Isle of Wight man Paul Allen jailed for 16 years for sexually abusing children as young as 12

Paul Allen, 38, from the Isle of Wight, was locked up for 16 years at at Winchester Crown Court today.

He had 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.

Allen also admitted 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 by an undercover police officer, who he thought was a 13-year-old-boy that he had arranged to meet at the Victoria Recreation Ground in Newport, Isle of Wight.

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Following his arrest, 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.

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.’