'Wicked' Ipswich man joked about sex with children in 'vulgar' phone calls

Jane Hunt
Joel Deeny has been jailed for the 'sick' phone calls - Credit: Suffolk Constabulary
A man who made a series of disgusting phone calls to Ipswich Hospital and a number of schools and nurseries about having sex with children has been jailed for 20 months.
In some of the calls, Joel Deeny adopted different personas such as Jimmy Savile and Gary Glitter - and in a call to Ipswich Hospital said he was looking for children with cancer or dead children to have sex with.
Sentencing the 33-year-old at Ipswich Crown Court, Recorder Graham Huston said: “You are a wicked man with no sense of decency and without moral compass.
“These calls caused very real distress and were designed to do so. Every telephone call resulted in the police being involved and safeguarding procedures being put in place,” said the judge.
He said Deeny had described himself as “sick” and that he had made the calls as a joke to “wind people up”.
He said Deeny had also described the people who were upset by the calls as being “too prim and proper”.
Deeny, of Fuchsia Lane, admitted five charges of sending a communication of an indecent or offensive nature and asked for 29 similar offences to be considered.
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Daniel Setter, prosecuting, said the offences related to a number of live calls and voicemail messages left by Deeny over a two-week period in December last year.
In one of the calls to a primary school, Deeny said: “I was just wondering if you had any little boys around ten or girls I could have sex with, that would be good.”
The phone the calls were made from was traced to Deeny and, following his arrest, he accepted he was “sick” and said the calls were meant as a joke.
In a victim impact statement, a nursery manger who listened to a voicemail left by Deeny described it as “vulgar” and said it had made her “feel sick to the pit of her stomach.”
Andrew Campbell, for Deeny, said his client had been in custody for six months and had made early admissions to the offences.
He said Deeny had been under the influence of alcohol and “Spice” when he made the calls.