Two Years Imprisonment For Trying To Arrange The Sexual Abuse Of A Four Month Old Baby! Seriously?

10/10/2020

A paedophile 'with no limits' plotted the abuse of a four month old child with a man he believed to be the baby's father. That man was not the dad of a potential victim, but actually an undercover police officer.

Thomas Harrison plotted to commit sexual abuse of a baby and to watch the 'dad' abuse his baby boy

Harrison developed his plot, sending repeated messages to a fictitious profile created on the dating app Grindr. As the conversation developed, they moved their discussions to a different encrypted messaging App; Wickr.

Harrison described his sexual interests as "anything goes" and, on being asked whether he was more interested in sex with the undercover officer, or his four month old child, said "he would choose the baby".

This really is a despicable individual and I don't see how a two year prison sentence can be considered adequate.

Harrison sent images that were supposedly of himself, but were actually of someone else, before moving onto sharing real images. Throughout this period, he was asking for photographs of the baby and repeatedly stressed that he had "no limits" sexually.

He continued to a sexual act he wanted to commit on the undercover officer's child and said that he wanted to watch as the officer did the same act to his own baby. This was fantasy that he repeated on a number of occasions.

He arranged to meet the officer at his home on 27 July and, when the officer arrived and explained that his son was in his car, Harrison repeated his desire to watch the officer abuse the child. The officer looked around the property and, asking Harrison to close the curtains, left the house saying he would get his son.

However, it was his colleagues from Merseyside Police and the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit that returned to the property and arrested the paedophile.

Harrison claimed that reliance on alcohol, depression and the trauma of having been at the Manchester bombing of the Ariana Grande concert influenced his behaviour and that he was ashamed of what he had done. This does not however, to any degree, excuse his abhorrent behaviour.

Thankfully, this vile monster ended up speaking with an undercover police officer and not another evil paedophile. The outcome could have been unimaginable; or at least something you wouldn't want to imagine.

Harrison's sentence of two years in jail seems woefully inadequate. He was also made the subject of a 10 year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years. I would have thought that a deviant like this should be kept on the sex offenders register for life.