SIMON YOUNG

April 2018 Former pilot and CEO pleads guilty to possessing child abuse images A former CEO has been cleared of attempting to meet a underage girl – after a key witness failed to turn up at his trial.

Simon Young, who was an RAF jet pilot, was charged after an online paedophile hunter engaged in chats with him online.

But the witness failed to travel from Liverpool for Young’s trial at Bristol Crown Court, and Young was acquitted after a CPS decision to drop the case.

Earlier Young, 58, of Beceshore Close in Moreton-in-Marsh, pleaded guilty to possessing extreme pornography.

And though he was to face a further trial before North Somerset Magistrates Court in June, today (April 16, 2018) he pleaded guilty to downloading an indecent video and indecent photo of a girl aged 10-11.

The court heard the video was deemed to be in the most serious Category A, showing penetrative sexual abuse.

The photograph was in middle Category B, showing non-penetrative sexual activity.

Judge Julian Lambert, sitting as a district judge, adjourned the case to the magistrates’ court for sentence on May 14.

He told Young: “All options are open.” Young simply asked for his privacy to be respected as he left court.

He came to the attention of an online vigilante after conversing with a “girl aged 15 from Liverpool”.

It was the Crown’s case that he tried to meet her at Birmingham New Street railway station, pending the two of them spending intimate time at a hotel.

Young said that, as far as he was concerned, he was simply engaged in fantasy chat.

At the start of this month it was announced that Young resigned from his position as CEO of Clevedon-based The West of England Aerospace Forum (WEAF) for “family reasons”.