'˜Paedophile hunter' was a child abuser himself

A 'devious, sinister man' who claimed to be a paedophile hunter was actually a child abuser, a court heard.
Liverpool Crown CourtLiverpool Crown Court
Liverpool Crown Court

29-year-old Carl Windsor was snared by an under-cover police officer after they had exchanged on-line messages in chat rooms about child abuse and Windsor travelled by train to Oxted in Surrey.

Windsor, who had been messaging under the name Jimmy Saville was hoping to sexually assault the man’s five-year-old granddaughter but when the two men met in a supermarket cafe near the station Windsor was arrested for his intended attacks on the non-existent child.

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But while he did not actually abuse that “child” he had previously sexually molested a nine-year-old girl while he was living in Skelmersdale the previous year, 2015, said Geoffrey Lowe, prosecuting.

Windsor, formerly of Hartland, Skelmersdale, was today jailed for six years for two offences of sexually assaulting the little girl and two of arranging or facilitating the commission of sex offences.

He also admitted three offences of downloading a total of 165 child porn images.

When he was arrested in Oxted on January 22 last year by Kent police his mobile phone was seized and deleted indecent images of children were found on it.

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Judge David Aubrey, QC, pointed out that Windsor had initially denied the allegations and the nine-year-old girl had to come to court for a pre-trial hearing to be cross-examined.

In a later impact statement she said she had not liked going to court and being accused of lying. Her reference to the room decor - ‘It was very brown and I would have preferred pink’ - “speaks volumes as to her age and innocence,” said Judge Aubrey.

“You have destroyed it by abusing her in the way that you did. She says she felt sick in the stomach when you did what you did.”

He ordered Windsor to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life and imposed an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and said, “You said you were acting as a paedophile hunter. You were nothing of the sort, you were a fraudster for your own sexual motivation.”

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He pointed out that Windsor, who sat with his head in hands during the hearing, that he still maintained in a pre-sentence report that he was a paedophile hunter.

“This court is quite satisfied you are nothing of the sort and it is indeed you who are the paedophile. You are a devious, sinister man and the offences you committed are not only sexual in nature, they are sinister in nature. These are extremely serious offences,” said Judge Aubrey.

Windsor, who had left Skelmersale in the autumn on 2015 after earlier abusing the nine-year-old and moved to Norwich, was heard slamming doors after leaving the dock.

Philip Andrews, defending, said that Windsor has previously been jailed for breaching non-molestation orders in relation his young son, who he has now not seen for three years.

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He has also spent the equivalent of a two year sentence while on remand for these offences, he added.

Mr Andrews said that Windsor had himself been abused as a child and had “unresolved conflicts in his mind”.

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