A "despicable" paedophile discussed raping and eating children in a cellar during an exchange of thousands of horrific messages with notorious abuser Vicki Bevan.
Bevan, 37, of Napier Street, St Helens, was jailed for life earlier this year for 34 offences of child abuse including the rape of a young girl and sexual assault, some of them committed with two adult accomplices. On Friday, at Chester Crown Court, Paul Pickerill, 66, of Lockgate West, Runcorn, faced justice over the series of "sickening" conversations he had with Bevan on WhatsApp in spring last year in which he encouraged her to carry out abuse.
It was Pickerill's arrest, in April 2021, and the search of his phones that led police to find the messages and in turn to identify Bevan and discover her crimes. The court heard during their WhatsApp chats, between March 10 and April 5 last year, Pickerill and Bevan discussed "plans" including raising money to buy a cellar in which to "kidnap, rape, torture, kill and then eat children after sexual abuse".
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Martine Snowdon, prosecuting, said a decoy sting had snared Pickerill while he was trying to groom someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl via a series of sordid messages but who in reality was an adult from the Net Justice paedophile hunter group. Officers from Cheshire Police arrested Pickerill and searched his phones.
They identified Bevan, leading to her arrest, investigation, prosecution and incarceration. WhatsApp messages showed Pickerill and Bevan discussed plans to abuse young children including youngsters under the age of 10, and Bevan sent him images of naked children and two video clips of her sexually assaulting a young girl.
The court heard a myriad of vile messages shared between the two. Outlining the conversations Ms Snowdon said: "The couple discuss in graphic detail their desire to kidnap, rape, torture, kill and then eat children after sexual abuse.
"They both profess to get sexual gratification from their planning. Pickerill asks Bevan if she really means what she says and she confirms that she does." The Crown Prosecution Service told the ECHO the exchange ran to thousands of messages.
Ms Snowdon said officers also discovered 141 child abuse images on Pickerill’s phones: 29 of the worst type in Category A including videos and victims aged four to nine years, 18 Category B images and 94 in Category C.
Pickerill was sentenced last year to 20 months for attempting to incite a child aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity and attempting to engage a child in sexual communication in relation to the decoy sting offences in 2021. He pleaded guilty on March 4 this year to three counts of making indecent images and one of possession, and initially pleaded not guilty to a charge of encouraging or assisting the commission of the rape of a child under 13, later pleading guilty on August 25 to an alternative count of encouraging or assisting the commission of sexual assault by penetration of a child under 13.
Lloyd Morgan, appearing for the defence, pleaded mitigation for the guilty pleas and said the cyber grooming offences in the sting case occurred at the same time as the sick chats with Bevan were taking place and did not constitute a previous conviction "in the classic sense".
He said Pickerill "knows he will be going to prison for a considerable amount of time" and was "utterly ashamed and frankly appalled at his behaviour that led him to get involved with Vicki Bevan and their exchanges".
This prompted Recorder of Chester Steven Everett to reject that claim, telling the court: "He may say that, I don’t want him to be under any delusion, I don’t believe that."
Mr Morgan said Pickerill had suffered lasting physical and mental impacts from a road traffic accident in 2011 and began down the "slippery slope" of looking at adult pornography, which "unfortunately spiralled out of control". He argued Pickerill didn't want to go through with the "sick" crimes he was talking about in reality, because he had previously cancelled an arranged meeting with the supposed 13-year-old girl in the decoy group sting in 2021, and had also cancelled meeting Bevan for sex with her - which Mr Morgan said showed it was a "perverted sick fantasy" for Pickerill rather than something he would go through with.
Mr Morgan added: "During the course of the conversation with Ms Bevan there are numerous occasions where he arranges to meet her for sex and cancelled it and that happened time after time, and that shows that indicates that was merely a perverted fantasy."
Recorder Everett said Pickerill had a "despicable attitude towards children", was a "danger to young children" and a "high risk of serious harm".
He sentenced Pickerill to 10 years in prison plus five years on extended licence under the "dangerousness" provisions, totalling a 15-year sentence, with none of the 20 months from his previous conviction to count as time served. The jail term was an "extended determinate sentence".
The judge ordered the forfeiture and destruction of Pickerill’s phones and placed him on the sex offenders register and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for life. He ordered the offence that Pickerill was initially charged with of commissioning the rape of a child to lie on file.
Recorder Everett said although Pickerill was 66 with an "element of disability", he said full mobility was not required to commission abuse, meaning the risk would decrease less with the passage of time. He said the "awful" and "sickening" crimes came to light after Pickerill had been "undoubtedly doing your best to encourage young girls to meet you" and it was "your misfortune but the public’s good fortune" Pickerill was caught by adults and "rightly arrested".
Recorder Everett said the police’s prompt examination of Pickerill's phone led to the discovery of the "heinous acts" carried out by Bevan and others.
He said: "Your mobile phone was seized from you. At that stage, of course, the police didn’t know the awful extent of what was going on, captured on that phone. But when they looked at it and looked at it, I’m happy to say, urgently - an important feature, something I know the Chief Constable (for Cheshire) is making efforts to change from long delays - they looked at it quickly."
The judge rubbished Pickerill’s claims of remorse and said he had encouraged abuse "in the most depraved terms".
He said: "Obviously I’ve read the pre-sentence report and I’ve listened to Mr Morgan’s helpful submissions and he’s asked me to consider that the fact is you are full of remorse and ashamed, and it was never your intention to get involved actually with carrying out these matters.
"I don’t accept that. I reject that, I reject that you are remorseful. In my judgement you have no idea of the harm you’ve contributed to, none whatsoever. The only person you have any remorse for is yourself. In my judgement, when one looks at the wording of the sickening messages that you sent out, I’m satisfied that firstly you knew what you were doing."
He added: "I'm satisfied you knew what was going on. I'm satisfied you wanted to be a part of it and it's clear from her actions in allowing two other men to take part in these terrible acts that she was perfectly happy for you to do so as well. Fortunately you were caught before that could happen."
Pickerill appeared in the dock wearing a grey T-shirt, glasses and an earpiece.
Speaking after the hearing, Senior Crown Prosecutor Pauline Newrick, of CPS Mersey Cheshire, said: "This has been a very distressing case for the whole prosecution team as there were communications between Pickerill and Bevan that no-one should have to read.
"The content of those messages clearly shows the depths to which Pickerill was prepared go to in encouraging another person to sexually abuse very young children. Bevan herself has been convicted and sentenced because of these messages and others coming to light.
"Without perpetrators like Pickerill, who enable other paedophiles, the abuse of children would not be so extensive. I am pleased that he has been given such a substantial sentence. His imprisonment will no doubt protect other possible victims from this dreadful abuse."
Bevan was sentenced in May to life in prison with a minimum term of 10 years and eight month.
Her accomplice Paul Rafferty, 62, of Fry Street, St Helens, was jailed in May for 10 years with four years on extended licence, for nine counts: rape jointly with Bevan, two sexual assaults jointly with Bevan, and six relating to abuse images; and Tony Hutton, 42, of Liverpool Street, St Helens, was jailed in May for four years for one count of sexual assault of a child jointly with Bevan and three of making indecent images of children.
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