Sex offender who had 'disturbing' conversations with teenage boy is finally sentenced six years after arrest
A paedophile arrested in 2019 for disgusting sex chats with a 15-year-boy has finally been sentenced.
Michael Halfpenny, of Laburnum Close, Market Drayton, was sentenced at Shrewsbury Crown Court having previously admitted a number of offences.
The court was told that Halfpenny had pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children - in categories A, B, and C, as well as possession of an extreme pornographic image, and distribution of a category C indecent image of a child.
The 60-year-old had also admitted charges of sexual communication with a child and attempted sexual communication with a child.
Danny Smith, prosecuting said the offences dated back to 2018, and that Halfpenny had been arrested in 2019.
Questioned by Judge Peter Barrie as to why the case had taken so long to get to court, Mr Smith said there were a number of issues, such as the volume of similar offences police have to deal with, and difficulties in accessing evidence.
He said: "Can I say, by and large none of that delay is the defendant's fault.
"Frankly, these types of cases, there is always some delay because of the amount of offences police are dealing with, which inherently creates a formidable delay."
But Mr Smith said that in this specific case the delay had been affected by the time taken to try and secure evidence from "third party applications like WhatsApp and Facebook".
