Isle of Wight man jailed for child sexual abuse charges

The 38-year-old, born in January 1984, was handed the jail term at Winchester Crown Court.

Paul Allen, formerly of Hinton Road, Carisbrooke but remanded in HMP Albany, pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual activity with a child, causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, two counts of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence, two counts of meeting a child following sexual grooming, three counts of sexual communications with a child, three counts of attempted sexual communications with a child and two counts of distributing an indecent photograph of a child.

He was caught because he believed an undercover police officer was a 13-year-old-boy and went to meet him at Victoria Recreation Ground in Newport.

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Winchester Crown Court.

After he was arrested, Allen’s mobile phone was examined by the police and evidence of further sexual offences were discovered, including communications which proved he groomed children so that he could sexually assault them, the CPS has revealed.

Emma Lile, CPS Wessex Senior Crown Prosecutor, said: “The CPS worked with Hampshire Police from the outset to make sure there was sufficient evidence to prosecute Paul Allen for these sickening crimes involving children.

“Our proactive partnership secured guilty pleas from Allen, which at least spared the children the further pain of having to relive their trauma at a trial.

“His crimes will undoubtedly have a lasting impact on them, but I hope that today’s sentence will provide a small sense of closure to the victims and their families.”

Paul Allen was sentenced to 16 years in prison, with an extended licence period of six years. He was also sentenced for two drug related offences.