NHS manager who groomed young girls on Snapchat jailed for 28 years for rape and abuse

An NHS manager who sexually abused and raped young girls after grooming them on Snapchat has been jailed for 28 years.

Paul Lipscombe was sentenced after he admitted to sexual grooming, sexual assault and two counts of rape of a child under 13, in a case described as “shocking and terrifying” by detectives.

Lipscombe, 51,who is believed to have earned at least £91,000 a year as an associate director of NHS performance in Coventry, ferried his victims to rented hotels and Airbnbs in a Tesla.

A 15-year-old girl, who was one of six children groomed by Lipscombe in Leicestershire, Norfolk and Lincolnshire, told the BBC she wants facial recognition brought in so predatory adults can’t get access to young people on the app.

Snapchat said it was committed to combatting sexual exploitation of young people and worked with law enforcement to help keep “such activity off our platform”.

Mr Justice Raynor, sentencing Lipscombe, said he was a warped man who had blamed victims after abusing them, even though he knew what he was doing was criminal.

Lipscombe admitted 34 offences ranging from sexual activity with a child to rape.

Police discovered he had used fake names and lied about his age to win over his victims. The accounts no longer exist after Snapchat removed them.

‘He just said ‘hi”

Olivia, not her real name, said Lipscombe befriended her on Snapchat when she was going through a “rough time” and that he preyed upon her vulnerability.

She never met Lipscombe face-to-face. However, each of the other girls he groomed was sexually assaulted.

Olivia was first contacted in February by Lipscombe, who said his name was George.

“He just said ‘hi’, it was a pretty boring conversation, the first one,” she said. “I was going through a rough time with family and stuff… and it’s not that I felt alone, but I wanted reassurance.”

“He’d ask me about my day at school and tell me that it would be OK,” she added.

Lipscombe, while posing as George, told Olivia that he was around 30. For other victims he used the name Dom.

He often sent pictures of himself in a hoodie, his bald head and face hard to make out in shadow.

Lipscombe would send pictures of himself to the young girls he groomed

The investigation began in April, when a different 15-year-old who had gone missing called the police.

She told them she was with Lipscombe, who she said had got angry and that she wanted to get away from him.

Detectives circulated his car number plate and he was spotted at a drive-through KFC and arrested at the wheel of his Tesla, initially on suspicion of kidnap. The girl was in a nearby Airbnb.

Examining his devices, they uncovered a persistent campaign of grooming using Snapchat.

Police discovered Lipscombe had also been running a side business selling both real and AI-generated images of child sexual abuse. This was available via a sophisticated website on which he offered “gold level” access to “all my best work”.He admitted distributing indecent photographs.

One man paid more than £3,700 for images and what the judge described as a “set of instructions which were in effect a paedophile’s step-by-step guide to contacting girls, gaining their confidence, complimenting them and then arranging meetings.”

Detective Constable Lauren Speight described Lipscombe as “calculating, premeditated, and well-organised”.

She found Snapchat messages on Lipscombe’s phone he had sent to the girls.

“He would say: ‘I can get you vapes, drink, I can pick you up and take you wherever. I’m not a creepy old man.’ Every aspect of the playbook, he used it,” Det Con Speight said.

Slowly he shifted conversations online towards sexual suggestions, demanding the girls take pictures of themselves.

Five of the victims, aged 12 to 15, agreed to meet Lipscombe – they were all sexually assaulted or raped in Premier Inn hotels, Travelodges, Airbnb properties and rural car parks.

Olivia started to get suspicious of Lipscombe, and refused his demands to meet. She only found out that police were investigating him for sexually grooming girls when they came to speak to her.

“I’m thinking, ‘oh, my god, what have I got myself into? Why didn’t I see like the red flags?'” she said.

“It was so disgusting, like, why is a grown man doing that to a child? I was just in shock.”

The case highlights growing concern about the targeting of children on popular social media platforms.

Police believe Lipscombe had an account on a smaller chat app, with fewer safeguards, where children often share their Snapchat usernames. Though detectives were unable to get into this account, they are concerned he may have used it to identify potential victims to add as friends on Snapchat.

The NSPCC said Snapchat had been used in half of the cases it has seen involving evidence of grooming on social media. Snapchat introduced new child protection measures in September 2023.

For children, friends lists are private, location sharing is off by default, and both users have to agree to chat. Children get pop-up warnings if they are contacted by someone with whom they don’t share mutual friends, or who has been blocked.