Harrogate man jailed for over three years for shocking online sex offences

Benjamin Shutt, 30, “cruised” the internet in search of easy targets and found them on social-media apps he had installed on his phone, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor David Hewitt said police forensic officers downloaded no less than 816 pages of the depraved chats which “began innocently and soon became sexualised”.

Shutt, who told one girl she “needed a sugar daddy”, used the KIK messenger app to contact the first under-age child who told him she was 14 years’ old.

Mr Hewitt said there were about 220 messages sent between Shutt and the teenager between April 20 and May 16, 2020.

Shutt sent her a picture of his private parts, which he followed up with a request for her to “send me more please, baby”.

“He asked for some photos of her body in the bath,” added Mr Hewitt.

He told the girl he wanted to have sex with her “so badly” and then they talked about meeting up.

The girl agreed to meet, but Shutt told her they “probably couldn’t” because he was twice her age.

There were further sexual conversations in which Shutt talked about “the various things he would like to do to her”.

After the girl sent him a very intimate picture of herself upon request, Shutt asked her if she had photos of herself when she was younger.

He then sent her a link via the KIK app to videos of him performing a sexual act on himself and urged her to watch them.

Shutt targeted another young girl on the Whisper app in December 2020 where he asked how old she was and when she initially told him she was 12, the messages continued regardless.

He asked her if she “enjoyed” the conversations and urged her to send him an intimate photo.

The girl later told him that her real age was 14, to which Shutt replied: “That’s fine with me”.

He said he wanted to have sex with her and “advised” her on how to perform a sexual act on herself.

He then sent the girl an image of himself performing a lewd act.

On Valentine’s Day 2021, Shutt ran out of luck when the 12-year-old ‘girl’ with whom he thought he was chatting turned out to be an undercover cop posing as a teenager who posted a message on Whisper asking: “Why are boys so rubbish?”

“The defendant replied and invited her to engage in private chat,” said Mr Hewitt.

The salacious chats moved to another online platform and lasted about five weeks to the end of March 2021.

“He told her that she needed a sugar daddy and explained what this was,” said Mr Hewitt.

Shutt asked the ‘girl’ if she had ever performed a sexual act on herself and offered her an “instruction” on how to do so.

He then urged her to carry out the act.

Police swooped on his home in Harrogate in April 2021 and found him in his bedroom where they seized his mobile phone.

Forensic analysis showed there were seven Category C indecent images of children on Shutt’s phone.

Mr Hewitt said there was also evidence to suggest that Shutt had been chatting with other children, although this didn’t lead to further charges.

Shutt, of Grove Park View, was charged with two counts of attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity, two counts of attempted sexual communication with a child, one count of attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act and one count of possessing indecent images of children.

He admitted all the offences and appeared for sentence today.

Defence barrister Andrew Stranex said that Shutt had endured a traumatic childhood and had been chatting with the girls during the Coronavirus lockdown.

He added that Shutt was an “isolated and marginalised” figure with few friends and that his offending had had a “massive” impact on his family.

Judge Sean Morris told Shutt: “You pleaded guilty to a whole series of offences which involved you cruising the internet looking for young girls to corrupt.

“There were two real victims before you were caught by an undercover officer patrolling the internet.

"As far as you were aware, that was (an under-age) girl.

“You were obviously sexually aroused by young teenage girls.”

Shutt was jailed for three years and five months and placed on the sex-offenders’ register for life.

He was also slapped with an eight-year sexual-harm prevention order mainly to curb his internet activities.