Paedophile who tried to lure teen to nudist hotel finally jailed after being caught ignoring judge's conditions

Nigel Clapton was the subject of a ‘sting’ by an online group of paedophile hunters who confronted him at his Leicestershire home.

The 25-minute confrontation was streamed live on social media before police arrived to arrest him.

He was given a suspended prison sentence and warned by the judge to stick to a series of strict rules designed to protect the public.

But the 46-year-old, formerly of Market Harborough but now of Market Hill, Rothwell, is now behind bars after he was caught breaching the terms of the judge’s sexual harm prevention order.

He appeared before Her Honour Judge Rebecca Crane at Northampton Crown Court last week when he pleaded guilty to five contraventions of the ten-year order.

The paedophile hunters’ group originally snared Clapton after an online operation during which he tried to persuade a 14-year-old girl to visit a naturist hotel with him. He told her he slept naked and that he would keep her warm.

In July 2024 he appeared in court charged with child sex offences but was spared jail. He was given a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for two years by a judge sitting at Leicester Crown Court. He was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for ten years.

He was placed under the supervision of the police but on December 11, Clapton was found in possession of a secret mobile phone that he hadn’t told his supervising officer about.

He was also discovered to have opened a clandestine social media account without telling the officer. Officers also discovered he had ignored an instruction to set his device to retain internet history for as long as possible, and instead had set it only to last three month. They also found that he had deleted his search history.

Clapton was also found to be using a social media alias of ‘meet now’ on Grindr, which he was banned from doing.

Judge Crane gave him a 22 month prison sentence and ordered him to pay a victim surcharge of £187. He will serve half of the sentence in prison and the remainder in the community on licence.