Cambridge paedophile jailed after asking adult posing as 13-year-old girl to send naked picture
A paedophile from Cambridge has been jailed after asking a person he thought was a 13-year-old girl to send a naked picture to him, the day before he was due to be sentenced for other offences.
Thomas Turney, 41, was caught at his Cambridge home in March this year when the girl turned out to be an adult.
Turney, of Langdale Close, Cambridge, had been conversing with an online child activist group on a dating app.
In various conversations, he asked someone posing as a 13-year-old if they wanted sex with him and asked for a picture, asked a person pretending to be 14 if they wanted to be a “whore” and repeatedly asked another adult posing as 13-year-old if she wanted a boyfriend, saying 13 was not too young.
The conversations put him in breach of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), which forbade him to communicate with any child he had not met in person or should reasonably be aware to be under 18.
Turney had been due at Cambridge Crown Court the next day after admitting three breaches of an SHPO and two breaches of his Sex Offender Register notification requirements, but that was adjourned.
He had been previously visited at home in September 2021 by detectives who warned him about using a dating site he had not notified police about. They visited him again in October and asked to inspect his phone - a condition of his order.
It showed extensive usage of a dating site on which his profile picture was not him and he used the username “tony674665”.
He was found to be in breach of his SHPO by using a different name and failing to notify police within three days of activating the profile. He was also in breach for using another dating app, on which he used a profile called “Dragon_Master” (Tina Turney), with a profile picture of a blonde woman wearing a revealing dress.
Detectives found he had used Facebook under the name “Lucy Stevens” with the same profile picture used for the “Dragon_Master” account, putting him in further breach of his order.
On Friday, at Cambridge Crown Court, Turney was jailed for three years, having admitted seven breaches of his SHPO, two counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and two counts of failing to comply with Sex Offender Register notification requirements. He was also given a 10-year SHPO.
Det Con Andrew McKeane said: “Thomas Turney clearly knew the requirements of both his SHPO as well as his notification requirements but showed blatant disregard for them by using different names on dating apps and social media, not telling police about some of the apps and names he was using and attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.
“He is a risk to children and I am grateful that we were alerted to this illegal behaviour which in turn brought about a swift guilty plea.
“Cambridgeshire Constabulary take a zero-tolerance approach and our main aim within the Management of Sexual or Violent Offender (MOSOVO) team is to protect vulnerable children whether in the real world or online.
“In this instance, the use of Turney’s SHPO allowed swift evidence gathering as well as identifying further offending.
“His fresh 10-year order going forward will allow for this to continue once he is released from prison and the unit will utilise these powers on every available occasion.
“I would urge people reading this to contact the police if you identify similar behaviour and this can be done on the force website online, on the phone using 101 or utilising Crimestoppers.”
