September 2023

Predatory pensioner jailed after failed bid to sexually abuse girl

A predatory pensioner was caught by police after agreeing to meet and sexually abuse a person he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.

Alan Ullyett, aged 77, had arranged to meet the girl at a supermarket car park in Lincoln – unaware he was actually talking to a law enforcement officer posing online as a child.

When he arrived on 24 March last year he was met by officers and arrested.

Ullyett had been monitored since first coming to police attention 12 months earlier, when he sent sexually explicit messages to another officer he believed to be a teenage girl.

Multiple electronic devices were seized at the time and later found to contain dozens of indecent images of children.

Ullyett, who at the time was recovering from serious health problems, remained under investigation by specialist child protection officers and was about to be charged at the time of his arrest.

When he was interviewed by detectives, Ullyett admitted being aware of the girls’ apparent ages but claimed he was only engaging in “banter”.

He later pleaded guilty to three counts of attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, and three counts of making an indecent photograph of a child.

Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court, Ullyett, of Main Street, Thorney, was jailed for three years and added to the sex offenders’ register for life.

He will also be subject to a sexual harm prevention order when he is released, which will tightly restrict his online activities going forward.