Farm worker confronted by paedophile hunters after arriving to meet '12-year-old girl' for sex in car park
A farm worker was confronted by paedophile hunters when he arrived to meet a 12-year-old girl for sex in a supermarket car park, a court in Preston was told.
Mathew Shuttleworth was challenged by members of an unofficial child protection group who had set up the sting after he tried to have sexual conversations with three children on social media.
What the 38-year-old didn’t know was that he had been talking to adult “decoys” pretending to be under-age girls in an operation to flush out online predators.
Shuttleworth pleaded guilty to three offences of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and one of attempting to meet a 12-year-old girl following sexual grooming.
He was sent to prison for a total of 18 months by Judge Ian Unsworth KC at the city’s Crown Court.
He was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order severely restricting his use of the internet for the next 10 years and ordered to keep police informed of any changes in his address or other personal details.
The court was told that adults from paedophile hunter groups had posed as three girls called Leanna, 14, Niamh, also 14, and 12-year-old Abby.
Shuttleworth, of Barbon near Carnforth, made contact with all three and over a three-week period attempted to have sexual conversations with each of them.
He then tried to set up a meeting with the youngest of the three on the car park of a local store in the hope of having sex with her.
When he was intercepted by one of the hunter groups he received a call from his wife telling him people were assembling outside their home.
He called the police to inform them and he was subsequently arrested.
Judge Unsworth told him: “This is a serious case of its type.”
In the case of Leanna he said Shuttleworth knew she was 14 from the very start and had been flattering her, saying he could give her a hug and a kiss and suggesting they could have sex.
In conversation with Niamh, who was also 14, he made “explicit” suggestions to her, telling her she was gorgeous and she could lie on top of him.
But with Abby, the youngest of the three, he was asking her to meet him. He is said to have told her: “Sex doesn’t hurt, it just hurts the first time.”
Judge Unsworth said: “You tried to meet her.” And he added justice could only be achieved by an immediate custodial sentence.
“Over a three-week period in October 2022 you were engaged in sexual communications with individuals you believed were girls – in fact these (conversations) were with members of various paedophile hunter groups.
“In relation to the youngest, Aby, you arranged to meet her on the car park of Booths supermarket and wanted to have sex with her.”
Judge Unsworth criticised the length of time it had taken to bring the case to court – the offences happened in October 2022. He agreed the delay had not been the fault of Shuttleworth and so reduced his prison sentence from 20 months to 18 months to take account of it.