Barrister caught by police having travelled 150 miles to have sex with ’13-year-old’ is jailed

A barrister who was caught by police having travelled across the country to sexually abuse who he believed to be a 13-year-old schoolgirl has been jailed.

Guy Sims, 53, talked to two people online who he thought were teenage girls using social media platforms Mylol and Kik.

He posed as an 18-year-old calling himself ‘markbatx’ and ‘markviva’ and made arrangements to meet one of the girls.

Sims then travelled 150 miles from Cambridge to Portsmouth with the intention of engaging in sexual activity.

When he arrived, he was arrested by officers who found he had cider and a condom on his person, as well as camouflage leaf netting in his car.

He had also made arrangements to meet another of the girls either on his way home or on the way to Portsmouth on the same day for sexual activity.

Sims, from Bedford, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison on Wednesday at Oxford Crown Court.

While under investigation, he engaged in conversation of a sexual nature with the third person he believed to be a 13-year-old schoolgirl in 2019.

Then calling himself ‘Yo Sarami’ and ‘Danny.dan’, he made arrangements to meet her in Oxford for sexual activity to take place.

Sims, from Bedford, was charged in connection with the offences in 2019.

He has now been founded guilty of three counts of arranging or facilitating commission of a child sex offence by unanimous jury following a trial at Oxford Crown Court.

The court heard Sims will be barred from working as a barrister following the investigation by specialist officers from the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU), which spanned four years.

Detective Chief Inspector Philip Attwood, of SEROCU, said: ‘This is the conclusion of a case in which Sims engaged in conversation of a sexual nature and arranged to meet up with those who he believed to be three teenage girls with the intention of carrying out child sexual abuse.

Sims, from Bedford, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison on Wednesday at Oxford Crown Court (file photo above)

‘Sims, worked as a civil barrister, and should have recognised the consequences of this offending.

‘He demonstrated that he was prepared to go to great lengths and travel across the country to Portsmouth, to Guildford and to Oxford, to engage in depraved sexual activity with children.

‘He repeatedly engaged with the profiles of those he believed to be teenage girls online, and the threat he posed would have continued had it not been for the continued and dedicated efforts of those working for SEROCU.

‘Law enforcement operates across the internet and we are committed to ensuring those who use this means of communicating with those they believe to be children to arrange sexual abuse are brought before the courts to face justice.’