Locations
Farnsfield, Nottinghamshire, NG22
Description
A sex offender inadvertently revealed his illicit activities to police after reporting an apparent attempt to blackmail him.
Andrew Mayfield called Nottinghamshire Police on 16 September last year after receiving a message via social media accusing him of exchanging explicit messages with a teenage boy.
When officers arrived at his house, Mayfield handed over his mobile phone and displayed a series of messages and images, some of which had been deleted in a failed bid to avoid incriminating himself.
After his arrest on suspicion of engaging in sexual communication with a child, Mayfield’s phone was forensically examined and was found to contain multiple indecent images of children.
Mayfield was interviewed and released on conditional bail, with clear instructions not to have contact with anyone under the age of 18.
Despite this condition, he then began exchanging explicit messages with a person he believed to be a teenage boy.
In reality, he was exchanging messages with members of an online activist group, who confronted him at his home on 5 November and called Nottinghamshire Police.
His phone was later found to contain a series of sexually explicit messages to a boy who – despite not giving his age - told Mayfield he was still at school.
Despite this experience Mayfield then committed an almost identical offence with another decoy he believed to be a 14-year-old – an offence that led him to be arrested for a third time.
Mayfield, now aged 50, was remanded into custody and later charged with multiple sexual offences.
He later pleaded guilty to three counts of making an indecent photograph of a child and two counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.
Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday via video link from prison, Mayfield, formerly of Farnsfield, was jailed for 20 months.
He was also added to the sex offenders register and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order which will tightly restrict his online activities and access to children in the future.
Mayfield, the court was told, rarely left his home and had been driven to commit the offences by his loneliness and mental ill-health.
Detective Sergeant Adam Taylor, of Nottinghamshire Police, said:
“For obvious reasons most of the people we deal with try very hard not to have any contact with the police.
“Mayfield is unusual in that he made the decision to call us claiming to be the victim of a crime.
“In doing so he inadvertently handed over damning evidence of his illegal online activities.
“Seemingly unphased by this first arrest, he then went on to commit two other serious sexual offences before he was remanded into custody.
“I am pleased he has now been held to account for his actions and hope this case serves as a warning to others about the potential consequences this kind of behaviour.
“Because we will find out about it, we will investigate and we will put you before the courts.”