A 74-year-old man has been jailed after travelling to a train station with a blister pack of Viagra to meet a 14-year-old girl he had spent weeks grooming.
Stephen Greaves arrived at Sheffield Station on July 26, 2021, believing he was meeting a teenage girl. Instead, he was intercepted by a paedophile hunter group, who alerted British Transport Police.
Arrest and Investigation
Greaves was arrested at the station, where officers found hundreds of messages between him and the person he believed was a teenage girl. Officers also found a blister pack of Viagra on him.
Detectives later uncovered further conversations with girls he believed were underage, as well as child sexual abuse material he had saved, including two videos in the most severe category.
Court Sentencing
At Sheffield Crown Court on July 31, Greaves, of Park Grange Croft, Sheffield, was jailed for two years and eight months. He was also handed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.
Following an investigation by BTP detectives, the Crown Prosecution Service authorised eight charges against Greaves. He pleaded guilty to five charges: attempting to meet a child under 16 following grooming, attempting to cause or incite a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, and two counts of making indecent images of children. He denied three other charges that will remain on file.
Police Statement
Detective Constable Lee Walker said: "Stephen Greaves poses a serious danger to children and has demonstrated a clear sexual interest in them.
"He spent weeks grooming who he believed was a teenage girl, sending vile and explicit messages before travelling to the station with Viagra for what he thought would be a sexual encounter.
"Our investigation uncovered the full extent of his offending. Through the forensic examination of thousands of gigabytes of data from his phone, we unearthed abhorrent child sexual abuse material. Thankfully Greaves is now behind bars and no longer able to prey on children."
