A paedophile hunting squad confronted a chef, Steven Baker, the Caerphilly Paedophile, in a pub after he sent sexual texts to someone he believed was a 14-year-old girl.
Steven Baker, 52, engaged with a profile in a chatroom that claimed to represent an underage minor, but was actually operated by a member of the One Reason group.
Despite the decoy repeatedly informing the defendant that they were a 14-year-old girl, Steven Baker persisted in conversing with the account holder.
The dialogue commenced with him enquiring about the 14-year-old’s domestic situation and academic challenges, subsequently expressing a desire to cuddle her, which then escalated to a sexual context and a request to meet in person.
On June 17, Steven Baker was approached at his employer, the Deri Inn in Cardiff, by members of One Reason, who recorded the encounter and live-streamed it on their Facebook account, garnering 49,000 views subsequently.
Following his arrest, authorities searched his residence in Caerphilly and discovered obscene photographs of minors, including category A images, the most severe, on a tablet and laptop.
Steven Baker, 52, was sentenced to eight months in prison for transmitting sexual texts to an individual he believed to be a 14-year-old girl.
A sentence hearing at Cardiff Crown Court revealed that Baker first engaged with the fake account and did not attempt to terminate the chat upon being informed of her age.
Prosecutor Gareth James stated: “On June 4, the decoy account was approached by the defendant.” The account said that the girl was 18 years old; yet, when the defendant initiated conversation, the decoy repeatedly claimed to be only 14 years old throughout their exchanges.
“In this case there was chatting back and forth, discussions about family matters, problems she may have been having and brought in suggestions that he liked her, that she looked cute and wanting to cwtch and cuddle her.
“Matters progressed to a sexual nature and the defendant became more sexual in what he was suggesting to her and he suggested they should meet up. He also sent images of himself masturbating to her and suggested she could do the same.”
When Steven Baker told the decoy where he worked, they arrived at the pub and placed him under citizens arrest before calling the police and streaming a video online where they asked the defendant why he carried out the offences.
Once arrested, Baker admitted to police there were indecent images of children on his black Vodafone tablet and a laptop he owned.
In total, police found 33 category A images and one film, 34 category B images and three films and 214 category C images and two films.
Steven Baker later pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child and three counts of making indecent images.
Defence barrister Claire Pickthall said Steven Baker had lost his accommodation as a result of the exposure on the One Reason live stream and was now homeless.
She said: “His mental health has been affected since the arrest and things have spiralled out of control since then.”
Passing sentence, Judge Geraint Walters criticised the paedophile hunting group for filming Baker’s arrest and publicising it as his lack of accommodation prevented the court from passing a more “onerous” community order which would help to rehabilitate the defendant.
He said: “The vigilante group, having discovered where you worked through the chatlogs, turned up at your place of work and whilst there they engaged in a spectacle which they filmed trying to obtain maximum publicity for what they do and to have the greatest impact upon you.
“I am bound to observe that ideally it should be the police dealing with offenders like you and not members of the public who seek to take the law in their own hands, they must take care not to fall foul of the law themselves.
“I decry the practice of uploading videos on to social media of the arrests in these cases. These people should realise the courts do not approve of that sort of spectacle and because of that spectacle you (Baker) have lost everything. You have lost your home and everybody knows what you have done.
“In this case a judge would want to consider whether the best sentence for an offender is an onerous community order designed to deal with internet sexual offences which in many cases works but I can’t even consider that in your case because of the conduct of the vigilante group which means you are completely homeless and have to start from scratch again.”
Baker, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to eight months imprisonment. He was also made subject to a sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
Speaking after the hearing, a spokesperson from One Reason said they were “appalled” at Steven Baker’s sentence.
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