Daniel Farrell
(Picture: MPS)The nephew of paedophile Great Ormond Street Hospital porter Paul Farrell has been jailed for four-and-a-half years for attempting to groom a child online for sex.
Daniel Farrell, 27, used Chat Avenue – a forum popular with teenagers - to try to make contact with girls, sending explicit messages in a bid to lure them into sexual activity.
He told one girl he wanted to listen as she performed a sex act on herself, and sent a string of “obscene” missives to someone he believed was an 11-year-old girl in a bid to arrange a meeting.
However, Daniel Farrell was actually messaging vigilante group Broken Dreams who turned their evidence over to the Met Police.
The scaffolder’s offending happened between November 2020 and May last year, at the same time that his uncle was in custody facing a catalogue of child sex crimes.
Paul Farrell, 56, is now serving a life sentence for 76 offences against eight victims between 1985 and 2020, including abuse in an area of the famous children’s hospital where he worked as a porter.
The prolific paedophile – who did not target patients – groomed children for sex, molested boys he had been trusted to babysit for, and had a "deep-seated fixation with sexual activity with very young boys", said Judge Noel Lucas QC.
Paul Farrell was sentenced in May last year to life with a minimum term of 18 years.
Almost exactly a year later, his nephew was sentenced at the same courthouse – Wood Green crown court – to four-and-a-half years in prison with an extra three years on licence after his release.
“It seems to me there is a high risk of harm”, concluded Recorder Jeremy Benson QC.
“You sent a large number of messages of an obscene type, trying to encourage the person you believed was 11-years-old to commit sexual acts.
“The person with whom you were communicating became concerned when you mentioned you had a 13-year-old sister and she might participate in any sexual activity.”
The court heard Daniel Farrell arranged four meetings with the person he believed was a young girl but did not show up to the planned encounters. He admitted “persistent” scouring of chatrooms to look for children to swap explicit messages with, being rejected by most of the girls he messaged.
However one engaged with him, who tried to persuade her to engage in sexual activity so that he could hear her “moan”.
The court heard Daniel Farrell, who lives with his mother and brother in Kentish Town, north London, has a previous convictions for a child sex offence from 2016.
The judge was told he is “ashamed” of his actions and his mother “remains fully supportive of him”, providing a character reference.
Daniel Farrell will be under the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for the rest of his life, and will also be on the sexual offenders register for life.
He admitted ten courts of attempting to communicate sexually with a child, sexual communication with a child, attempting to incite a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity, two counts of attempting to incite a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming, and arranging or facilitating a child sexual offence.
