Man ‘researched paedophilia’ after becoming ‘obsessed’ with …

A Leeds sex offender who was "researching" paedophilia ^[1] has been spared a prison sentence.

Robin Anson, 44, claims to have become "fixated" on the theories claiming that politicians and celebrities sexually abuse children before he sent indecent images to an undercover police officer.

Leeds Crown Court ^[2] heard on Monday that Anson, of Skinner Lane, had also been chatting on another site with another undercover officer - arranging a meet. He was originally charged with facilitating a child sex offence but this charge was withdrawn by prosecutors after a psychiatric report that supported Anson's claims.

Prosecutor Richard Holland said: "That supported his autism diagnosis and supported the suggestion that he fixated on topics and it was research instead of facilitating child sex offences. The prosecution treated that with a degree of scepticism and got psychiatric evidence. Having received that has come to the conclusion it is not in a position to challenge what is said in the defence report so that charge can lie on file."

The court ^[4] heard that it was between March 2019 and April 2019 that Anson conversed with an undercover officer on site Wicker and he "informed her he had been talking to a few mums." Anson then spoke with another person named "Loveyoung6969" and plans were made in a group conversation for "potential arrangements for meeting in a hotel."

Mr Holland said: "He said he would be interested but said 'If I can't, would you two meet anyway or would you prefer us all to meet together?' You can see where he may not have intended to facilitate a child sex offence but by his actions there was a possibility of that occurring."

Leeds Crown Court

The court heard that between March and May 2019, he spoke with another undercover officer and during a conversation on May 31, he asked if the man "traded" before sending him two indecent images of children. Mr Holland said: "He surrendered himself to Elland Road Police Station on 28th November 2019 aware they were looking for him. He was arrested."

A MacBook and phone were seized from Anson's home and across the two devices 386 images were located. Some of those were still and some were moving and spanned across categories A, B and C. Mr Holland said 164 images were "borderline." In his first interview, it was said Anson offered no comment but in his second in December 2021, he provided a pre-prepared statement which said his "autism impacted on his communication and fixated and he became interested in paedophilia and paedophile hunting."

Mitigating, Michael Collins, said that despite him being in his 30s by then, Anson was not diagnosed until 2012, after his family noticed he had "stopped smiling" following the death of his grandmother. Mr Collins said: "His mum had similar mental health problems and it is reported that when she tried to get help she wasn't taken seriously.

"He was devastated [by his grandmother's passing] and while the family were aware that his behaviour was different to anyone else they had ever met, it was only in 2012 that they described changes to his personality. There was clearly evidence of depression. It may seem trivial but to the family it was not - he had stopped smiling and went into himself and his behaviour became more extreme."

Mr Collins said Anson "became obsessed with conspiracy theories he read about on the internet." He added: "He went down a rabbit hole and became consumed with an interest in these theories which touched upon paedophilia among politicians and celebrities...He intended to store the images to pass them onto the authorities."

His Honour Judge Khokhar handed Anson a two-year community order and told him he must carry out 40 days of rehabilitation activity requirement for distributing indecent images of a child and three counts of making indecent images of a child.

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References

^{^} "researching" paedophilia (www.leeds-live.co.uk)
^{^} Leeds Crown Court (www.leeds-live.co.uk)
^{^} Girl, 16, raped in Leeds Dock near Royal Armouries Museum as police investigation launched (www.leeds-live.co.uk)
^{^} court (www.leeds-live.co.uk)
^{^} here (www.leeds-live.co.uk)
^{^} Read our privacy notice here (www.reachplc.com)