‘Shameful day’ for man, 70, ‘publicly humiliated’ by vigilantes for trying to 'sext' child in Northamptonshire

A 70-year-old man has been “publicly humiliated” after vigilantes confronted him trying to send over 600 sexual messages to a 14-year-old girl.

A member of a vigilante group called ‘Net Justice’ created an account on Kik to pose as a 14-year-old schoolgirl on July 5, 2021. That same day, 70-year-old Timothy Walker, of Wroxham Way in Doncaster, began to message her.

After the ‘girl’ told Walker her age and asked him what he was up to, he replied: “Finding pretty young girls to play with,” and suggested she was “too young” for the games that he had in mind, Northampton Crown Court heard on Wednesday, July then turned even more sexual with Walker instructing the ‘child’ to carry out sexual acts on herself and describe it to him. He said that he wanted to do sexual things to her but “would not do anything she did not want to do,” the court heard.

Caroline Bray, prosecuting, said that around 600 messages were exchanged over a period of two weeks before Walker was confronted by vigilantes at a Northamptonshire pub.

The confrontation was streamed on Facebook, the police were called and Walker was arrested.

Ms Bray, who has seen the text messages, told the court: “I can’t find serious requests for images or any suggestion of meeting up.”

William Forber-Heyward, in mitigation, said that Walker is of previous good character and, after initially giving a no comment interview to police, he made “full and frank” admissions when further interviewed.

“He tells me that what he did was stupid and he feels deeply ashamed by his actions some two years ago,” the defence barrister said.

The court heard that, at the time of offending, Walker was going through a “difficult time” with his marriage and was struggling with health issues to do with his prostate for which he was on strong medication. His mother was also “seriously ill” and suffered with dementia - she has since passed away.

Mr Forber-Heyward said that Walker has “already suffered a significant degree of public humiliation.”

“He unfortunately lost his friendship groups due to the fact this was a very public entrapment. It was posted on social media and - as a result - he lost his wife and his friendship groups disowned him. He lost his house and his work was turned upside down due to his stupid actions,” he added.

His Honour Judge David Herbert KC, in his sentencing remarks, said: “It is quite clear that the purpose of your communications was sexual because you went on to discuss in general terms meeting up and more intimately matters of masturbation and using sex toys.”

Judge Herbert continued: “The reality is you lost your good name. This is a shameful day for someone like you who has reached the age of 70 without committing previous offences.”

Walker was sentenced to 23 weeks imprisonment, suspended for 18 months. During this time, he was ordered to attend 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 100 hours of unpaid work.

A Sexual Harm Prevention Order was additionally imposed for seven years.