September 2022

Man arrested with ‘paedophile kit’ after undercover police sting at Yorkshire attraction

A man was caught with a ‘paedophile kit’ after meeting an undercover policewoman at a popular Yorkshire activity centre.

Loner Stuart Whigham thought he was meeting a mother who would be prepared to let him abuse her young daughter. He travelled to a well-known venue to discuss the sick plan.

And after satisfying himself he wasn’t being trapped, he made his way back soon after with a bag described as a ‘paedophile kit’. It included sexualised sweets, tubes of chocolate body paint, gifts and a mask.

Fortunately, the meeting was part of an elaborate police investigation to find online predators. The role of the mum was being played by an undercover police officer, Hull Crown Court heard.

Now Whigham, 68, has been jailed for four and-a-half years. He admitted arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sexual offence between May 11 and June 15.

Richard Butters, prosecuting, said that a Humberside Police officer posed as a decoy during conversations between her and Whigham about her supposed young daughters, aged seven years old and just eight months.

“The defendant discussed developing a relationship with her so that they can then engage in sexually abusing her children together as a family over a prolonged period,” said Mr Butters.

They arranged to meet at a well-known Yorkshire activity centre and this was suggested so that Whigham could be ‘reassured’ that no police or paedophile hunters were part of the meeting. “The conversation for an offence of this sort is perhaps as bad as it gets,” said Mr Butters.

The woman and Whigham did meet at the activity park on June 5 and arranged to continue their conversations once Whigham had “confirmed in his own mind that this was not a trap”.

Further sexual conversations continued over the following days and Whigham travelled by train from his home in Wolverhampton to the Hull area where he was arrested.

Whigham had with him ‘what can only be described as a paedophile kit’ including sexually-shaped chocolate lollipops and two tubes of chocolate body paint as well as a face mask, which was seemingly ‘to put over the child’s eyes to prevent her from seeing what you were going to do” to her.

Whigham, of Princes Gardens, Wolverhampton was also given a sexual harm prevention order for life and will have to register as a sex offender indefinitely.