HMP Parc (Image: ATHENA PICTURE AGENCY ZING LIMITED / Alamy)
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A 75-year-old who was imprisoned for attempting to arrange the sexual abuse of children has died in hospital, weeks after being sentenced.
Nicholas Page, of Ropewalk Road in Llanelli, was transferred from HMP Parc in Bridgend to an outside hospital, where he passed away on May 7. He had received a three-year prison sentence at Swansea Crown Court the previous month after pleading guilty to two charges – attempting to possess indecent images of children and arranging a child sexual offence.
How Page was caught
Page’s offending was exposed by a care worker from Carmarthenshire Council who attended his home on a regular basis.
On one occasion, Page disclosed to the worker that he had been having discussions with somebody about sexual encounters involving girls “as young as 14”. He then showed the worker an image of a female on his phone, asking him to guess her age.
Alarmed by what he had heard, the care worker reported the matter to his manager, who contacted the police.
The evidence
A search warrant was executed at Page’s property and his mobile phone was seized. Examination of the device uncovered text conversations with an unknown individual in which Page was “actively trying to obtain” indecent images of children as young as eight, the court heard.
Further messages revealed Page had been seeking to arrange sexual encounters with young girls, offering payments in return. One exchange detailed plans for a girl to be brought to his home at 2pm the following day. No child was ever delivered to the address, and Page fired off a string of angry messages demanding to know where the girl was.
Prosecutor Craig Jones told the court: “The clear inference is he was paying for the provision of children to be brought to his property.”
Separate conversations showed Page discussing a desire for sex with virgins. He expressed a preference for 13-year-old girls but stated he was also interested in those aged “10 or younger”.
Judge Paul Thomas KC said the messages made clear that the purpose of the payments was to facilitate abuse, though he acknowledged the possibility that Page had been “conned” by whoever he was communicating with.
Court delays
Page had originally been due to be sentenced in May last year but on multiple occasions failed to attend, citing medical reasons without ever providing documentary evidence to support his claims.
He was eventually arrested on a warrant in December and remanded into custody. The court was told he had “remained uncooperative” with efforts to provide medical reports.
Sentencing
Defence barrister Ryan Bowen told the court his client was “a product of his childhood experiences”, having been placed into care at a young age. He said “the care system of seven decades ago was not what it is today” and that Page had suffered physical and other forms of abuse during that time.
Page had no previous convictions.
Finding there was no realistic prospect of rehabilitation, Judge Thomas imposed a three-year prison sentence.
Death in custody
A spokesman for G4S, the private security firm that operates HMP Parc, said: “Mr Nicholas Page passed away at an outside hospital on May 7. As with all deaths in custody this will be investigated by [the prisons ombudsman]. The cause of death will be for the coroner to determine.”
Dyfed-Powys Police said it was unable to provide a custody photograph of the defendant.
