Advertisement

Paedophile councillor jailed for arranging sex acts with fictional three-year-old girl

Alex Kear has been jailed for four years and ordered to serve an extended licence period of two years. (PA/West Yorkshire Police)
Alex Kear has been jailed for four years and ordered to serve an extended licence period of two years. (PA/West Yorkshire Police)

A paedophile councillor who arranged sex acts with a fictitious three-year-old girl has been jailed for four years.

Alex Kear, 50, is poised to lose his seat on Wakefield Council after a judge said he had “waited years for something like this to happen”.

Kear thought he was going to meet the mother of a toddler after sending her indecent requests but the woman was actually an undercover officer, Leeds Crown Court was told on Friday.

The politician had previously admitted a charge of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sexual offence and another of inciting the sexual exploitation of a child under the age of 13.

Judge Simon Phillips QC told him: “I have no doubt that if that three-year-old girl had existed you would have intended to carry out your degenerate predatory plans against her.

Alex Kear arriving at Leeds Crown Court to be sentenced. (PA)
Alex Kear arriving at Leeds Crown Court to be sentenced. (PA)

“This is a deep-seated degeneracy on your behalf, as illustrated by the communications you have made that you have been interested in little girls for as long as you can remember and that you have waited years for something like this to happen.”

Kear, who was elected to Wakefield Council representing the Castleford ward in 2019, admitted a charge of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sexual offence and another of inciting the sexual exploitation of a child under the age of 13.

When Kear admitted the sex offences in July, Wakefield Council’s chief legal officer Gillian Marshall said in the Yorkshire Post the authority was powerless to remove him, which could change based on the sentence given to him.

Defendants need to be jailed for at least three months to be removed, which has now happened.

Kear is set to lose his seat on Wakefield Council. (PA)
Kear is set to lose his seat on Wakefield Council. (PA)

It led Yvette Cooper, the MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, to call for an urgent review of the law following Kear’s admission.

The court heard how Kear, of Castleford, sent a picture of his genitals to the officer and sent messages about what he wanted to do to the child.

Jonathan Sharp, prosecuting, told the court that Kear said: “The older I get the younger I seem to like. Twenty years ago I would never had thought about a baby but now… young.”

Kear had told the undercover officer: “The years I have waited for something like this to happen.”

The court heard he lied to police, claiming he was a paedophile hunter before admitting the offences in court.

Michael Collins, defending, told the judge his client welcomed his arrest as he needed help with a long standing addiction to pornography.

He said Kear had been diagnosed with autism and suffered from a mixed anxiety and depressive disorder.