Parents trapped Witney Facebook sex offender (From The Oxford Times)

Parents trapped Witney Facebook sex offender

6:00am Tuesday 22nd December 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(2)

A mother and father posed as their 11-year-old daughter to trap a paedophile grooming her on Facebook.

Thomas Gibbs, 52, was jailed at Oxford Crown Court yesterday after admitting two counts of meeting a child following sexual grooming.

The court heard Gibbs was caught after the girl’s parents took over her Facebook account and pretended to be her after noticing suspicious online conversations between the pair.

The family, posing as the 11-year-old, arranged two meetings with the defendant in Witney and Carterton in April. They lay in wait for him to turn up and handed evidence of his appearance to police.

Last night, the parents were praised by police.

Jennifer Edwards, prosecuting, said the victim was using a laptop in the living room when her mother’s suspicions were aroused.

She said: “She saw over the little girl’s shoulder and immediately appreciated she was communicating with Mr Gibbs.”

She said Gibbs was commenting on the girl’s profile picture and said he wanted to kiss her, adding: “He was also writing, ‘I really like you’ and ‘I want to meet you’.”

Mrs Edwards said the mother then took over the laptop and continued to chat to Gibbs posing as her daughter. The family alerted the police immediately but carried on communicating with him.

“The contact continued for the following week,” Mrs Edwards said. “Each time her daughter went on to the computer Mr Gibbs was there ready, willing to respond.”

When Gibbs, of Park Road, Witney, suggested meeting, the girl’s mother arranged to see him in Witney town centre at noon on April 18.

Family members saw him in the area but did not confront him.

The next time he was on Facebook they agreed to another meeting at 7pm in Carterton. Gibbs was arrested on April 30.

Mark Dixon, defending, said there was no discussion of sex itself in the communication but added: “It has caused the family hell, and he accepts responsibility and guilt for that.”

Gibbs was jailed for 16 months and will have to sign the sex offenders’ register for at least five years.

Outside court, the girl’s mother said: “We knew once we’d got involved she was 100 per cent safe, and she’s a very bright girl, but you obviously think about all the others that could have been targeted.

“When it first happened she didn’t want to go out but now she knows it’s all over and he won’t be able to do this to any other families.

“It does make me more wary of Facebook and parents should be aware of what their children are doing on the Internet.”

Det Con Jon Capps said: “I would like to pay tribute to the family who have prevented any further offences being committed, as well as the young girl who was brave enough to tell her parents.”