Relentless Wakefield paedophile targeted nine girls' accounts online - all run by hunter groups

Sick Matthew Still took the bait for the profiles between May 2021 and November last year, and even persisted after being arrested.

The alleged girls made it clear they were all aged between 12 and 14, Leeds Crown Court was told. But he would encourage them to masturbate, asked them to send naked pictures and would send photos of his own erect penis.

The 43-year-old also sent pornographic videos to one, and asked another to use a banana to masturbate herself.

He was arrested in August 2022 from his home address on Windyridge Street in Horbury, Wakefield, and confessed to police. However, he told them he did not get any sexual gratification from it. Having been released under investigation, he then went on to target his final victim before being arrested again.

He appeared at Leeds Crown Court this week via video link from HMP Leeds where he admitted nine counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, eight of attempting to incite a child into sexual activity and one of attempting to cause them to watch a sexual act.

He has no previous convictions, which his barrister Craig Sutcliffe alluded to in his mitigating speech. He said that Still was "full and frank" with police and probation and was "motivated towards rehabilitation".

Judge Nathan Adams told Still: "They were not girls at the other end of the computer, they were various adults from various groups safeguarding children from people like you."

He said that had they been children, Still would have inflicted "untold harm" on them. He jailed Still for four years and eight months. He also put him on the sex offender register for life and gave him a 12-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to limit his internet use.