Following their capture in a vigilante operation, a Birmingham paedophile pair, Stephen John Longhurst & Natalie Bourne, was imprisoned seeking to meet a 14-year-old schoolgirl for sex.
Thirty-year-old Natalie Bourne of Birmingham and thirty-seven-year-old Stephen John Longhurst of no fixed address thought they were Facebook grooming a girl called “Emily”.
Before asking the girl to meet him in a hotel room he had reserved, Longhurst sent her indecent texts together with graphic images and videos.
Birmingham residents Stephen John Longhurst, 37, and Natalie Bourne, 30, believed they were Facebook grooming a female named “Emily”.
‘Emily’ was instructed by Stephen John Longhurst & Natalie Bourne to meet friends at Northampton train station and to lie to her mother about staying with pals.
Members of the vigilante group greeted the couple, Stephen John Longhurst & Natalie Bourne, as they arrived at the station along with police who arrested them on August 1.
Stephen John Longhurst & Natalie Bourne confessed to a range of child sex offences, including grooming and trying to have sexual conversations.
Stephen John Longhurst also entered a guilty plea to trying to view or look at an image of sexual conduct on a 13 15 aged minor.
Natalie Bourne was caged for three years while he was imprisoned for six.
From Northamptonshire Police, Detective Sergeant Helena Congreve remarked he was ‘pleased’ two sexual predators are now ‘off the streets’.
‘I’m thrilled to see Stephen John Longhurst & Natalie Bourne handed custodial sentences for these very severe acts and that two sexual predators are now off the streets and behind bars,’ she remarked.
‘Although the girl, in this case, was a decoy, it does not lessen the shockingly startling truth that two adults very much meant to have sex with a kid that day in August.
‘Detectives in the POL Team work daily to bring perpetrators like Stephen John Longhurst & Natalie Bourne to justice. I hope this case illustrates just how seriously Northamptonshire Police regards offences against children.'”
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