Man Caught Pedophile By Posing As 11-Year-Old Daughter Online

A man posed as his 11-year old daughter online in order to catch the pedophile who sent her explicit images, an England court heard Thursday.

The unnamed parent encountered Blake Pitchford in 2016, a week after he let his daughter use social media on a condition that he would monitor it. The 27-year-old accused sent him sexually explicit pictures of himself in the mistaken belief that he was speaking with the girl. The father continued to pose as his daughter till the accused tried to arrange to meet up.

The father then immediately informed police, who took Pitchford into custody.

“I'm angry and distressed that this man sent my daughter sexually explicit messages in the belief he was in communication with an 11 year old girl. I have had nightmares of what could have happened if it was her that had been engaging in this conversation and messaging this man,” the father said, Daily Mail reported.

Pitchford, on the other hand had pleaded guilty to “attempting to incite a girl under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity.”

The Bolton Crown Court heard that Pitchford had a mental age below his actual age.

“This is a man who had difficulty in his youth, he cares for his mother and he has never been in trouble before. He is remorseful and he lacks maturity. If the court can protect the public by putting him on a strict programme, then that would be more beneficial than a prison,” David Polglase, defending lawyer said in the court, Metro reported.

Pitchford was freed with a three year community order which requires him to attend a sexual offenders’ treatment programme and 25 rehabilitation activity days.

During the sentencing, Judge Richard Gioserano spoke about the father’s role in catching the accused.

“He sensibly, although he allowed her to have a Facebook account, he allowed her to have that account on condition that he was allowed to monitor it and it is the experience of this court that there are others who could learn from his approach." the judge said adding "It is fortunate that he took that approach to her and fortunate, of course, that as soon as you attempted any contact with [the girl] that she went immediately to him. He was, therefore, the recipient of your messages and indeed of the photograph...but you didn’t know that,” Wigan Today reported.

He added that it was likely that Pitchford had an “underlying attraction to children” and that the accused did not understand where he went wrong.

“I have to balance here, and it’s never easy, the abhorrence in the court and the general public with this sort of behavior, I have to balance that against the need to protect the public in the longer term. I am not saying it would be easy to send you to custody to mark the abhorrence of the public of this sort of conduct, but the public would not be surprised if the court took that sort of approach. But that would not achieve, in my judgment, any long-term protection for other girls,” he said.