Michael James Pepperrell was locked up after sending explicit messages and photographs online to what he believed was a 14-year-old boy and inviting the ‘teenager’ to travel from Jersey to Guernsey.
Pepperrell was in fact communicating with Miss O’Connor – who described the 55-year-old’s messages as ‘some of the sickest’ she has ever seen.
Miss O’Connor used the dating app, Grindr, under the alias Daniel and was immediately bombarded with explicit messages by Pepperrell, Guernsey Magistrate’s Court heard.
And the messages continued despite ‘Daniel’ saying he was only 14 years old and still at school.
The defendant then sent the ‘boy’ a screen shot of a Condor timetable and encouraged him to come to Guernsey where he said he would meet him at the harbour. He also suggested that they could perform sexual acts for each other on Skype.
Miss O’Connor, who has brought 13 men to justice in Jersey and is campaigning for tougher sentences for those convicted of sexual offences against children in Jersey, said: ‘The sentence is another let-down. I see it as the same as it is here in Jersey. The sentences are shocking.
‘But Guernsey is in a worse position as they don’t have a grooming law. Guernsey needs to bring it up-to-date. I was speaking to a Deputy over there and she said they were looking into it.’
Pepperrell, who moved to Guernsey in 2007 and previously worked in UK theatres, admitted one count of attempting to incite a child to commit an act of gross indecency.
Speaking at Guernsey’s Magistrate’s Court, Advocate Samuel Steel said his client should have terminated contact when the ‘boy’ said he was 14.
Pepperrell had told the Probation Service that he did not think he would have gone through with any sexual acts if the boy had come to Guernsey.
Advocate Steel said there had been no 14-year-old boy and nobody had been physically, emotionally or psychologically harmed.
Judge Russell Finch said the defendant’s early guilty plea, and the fact that he was of previous good character, had been taken into account.
‘The circumstances of this case are unusual and we hope that remains so,’ he said.
‘The messages had been explicit and deplorable and the defendant had genuinely believed that he had been speaking to an underage boy and he accepted eventually that he had been actively grooming.
‘The clear intent in the messages cannot be overlooked.’
As well as being jailed for ten months, Pepperrell was also given an additional two years on licence after his release. The licence conditions include having no contact with under-16s, whether in person or online, without the permission of his supervising officer unless inadvertent and in the course of normal daily life. He will also be subject to notification requirements for five years, and will have a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.
