Paedophile hunter slammed by judge for trapping Lancashire man with learning difficulties

A judge at Preston heard Jack Winstanley, who was said to have a mental age of between nine and 12, was confronted and filmed on the doorstep of his parents’ home by a group of online vigilantes.

They accused him of attempting to have sexual communication with a 12-year-old girl and uploaded a video of their “sting” on the internet.

But a lawyer representing Winstanley in the city’s Crown Court said the “ambush” had left the 27-year-old with post traumatic stress disorder (TPSD) on top of other issues he already had, including autism.

Barrister Sharon Watson told Judge Sara Dodd that her client’s PTSD was “a direct result of the vigilante group acting as judge and jury.”

She said: “The way they acted towards him was intolerable. They didn’t know that Mr Winstanley had all these difficulties, but the trauma of that has really impacted on him and that is what the PTSD has resulted from.”

The court heard that in September 2021 Winstanley made contact online with what he thought was a 12-year-old girl called Hannah. In fact it was a fictitious profile set up by a member of a paedophile hunter group posing as a child.

The conversation soon became sexual and Winstanley asked how old she was. She told him she was 12. When “Hannah” asked him how old he was, he replied: “25. I hope you are OK with that.” She then said: “If my age is OK with you then OK.” He said: “I’m fine.”

The group provided him with a phone number they said was Hannah’s and after they began chatting on WhatsApp he asked for (clothed) photographs of the fictitious girl and was sent three.

Winstanley asked if she would like to meet. When the girl asked: “What will we do,” he replied: “Anything you like.”

He then asked her if she was good at keeping a secret. She said she was and so he asked he if she would like to see his private parts.

He then sent her a photograph. He told her: “You will be 100 per cent safe with me. I promise I will never hurt you.”

Winstanley, who was living with his parents in Greenway Avenue, Skelmersdale, also asked to see a picture of the girl with no clothes on. The group declined to send one.

Police were alerted and Winstanley was arrested, but not before the vigilantes had uploaded a video online of the “sting” at his front door.

Asked why the case had taken almost three years to come to court, the prosecution said part of the delay was due to evidence not being forthcoming from the vigilant group.

When arrested Winstanley immediately told police he regretted making the conversation sexual. The prosecution conceded there were “a great deal of mitigating factors” including his difficulties and the fact that the girl was not a real victim.

Winstanley sat in the dock with his head bowed throughout the hearing. His parents were in court to support him. Miss Watson told the judge that a community nurse specialising in learning difficulties, who had been supporting the family for the past six months, was also in the public gallery.

The barrister said her client had a genetically inherited condition which had impacted his development. He had an IQ of between 50 to 69 which gave him a mental age of between nine and 12. He also had autism and speech, language and communication difficulties. “None of these issues are of his making or within his control.”

Miss Watson said that when his problems were highlighted the police ordered the video footage to be taken down from the internet. But by that time it had been public for more than 18 hours.

She added: “This citizen’s arrest was a sort of ambush. He found that extremely traumatic. From the (police) interview the following day it was clear it had impacted him.

“As soon as he walked out of the police station shell-shocked and with regret he has been having counselling. There has been an awful lot of work done with him from then to now.”

Miss Watson said: “He had worked hard since his teen years to make a good life for himself. He had a full-time gardening job and over the past seven years had never missed a day of work.

“That is something of importance to him. He has every reason to be proud of himself (for that). The adults who work with him like him and really want the best for him.

“He had been suspended on full pay and a meeting had been arranged with his employers following the outcome of the court hearing.

“They know the nature of the events and it’s been said it isn’t automatic that he loses his job. It is only to be hoped that they find a way to allow him to keep the job which means so very much to him.”

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Judge Dodd said, having heard the background, she was convinced it was not necessary to send Winstanley to prison. Instead she imposed a community order for two years.

She ordered he should attend up to 25 rehabilitation activity sessions and must continue to live at home with his parents.

The judge also imposed a sexual harm prevention order which will restrict his use of internet devices for the next five years and also made him the subject of a sexual offences notification order requiring him to notify police of any change of circumstances.

The court case was attended by our freelance reporter Brian Ellis.