April 2019 ‘Arrogant’ paedophile pretended to be teenager and tried to lure 14-year-old girl into sexual activity A paedophile was caught when police discovered he had been posing as a teenager, trying to incite a 14-year-old girl into sexual activity. Neil Walsh, 41, was jailed at Manchester Crown Court on Friday for 27 months. Greater Manchester Police said he was first arrested in November 2016 as part of an ‘ongoing investigation’ into child sex offences. Officers raided his home on Trevore Drive in Standish, Wigan, and seized his phone and computer. A number of indecent images and videos of children were found, but throughout police interviews Walsh denied committing any offences. He claimed he had no idea how the images had appeared on his devices and suggested he had been hacked. Digital forensic specialists continued to examine the devices and found no evidence of hacking. However, they did find several conversations between Walsh and a 14-year-old girl. In these conversations, Walsh posed as a teenage girl to gain the victim’s trust and tried to incite her to engage in sexual activity, police said. Walsh was eventually charged with six counts of making indecent images of children and one count of attempting to incite a child aged under 16 to engage in sexual activity. He pleaded not guilty but a jury convicted him. Walsh was jailed and will also have to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years and will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order.