Max Wilkes experienced a deterioration of his condition that led him to ‘regress’ and take on the identity of the boy. He set up an Instagram account in the boy’s name and used it to contact a teen chat forum run by the police.
He told them he was being groomed by older men and then claimed he had been raped on a visit to South Wales, leading to a massive investigation.
Police tried to trace the boy called Oscar by blowing up and reading a school badge in one of the pictures on his Instagram page and Devon police even located and spoke to two boys who happened to have the identical first and second names.
They only realised that it was a hoax when they tracked Wilkes through his IP address to his home in Chudleigh, and discovered that he is actually a 30-year-old man with a criminal record for downloading child images.
He had broken a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which required him to use his own name in any online activity. Officers later found two images of children in sexual poses on a phone hidden under his bed.
Wilkes has been diagnosed with neuro divergent autism which has been deteriorating since the start of the year and is linked to his regression.
It has also resulted in him becoming mute.
He was spared an immediate jail sentence at Exeter Crown Court after a judge read a raft of five reports from psychiatrists, support workers, and probation officers.
They described him as highly vulnerable and totally incapable of coping if sent to prison.
The hearing was conducted with the Judge and lawyers appearing without wigs or gowns and with Wilkes sat outside the dock and accompanied by a support worker.
Wilkes, aged 30, of Fore Street, Chudleigh, admitted two breaches of a sexual harm prevention order and one count of making, by downloading, indecent images of children.
He was jailed for six months, suspended for a year by Judge David Evans.
He told him: ‘It cannot be said that you did not know what you were doing but it can be said that your blameworthiness is lessened by your developmental disorder in combination with your regression.
‘This offence was somewhat akin at least to perverting the course of justice or wasting police time.’
Mr Nigel Wraith, prosecuting, said Wilkes opened an Instagram account in the false name of a child with the initials OG which he used to contact a chat line run for young people by Sussex police early this year.
His online chat ran to 100 pages and said he was in contact with older men and had stayed with them overnight. He went on to say he had been groomed and abused while visiting South Wales.
Police rushed to Cardiff Station to try to find the boy and there was then an extensive police operation which led to two boys with the same name being spoken to before Wilkes was traced.
A spot check at his home a few weeks later led to police finding a phone under his bed with had two child images. They fell into the lowest category and showed sexual posing rather than any abuse.
Miss Rebecca Wood, defending, said Wilkes has a particularly severe form of autism which led to him suffering a regression and taking on the persona of a 12-year-old boy.
She urged the judge to follow the suggestions of reports which said that his vulnerabilities meant that being in prison would present very serious problems to him and staff.
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