Paedophile banned from using internet

A judge took the extraordinary step yesterday of banning a paedophile from using the internet or a mobile phone for the next five years.

Railway guard Gary Geoffrey Thomas, 37, of Swadlincott, South Derbyshire, was sentenced to 18 months jail for unlawful sex with a 14-year-old girl. Judge Huw Daniel, sitting at Mold Crown Court, said that had the victim been 13, the maximum sentence would have been life. He said that it was time the law was re-examined so harsher penalties could be handed down to men who pursued 14-year-olds.

Judge Daniel issued a restraining order against Thomas to not subscribe to, or use, the internet or any mobile telephone of any description. The order is believed to be one of the first in the country in the battle against paedophiles using the internet to pick up young girls for sex.

It was made on the suggestion of the prosecution, who said the idea had come from child protection officers, after Thomas had made more than 1,000 calls to 14 different girls on his mobile phone.

The court was told Thomas, who is married, claimed he was 20 when he conned his way into the affections of the girl via the internet. Prosecutor Steven Everett said Thomas presented himself as a clean-cut, plausible individual but he was a predatory paedophile who met underage girls through internet chatrooms, then bombarded them with phone calls and text messages.

Thomas, who pleaded guilty, still had the support of his wife, the court was told. He was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years. He did not object to the order made against him about the internet and phone access. He received a concurrent six-month sentence for possessing indecent photographs of children.