Paul Valentine

A paedophile who arranged to meet someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl has been sentenced to 19 months in prison— after probation officers assessed him as an ongoing high risk to children.

Paul Valentine, 61, of Littlehampton, West Sussex, bombarded the supposed schoolgirl with romantic messages, booked a hotel and created a fake teenage Facebook profile to help conceal their planned meeting from her parents.

But the child did not exist. The account was operated by an adult working with a paedophile hunter group, using AI-generated photographs.

Valentine became obsessed after adding the account on Facebook. He saved the supposed girl’s photograph as his computer wallpaper and said he looked at it every night before bed.

Over more than a month, the pair exchanged around 1,500 messages. Valentine called the supposed child his “soul mate” and discussed meeting her at Rochford railway station before taking her to Southend seafront.

When the decoy suggested her mother might prevent the meeting, Valentine devised a cover story.

He created a Facebook account posing as a 14-year-old boy, telling the supposed girl she could claim she was meeting the teenager. Valentine would pretend to be the boy’s father.

Judge Shane Collery KC highlighted that deception as particularly concerning, questioning why anyone with innocent intentions would need such an elaborate disguise.

A jury convicted Valentine in June of attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming, following a trial at Southend Crown Court.

The judge said Valentine, who was 57 at the time of the offending, had sexual intentions towards someone he believed was a 13-year-old.

At trial, Valentine claimed he suspected the account belonged to a scammer and had used romantic messages as bait. He also tried to dismiss some comments as jokes.

The judge rejected that explanation, finding the messages formed part of an attempt to seduce the supposed child.

Probation officers reported that Valentine had little understanding of his offending and accepted no responsibility. They assessed him as posing an ongoing high risk to children.

Judge Collery agreed there was a risk of further offending and warned that rehabilitation would be difficult.

“He sees nothing wrong in what he does,” the judge said.

Valentine showed no emotion as he was sentenced to prison and led to the cells.

Source: UK Database on Facebook