January 2023

Undercover police posing as father and son catch man on paedophile chatroom

A South Lincolnshire man who was caught by two undercover police officers posing as paedophiles was on Tuesday jailed for two years and nine months.

Peter Worthington, 63, became involved in conversations with the two officers after they entered a chatroom called “true nudist.”

Julia King, prosecuting, said the two officers were posing as a father and son, with the boy said to be aged just 11-years-old, and became engaged in sexual conversations with Worthington

Lincoln Crown Court heard the conversations became intimate and progressed to two Skype meetings on 11 and 14 June, 2019.

Worthington was arrested at his home on 23 July, 2019, and interviewed the same day after his electronic devices were seized.

During interview Worthington admitted he was the person in the conversations but said it was “banter,” and thought he was talking to a machine not a real person.

Worthington, of First Drove, Gosberton Clough, pleaded guilty to five offences including attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to incite a child aged under-13 to engage in sexual activity, attempting to incite sexual activity in the presence of a child and attempting to incite sexual activity with a child.

Passing sentence Recorder James House KC said an immediate prison sentence was necessary.

“Had these offences involved a real 11-year-old they would be of the upmost gravity,” Recorder House said. “That is why they were so serious.

“Fortunately it was a police officer at the other end of the communication.”

Worthington was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years.