A paedophile who offered a 14-year-old ‘girl’ money and clothes and asked to meet at a hotel room claimed he knew he was being duped by a paedophile hunter group.
Andrew Ratchford of Gainford Road, Knotty Ash, was found guilty after a four day trial of one count of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and one count of attempting to incite a child to engage in a sexual act. During the trial in January this year, the 43-year-old claimed he knew he was talking to a fake profile, and engaged with the online profile of a 14-year-old ‘girl’ named Kiera because he wanted to “get back at” the police and paedophile hunter groups.
At the beginning of the sentence hearing on Thursday at Liverpool Crown Court, when asked to stand and confirm his name by the court clerk, Ratchford shook his head and said “sore back”. Once the hearing got underway, Martyn Walsh, prosecuting, detailed that an online paedophile hunter group named Elite Hunters set up a decoy account of a 14-year-old girl at the end of 2020.
