Jan 2004

Internet paedophile jailed

A Briton has been jailed for five years for travelling to America to have sex with a schoolgirl he met on the Internet.

Mobile disco DJ Barry Beadle, 51, was also ordered to undergo mental health treatment by a judge in Des Moines, Iowa.

Beadle, from Merseyside, pleaded guilty in September to two sex crimes, after spending several nights at a hotel in Iowa with the 14-year-old girl.

The former psychiatric nurse was only caught because the manager of the hotel in Fort Madison was suspicious of the cheque Beadle tried to pay with. Beadle has been in custody in Lee County jail since his arrest last April.

A spokesman for Iowa Federal Clerk’s Office said: “The court recommended that the defendant receive ongoing mental health treatment and that he is considered for placement on the sex offenders’ programme.” He said Beadle is expected to serve at least four and a quarter years of the sentence before being eligible for parole.

When he is released Beadle is expected to be deported and will not be allowed back into the US without special permission.

The court also fined Beadle £110, which will go into a victims’ support fund, and banned him from using Internet equipment in the United States.

When he is released he will have to enter a sex offenders’ treatment programme unless he is immediately deported back to Britain.

Beadle met the teenager – who was given the false name Jane Doe in court to protect her identity – in an Internet chatroom.

FBI agent Thomas Reinwart said in prosecution papers that Beadle, using the online name DJPLAY10, first asked for the teenager’s age, gender and location and said he was from the UK. He lied about his age, saying he was 46. “According to Doe, Beadle always knew her to be under 15,” the officer reported.