A man who engaged in sexual communications through Facebook with a "paedophile hunter" he believed to be a 13-year-old girl, has had his sentence increased following intervention by the Solicitor General, Alex Chalk QC MP.
In June 2019, Kevin Talbot, 61, contacted whom he thought was a 13-year-old girl on Facebook, but who was in fact an adult member of a paedophile hunter group. Over the course of their online exchanges, the offender engaged in highly sexualised conversations, including sending explicit images and requesting sexualised images of the girl.
The offender encouraged the girl not to tell her parents or friends about their conversations and to delete messages to prevent the discovery of their exchanges. The paedophile hunter group attended the offender's address on 11 June 2019 to make a citizen's arrest. The police were contacted, attended the scene, and formally arrested the offender.
Talbot pleaded guilty to one count of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence and one count of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child. On 17 September 2021, Talbot was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment suspended for 18 months at Shrewsbury Crown Court.
Following a referral to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme by the Solicitor General, on 17 November the Court found the sentence to be unduly lenient and increased it to 24 months' imprisonment suspended for 24 months.
After the hearing at the Court of Appeal, the Solicitor General, Alex Chalk QC MP, said:
Kevin Talbot illustrated that he was well aware that his actions were unacceptable, and of the consequences he could face, by continually trying to conceal his activity. I am pleased that the Court of Appeal agrees his original sentence was unduly lenient and has today increased it.
