Somehow I don't think his disguise is fooling anyone
But, I mean, four years for communicating with a fake online profile?
Don't actual rapists and child abusers get less than that??
Taxi driver from Castleford pretended to be 'well-built' 22-year-old to meet girl, 13
https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/ ... 13-9195539
He targeted two profiles a year apart, but tried to claim it was ‘online fantasy’
Image: Wakefield Express
A lonely ageing taxi driver pretended to be a muscly 22-year-old online to speak with young girls.
Paedophile Paul Barker, who was described at Leeds Crown Court as having health issues and obese, was jailed.
He targeted two profiles, run by a hunter group looking to catch online predators, a year apart.
The 56-year-old admitted two counts of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity and two of attempting sexual communication with a child.
In November 2021 he targeted the first profile, sending hundreds of messages over a month-long period.
Prosecutor Victoria Ball said the conversation “quickly turned sexual in nature”.
Telling her he was 22, he said he wanted to take her to McDonald’s and the cinema and kiss her.
He told her to keep it a secret because he could get into trouble due to her age.
Barker tried to arrange to meet, repeatedly telling her he wanted to touch her body, going into great detail.
Then a year later he latched onto a second profile of another supposed 13-year-old girl.
He told her he wanted to come to her home and get into bed with her.
Barker, of Beech Court, Castleford, initially denied wrongdoing after being arrested. A trial date was set but he changed his pleas to guilty.
Despite this, he continued to deny a sexual interest in children.
Mitigating, Mark Foley said it was not uncommon for such defendants to deny an interest in children.
He said Barker had lived with his parents for the past 20 years, but his mother died during Covid which had a “profound effect” on him.
He was employed as a taxi driver but has since lost his job due to the court proceedings.
Mr Foley said: “He was an isolated individual and started using social media and platforms where he could engage in conversations.
“He was enjoying a fictional relationship.”
He said there was no chance of Barker meeting young girls because he had told them he was 22.
Judge Penelope Belcher rubbished Barker’s claims that he was not interested in children.
She told him: “You claimed you knew they were children. You are kidding yourself, it was clearly for sexual gratification.”
She conceded that there was a “stark contrast” between the 22-year-old, attractive, well-built man he claimed to be and the reality that he was 56 and “obese”.
She jailed him for four years, gave him a five-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) and put him on the sex offender register for life.
