Depraved pervert told undercover cop posing as girl, 12, his name was 'Paedo Daddy' in chatroom sting

A depraved paedophile who told an undercover police officer his name was "Paedo Daddy" while he believed he was chatting to a 12-year-old girl online has been jailed for two-and-a-half years. Philip Norris, 48, shared vile messages with the officer over months and said he would travel more than 200 miles in order to meet up. But he was unaware that he was talking to a decoy account on the internet chatrooms as part of a sting operation. As a result, he was banned from having contact with children - but he continued to stay at his partner's home with her young daughter and even did the school pick up and drop off at times. Yesterday afternoon, Liverpool Crown Court heard that Norris, from Waterloo, engaged in a series of sexualised conversations with an undercover officer, who was posting as a 12-year-old girl on the social media sites Chatiw and Teleguard between July and October of 2024 using the screenname 'Paedo Daddy'. "The defendant, perhaps foolishly, used the name 'Paedo Daddy', which, frankly, was always going to alert the authorities to his activities, said prosecutor Iain Criddle. Norris was said to have told the officer he was "getting horny talking to her," and asked her to perform oral sex and if she would "want to f***." He then sent an explicit picture and video, requesting that she send him explicit images back, reports the Liverpool Echo . After Norris suggested meeting up and was told the decoy schoolgirl lived in Slough, he said "it would be worth travelling that distance to meet someone like her". He also told her to keep their chats "secret from her mum." He was arrested on October 10 that year and police seized two laptops and an iPhone from his home. When they were analysed, the devices were found to have a total of 125 indecent images of children. This vile stash included 44 pictures and videos in Category A, those showing the most serious forms of abuse. A further four computer generated images depicting child sexual abuse and one of an adult engaging in acts of beastiality were also found. Norris pleaded guilty to a series of charges before magistrates and was told to sign the sex offenders' register on an interim basis ahead of his sentencing hearing. However, having been required to inform the police of where he was living and having been told not to remain at a property with a child for more than 12 hours as part of his court order, he failed to notify officers of his address. Concerningly, he was also said to have stayed over at his girlfriend's house on at least seven occasions between March 5 and 17 this year while her young daughter was present. This even saw Norris collect the girl from school and drop her off on occasions. Mr Criddle added: "His then partner had no idea that he had this obligation. As soon as she found out, she immediately finished the relationship." Norris has no previous convictions. John Dove, defending, said on his behalf: "Mr Norris fully accepts responsibility for that offending and appreciates the gravity of what he has done. In the time period leading up to this offending, Mr Norris was going through a number of very difficult personal issues. Ultimately, this resulted in a divorce from his wife and him being left with substantial marital debt. "Mr Norris believes that, at that time, he was depressed and had nowhere to turn. As a result, he turned to the internet and sought solace on there. He says he had a difficult time maintaining relationships with individuals of his own age. This led to him going to chatrooms. Ultimately, it culminated in the offending of which you have heard today, your honour. "In effect, what he has told me in instructions is that he has a limited recollection of that time. Mr Norris fully accepts that he has breached the notification requirements. In effect, he has buried his head in the sand. He indicates that the reason he went to live her for a period of time is that she was struggling to come to terms with things. There was a fallout, following on from that. "This, of course, is the first time that Mr Norris has been convicted of an offence. He is a hard working and industrious individual. Since his 20s, he has been working as a business intelligence analyst or data analyst. He has built up his expertise over many years in this field and has been in his most recent employment for six years. He was going through a divorce and quite a difficult marriage. He describes his work as his only release. He would often work 11 hour days, as that was the only thing he had to get by. "Prior to this, Mr Norris describes quite a difficult upbringing. He describes having a step father that was particular difficult to deal with. He witnessed his step father abuse his mother. He is very close with his mother. She has been quite poorly in recent years, both with cancer and a hip replacement. Mr Norris tells me that he has been instrumental in assisting her during that time. "Mr Norris has now been on remand for around seven weeks. He tells me that he has particularly struggled in the custodial environment. He has a job on his wing, where he is responsible for packaging the food that will go out to that wing. He has enrolled on a personal and social development course, which he is finding particularly helpful. Mr Norris is deeply ashamed by his actions and, having experienced the custodial environment, has asked me to submit that this will be the last time he offends." Norris admitted attempted sexual communications with a child, attempting to cause a child to watch sexual activity, possession of indecent images of children, three counts of making indecent images, possession of prohibited images of children, possession of an extreme pornographic image and two counts of failing to comply with notification requirements. Appearing via video link to HMP Liverpool, he was jailed for two-and-a-half years. Sentencing, Judge Stuart Driver KC said: "You were left alone, at times, with a [young] girl. You slept in the home of her and her mother. You took her to and from school. It is clearly a very risky situation to be done by a man like you, who gave yourself the internet nickname 'Paedo Daddy', who downloaded and no doubt enjoyed films of children being raped and communicated sexually with someone who you believed to be a 12-year-old child. There was a risk of very serious harm. The sexual conversation went on for months and was highly sexual. "In mitigation, you are of previous good character. References speak highly of you. You have got a good employment record and are making progress in custody. In his careful submissions, your barrister asks me to suspend the sentence. I find that you are a danger to children. The pre-sentence report says that you present a high risk of serious harm to them. Two of the offences for which you are to be sentenced demonstrate a history of non-compliance with court orders. The combination of three types of offending here means that appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody." Norris, who was seen with his head bowed and wiping away tears with a tissue at times during the hearing, was also handed an indefinite sexual harm prevention order. He will be required to notify as a sex offender for life.