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14/11/2011
Former Labour Councillor Jailed Over 'Grooming'
A former Labour Party councillor has been jailed for 15 months for attempting to meet a child after sexual grooming.
John Friary, of 311 Camberwell Road SE5 was sentenced on Friday at Isleworth Crown Court after grooming what he believed to be a 15-year-old girl online. He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
Friary - who served as a councillor for Brunswick Park Ward and as a cabinet member for Community Safety in the London Borough of Southwark - was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police's Paedophile Unit after information was passed to them by Hertfordshire Police.
Officers had originally been conducting inquiries into a different man who had been posing as a 15-year-old girl online and engaging men in conversation, making arrangements to meet them before contacting them claiming to be the girl’s father and threatening to report the matter to police unless they paid him a fee.
That man pleaded guilty to blackmail at St Albans Crown Court on 10 May and was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment.
Police said that inquiries revealed Friary was one of the men he had been in contact with. Conversations between the pair involved Friary’s attempts to make arrangements to meet the individual - believing him to be a 15-year-old girl - with the intention of committing a sexual offence.
"This case demonstrates the Met’s relentless commitment to bringing to justice paedophiles," a police spokesman said.
Friary is one of 10 individuals dealt with by the Met’s Paedophile Unit last week alone as part of separate cases. In addition to Friary one pleaded guilty; five were charged and bailed to court; and a further three were arrested on suspicion of possessing and making indecent images.
DI Noel McHugh, Paedophile Unit said: “This case demonstrates the Met’s relentless commitment to bringing to justice paedophiles who operate both on and offline.
“I am in no doubt that had the girl existed Friary would not have hesitated in committing a serious sexual offence. This type of case should act as a reminder to young people to be cautious about who they are communicating with online.
"Today's result is just a small part of the activity being progressed within the unit; indicative by the fact we have seen an additional nine individuals dealt with over the course of one week alone.
(DW)
John Friary, of 311 Camberwell Road SE5 was sentenced on Friday at Isleworth Crown Court after grooming what he believed to be a 15-year-old girl online. He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
Friary - who served as a councillor for Brunswick Park Ward and as a cabinet member for Community Safety in the London Borough of Southwark - was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police's Paedophile Unit after information was passed to them by Hertfordshire Police.
Officers had originally been conducting inquiries into a different man who had been posing as a 15-year-old girl online and engaging men in conversation, making arrangements to meet them before contacting them claiming to be the girl’s father and threatening to report the matter to police unless they paid him a fee.
That man pleaded guilty to blackmail at St Albans Crown Court on 10 May and was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment.
Police said that inquiries revealed Friary was one of the men he had been in contact with. Conversations between the pair involved Friary’s attempts to make arrangements to meet the individual - believing him to be a 15-year-old girl - with the intention of committing a sexual offence.
"This case demonstrates the Met’s relentless commitment to bringing to justice paedophiles," a police spokesman said.
Friary is one of 10 individuals dealt with by the Met’s Paedophile Unit last week alone as part of separate cases. In addition to Friary one pleaded guilty; five were charged and bailed to court; and a further three were arrested on suspicion of possessing and making indecent images.
DI Noel McHugh, Paedophile Unit said: “This case demonstrates the Met’s relentless commitment to bringing to justice paedophiles who operate both on and offline.
“I am in no doubt that had the girl existed Friary would not have hesitated in committing a serious sexual offence. This type of case should act as a reminder to young people to be cautious about who they are communicating with online.
"Today's result is just a small part of the activity being progressed within the unit; indicative by the fact we have seen an additional nine individuals dealt with over the course of one week alone.
(DW)
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