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.

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 were 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.

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.

But Olivia feels this doesn't go far enough. "I think everybody should have to do facial recognition to prove how old you are," she said.

She also said the platform should restrict the ability of children to engage with older strangers based on their age.

"So say, if you're 17, you should be only able to talk to people of 16, 17 and 18. You shouldn't be able to talk to people who are older."

Age verification requirements are now required for porn sites under the Online Safety Act. Platforms not specialising in pornography - such as X, Discord and Telegram - are also introducing verification.

This requirement is aimed more at preventing children from seeing harmful material, than helping them understand the age profile of other social media users.

Platforms used by children have not done "anywhere near enough" to clamp down on fake accounts, according to Rani Govender, NSPCC policy manager.

"It's entirely unreasonable to expect children to be able to spot these and to be able to protect themselves from abuse.

"That onus really has to be on companies to think about who is able to create profiles and who is able to use them."

To test how easy it is, we created an account for a boy, providing a date of birth making him 15 years old.

It was easy to add adults as friends though a pop-up did warn that the adult and the child "don't have many mutual friends", asking: "Do you know them? Check before you start chatting."

After creating the account, the app suggested two unknown users who both appeared to be adults, one with facial tattoos, neither using their real names.

Olivia said before her encounter with Lipscombe, Snapchat seemed to offer "an easier way to talk to people."

"Obviously you've got unrestricted access to everybody who has it and you can take photos with stupid filters that obviously make you laugh," she said.

"But then when things like this happen you realise that it's not as fun and simple as it seems because you don't know who's behind the screen.

"Even the thought of having Snapchat again, now scares me."

A spokesperson for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust said: "We would like to praise the girls and their families, as well as Leicestershire Police, for their bravery and courage in bringing Paul Lipscombe to justice for these horrendous crimes.

Following Lipscombe's arrest in April 2024, the Trust suspended him, before dismissing him from his administrative, non-patient facing role in June 2024.

Addressing Lipscombe, Mr Justice Raynor said: "You told your wife you were going to business trips but in truth you were going to engage in your sexual interest in young girls."

He added: "Your thought processes were and remain warped but you knew what you were doing was criminal."

A Snapchat spokesperson said: "Sexual exploitation of young people is an abhorrent crime, and we are committed to combatting it.

"We work with law enforcement to help keep such activity off our platform and bring criminals to justice, and we've done that in this particular case."

Snapchat said it encouraged people to use in-app reporting tools so they can get help quickly.

"We continue to work with police, safety experts and NGOs to help create a safer experience for Snapchatters."

Police are continuing to investigate Lipscombe's offending and believe there may be other victims around the UK.

According to a pre-sentence report, Lipscombe admitted he had been committing sexual offences against young girls since he was in his 20s.