July 2014 Stinson Hunter latest sting is jailed and sends out warning to all on-line perverts who attempt to groom children! A NUNEATON man who turned up to meet a girl after taking part in sexual internet chat claimed he thought she was over 18 and would have just driven away if he had seen she was underage. But Parbinder Singh’s assertion during a ‘trial of issue’ at Warwick Crown Court was rejected by a judge who then jailed him for six months. Singh, aged 40, of Mount Street, Nuneaton, had pleaded guilty to attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity by taking part in internet and mobile phone chat of a sexual nature. Prosecutor Nicholas Burn said Singh was a user of an over-18 social media website where he came across the profile of a young woman named Jodie. “That was a phantom name and a phantom entry set up by a man in order that it would act as a lure to see whether any untoward approaches would be made.” Contact was made and during a fairly lengthy exchange, with the man posing as Jodie, Singh was told: “I am actually 14. Just here to make some cool friends.” And when Singh said he thought she was 18 the reply was: “I had to tell a little lie to get on the site.” The chat continued with talk about ‘adult fun,’ and they arranged to meet at the Pingles Leisure Centre car park where, when he turned up, Singh was confronted and information was then passed to the police who arrested him. Singh had entered his plea on the basis that he took part in sexual online chat with ‘Jodie,’ but that he did not intend to take things further than that. Graeme Simpson, defending, said: “He challenged this girl about her age, and the photo was a photo of a 21-year-old. “He believed he was talking to someone over the age of consent, but he accepts that was not a reasonable belief because she had said she was only 14.” Pointing out that Singh’s plea was on the basis that the conversation itself was the sexual activity, he said Singh had not planned for there to be any sexual contact between them when they met – and it was he who had suggested a public place rather than the location suggested by Jodie. “The purpose of meeting her was to see if it was a person over the age of 18, as he believed she was; or if she was under 18 his case is that he would simply have left.” Singh’s website profile had said he wanted to date someone aged 18 to 38, and if the person he was expecting to meet had been under 16 he would not have been interested, said Mr Simpson. Giving evidence, Singh said: “I was thinking the person was over the age of 18. Even though the person stated they were 14 they had showed me a picture of a person who looked as though they were over the age of 18.” Asked what he would have done if the girl had been over 18, he said: “I would have got out the car and met the person and seen where things go from there.” Singh claimed he thought Jodie was ‘pulling my leg’ when she said she was 14, and had agreed to meet because she had said that for them to carry on talking she wanted to see that he was a real person. And he added: “This one conversation has totally turned my life upside-down. From the pictures I have seen of her she was not 14 in my eyes.” But Judge Sylvia de Bertodano concluded: “I do not accept he believed she was older than she said. Even on his own evidence he was going to make that check, so he must have suspected she was the age she was saying she was. I do not accept that if she had been 14 nothing sexual would have taken place.” Mr Simpson said that as a result of what has happened Singh ‘has faced a great deal of indignity within the community’. Jailing Singh and ordering him to register as a sex offender for seven years, Judge de Bertodano told him: “You started to talk over the internet with someone who said she was 14 years of age, and she expressed an interest in meeting you. “You suggested sexual activity you would like to engage in with her, and there was a conversation about her age. She repeated that she was 14 and asked you whether you minded. You gave no indication that you did. But what makes this much more serious is that you went along to meet her. “We have heard what you say about that; but given the preceding conversation, I do not accept that if she had turned out to be a 14-year-old girl that nothing would have happened. “We all know now that there was not a 14-year-old girl. But your belief was that there was a real 14-year-old out there who wanted to engage in sexual activity with you. “In other respects you lead a life which is entirely inoffensive; you are a family man and a religious man. “I know you have suffered from the publicity which has surrounded this case. That is a risk if this sort of behaviour is engaged in. “I have to consider, as well as you, the protection of young children in an age when they are increasingly hounded on the internet and parents are terrified of what is going to happen to their teenage children. “This is one of those cases where public policy has to outweigh mitigation. The public has to know that people who meet 14-year-old girls on the internet and go on to meet them in person will go to prison.” June 2014 Stinson’s latest snare likely to face prison sentence A NUNEATON man who took part in sexual internet chat with someone who claimed to be a 14-year-old girl has been warned he is ‘highly likely’ to be facing a prison sentence. Parbinder Singh had pleaded not guilty at Warwick Crown Court to attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity by trying to incite her to engage in penetrative sex. But when the case was listed at the court for a second time, prosecutor Peter Grice applied to add a similar charge, but with different ‘details of offence,’ to the indictment. Singh, aged 40 of Mount Street, Nuneaton, then pleaded guilty to attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity by taking part in internet and mobile phone communication of a sexual nature. He entered his plea on the basis that he was going to take part in sexual online chat with ‘Jodie,’ but that he did not intend to take things further than that, and had no intention of trying to meet her. In fact Jodie does not exist, and was created as part of Nuneaton’s self-styled paedophile catcher, Stinson Hunters’ trap set up to try to snare men trying to meet under-age girls. In his basis of plea Singh also said he believed ‘Jodie’ was over 16, having ‘met’ her on an adults-only chat site. Pointing out that ‘Jodie’ had said in their chat that she was 14, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano asked whether Singh had thought she was lying about that. Graeme Simpson defending, explained: “It’s quite clear from the conversation in the papers that he was challenging her when she says she was 14.” The judge observed: “She was saying she had lied about being 18 to get on the site. He accepts that any belief he had [about her age] was unreasonable.” At Mr Simpson’s request, she adjourned the case for a pre-sentence report to be prepared, and told Singh he would be sentenced according to his basis of plea. Judge de Bertodano granted him bail, but warned him: “This is a serious matter. Please don’t think I am giving you any indication that it won’t be a custodial sentence. That is a highly likely outcome for an offence of this type.”