Married Paul claimed to police he travelled to Belfast with his family and friends
A computer operator who travelled to Belfast to meet a ‘child’ he met online today narrowly avoided prison.
Bipul Paul, 39, of Salisbury Road in Reading, Berkshire was handed an 18 month sentence suspended for three years after he was caught messaging the ‘child’ by a paedophile hunter group.
Paul, who works as a coder for a credit card company, previously pleaded guilty at Belfast Crown Court to charges of attempted sexual communication with a child and attempted to meet a child following sexual grooming.
He further admitted attempting to unlawfully incite another person to take an indecent photograph of a child.
The offences were committed on dates between January 22, 2023 and June 17, 2023.
The court heard that on January 23, 2023, Paul sent a message on a dating app to the profile of a person called ‘Ashley’ but this was in fact a ‘decoy’ profile which was operated by an adult.
A prosecution lawyer ‘Ashley’ told the defendant that she was 13-years-old. The defendant subsequently deleted the conversation on the grooming app and asked for the ‘child’s’ telephone number.
The conversation then moved to WhatsApp and the defendant repeatedly asked her for photographs.
He was sent photographs of a 28-year-old woman which were altered using computer software to make her look significantly younger.
The defendant responded to these photographs, saying: “You are cute.”
The prosecutor said the following day Paul repeatedly asked her for more photographs and again saying she was “cute”.
The court was told that within a month the conversations became “more sexually explicit”, and sent a picture of the female reproductive system.
One message read: “I need pix maybe of you bathing.” He offered to buy her lingerie and asked her to come to his home and spend the night with him and even offered to take her on holiday.
The prosecutor said the defendant “repeatedly and persistently asked her to send him pictures of her without clothes and became angry when she refused to send more pictures, sending angry faced Emojis.
He sent the ‘decoy’ a picture of him shirtless in a bath.
The defendant asked ‘Ashley’ if she had had sex before and she replied ”no”, saying she was nervous. The defendant told her: “Ok, wait for me until you are 16.”
The defendant offered to meet Ashley in Belfast on June 16, 2023 and take her shopping.
On that date, Paul sent ‘Ashley’ a message to say he was in Belfast and wanted to meet her. They agreed the location and when he turned he was confronted by male members of a paedophile hunter group.
Married Paul claimed to police he travelled to Belfast with his family and friends.
The court heard the father-of-one, who is originally from India, had to move out of the family home for the past 18 months following his offending.
The defendant wrote a letter to the court expressing his remorse for his behaviour and said he had engaged with a psychologist for individual therapy.
He said he has remained sober for the past 30 months and is attempting to make positive changes to his lifestyle.
Judge Mark Reel said he was of the view that the defendant was “clearly obtaining sexual gratification from these offences”.
“He had a well developed plan to meet the proxy and the plan was executed by the defendant,” said Judge Reel.
“I find that the defendant intended to engage in sexual activity with the proxy.”
Judge Reel told the defendant: “Your offending is so serious that neither a fine nor a community service could be justified and only a custodial sentence is appropriate.”
The judge said he was suspending the 18 month sentence as the defendant had no criminal record, was in full time employment and the steps he had taken to address the issues behind his offending.
The defendant was made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for ten years and was placed on the sex offenders register for the same period.
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