Paedophile tempted by undercover police using fake profile
Officer approached him in “unusual” move
A paedophile contacted by an undercover police officer posing as a child has avoided being locked up.
In what the judge at Leeds Crown Court said was “unusual”, Brendan Speight was approached by the social media account, purporting to be run by a 12-year-old.
In most cases, the initial contact is made by the sex offender.
Speight, who is on a lifelong sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) fro offences dating back a decade, is forbidden to use social media.
The officer made a friend request to Speight, posting as the child, which he accepted.
They talked over Snapchat but by June 19 he had either deleted his account or blocked the bogus account, prosecutor Robert Galley said.
The 27-year-old was arrested on August 12 and his devices seized. It was found he had installed Instagram and Snapchat.
Speight, of Charles Way, Wakefield, admitted breaching his SHPO.
The court heard he had been given the order in 2016 for sex offences when he was a youth.
He had previously breached the order in 2021 when he was found living with a person who had a toddler.
Mitigating for his latest breach, Ella Sides said Speight had Asperger’s and was lonely.
She said he had made the move to stop communicating with the officer that had contacted him.
She said Speight needed treatment and that prison would not assist him.
Judge Howard Crowson gave him a two-year community order with a probation requirement and a 12-month mental health treatment requirement.