BRIAN THEARLE SENTENCED IN ISLE OF WIGHT FOR UNDERAGE GROOMING INCIDENT

BRIAN THEARLE SENTENCED IN ISLE OF WIGHT FOR UNDERAGE GROOMING INCIDENT

In February 2019, a pensioner from Lake was brought before the Isle of Wight Crown Court after being caught in a sting operation conducted by a so-called paedophile hunter.

Brian Thearle, aged 69, residing at Flitcroft Gardens, admitted to attempting to meet what he believed was a 14-year-old boy for sex following a series of grooming messages.

The court was told that Thearle had been communicating with an individual he thought was a young boy over three days.

During these conversations, he made sexual suggestions and expressed interest in taking the ‘boy’ back to his home for sex.

He also sent a sexually explicit photograph, which he claimed was not of himself.

On the day they planned to meet, Thearle was informed the ‘boy’ was actually only 13, but he reportedly replied that this was ‘okay.’ However, when Thearle arrived at the meeting point, he was greeted by a man who had been posing as the boy in the messages.

This man then performed a citizen’s arrest and called the authorities.

Elisabeth Bussey-Jones, defending Thearle, highlighted that her client had no previous criminal record and argued that no real child was ever endangered.

She explained that the messages were intentionally provocative, noting that investigations of this nature are often carried out by individuals known as ‘paedophile hunters’.

During sentencing, Judge Roger Hetherington remarked, ‘You went along with the messaging and thought it was all real.

There is a risk you present by committing this offence, so it is necessary to protect real children.’ Thearle was placed under an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and received a sentence of a three-year community order.

As part of his sentence, he is required to attend up to 30 days of rehabilitation and participate in a sex offenders’ course.

Additionally, he must pay court costs amounting to £435.