A Wiltshire paedophile has been jailed for his interest in children as young as 12.
60-year-old Karl Shuttleworth, of Poulshot, pleaded guilty to three sexual offences and was sentenced at Salisbury Crown Court on 23 February.
The defendant was arrested after Wiltshire Police received information about his conduct online in 2024 – where he was alleged to be engaging with young children.
He was talking to children he believed to be as young as 12 in an attempt to meet them for sex.
He pleaded guilty to attempting to cause or incite a female child to engage in sexual activity, attempting to cause a child under 13 to watch or look at an image of sexual activity, arrange or facilitate the commission of a child sex offence and attempt to engage in sexual communication with a child.
Shuttleworth was jailed for three years and slapped with a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order. He was also banned from working with children and vulnerable adults for life.
DC Jason Walsh, from the force’s Child Internet Exploitation Team, told of how the defendant was a “predator” who worked “alongside vulnerable children”.
He said: “Shuttleworth is a predator who made numerous attempts via various online platforms to instruct people who he believed were children to engage in sexual activity.
“Fortunately, although we found no live victims, we believe Shuttleworth had a real sexual interest in children by the way he was engaging with online profiles and considering he had a job which involved working alongside vulnerable children, I believe he posed a real danger.
“I am therefore, extremely pleased that as a direct result of our complex investigation, he has been given not just a custodial sentence, but barred from working with children for life.”
At this stage, Wiltshire Police has not revealed what role the defendant held that brought him into contact with children, as stated by DC Walsh.
