and were cleaned up. It was then found that the white pigeon had “two large very matted and smelly callus lumps, one on her chest and the other on her leg”.
The pigeons suffered serious injuries. Click/tap to see the full image. | Photo: Bedlam Farm Wildlife Rescue
The other pigeon is described as having a very deformed leg that was almost twisted sideways.
The farm will speak to its vet to see what can be done, but fears both pigeons will need to have legs removed if they are to have any quality of life.
The farm said: “Seeing injured or sick wildlife is hard enough but to know these horrific injuries were done intentionally is just hard to swallow.
“These poor birds were just wounded and left to suffer and die. We certainly do have some vile individuals and who very sadly have to share the same air as us.”
On the first pigeon it said: “Once bathed and cleaned up it became clear that one is an entry wound and one an exit. I have seen a few shot pigeons and removed many pellets, so sadly I’m too familiar with what pellet wounds look like.
“She has little use of that leg at all. The pellet has clearly shattered the leg bone as it went through, leaving the leg to set itself broken which has fused, now she can’t bend her leg at all.”
On the second pigeon, the farm added: “He also has a hole straight through his leg just above the elbow, with an entry and exit wound. Like the other bird the bone has been shattered, leaving it to reset broken and very badly deformed.
“This has left him with no feeling below the pellet hole, so not only now has he got a permanent twisted leg but one is no use to him at all, the leg is lifeless.”
In February, the farm reported that a swan arriving in its care was found “wandering around some fields” at Hemswell.
The swan was taken to the vets where x-rays and blood tests were done. The x-ray showed a pellet in the swan’s head, which was reported to the RSPCA who moved the swan to its East Winch Wildlife Centre.
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