Giles Cockett

Giles Cockett is a 34 year old male who was stung by Soul Survivors in 2018, acting on behalf of the Templar Knights. At the time of the sting, Cockett was 32 years old and he volunteered in a local book shop. He is described as living independently and as a regular church-goer.

Sting
Cockett was approached by Soul Survivors in the Crewe area of the UK, in a sting operation concerning his inappropriate online activity. Cockett claimed he was a moderator on the online forum "Virtual Teen" which is designed for use by pre-teens and adolescents to communicate with each other and offer advice, and that he used this website to direct teens to more appropriate websites.

However, during the sting it emerges that he had been speaking to multiple underage decoy accounts in a sexually explicit manner, with Cockett having sent indecent images of his penis to a decoy account representing what he believed to be a 14-year old virgin girl, instructing her and another decoy account representing her "friend" on how to masturbate using their vulva (or "foof" as the decoy referred to it) and telling her that he wanted to engage in a sexual relationship with her. Additionally, Cockett sent the same underage decoy a "survey" from one to twelve for the girl to describe the size of her breasts on a numbered scale, as well as quizzing the decoy on the colour of her pubic hair.

Early during the sting video Cockett declares he has Asperger's syndrome, and he displays various levels of distress due to this condition, claiming that it means he finds it difficult to understand age differences of girls online, and that he believed the profiles he had been speaking to were 18 years of age. However, he states that he understands the age of consent in the UK is 16 years old; it then emerges from chat logs with the 14 year old decoy that he knew what he was doing was wrong, in that he asked the decoy to delete the chat history as he didn't want to get caught by the police, and the decoy had informed him of her age on multiple occasions, to which he responded that he knew she was 14 and that he was OK with it.

He attributes loneliness as a motive for his actions, stating that he talks to anyone who shows him friendliness and approval irrespective of their age, additionally stating his belief that the state "puts everyone together regardless of age", and that in the "Asperger's world", there is no age difference as people of all ages attend autistic events and the local disco.

Sentencing
On 5 June 2018, Soul Survivors revealed that Cockett had been arrested and charged with three counts of engaging in sexual communications and activity with minors. He later plead guilty to these charges at Chester Crown Court, where it was heard that he had been speaking to at least seven underage girls online. Cockett was spared a custodial sentence and was instead sentenced to a three-year community order. Additionally, he was ordered to register as a sex offender for five years, and he was made subject to a three-year sexual harm prevention order which will prohibit him from using any form of device capable of accessing the internet, and it will order him to participate in an accredited sex offenders treatment programme.

Aftermath
The sting video involving Cockett has since become a viral hit across multiple social media networks, most notably Twitter, with several snippets of the sting and phrases used by Cockett being widely shared and mocked across these platforms. The sting video on YouTube has amassed over 400,000 views as of late 2019. This follows in a similar vein to other similar pedophile sting videos gaining viral traction in 2019. Some viewers expressed concern over the sting video, surrounding Cockett's vulnerability as an adult with Asperger's syndrome.

A separate Facebook video has also since emerged of Cockett being confronted by a member of the public in the Caernarfon area of Wales.