Paedophile jailed after hotel staff alerted police

Joel Dever was sentenced to five years and three months in prison

A Liverpool man who committed a string of sexual offences against a 14-year-old girl has been jailed after hotel staff raised the alarm.

Joel Dever, 25, was sentenced to five years and three months in prison at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday.

He pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual activity with a child, arranging or facilitating a child sex offence, and five counts of making indecent images of a child which were category A, B or C videos.

The court heard he regularly booked hotels for them both in Liverpool and Southport but staff at one of them were concerned about the age of the girl and alerted police.

The court heard Dever committed the offences in 2023 when he was 22, meeting his victim on a social media site and engaging in a sexual relationship with her for more than a year.

Dever, of Good Shepherd Close, Croxteth, was also issued with a lifelong restraining order and is required to sign the Sex Offender Register for life.

Speaking after the court case, Det Con Soph Lowe, from Sefton Protecting Vulnerable People Unit said: "We work closely with hotels and bars to raise awareness of child sexual exploitation.

"Hotel staff in particular have been trained to identify the signs of when a child is being sexual exploited and how to report issues to police.

"In this instance, Dever's predatory and vile behaviour was found out when hotel staff at one establishment raised concerns about the girl's age and called police."

Det Con Lowe said the victim and her family "have shown immense courage and bravery throughout the investigation to reach this conviction".

"Today's custodial sentence has removed him from the streets to prevent further harm to anyone else," she said.

"I hope Dever spends his time in prison reflecting on his wholly unacceptable behaviour."

Det Con Lowe added: "And I hope his imprisonment encourages other victims to come forward and report sex offences to us, and demonstrates that they can have confidence in us to take reports seriously.

"We will ensure offenders are put before the courts so that they can pay for their crimes."