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A TYRONE man caught in a so-called paedophile hunter ‘sting’ operation had 100 indecent videos of children on his phone, a court has heard.
On Tuesday at Dungannon Crown Court, 68-year-old Paul Stansfield, with an address at Main Street, Ballygawley, was sentenced to nearly three years. Last November, Stansfield pleaded guilty to attempted sexual communication with a child, attempting to incite a child into sexual activity and inciting a child to send indecent images.
He also pleaded to five counts of possessing indecent images of children, two counts of possessing extreme pornographic images and one count of possessing a prohibited image of children. The offences stemmed from July 2024, when Stansfield befriended someone whom he thought was a 13-year-old online.
However, the ‘child’ was a decoy run by an adult woman as part of a paedophile hunters group based in Leeds.
Within three days Stansfield turned the conversation into a sexual nature, asking about the child’s sex life. He asked the decoy to send explicit images.
The Leeds group passed the messages on to a local group called Child Online Protection Enforcers (COPE), who confronted Stansfield at his home, livestreaming the incident on social media.
Stansfield made admissions during the livestream, but remained silent during a subsequent police interview.
However, during his arrest police seized his phone for analysis. It was found to contain 100 indecent videos of children, assessed as category A – the most severe – alongside four images in the same category.
His Honour Judge Brian Sherrard, described some of the videos which involved children as young as two.
He noted that in many of the videos the children were seen ‘in pain’ and, on one occasion, animals were involved.
Also found on Stansfield’s phone were 34 videos and two images of category B, 20 videos and nine images of category C alongside 80 prohibited images and 21 extreme pornographic images.
Judge Sherrard noted that, while no physical harm was caused by Stansfield, the possession of the images contributed to the abuse of the children.
The judge noted from the pre-sentence report that the Ballygawley man showed ‘little insight or remorse’ and had a ‘disturbed justification’ for his actions.
However he noted that Stansfield had previously been of good character and had no relevant convictions.
Judge Sherrard said that what separated Stansfield from most other cases was that he admitted to being attracted to young teen girls.
He noted however that he did not believe the lower limit was 13, citing the young ages of the children in the videos.
In sentencing, Stansfield was handed a two-year and ten-month custodial sentence, split between custody and licence.
He was also ordered to sign the sex offender register indefinitely and is subject to conditions of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO).
