A paedophile who drove 175 miles to pay £65 to an 11-year-old boy for sexual activity has been jailed for more than 12 years.
Sex offender David Murphy created false accounts on social media to groom his victim before meeting up with him in the woods, Derbyshire Live reports.
The 40-year-old, from Derby, used a false name to make contact with the victim and arrange to meet the young boy, who lived in Suffolk.
When they got to the footpath close to where the boy lived he encouraged him to participate in sexual touching and then later sent him £65 using Paypal.
Murphy has previous convictions for other similar offences and for distributing child abuse images involving young boys.
Sentencing at Derby Crown Court, Judge Martin Hurst said: “One can’t ignore the fact that you drove 175 miles to meet this boy, having hired a car at the drop of a hat.
“That’s 175 miles where you had time to think about what you were going to do rather than thinking that you should not be doing it.
“You deliberately isolated him by taking him to the woods a short bike ride away from his home. There is really no mitigation apart from the pleas you have entered.”
Murphy, who appeared over a video link from HMP Nottingham on Friday, October 6, admitted charges of meeting a boy under 16 years of age following grooming, causing or inciting a boy under 13 to engage in sexual activity, breach of a sexual harm prevention order and failing to comply with the notification requirements of being on the sex offender register.
The judge handed him a total sentence of 12 years and eight months.
Jemima Stephenson, prosecuting, said a National Crime Agency investigation discovered Murphy opened a Paypal and online social media account under a false name which he used to contact the victim, then aged 11, in 2021.
She said officers visited the boy’s Suffolk home and he “struggled to talk about the intimate details” of what he had been speaking to the defendant about.
The prosecutor said: “He said he was asked for a picture of himself which he sent and the defendant said he ‘looked nice’ and asked for more intimate pictures which the boy sent.
In 2013, he was reveived a suspended sentence for a similar offence involving a young boy and in 2017 he was jailed for two years for distributing indecent images.
Justin Ablott, mitigating, said: “There are issues he needs to resolve, he knows he has considerable work to do.
“He knows that a sentence of imprisonment is inevitable and will be of some substance.
“He’s rather isolated in the community, his mother is the only member of his family he has contact with and she lives in London.”
An NSPCC spokesperson said: “Murphy is a dangerous child sexual offender who used social media as a tool in his latest bid to offend – grooming and abusing a young boy.
“The ease with which Murphy was able to use social media to commit these crimes is hugely concerning, and highlights the importance of the Online Safety Bill, which will soon become law.
“The legislation will require tech firms to design their sites with children’s safety as a priority.
“We hope that the young boy in this case is now receiving all the help and support that he needs.
“Any adults concerned about a child’s safety or wellbeing can contact the NSPCC helpline at help@nspcc.org.uk or by calling 0808 800 5000.
“Children can contact Childline on 0800 1111 or childline.org.uk.”
