October 2007 Paedophile’s jail sentence is cut A PAEDOPHILE who was given a potentially life-long sentence will now only serve two years behind bars, judges have ruled. Peter Warren, a 49-year-old virgin, of Rushmere Road, Ipswich, was given an indefinite term of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) after admitting trying to groom a young girl for sex. But judges at London’s Court of Appeal yesterday quashed the IPP and replaced it with a conventional four-year jail term. Warren, who was caught after a Sunday newspaper conducted a “sting” using an undercover reporter, will now be entitled to automatic release after serving half of that term. Last night the move was criticised by charities campaigning against child abuse as being “unduly lenient”. Colchester-based Shy Keenan, who founded the Phoenix Survivors group supporting victims of child sex abuse, said she did not believe the new sentence was reflective of the impact of the crime. She said: “The indefinite sentence meant it was for the experts to measure the risk to the public on his release. By limiting it down to two years, it does not put him in a sex offending treatment programme. In effect, they have punished him for the crime in the first instance but have not actually tackled his behaviour. “The punishment has to come hand in hand with treatment, monitoring and control. We believe this is an unduly lenient sentence which means even the authorities cannot take appropriate action. “I think it’s disgusting and I wish the judicial system would recognise the impact of this sort of crime.” Warren admitted the offence at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court in July last year. The IPP he was given, which is almost identical to a life term, meant he could have no hope of release until he could persuade the parole board he posed no serious public danger. But yesterday Judge Ann Goddard QC, sitting withLady Justice Hallett and Mr Justice David Steel, said Warren did not pose a serious threat of future danger to the public after “facing up to his offence”. “Warren now accepts responsibility for his behaviour,” said Judge Goddard, who added the loner had told a probation officer he would have committed suicide if he had actually had sex with a young girl. Judge Goddard added Warren had no friends, had suffered from depression and had left his job of 26 years shortly before the offence. He had become interested in young girls through his use of internet chat rooms, and used the name of B52Pete. When Warren is released, he will not be able to use the internet without a member of his family being present, and police will be entitled to access computers he has been using at any time. Judge Goddard also said Warren will be limited in the contact he can have with children under the age of 16, and the order will last for 10 years. In March 2005, Warren approached who he believed to be a young girl in an internet chat room, but it was actually a national newspaper reporter. She told him she was just 12 years old, and he asked her to touch herself. Warren arranged a meeting in an east London park, but when he arrived and began talking to the “girl” – the undercover reporter – he was arrested. July 2006 Web ‘grooming’ paedophile jailed A paedophile who admitted attempting to groom a young girl for sex by using the internet to make contact has been jailed indefinitely. Peter Warren, 48, of Rushmere Road, Ipswich, sent sexually explicit emails to a newspaper reporter he believed to be a 12-year-old girl called Charlotte. Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court heard they included pornographic images. The judge on Friday set a minimum tariff of two years before Warren can apply for parole. Serious risk The court heard Warren came into contact with the News of the World journalist in an internet chat room in March 2005. They met in a park in east London in May last year. Prosecutor Peter Zinner told the court the reporter alerted police who set up a surveillance operation. Officers arrested Warren as he sat in East Ham Park chatting to a reporter who he believed to be the young girl he had been communicating with. Mr Zinner said: “There was never going to be a meeting with a child. It was going to be a meeting with an undercover reporter. “But in the defendant’s mind it was a meeting with a child with the intention of sexual activity.” ‘Good character’ The reporter also posed as a 13-year-old girl with the sign-on name Ruth12b and was again contacted by Warren who sent the girl he believed to be Ruth pornographic pictures and engaged in sexually explicit talk. The court heard that Warren had never had sex before and was of previous good character. Judge Worsley rejected claims by defence barrister Samantha Leigh that Warren would never have had the capacity to act on the suggestions he made over the internet. He said he was satisfied that Warren was of “serious risk to the public”. The judge said he disagreed with submissions that because no child pornography was found in a search of Warren’s computer and there was no evidence of any previous attempt to contact children for sexual reasons, that the man did not pose a risk to young children. He disqualified Warren from working with children and ordered him to register on the Sexual Offenders’ Register for life.