Jailed paedophile teacher weeps in dock

A paedophile primary school teacher who sent explicit messages to decoy accounts and tried to meet a "young girl" for sex wept in the dock as he was jailed.

Richard Cook, formerly of Ipswich, sent sexual texts, images and videos to people he thought were three girls, aged nine, 13 and 14, including trying to meet up with one in Christchurch Park in the town.

The 48-year-old, most recently of Lambert Lane, in East Cowes on the Isle of Wight, was found guilty of eight child sex offences at Ipswich Crown Court.

Cook wept as he was jailed for seven years, and the judge said his own children did not currently wish to see him again.

Cook was arrested in 2019 after members of a paedophile-hunting group confronted him at his former home in Ipswich.

He had corresponded with what he thought were the three girls on the messaging app Kik.

The three accounts were actually being run by either undercover police officers or civilians from the vigilante group.

Cook was convicted of:

• causing a child to watch a sexual act
• three counts of attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity
• arranging or facilitating a sex act he intended to do, namely engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a girl under 16
• three offences of making indecent images and videos of children in category A (the most serious level), category B and category C

During his trial in September, the court heard Cook asked for photos of the "youngsters" in school uniforms, messaging them while he was at work.

He sent sexually explicit videos of young girls and images of himself and also told one of the girls to "touch her private place".

Cook attempted to meet up with what he thought was the 13-year-old for "penetrative, oral and full sex" in Christchurch Park.

During sentencing, the court heard Cook had also told one of the account holders "if you are young, it doesn’t bother me".

Cook denied sending the material to the girls and said any images and videos he had taken were for his partner in a bid to "stimulate an otherwise waning love life".

He also claimed his phone must have been "repeatedly hacked" and he had actually been set up.

Cook was also served a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, meaning his devices will be monitored for 15 years, and a restraining order preventing him from seeing his former partner or his two children until they were 18.

Judge Nicola Talbot-Hadley said: "You have been removed from your children and they have no intentions currently of wanting to see you."

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