Bragging Leeds paedophile told 'teen girl' he duped police in sex order
A cocky paedophile who told a teenage girl that he had duped police had little clue that he was being stung by a hunter group.
Pervert Ronald Barton was jailed in 2022 for trying to meet a young girl armed with condoms and lubricant and given a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to allow police to monitor his internet use.
But they failed to detect that the perverted 57-year-old was trawling the web again looking for children.
When he latched onto one, he bragged about dodging the police’s monitoring as he discussed sex with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl.
He was jailed again at Leeds Crown Court this week after admitting breach of his SHPO and attempted sexual communications with a child.
Prosecutor Erin Kitson-Parker said Barton had been jailed in 2022 when he was stung by a paedophile hunter group, chatting and arranging to meet a supposed 13-year-old girl.
He was arrested when he turned up at the meeting point with condoms, sex toys, lubrication and alcopops.
But having been released, Barton quickly succumbed to his sickening urges and targeted the profile of another girl on Facebook.
Run by the hunter group, Angels of Innocence, Barton told the profile he was already on the sex offender register “for making a mistake” and ironically warned her about hunter groups.
He turned the conversations sexual and called her “stunning” and “gorgeous” while commenting on her photos.
He joked about what the police would think during one of their checks on his internet use, and said he could be “back in Armley next month”.
Police visited his home on Millcroft Estate, Otley, in May, but failed to notice the conversations he had been having.
The hunter group livestreamed their eventual confrontation with Barton at his home last month, before he was arrested.
Mitigating, Andrea Parnham said: “He is ashamed and embarrassed to find himself in this position again.
“He was on social media because he felt bored and lonely. He recognises that he can’t use social media without being lured into such conversations like the one he had.”
Ms Parnham said Barton had run a landscaping business for 25 years but was unable to continue due to his previous conviction.
The judge, Recorder Simon Jackson KC, said Barton took a “degree of satisfaction that he concealed the conversation from the police”.
He referred to a probation report that found Barton posed a serious risk of harm to girls because of his predatory behaviour.
Recorder Jackson described Barton’s offending as “escalating, clever and determined”, after “circumnavigating” his SHPO.
He handed him two years’ jail.