Suspended sentence for Derry man (50) caught by paedophile hunter sting

A fifty years old alcoholic who suffers from significant physical and mental health issues who was duped by a female decoy of so called paedophile hunters group who pretended to be a thirteen years old girl to whom he sent sexually explicit messages on Facebook, received a six month jail sentence, suspended for two years, at the Crown Court in Derry today.

The defendant, who pleaded guilty to a single charge of attempting to communicate with a female child for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification, was also placed on the Sex Offender's Register for seven years. 

Thomas Gerard Doherty from Garrymore Place in the Strathfoyle area of the city, who committed the offence on dates in May and June of last year, also had a Sexual Offences Prevention Order imposed on him for a five year period.

The court heard that on June 5 of last year the woman, who said she was a member of a voluntary organisation dedicated to protecting children from paedophiles, contacted the police to report that the defendant had made contact with her pseudonym Facebook account asking her to become his friend. 

She told the police that she and the defendant had exchanged numerous messages for almost one month.

"She told the defendant that she was thirteen and he sent messages of a sexual nature to her. In one of them he described sexually explicit actions he would carry out on her if she agreed to meet him in a local hotel", a prosecution barrister said.

When he was arrested by the police the defendant said he was an alcoholic with mental health issues as a result of which he had difficulty in remembering that he'd sent the messages to the decoy, the barrister added.

Judge Neil Rafferty KC said he was aware that the wheelchair bound defendant, who had a difficult upbringing while involved domestic abuse, had adhered to a self imposed ban on using the internet since his arrest.

"The nature of on-line offending particularly involving children is offensive and serious offending and it will almost without exception cross the custody threshold", he said.

Judge Rafferty said he took into consideration in suspending the jail term that the defendant had pleaded guilty and had co-operated fully with the police investigation and with a probation officer who compiled a pre-sentence report for the court. 

READ NEXT: Derry woman jailed after 'pit bull type dog' savaged another dog to death

He said he also took into consideration that the defendant's considerable physical and mental health difficulties would put him in a precarious position if he was sent to jail.

As part of the defendant's S.O.P.O. conditions, Judge Rafferty banned him from using any internet enable device without the permission of his designation risk manager.