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By JOHN ASKILL Published: 13 Jan 2007
A MONSTER who made more than 4,500 calls to trick children into phone sex was jailed yesterday.
John Phillips, 64, lived a secret life in which he spent hours calling from phone boxes.
He targeted one family 137 times alone ? leaving a 13-year-old schoolgirl so traumatised she needed counselling, a court heard.
The father of four would stand in kiosks for up to four hours while dialling numbers at random in the hope of talking to youngsters.
Sometimes he posed as a doctor so he could ask children as young as eight explicit questions. Phillips also asked them to perform sex acts.
Stuart Rafferty, prosecuting, told Leicester Crown Court: “We say there is absolutely no doubt the sole purpose was sexual gratification.”
Police identified 245 of his victims but said the true number could be far higher. Tool company boss Phillips of Stocksfield, Northumberland, admitted public nuisance and incitement offences.
He was jailed for 15 months and told to register as a sex offender.
Judge Christopher Plunkett branded the calls “repugnant”. He said: “They would have been the cause of a great deal of distress to the young people involved.” |