A paedophile with a continual fascination for children’s pink pants has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for attempting to engage in sexual activity with a 14-year-old schoolgirl.
Daniel Turner was apprehended by a representative of Protecting Children Online UK who created an account on an adult internet site under the alias Paige, as shown before Bradford Crown Court today.
Prosecutor Anthony Moore stated that Turner, 38, initiated contact with ‘Paige’ in October 2017 and subsequently transmitted over 300 messages, along with images of his genitalia and recordings of himself engaging in masturbation. The court was informed of a proposed meeting in West Yorkshire.
The decoy had told him she was a 14-year-old schoolgirl as soon as he got in touch.
The court heard that Turner, of Gainsborough Avenue, Tilbury, Essex, told Paige he would be her boyfriend.
When they chatted on WhatsApp, he asked if she wore a skirt and tights to school. He wanted to know the colour of her knickers and bra and made reference to pink underwear. He sent a picture of his penis and said he wanted to have sex with her.
He tried to arrange meetings between them in London and Leeds before ceasing the contact the following month.
Mr Moore said Turner was arrested in 2020, saying he was sorry.
His phone was seized and 45 indecent images of children at Category C were found on it of girls aged ten to 13.
It also disclosed conversations between Turner and a ‘girl aged 12 living in Portugal.’ He asked for sexualised images of her in a skirt and pink knickers.
Later in 2020, there was a conversation with someone saying she was ‘Glasgow mum.’ Photos were sent to him of what she said was a girl aged nine. He said ‘very cute, what else have you got?’ “Has she got any pink knickers?” he asked.
Turner pleaded guilty to two offences of attempting to communicate with a child for sexual purposes; attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act; and making indecent images.
His barrister, Lydia Pearce, said he had no previous convictions.
He had a stable home with his mother and worked nightshifts at Asda.
He knew that an immediate imprisonment sentence was at the forefront of the court’s mind.
Turner pleaded with the court to spare him an immediate jail sentence. They were attempts only with decoys and it was ‘an extreme wakeup call for him.’ Judge Jonathan Rose said Turner communicated with adults acting as decoys to ‘wheedle out men like you.’ He had sought to have sexual intercourse with young girls and it was deeply disturbing that he had offended in 2017 and then again in 2020.
He had sent what he believed was a girl aged 14 photos and videos of his penis and him masturbating. In 2020, he had a continuing sexual interest in children, one as young as nine. His behaviour was deplorable and he had a repeated interest in pink knickers.
Judge Rose made a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for ten years and Turner will register on the sex offender register, also for ten years.
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