Police prank caller and train nuisance also 'groomed' child online

Thomas Stevens walked free from court in August 2021 with a suspended sentence for his dangerous actions which cost train operator Northern more than £25,000 in delay compensation.

But the 21-year-old failed to appreciate the chance handed to him by the courts by scrambling emergency services to bogus incidents through a series of hoax calls.

He was also found to have 'groomed and pressured' a child into performing sex acts on herself after lying about his age.

Stevens was charged with inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, sending false communications and breach of a suspended sentence, and he appeared to be sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday, January 4.

Michael Scholes, prosecuting, explained how the victim in the sexual offence, which occurred over two weeks from late December 2020 to early January 2021, was a girl aged 12.

In November, she and the defendant met through an online video game. He asked if he could add her on Snapchat and she agreed.

He told her he was 15, when he was in fact 19, and she told him she was 12, but they began regular intimate chats on WhatsApp and Instagram, including sexualised images and videos.

Stevens sent photos of himself performing sex acts, while she sent naked photos on his request. He also asked her to perform sex acts on herself on a daily basis and video them so he could see.

The chats ended after she saw a post on his Instagram page which gave away his true age.

The victim told police that she did not like performing the sex acts, did them to make the defendant happy and that she felt pressured by him.

The false communications offence also occurred over a two-week period in January last year, where he made 39 calls to 999.

Thomas Stevens was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court

The ‘vast majority’ of calls were silent, where he did not speak, but at least five were incidents which saw police, ambulance or the fire service scrambled to attend in the Birchwood area.

These reports included a person collapsed and not breathing, a stabbing and a number of road traffic collisions.

On two incidents, he was spotted watching the fire service attend the scene of a hoax car crash, one of which saw him pointed out to a police officer by a firefighter.

Stevens was approached by the officer and later arrested, where he made admissions during interview.

Impact statements were heard in court, with one from North West Ambulance Service revealing that his hoax calls wasted around three hours of paramedics’ time – which also meant they were unable to attend other emergency calls.

It was revealed that the calls wasted around £1,400 of the service’s taxpayer-funded budget in attending, as well as around £6,000 for Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service.

The statements also spoke of how the calls put other road users at risk through the use of emergency equipment to attend rapidly.

This offence put Stevens in breach of an eight-month suspended custody sentence he was handed in August 2021.

This came after he cost Northern more than £25,000 in delay compensation after pulling train doors ajar while travelling at 70mph.

He committed the illegal acts on eight separate rail services over a two-week period in September 2020.

In doing so, emergency brakes were activated, causing the trains to come to an abrupt stop and running the risk of causing serious injury to passengers.

Stevens acted in a similar fashion in 2018, when he was aged 17. The matter was dealt with outside of the court system by police and Network Rail.

He previously cost Northern more than £25,000 in train delay repay compensation

In defence of his client, Simon Christie spoke of references from his employer which described him as a ‘likable character’, while also raising his ‘serious mental disorder’.

“It is a crying shame that the treatment offered to him in the community has, until now, not come close to dealing with his particularly serious needs,” he said.

The barrister also spoke of ‘serious concerns’ about the defendant’s vulnerabilities should he be sent to custody, highlighting that while there was a seven-year age gape between him and the 12-year-old victim in the sex offence matters, they were of a ‘much closer age mentally’.

After pointing to his guilty pleas, Mr Christie added: “There is evidence that he can be rehabilitated and that his problems can be addressed.

“All I can ask is for the court to consider this to be an exceptional case and impose a sentence that would not result in his imprisonment.”

But this call was rejected by recorder Eric Lamb, who said that Stevens’ ‘grooming behaviour’ had ‘effectively pressured’ the victim.

Before sentencing, he said: “I have been urged on your behalf to consider the impact of a custodial sentence on you, and that this could be viewed as an exceptional case.

“However, the purpose of sentencing must include an element of recognition of the gravity of your offending, and part of that purpose is punishment.

“I have considered that in your case, appropriate punishment can only be achieved by way of an immediate custodial sentence.”

Stevens, from Birchwood, was sentenced to three years in custody.

He is also the subject of a restraining order preventing him from contacting the sex offence victim for five years, while he is also subject to sex offender registration and notification requirements indefinitely.