Convicted Plymouth rapist jailed again after being caught by paedophile hunters

A 64-year-old man believed to have solicited a young girl to perform sexual acts has been sent back behind bars, less than a year after being released from prison on rape charges.

Plymouth native Russell Roberts appeared at Plymouth Crown Court via videolink from The Verne Prison in Dorset after pleading guilty to attempting to incite a child under the age of 16 to engage in sexual conduct.

Prosecutor Michael Brown told the court that Roberts initially pleaded not guilty to several charges relating to incidents that occurred between March 9 and March 23, 2022. However, in late June this year, he pleaded guilty to a single charge of soliciting a girl under the age of 16 – which included urging her to penetrate herself with an object.

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Mr Brown explained that a further charge of possession of extremely pornographic material and a charge of attempted sexual communication would be added to the file.

The court heard that Roberts was arrested by police because of the activity of “paedophile hunters” who had set up a fake Facebook account under the name “Lola”. The fake Facebook account claimed she was 13 years old and that Roberts had contacted her in March 2022. “Lola” told police that Roberts was “very keen” to chat with her and was “persistent” with his messages.

The court concluded that it was “obvious that Roberts knew she was 13”, not least because the decoy had told him her age, said she was still at school, and referred to “mealtimes and bedtimes”.

The conversation “quickly turned sexual” and he told her he was interested in a relationship, asked her if she had ever masturbated or had sex, and told her to keep their conversations “secret from her mother.”

He referred to “Lola” as a “baby or little girl” and pressured her to call him and have dirty talk about sex. He asked her if she wore panties to bed before encouraging her to engage in sexual activity. He also pressured her to buy a vibrator.

After asking her if she had ever seen a man’s private parts, he sent her a picture of his penis. He then asked her if she wanted to have sex with him, which culminated in a conversation about the two of them meeting up.

Mr Brown said the decoy from the paedophile hunters group then created an adult decoy on March 21 and Roberts began exchanging messages with that profile. Again, the conversation quickly turned sexual and a meeting was arranged for March 23, 2022 in Yealmpton.

The court heard how the “hunter group” confronted Roberts, called the police and handed over the evidence. During police questioning, he replied: “No comment.”

According to Brown, Roberts has been convicted 15 times for 20 crimes, including rape in 2005, for which he was sentenced to prison in 2006 on public protection grounds.

This means that the offender must serve a minimum term of imprisonment determined by the court, known as the “collective sentence,” before being eligible for parole. Once the offender has served his sentence, he will remain in custody until the parole board determines that he is no longer a danger to the public.

However, Roberts was released on April 1, 2021 and returned to prison after his arrest on March 23, 2022.

In his defence, his lawyer Herc Ashworth told the court that the previous offences had not involved children and that Roberts had said he was sorry for his behaviour.

Mr Ashworth told the court the offence actually took place two years and four months ago but the first hearing only took place in February this year. He added that Roberts had had no visitors during his time in prison, his family had all died and he was leading a “lonely life” struggling with the difficulties of life in the “overcrowded” prison.

Judge David Evans stated: “Had this been a real 13-year-old girl, this exchange could have been a very nasty – and very premature – end to a period of innocence.”

He referred to Roberts’ previous conviction for a 2005 rape involving an adult. He acknowledged that Roberts was “genuinely ashamed” and had not committed any sexual offences since that date and in 2022, but added that he was also being detained to protect the public and that this would be the case “for the foreseeable future”.

Judge Evans questioned the delay between arrest, arraignment and trial, describing it as “inexplicable and inexcusable”. He also described the “very overcrowded” prisons as the reason why very little “positive work” is currently being done there.

Taking into account the mitigating and aggravating circumstances, he sentenced the defendant to 24 months’ imprisonment, stating that he would serve half of that term but that, under the terms of the 2006 sentence, it would be for the Parole Board to decide whether or not to release him.

He also made a 10-year sexual harm prevention order to address the risk of Roberts reoffending and endangering the community.

In October 2006, the Plymouth Herald reported on Roberts’ conviction, describing him as a bouncer who “used his muscle power to overpower two women”. The report said that Roberts, then living in Headland Park, North Hill, was found guilty by a jury at Plymouth Crown Court of twice raping a woman in his one-bedroom flat in May 2005.

He was also found guilty of raping a prostitute in August 2005, who escaped after spraying CS spray in his face. Back in 2006, Mr Vere-Hodge sentenced Roberts to 12 years in prison, with a minimum order that he serve six years of that, and placed Roberts on the sex offenders’ register for life.