Former Derbyshire cricketer 'TrickyDicky69' snared by paedophile hunters

A former county cricketer has been jailed after being snared by self-styled paedophile hunters - who caught him trying to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex.
Pervert Richard Sladdin. Picture: SWNS.Pervert Richard Sladdin. Picture: SWNS.
Pervert Richard Sladdin. Picture: SWNS.

Richard Sladdin, who played for Derbyshire County Cricket Club, Somerset County Cricket Club and later Walsden, had chatted to the girl 'Claire' on dating app Lovoo using the name 'TrickyDicky69'.

After they arranged to meet, he took with him condoms and alcohol and told her not to tell anyone.

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But when the 48-year-old turned up to a car park, he was accosted by the group who had been posing as the child.

They filmed him and posted the encounter on the internet, where it was viewed more than two million times.

Sladdin, of Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire, has now been jailed for 12 months after admitting attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.

Bolton Crown Court heard that Sladdin had asked Claire if she was 'looking for a daddy' and if she would have sex with him.

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Jailing Sladdin, the Recorder of Bolton, Timothy Clayson, said: "You were expecting to meet this young child, expecting her mother to be out and you expected to have intercourse.

"You took condoms and alcohol and you told her not to tell anyone."

David Bentley, mitigating, said: "There has been a high degree of remorse by Mr Sladdin throughout the process."

He said no real child was at risk and that he may not have gone through with it. Sladdin's home had also been bricked and his car damaged.

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Judge Clayson said he accepted Sladdin was remorseful and pleaded guilty at an early stage.

Sladdin was also made subject of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.

Speaking after the case yesterday, a NSPCC spokesman said: "Sladdin set out to groom and meet a vulnerable young girl, knowing full well she was under the age of 16.

"While his intended victim was fictitious, his behaviour highlights the dangers posed to youngsters by offenders online."