He did not know he was talking to a decoy when he planned ‘atrocious’ and ‘depraved’ acts which ‘have no place in our society’
Daniel O’Flynn was given a nine-year jail sentence on Monday 24 August at Hull Crown Court(Image: Humberside Police)
An “abominable” and “extremely dangerous” Hull man has been sentenced to nine years behind bars for planning horrific child sex crimes while talking to a decoy he believed was a convicted sex offender with a one-year-old child. Daniel O’Flynn, 37, of Great Union Street, pleaded guilty to arranging the commission of the rape of a child, arranging the commission of oral rape of a child, and being in possession of indecent images of a child in February and remained on remand until his sentencing this week at Hull Crown Court.
Following his nine-year sentence, O’Flynn will also be required to remain in custody for a further three years due to being deemed a dangerous offender. He will be on the Sex Offenders Register for life and has been handed an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Humberside Police‘s online investigation team (POLIT) first launched an investigation in November 2025 working alongside colleagues from the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit, where O’Flynn was flagged as sending multiple extreme pornographic and perverse messages via an unregulated pornographic site. He would send hundreds of sexually explicit messages to a decoy profile, who he believed to be a registered sex offender with a one-year-old child whom they were offering to O’Flynn to act upon his deviancies.
The online conversations with the decoy continued over the course of a week, where O’Flynn arranged to meet the decoy for the purpose of abusing the child. O’Flynn would also often request indecent images and would send photos and videos while he performed sexual acts on himself. At the point where O’Flynn had arranged to meet the decoy, he was subsequently arrested by officers at Hull Paragon Interchange a few days after he first started up the conversation with the decoy.
O’Flynn was asked to hand over his phone upon his arrest. He refused and would not give officers his PIN, claiming he didn’t know it. This was a breach of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which was already in place in connection with a separate incident. The analysis of this mobile phone linked O’Flynn to the offences and revealed that he was also in possession of indecent images of children.
During interview, O’Flynn claimed that he was the one trying to catch paedophiles, and that anything on his phone was only there to catch them. He also claimed some of the images and videos of himself were AI generated and that he didn’t do any of it despite the volume of evidence being recovered from other devices found in his room.
Detective Constable Amy Gee, who led the investigation, said: “O’Flynn is an abominable individual whose online presence showed utterly vile language, behaviour, photos, and videos. He specifically sought out who he believed to be a registered sex offender who was offering their child for O’Flynn to abuse all for his own atrocious sexual intentions. Whilst this incident involved a decoy, I hope the sentencing will provide a sense of justice, knowing a sexual predator like O’Flynn is off our streets.
“This result has seen an extremely dangerous man put behind bars. O’Flynn’s depraved actions have no place in our society, and we welcome the sentence and the orders that have been imposed on him to ensure close monitoring once he is released, and to prevent any further offending in the future. We take reports of all sexual offences incredibly seriously and will continue to seek prosecution against anybody who thinks it is okay to commit these types of offences.”
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