Richard Hayes-Hall was given a 16-month suspended sentence after admitting attempting to meet a boy of 14 (Picture: SWNS)

A dentist who was caught trying to meet a 14-year-old boy with a car full of sex toys, ropes and padlocks has been spared jail.

Richard Hayes-Hall was arrested after being caught in an undercover police sting while trying to meet what he thought was an underage boy.

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Instead, the 61-year-old from Worcester was met by a police officer, who discovered the sex toys, condoms, ropes and padlocks in a bag in the lecturer and dentist’s car.

Hayes-Hall was arrested in Lickey Hills, Birmingham, on March 14 where he’d arranged to meet the boy.


He admitted a single count of attempting to meet a boy under 16 following grooming and was given a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for two years at Worcester Crown Court on Friday.



A court heard that when the father-of-two learned of the boy’s age, he wrote in a text: ‘Very nice – only 14. I would be happy to teach you a thing or two XXXX.’

Judge Robert Juckes QC said: ‘Between January and March you were in constant contact with someone you thought was an innocent 14-year-old schoolboy, preparing to meet, grooming him for that purpose and in the end arranging the meeting and equipping yourself for the purpose.

‘The public regard that offending with a highly understandable and proper degree of horror.’

Hayes-Hall was sentenced at Worcester Crown Court (Picture: Getty)

The judge said that a significant aspect of the punishment was that Hayes-Hall had been ‘brought low’ from a high place in society and ‘exposed’.

Prosecutor Michael Conry said the ‘boy’ said he was ‘nervous’ and Hayes-Hall said they could ‘just play to begin with’.

Hayes-Hall gave graphic descriptions of sexual activity but said it was ‘up to’ the boy what happened.

They discussed having sex in the boy’s bedroom while his mother was out.

Hayes-Hall reassured his victim, telling him: ‘You will be nervous, naturally.

‘It’s your first time but don’t worry you will be fine. I won’t hurt you.

‘Don’t worry, you won’t catch anything.’

Hayes-Hall told police he used dating apps Grindr and Kik Messenger to meet men aged 16-25 (Picture: Getty)

In interview he told police he was bisexual and used digital communication to meet up with ‘fit men’ aged 16 to 25 using apps like Grindr and Kik Messenger.

He told police there had been a suggestion he met the ‘boy’ during half-term but had ‘bottled it because he knew it was wrong’.

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He had no previous convictions and had previously been a man of good character, the court heard.

Mark Sheward, defending, said Hayes-Hall had ‘struggled for some years with his sexuality’.

He said the former boarding school pupil and university graduate was qualified as a dental surgeon, had worked as a lecturer and was ‘highly regarded in his field’.

He added that Hayes-Hall had been faithful to his wife but some years ago his confusion about his sexuality returned.

Hayes-Hall began to use adult pornographic sites before he progressed to more extreme sites having become more desensitised and detached from what he was doing.

Mr Sheward added: ‘He knew the way he had been behaving had been wrong.



‘He didn’t know how to stop.

‘When he was arrested it came as a relief.’

Hayes-Hall must take part in a sex offender’s programme called Horizon for two years and complete 20 rehabilitation activity days.

He must also sign the sex offender’s register for 10 years and will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.