Description
A teenager pestered underage girls to send him naked pictures.
Joe Law, now 22, sent vile messages to eight Facebook profiles purporting to belong to young girls in 2018 and 2019.
But at least five of the girls were actually members of so-called paedophile hunter groups, posing as girls aged 12 to 14 in an effort to catch would-be abusers.
Oxford Crown Court heard that Law sent repeated requests for the girls to send him pictures of their bodies despite being told they were as young as 12.
When one of the youngsters told him she was at school, he wrote back: Well, go to the toilet, then. You wont get into trouble by doing that. Or do it after school when youre in your bedroom.
Another girl, who was asked for sexy pics of herself, was instructed not to tell anybody about their conversations and ordered to delete their Facebook Messenger conversations.
On April 5, 2019, members of group Catching Online Predators or COP staged a sting, going to Laws home in Banbury. He wasnt in, with his mum calling police to report there were people outside her property taking pictures and asking to speak to her son.
Law was later reported missing. Two days later he called West Mercia Police to say that hed seen the appeal and reassuring them that he was safe. He met officers in Hereford and was arrested in connection with the illegal chats.
The conversations with at least one decoy Facebook profile continued after his arrest. Asked by the girl why he got into trouble, he told her that there were individuals trying to make me go to prison and that hed been warned not to talk about it.
Despite the warning shot across his bows, he asked the girl during a game of truth or dare in their Facebook Messenger conversation to send him a picture of her body and boasted of being 6ft 7ins tall.
Messages found on his phone after his arrest pointed to him speaking to another four girls aged between 11 and 14 in addition to the four girls linked to differed vigilante group.
He was interviewed by the police and claimed not to remember the Facebook interactions, telling detectives hed been in a bad way at the time. Its all on my phone so I cant deny anything, he said.
Law, of Artizan Road, Northampton, pleaded guilty at the magistrates court to attempting to cause a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and attempted sexual communication with a child.
He was given a three year community order, a sexual harm prevention order until further notice and must sign on as a sex offender for five years.