Man who killed cyclist exposed as paedophile

An ex-lorry driver who killed a cyclist in 2015 is now a paedophile who has been jailed for sending sexual text messages to decoys who he thought were underage girls.

Mike Jones, then Mark Baker, knocked down and killed a cyclist 11 years ago, for which he was given a suspended sentence at Shrewsbury Crown Court. His counsel told a sentencing hearing at Swansea Crown Court on Monday, March 16, that the incident had led to him having depression with "nothing in his life apart from the internet to communicate with people".

Now Jones has been jailed after pleading guilty to two counts of attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child and two counts of breaching a sexual harm prevention order.

That order was placed on him because in April 2024 he was also sentenced to 16 months in prison suspended for 24 months at Swansea Crown Court for three counts of attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child. 

Dean Pulling, prosecuting, told court on Monday that the new offences came about when Jones, who called himself "Ugly Duckling" online, engaged in sexual conversations and asked for underwear pictures from who he thought were 14-year-old girls. In reality the former lorry driver was communicating with adults operating decoy social media accounts.

Mr Pulling told the court that in February Jones contacted the profiles of what appeared to be two 14-year-old girls on social media sites Mingle and Just Say Hi. He said in reality the profiles were decoy accounts "operated by people who call themselves paedophile hunters".

The court heard that Jones gave the decoys his mobile number and began chatting with them even after being told their ages. Jones asked the "girls" sexual questions, requested photographs including pictures of them in their underwear, and told them how attractive they were. The court heard that he asked one of the decoys if they liked older men and told her he could "kiss her lips all day".

The prosecutor said both the adults then turned to a group called Drank Dragons and passed on Jones' details to it, and on February 20 he was confronted at his home address. Also present at the property was the defendant's partner. The police were called and Jones was arrested, subsequently answering "no comment" to all questions asked in interview.

The court heard the new offending meant he was in breach of a sexual harm prevention order. Judge Recorder Mark Powell KC told Jones it was clear he had learnt nothing from the chance he had been given two years prior.

The court heard the offending in 2024 was "almost identical" to the offending before the court, with Jones using a false name and engaging in highly sexualised conversations with decoys who he believed to be girls aged 12, 13, and 14 on the social media site Mingle.

On that occasion the defendant was also made subject to a 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) and put on the sex offenders' register for the same length of time.

Giles Hayes, for Jones, said they were his instructions that the defendant began to suffer with his mental health after the Shrewsbury driving conviction and the guilt of causing the death of a cyclist "weighed very heavily upon him".

He said the sex conviction in Swansea in 2024 came at a very low point in Jones' life when he was suffering with low self-esteem, boredom and depression and found himself "a middle-aged man who has nothing in his life apart from the internet to communicate with people".

The advocate said that since 2024 Jones had been dealt with by four different probation officers and had been unable to do the Horizon sex offenders course, and he said in reality little had been done to address the issues in the life of a defendant who "cannot see the wood for the trees".

Recorder Powell told Jones he had been given a chance with a suspended sentence in 2024 but had not taken it, and he told the defendant: "It is clear you did not learn your lesson."

With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas Jones, of Darren Road, Briton Ferry, was sentenced to 24 months in prison and the judge activated six months of the previously imposed suspended sentence to run consecutively making an overall sentence of 30 months in prison.

The defendant will serve up to half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.