Pervert guilty of attempting to meet ’15-year-old boy’ for sex

A man from Chelmsford has been found guilty of attempting to meet a child for sex despite claiming he sent the messages accidentally.
Peter Richardson, 48, was snared by an online paedophile hunter after a series of messages were exchanged on gay dating app Grindr between July 6 and July 7 last year.
Richardson, whose profile name was ‘Happy sucker’, contacted what he thought was a 15-year-old boy and arranged a meeting at his home.
Little did he know the person using the account named ‘Bored teen’ was not an underage teenager at all.
After receiving a tip-off, police attended Richardson’s home in Bishop Road and arrested him.
Following a day-long trial at Basildon Crown Court, the jury of eight men and four women found the sex offender guilty of the grooming offence this morning (Tuesday, July 24).
During the trial, prosecutor Jamie Sawyer revealed the series of sordid messages Richardson sent to what he believed was an underage boy’s dating profile.
“Mr Richardson said: ‘Want your **** sucked right now?’,” Mr Sawyer began.
“So he jumped right into a sexual conversation, he was in fact 15 years old. Mr Richardson asked if he was okay and he responded that he was not okay and asked when he would be 16.”
Mr Sawyer explained how Richardson continued to message the account and even asked the boy to send him a photo.
He added: “It was obvious what he was asking for, he wanted a picture of his penis.”
The court also heard that the defendant was talking to another profile on the same day of his arrest, which was supposedly being used by a 15-year-old.
“On the same day, he was communicating with another user of Grindr who was aged 15, or reported to be 15,” Mr Sawyer added.
“In that conversation, he asked for a picture of his penis. There was no actual meeting in this case.”
During his police interview, Richardson claimed the messages he sent to ‘Bored teen’ were actually meant for someone called Chris and that he accidentally sent messages to the investigator’s account.