Lifestyle

Predator Dad Posed as Priest to Groom Fake Teens

Published on July 4, 2025

A 45-year-old dad-of-three has been sentenced after pretending to be a Rev to groom what he thought were two 15-year-old girls. Kevin Marshall posed as a priest, even donning a Moncler coat and collar in Facebook photos, then invited them for coffee and hotel stays, believing he’d befriended actual teenagers. He was devastated in court when he discovered the profiles were a sting by the paedophile hunter group Saving Children’s Futures UK.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Marshall messaged two decoys on Facebook and WhatsApp, repeatedly arranging meet-ups. The court learned he planned to travel to Glasgow to collect one girl, had booked a hotel room there for 25 April, and even sent train timetables. He reportedly asked the decoy “what type of drunk she was” and told her he would “make her comfortable on her first experience with a man.”

After befriending the second ‘teenager’ in January, Marshall claimed he’d “been a reverend but quit when his mother died.” He then invited her for “coffee, a walk or a drive as friends,” told her she was “stunning and beautiful,” admitted he “had naughty thoughts,” and offered to “pick her up in his Volvo” to “put a smile on her face.” He even attacked the family courts, calling judges “pricks who think they know better.”

His record revealed 20 previous convictions for 51 offences—including a five-year stretch for blackmail in 2015. His defence lawyer, Matthew O’Neill, explained Marshall had started misusing cocaine following his mother’s death in January, a loss he says drove him to his dreadful acts. He told the court Marshall is “disgusted in his behaviour and embarrassed, given the nature of his offending and the fact he has three young children.”

Marshall pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting sexual communication with a child and two counts of arranging or facilitating a child sex offence. Dressed in a simple grey T-shirt, he wiped away tears throughout the hearing and was jailed for three years. He was also slapped with a lifelong Sexual Harm Prevention Order and must sign the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Sentencing, Judge Simon Medland KC didn’t hold back: “You were prepared to go to considerable lengths to arrange sexual encounters in the most graphic ways… Children are entitled to their childhood.” He added that Marshall hid behind a “imaginative disguise” and sought to groom the girls over a prolonged period.

Marshall had been arrested just after 9.30pm on 28 April when members of the paedophile hunter group knocked on his door. He’d even claimed to police, “Honestly, I’ve done nothing wrong,” and said he found everything “nasty and dangerous.”

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