August 2023 Exmouth groomer Antony Turner was caught after police sting An online child groomer from Exmouth has been jailed for the third time after being caught by an undercover police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl. Antony Turner was still on prison licence and subject to an order which was supposed to control his online behaviour when he was caught by the sting operation in June 2021. An officer from the Derbyshire police set up a false profile of a 13-year-old called Holly on the Chat IW site and was contacted by 28-year-old Turner, who moved their conversation to Snapchat. He offered to travel to Derby to have sex with the child and when the decoy told him she had no experience, he replied ‘It is okay. I can teach you’. Another message said ‘I want to f*** you’. Turner was jailed in 2015 for arranging to meet a child he met online and again in 2019 for a similar offence which he committed while he was supposed to be attending a Sex Offenders’ Treatment Programme. He was also subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) which banned him from communicating with children and required him to tell police about all internet-enabled devices so they could monitor his online activity. He broke that order by having a phone which he did not register with the police, although the one which he used for the sex chats had been notified, which was why the police were able to trace him so quickly. He was recalled to serve the rest of that 20 months sentence and has been in prison ever since. Turner, now of no fixed abode but previously of Exeter Road, Exmouth, admitted attempted sexual communication with a child and breach of a SHPO and was jailed for a year and eight months with a four year extended licence by Judge Stephen Climie at Exeter Crown Court. He told him: “Your offending on this occasion was online activity. You believed you were communicating with a female child but in fact it turned out to be an undercover officer. June 2019 Convicted paedophile sent pornographic video to undercover police officer A convicted paedophile who thought he had sent a pornographic video to a young girl and who turned out to be an undercover police officer has been sent on a sex offenders’ treatment course. Antony Turner has already served one jail sentence for grooming girls online and was trapped by a sting operation run by the police’s public protection unit. Turner thought he was communicating with a 12-year-old girl but he was actually exchanging messages with undercover officers. He sent a string of sexual messages and videos and encouraged the ‘girl’ to send him sexually graphic videos. Turner was already on the sex offenders register and subject to a sexual harm prevention order (SOPO) after doing exactly the same thing four years earlier. A judge at Exeter Crown Court imposed a community order rather than a prison sentence because he said it offers the best hope of preventing Turner offending again. He has already been in prison for six months while awaiting sentence, which is the equivalent of a one year sentence, because inmates are released halfway through their sentences. Turner’s sentence was delayed because he has no home and the probation service had to find him supervised accommodation in Torquay. Turner, aged 24, formerly of Exeter Road, Topsham, admitted attempting to cause a child engage in a sexual activity and watch a sexual act, attempted sexual communication with a child, and breach of a SOPO. He was ordered to attend a sex offenders’ treatment course and undertake 20 days of rehabilitation activities during a three year community order by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court. The judge said it was important for Turner to attend the treatment course, which could not be completed during any jail sentence. He told him: “I bear in mind the history of this case and your individual difficulties and I can reflect the credit for your guilty plea by imposing a different type of sentence. “I need to warn you that if you re-offend during this order, fail to comply with the requirements, or fail to maintain contact with probation, you are liable to be re-sentenced.” Miss Rachel Drake, prosecuting, told an earlier hearing that Turner made contact with a decoy online profile which was set up by police, who posed as a 12-year-old girl. Turner sent a series of messages between October 31 last year and his arrest on December 1. In those chats, he encouraged her to engage in a sexual act. He sent her two pornographic movies when she replied that she did not know what he was talking about. He also offered to ‘teach her about boys’. Turner was not only on the sex offenders register but was also subject to a SOPO imposed when he was jailed for two years and nine months for grooming and trying to meet a real 15-year-old girl whom he met online. July 2015 Topsham internet predator jailed for grooming girl through online messaging service An internet predator with a history of child sexual offences has been jailed after he groomed a schoolgirl through an online messaging service and arranged to meet her for sex. Antony Turner persuaded the girl to send him a picture of her breasts and was on his way to meet her when a support worker at the hostel where he was living found out about the plan and called the police. The girl went to the rendezvous at Chester Railway station where Turner had arranged to meet her before going to a nearby park, Exeter Crown Court was told. She was so traumatised by Turner’s grooming she started self harming and told police she was a ‘quivering wreck’ when strange cars pulled up outside her home. Her mother said she felt her daughter had ‘been violated by a predator’. Turner also asked a 13-year-old girl to start a sexual relationship and send him images of herself but she refused and eventually told her parents. He was found with more than 90 child abuse images on his phone and eight extreme images. Turner, aged 20, of Exeter Road, Topsham, admitted meeting a child following sexual grooming, causing a child to engage in sexual activity, seven offences of possessing or making indecent photographs and breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order. He was jailed for a total of 33 months by Judge Douglas Field, who warned him he would face a very long sentence if he commits any similar offences in the future. He told him:”Your behaviour towards young girls is worrying and you have been in denial about the way you have been behaving. You have a distorted attitude and think what you are doing is entirely normal. “You have sought to minimise your behaviour and blame others for what you have done. It is time for you to take responsibility for your actions.” Mr Peter Coombe, prosecuting, said Turner made contact with the girl on social media and carried on the conversation on the Kik messenger service. He told her he was 18 and worked in catering. As the contact continued he asked her to send images of her breasts, sent naked pictures of himself and asked her to have sex with him. They arranged to meet at Chester but a worker at the hostel where he was living became aware of his plans and alerted the police. In victim impact statements the girl said Turner had encouraged her to lie to her mother and left her as ‘a quivering wreck’. The mother said:”I feel as if my daughter has been violated by a predator.” Checks on Turner’s phone and computers showed he had child abuse images, including some of the worst type, and some extreme images. Police later discovered he had met a 13-year-old girl at Exmouth and also asked her to send him images and asked her if she wanted to start a relationship with him. He also broke a court order which prevented him having unsupervised contact with a vulnerable adult, who he had previously had sex with when they were both under age. June 2014 Patient at therapeutic hostel found with child abuse images A patient at a therapeutic hostel was found with child abuse images on a tablet computer after staff spotted him trying to hide the device under his bed. Antony Turner, aged 19, was ordered to receive supervision after a Judge told him the public would be best protected by him receiving help and treatment. He was a resident at the hostel in Topsham when he was found with images of children as young as two and three last month. Turner, of Seabrook, Topsham, admitted five counts of making indecent images and was made subject of a three year community order by Recorder Mr Edward Burgess at Exeter Crown Court. He has already spent almost a month in jail awaiting sentence. He told him:”It is important that you understand this is a serious crime. It involved terrible exploitation of children as young as two or three and the things done to them are unspeakable. “They are done so people can publish the images on the internet and you are encouraging them to do that by looking at this material. The courts have to stop people doing that to prevent children suffering in this way. “I acknowledge you have problems and you need to have the proper help and therapeutic intervention.” Mr Gordon Richings, prosecuting, said the images were found on a tablet computer after staff at the hostel became suspicious because they saw Turner hurriedly hiding it as they came into his room. Police found still and moving images of children being abused.