July 2013
Pervert pensioner snared by paedophile sting
A PERVERTED pensioner from Sutton Coldfield turned up at a park expecting to meet a 15-year-old girl to take part in sex act with him – only to be confronted by two men with a video camera, a court has heard.
Sixty-six-year-old Maurice Ingram fled from the scene in his car, but was traced by the police and pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted sexual grooming.
But after hearing that Ingram is due to undergo cancer treatment, a judge at Warwick Crown Court said that to jail him immediately ‘might be sentencing him to death.’
So Judge Alan Parker adjourned the case until after Ingram, of Harman Road, Sutton Coldfield, has undergone the potentially life-saving treatment, and granted him bail.
Prosecutor Charles Gardner said: “This is a slightly unusual case in that it arises out of what might colloquially be called a sting.
“There is a private individual, Stinson Hunter who made a statement to the police. He is carrying out something of a campaign against sexual predators preying on young children.
“What he has done, with the assistance of a friend, is to log on to a chat site where they create profiles and see what comes up. It was a site the defendant had logged on to before.
“Mr Hunter created a bogus profile of an 18-year-old calling herself Jodie who lived in the Nuneaton area, and with a photo of a compliant 18-plus.”
Jodie’s profile was set up on February 15, and just two days later Ingram went onto the site and came across it and got into a messaging conversation with Jodie.
Very early on ‘Jodie’ indicated she was in fact 15, and at that point no offence would have been committed if Ingram had signed off, pointed out Mr Gardner.
“However, he continued. It is quite apparent in the early stages that what the defendant wants, and what she appears to be encouraging, is some oral sex.
“Not much more than an hour later they arrange that he is going to come to a car park in the Nuneaton area and meet Jodie. He drove to the car park and pulled up and got out, and he is then confronted by Mr Hunter and another man.
“They accosted the defendant and put it to him that he had come there to have sex with a 15-year-old girl; and a video camera is produced.”
Ingram, who had no previous convictions of any kind, went back to his car, pursued by the two men recording him, and drove off, added Mr Gardner.
Laura Cully, defending, who handed in documents from Ingram’s GP and from University Hospital Birmingham, conceded the offence ‘normally attracts an immediate custodial sentence.’
Judge Parker remarked: “How can I avoid that? But if he is at liberty he will embark on a course of potentially life-saving treatment.”
Asking the judge to take ‘an exceptional course,’ Miss Cully said: “This is one of the shortest pieces of grooming you can imagine. He was lured into this by vigilantes.
“This was a complete moment of weakness and madness. Even on his way to the meeting he began to regret his actions.
“He describes it in his own words as something he is thoroughly and deeply ashamed of, and something which will live with him for the rest of his life, however long that may be.”
During the police investigation Ingram, who suffered the ‘deep public humiliation’ of the video attracting 60,000 YouTube ‘hits,’ was diagnosed with an acute form of cancer.
Miss Cully added that Ingram is due to have a scan next month to identify the exact area of the cancer, followed by daily sessions of radiotherapy for seven-and-a-half weeks.
Judge Parker said: “It is the course of treatment which is about to commence which gives me the greatest anxiety.
“If I send him to prison today, I might be sentencing him to death. But that is not a reason, necessarily, not to pass the proper sentence.
“If he had not got that condition I would not hesitate to send him to prison; but if the reality is that would prevent him having the treatment, that would be an inhumane sentence.”
Adjourning the case until at least mid-October, and granting him bail, Judge Parker told Ingram: “You have got to be punished; but only the most callous person would say that should prevent you receiving the treatment you need.
“I regard this matter as so serious and of such public concern that the likely outcome is a sentence of imprisonment forthwith; but I’m going to do nothing to stand in the way of the proper investigation of your condition and its treatment.”
