County Durham woman's disgust as new love turns out to be paedophile who used her WiFi for child sex chats
by Sophie Doughty · ChronicleLiveBetrayed Rebecca Shorten has today told how she discovered the man she shared her bed with was a convicted paedophile, who was using her internet to chat about abusing children.
When Rebecca met Daniel Devlin on an online dating site she thought she had finally found a man she could trust. After months of chatting, the pair met up in person and hit it off immediately. They then began regularly visiting one another's homes and staying over. But Rebecca's happiness was shattered four months into the new relationship when police turned up at Devlin's house early one morning and arrested him in front of her.
And it wasn't until he appeared in court days later that the 38-year-old discovered the true horror of her partner's crime, and that he had used her WiFi password to commit them.
Devlin, who was caught by undercover police officers sharing sick fantasies about a four-year-old and trying to arrange sexual activity with girls aged seven and one, has now been jailed for almost five years for the vile offences.
And today after seeing him locked up, Rebecca has told the Chronicle of the moment she discovered what her partner had done.
She said: "It was like my world had collapsed. I was confused, I was angry and I felt sick. I felt absolutely disgusted. What makes me wary is me and him really clicked, we have the same sense of humour, we got on so well so it just came as such a shock. It's left me in an absolute mess. But I'm glad it's come out. Thankfully we were only together a short time."
Rebecca met Devlin through the dating site Badoo, in September last year.
"We hit it off immediately, and we spoke on the phone for nearly six hours the first night we met," she explained. "We video chatted and got on like a house on fire. We spent nearly two months chatting daily and making plans to meet."
Devlin initially told Rebecca that he was called Jake, before admitting he had used a fake name online. Rebecca was initially cautious about meeting this new man in person, and even made an application under Clare's Law, which allows women to find out whether a perspective partner has a history of domestic abuse. But after nothing was returned and she felt comfortable, Rebecca began spending time at Devlin's home in Blyth and he would visit her in County Durham.
"Before there was any invite for him to come to my house I did all the online forms for Clare's Law," she said. "Apart from him lying about his name I couldn't find anything online which caused concern."
Devlin first came to Rebecca's home in December and their relationship blossomed quickly from there.
"It was amazing, we had a great time and we arranged for me and my dogs to go to his the following week for New Year," she said. "From there I was either staying at his or he was staying at mine."
But the honeymoon period of Rebecca's new relationship came to an abrupt end when police turned up at Devlin's home, at around 7am on March 31, and arrested him in front of her.
"I was at his house when he was arrested," said Rebeca. "They came to the house at 7am. I was put in the living room and they took Daniel into the bedroom and they didn't let me know what was going on, they just took him away.
"He had a safe in his bedroom. After the police left they had left the safe open and left his sex offender paperwork on the bed. I didn't know what to do."
Devlin later phoned Rebecca to tell her he had been charged. She decided to attend South East Northumberland Magistrates' Court on Easter Monday, to hear the allegations for herself, and when she did she was horrified.
Newcastle Crown Court would later hear how Devlin, of Coburg Street in Blyth, was caught by undercover police officers sharing sick fantasies about a four-year-old and trying to arrange sexual activity with girls aged seven and one. The pervert, who called himself “Paedo Pay Piggy” in an online profile, took part in shocking chats about one youngster. And then after being arrested and bailed for that, he was caught again, believing he was talking to a mother of two young children and discussing what he wanted to do to them.
Using the name Phil, he sought to arrange to meet the “woman’s” daughters, aged seven and 11 months. And in a phone conversation between Devlin and the decoy mother he said he “would be into anything” and outlined sexual acts, the court heard.
It was also later revealed that Devlin had been jailed for 15 months in 2017 for seven indecent images offences and was given a sexual harm prevention order and sex offender registration requirements for an indefinite period.
Rebecca said: "Due to it being Easter I had to wait for a few days and I attended court to hear what the charges were. They were worse than I could ever had imagined and unless you sat in court and heard the transcripts aloud, it is hard to wrap your head around. I wanted to hear it for myself."
And Rebecca was dealt a further blow when she discovered that Devlin, who did not have internet at his home, had used her WiFi password to commit his vile offences.
"He didn't have the internet, and I didn't think anything of it," she said.
As Devlin was jailed last month, the court heard how he was snared after enquiries revealed the IP address he was using was his partner's. He had also breached his sexual harm prevention order because the internet history on two phones seized from him had not been recorded and the acquisition of the phones had not been notified to police.
Devlin pleaded guilty to publishing an obscene article and two counts of breaching the sexual harm prevention order in relation to the earlier offences and he admitted attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence and failing to comply with the sex offenders register by failing to register the pseudonym Phil, over the chats with the undercover officers.
Devlin, 38, of Coburg Street, Blyth, was jailed for four years and nine months and given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and must sign the sex offenders register indefinitely.
Looking back Rebecca says there were some signs that he new man was not what she thought he was. Including one occasion when Devlin admitted he had been in trouble with police before.
"There is a few little things," she said. "He didn't give me his real name at the start, but I can forgive that as I know some people don't use their real name on dating sites."
And speaking of the moment Devlin confessed to his history with police, she explained: "He said; 'I have been in trouble with police before, it's nothing serious. I'm embarrassed to tell you.' He said it involved someone underage but it was a misunderstanding."
Rebecca says she is still struggling to move on from what happened to her.
"The feelings of shame and hurt I have from knowing he had access to my internet, that he had access to my phone and his own phone that he shouldn't of had," she said. "I feel like I have been used, it's horrible.
"Having people associate me with this is a shame I don't think I will ever shake, but I never asked for it, nor was I aware of it."
However, despite being betrayed by him, Rebecca remains in contact with Devlin as he serves his prison sentence.
"I have spoken to him and he's tried to explain a lot of stuff to me," she said. "I'm in a bit of a horrible limbo place at the moment because I still talk to Daniel. It's given me a lot of closure because he's been honest to me about everything. I genuinely didn't think anything like that would ever open up.
"I don't want to step back until he's got the right help in place. I'll never ever forgive him, but at the same time I can't turn my back on someone that has genuinely asked for help."
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