Online child sex offender trapped by vigilant parents

A paedophile has received a prison sentence following his exposure by parents as they pretended to be their own young daughter who was being groom for sex.

The pair had assumed the pubescent girl’s identity on online chat rooms in order to track and have the man apprehended in Witney, Oxfordshire.

The parents took charge of their 11-year-old daughter’s Facebook account and managed to lure pedophile Thomas Gibbs by pretending to be her.

Fifty-two-year-old Gibbs received a 16-month jail term during his sentencing at Oxford Crown Court based on two counts of encountering a child after sexual grooming at taken place, something he admitted to.

The couple told the court how their concerns were raised when noticed their girl was having online conversations with another person.

After confirming the intentions of the individual, they assumed the girls internet identity and subsequently organised two meetings with the stranger, which resulted in an arrest.

Jennifer Edwards, prosecuting, said the mother become concerned at a time when her daughter was using a laptop in the living room. She said that the mother simply peered over the girls shoulder and realized the girl was having a conversation with an adult man, Gibbs.

The mother revealed how Gibbs was completing the girl for her looks based on her profile picture, saying that he desired to kiss her, even adding that he wanted her.

 The mother then immediately took over the computer in a bid to resume the conversation with Gibbs, but posing as her girl.

Police authorities were alerted by the family about the incident immediately after the imitial contact although the mother continued communicating with Gibbs.

When the perpetrator suggested a meeting, the teen’s mother arranged for an encounter on April 18 in a public place, but eventually suggested another date, April 30, on their following Facebook conversation.