Married family man groomed two teenage boys on Grindr and paid one for sex acts in car park


A ‘ family man’ from Holmfirth led a secret life as a child sex abuser, grooming two teenage boys on Grindr app before paying one of them for indecent acts in a car park.
Dad-of-two Warren Wild also kept more than 1,000 indecent images of children on his computer and circulated photos of one of his victims, who was under 16, to other paedophiles.

The 51-year-old was sentenced to six years in prison for his crimes at a hearing at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court on Thursday.

The court heard the sales representative lost his wife, his job and his family home when his sick secret life was uncovered.

Prosecutor Lisa Boocock told the court that Wild, of Huddersfield Road in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, met his first victim, aged 13, on Grindr back in August 2016.

The conversation ‘quickly became sexual’, it was heard.

Wild, who used a fake name in his online profile, encouraged the victim, who told him he was 15, to send him sexually explicit pictures. Wild then sent him photos in return.

Miss Boocock told the court that Wild contacted his second victim on the same app in December that year.

“From the start of the correspondence, the defendant was asking for photos of (the victim). He wanted photos of his boxers and genitals”, Miss Boocock said.

The court heard how the second victim told Wild that he was 16, but was in fact younger.

They exchanged messages and the pair decided to meet up after Wild offered him £100.

Wild picked up his victim in his car and drove him to a car park where they engaged in sexual activities, before paying him, it was said.

After that, his victim blocked him from social media.

“Afterwards he got back in touch with him from his social media, and said he blocked him because the defendant made him feel slutty, having sex for money in a car”, Ms Boocock told the court.

However, the victim wanted money to buy an iPad, the judge was told.

The victim met Wild on two more occasions and took him to secluded spots where more sexual activities took place.

The victim sent photos of himself in his school uniform to Wild, after which the defendant asked him to send photos of him ‘when he was younger’.

The boy said he had lost them.

The pair agreed to meet again for sex in exchange for a games console for the victim, but Wild was arrested before that meeting ever took place.

Police raided his home in March last year after tracking him down online.

They found more than 1,000 indecent images of children and found he had distributed more than 100 indecent photos of children to other men on the internet. A total of 75 of those images were pictures of the second victim, the court heard.

Wild earlier pleaded guilty to one count of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, three counts of paying for the sexual services of a child, three counts of making indecent photographs of a child and three counts of distributing indecent photos of a child.

Sentencing Wild to six years in prison, Judge Angela Nield said: “You present a risk of sexual harm to young boys.

“You are 51 years of age, probably at the most successful part of your life.

“With a family…a home and…a marriage. You have already lost a great deal. Whatever sentence this court imposes on you, you have already lost a great deal. The loss you have suffered will arguably last longer.”

Wild was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life and has been banned from working with children upon his release.