Chatroom Plotters Jailed
Updated: 12:29, Monday February 05, 2007
Three men who used the internet to hatch a "harrowing" schoolgirl rape plot have been jailed for a total of 27 years. The trio - the first convicted of such a serious offence from online exchanges alone - met only after their arrests. But London's Southwark Crown Court heard the fact they had never met did not prevent them "drooling" over their plans. They even referred to doing a "Holly and Jess" - a reference to the Soham 10-year-olds brutally murdered by Ian Huntley in 2002.
Police first heard of their plot when "rape obsessed" David Beavan got cold feet, walked into Bournemouth Police Station and told them what had been going on. The 42-year-old greeting card salesman from Bransgore, Hampshire, claimed he was a "vigilante" gathering evidence against paedophiles - but he was convicted of conspiracy to rape. He was given an indeterminate prison sentence but will serve at least 11 years.
Film make-up artist Alan Hedgcock, 41, from Twickenham, south west London, was convicted of the same offence. He had argued he was simply the victim of an overactive imagination but received a similar sentence with a minimum eight-year tariff. Unemployed Robert Mayers, 42, from Warrington, Cheshire, will also serve at least eight years. All three admitted distributing, making and possessing indecent images of children.
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I find it quite odd that the guy who turned himself into the police got the most severe sentence, but from the sounds of things it's just good that they didn't carry out their plan. Another thing that got me about it is that there was a guy found guilty today of 3 actual rapes around Bristol and he only got 8 years.
