Paul Ellis, an Abergele Paedophile, orchestrated a meeting to collect what he believed to be a 13-year-old girl from her school in Liverpool for sexual purposes. Paul Ellis, 64, believed he was conversing with a female named Courtney, but it was, in fact, a police decoy.
He annulled the appointment with the “girl,” but was thereafter apprehended. The defendant, residing on Market Street, Abergele, confessed to orchestrating or enabling the perpetration of a child sex crime in September 2021.
A judge at Mould Crown Court determined that he presents a significant danger of severe harm to children and sentenced him to five and a half years in prison. The judge, Mr Recorder Simon Mills, stated: “The risk of significant harm to children is evident.”
The court was informed that Paul Ellis of Market Street, Abergele, Wales, had been issued a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) due to prior offences. However, he began to re-offend within three months following the conclusion of his Probation Service monitoring.
Prosecutor Simon Mintz recounted that in September 2021, Paul Ellis initiated an online dialogue with “Courtney,” asserting that he was a 45-year-old individual named Dave. Paul Ellis utilised WhatsApp to enquire about sexualised matters and whether she was attired in a school uniform.
He arranged to pick up “Courtney” from her school in Liverpool on September 24 and take her back to his flat in North Wales. He also offered to help get her on the pill.
Days before the meeting, he cancelled it but asked “Courtney” to keep it a secret. Mr Mintz said Paul Ellis was arrested and initially claimed he did not know “Courtney” was a child.
But he later admitted the arranging offence and also breaching a SHPO. One of two iPhones, which police seized and which “mirrored each other”, had had a virtual private network on it, the court heard.
Sarah Badrawy, defending, said her client had admitted his offences and that there had been a lack of offending since these crimes in 2021. The judge told Paul Ellis he had lied about his name and age and had had “sexualised” online conversations with the “girl”.
He had then arranged to have sex with her. The judge said: “You pose an imminent risk of serious harm to children.
“I accept your offence revolving entirely around decoys (but) you believed you were talking to a child and arranging to meet them. The risk of serious harm to children is obvious.
“You are now and you will continue to pose for the foreseeable future a significant risk of serious harm to members of the public and small children.” The judge said if Paul Ellis offended again, he could face life imprisonment.
Imposing the five and a half year prison term, he said he would be supervised for an extended period of four years. He also gave Paul Ellis a ten-month concurrent jail term for breaching a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).
The SHPO will continue for life, he added.
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