A predatory paedophile has been locked up for more than three years after he was snared by an undercover detective who posed as a teenager online. Stuart Beddows travelled to Manchester from Wolverhampton last Christmas believing he was about to meet a 14-year-old girl called Tracey.
Instead, the 37-year-old was met at Piccadilly Station by officers from Greater Manchester Police’s Sexual Crime Unit, who arrested him for grooming. Beddows later admitted attempting to meet a child under the age of 16 following sexual grooming as well as 26 specimen counts of making and possessing indecent images of children. At Manchester Crown Court the paedophile, of Woden Road, Wolverhampton, was jailed for 40 months.
The court heard that when Beddows arrived in Manchester on December 18 last year he was carrying a packet of condoms and a bottle of Lambrusco wine.
In the two weeks before his December 18 arrest he had sent dozens of sexually explicit emails and a picture of himself to the detective posing as Tracey, after striking up a conversation with her in an internet chatroom.
When his computer and mobile phone were examined they were found to contain 640 indecent images of children, some of which he had downloaded in his local library, the MEN has learned. Another 2,466 images had been deleted. The court heard that Beddows has a previous conviction for possessing indecent images and was jailed for three years in 2002 after breaching the community rehabilitation order handed down for that offence by texting and emailing young girls.
Sentencing, Judge David Hernandez said of the images, ‘these children are being sexually and emotionally abused, they are clearly vulnerable children.’ The judge added: “In my judgement you pose a risk of harm to young children. You clearly have a long standing attraction to children and you have demonstrated on more than once occasion that you are prepared to make contact with young people on the internet. “Your conviction demonstrates a willingness to escalate your behaviour from the viewing of material to attempting actual contact with a child for a sexual act.” Beddows must sign the Sex Offenders Register and is subject to a Sexual Offence Prevention Order.
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