A pervert claimed he tried to groom a 13-year-old girl because he didn’t have a PlayStation and was bored at home, a court heard.


A pervert claimed he tried to groom a 13-year-old girl because he didn’t have a PlayStation and was bored at home, a court heard.

Peter O’Keefe sent sordid messages and a video clip of him performing a sex act, and attempted to get the girl to do the same. But he discovered he had been duped by an online paedophile hunter group when they confronted him in the street in Maidstone. The married 32-year-old hotel kitchen porter was jailed for 12 months today after a judge told him: “I have given anxious consideration as to whether I can follow a recommendation in the pre-sentence report and place you on a sex offender programme.

“But I have concluded these offences are just too serious to be dealt with in that way, and only imprisonment is justified.”

O’Keefe had seen a profile of a girl called Charlotte and contacted her using an app called Kick on his mobile phone, not knowing it was a “decoy” placed by Shadow Hunters UK.
Using the name Big Boy and claiming to be 18, he sent a message on January 11 last year saying “Hello sexy” with a photo of his manhood attached.
Prosecutor Martin Yale told Maidstone Crown Court he engaged in a sexual conversation with a girl he believed to be 13 and incited her to perform sex acts on herself.

“She repeatedly told him she was 13,” said Mr Yale.
“He refers to picturing her in her underwear and imagined having intercourse with her.
“She asked if her age bothered him and he replied: ‘No, of course not.’
He claimed he didn’t have any sexual interest in children.
Members of the paedophile hunter group confronted O’Keefe in Upper Fant Road, in April last year as he was returning home from work.
The police were called and evidence was handed over to officers.
He admitted: “There is a certain thing in my brain. I know it’s wrong.”
“He said there was something wrong with him and was bored at home because he didn’t have a PlayStation now,” said Mr Yale.

He added that there was grooming behaviour and O’Keefe, now living in Voxham, Norwich, Norfolk, lied about his age.
O’Keefe admitted attempting sexual communication with a child between January 11 and April 4 last year, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act, attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity and attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity.
Passing sentence, Judge Adele Williams said: “As such no child was harmed. I accept you have taken steps to rehabilitate yourself and to acknowledge you were engaging in this activity for your sexual gratification.”

But the judge added that there had to be a prison sentence. O’Keefe’s name will appear on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years. A sexual harm prevention order was made and he will be barred from working with children and vulnerable adults.