A Portadown man caught in a ‘decoy’ case has been sentenced for attempting to have a ‘sexual communication’ with a person pretending to be a 14-year-old child.
Lee Sheffield, with an address listed as Tandragee Road, committed the offence between October 29 and November 7 in 2023, a
The 46-year-old, who had a previously clear record, pleaded guilty and was at Craigavon Magistrates’ Court on Friday for sentencing.
A prosecutor said the defendant contacted a “Facebook profile” set up by a decoy group and Sheffield made sexually explicit comments.
In mid-November 2023 ‘Children & Survivors Online Child Protection Team NI’ attended the defendant’s home address and police were called and attended shortly afterwards. The group supplied details of the case to the police.
When interviewed the defendant claimed to police he had been drunk. His phone was examined and communications were found.
A defence barrister said there was no “direct victim” and added: “This is one of these agent provocateur cases involving decoys. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this the concern I would have is some of the behaviour and conduct of the groups at large is quite alarming from a public interest point of view”.
He said there had been much social media publicity by the decoy group.
The barrister said such groups were “straying into the realms of policing”.
He said the defendant had subsequently been “approached” in relation to the case.
District Judge Michael Ranaghan said the sentencing is “about public justice”.
He said many people, especially on social media, believe “the best way to deal” with people is prison.
He said the maximum the court could give would be four months which would mean a two months term being served.
The judge added that it was “obviously very serious and significant offending and everyone’s reaction to that is ‘it is has to stop’. To my mind the two months in Maghaberry (prison) is not going to make that stop, it would simply mean you will come out possibly a worse person because no therapeutic work will be done in those two months”.
The judge said a pre-sentence report had analysed risk and what needs to be done to stop anybody else being exposed to this type of offending.
He added: “I am not going to make any reference whatsoever to decoy groups, I will leave it at that”.
He said the case would be dealt with by two years of “Probation supervision” with Probation working with the defendant to stop this offending happening again.
Judge Ranaghan added: “Hopefully those who have any interest in this sentencing exercise understand that is the main point of it rather than, I keep on saying, two months spent in Maghaberry which will do no good whatsoever”.
The defendant was also made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for five years. He also has signed the Sex Offenders’ Register.
