Description
A married father-of-one was snared by 'paedophile hunters' after attempting to meet a 13-year-old girl - while his daughter and wife were in a hospital just minutes away.
Brian Turnbull was confronted by members of the online vigilante group Dark Justice, after travelling from Cumbria to Newcastle to meet the underage girl.
Turnbull and his wife had made the 80-mile drive with their daughter for an appointment at the skin graft clinic at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary.
But as the women waited in the hospital he went to the nearby Exhibition Park to meet the underage girl for 'kissing and cuddling'.
The 60-year-old, who described his wife as 'the worst luck', had been chatting to the fake girl on the dating app Whatsapp - telling her she was gorgeous and sending explicit pictures of himself.
He also told the decoy girl his wife was 'a pain in the a**e.
'Winging n wining all the time.' (SIC) But after being accosted by Dark Justice, he told them he 'wouldn't have classed his behaviour as sexual grooming' and said that it was 'just a laugh'.
He was arrested and admitted inciting a child in sexual activity.
A member of Dark Justice said: 'This was a weird case in total. He was coming to Newcastle with his wife and daughter so she could go to the skin graft clinic at the RVI.
'While she was in there he wanted to meet this child. It baffles your mind, the lengths these people will go to to groom children.
'He was arrested within 10 minutes of the mother and daughter going for their treatment.
'I think afterwards they went back to Cumbria and just left him here.
'He said that he was getting a divorce and that his wife would leave him after this.
'He is one of the older ones we have caught.'
At Carlisle Crown Court, Turnbull, of Aspatria, Wigton, was sentenced to six months imprisonment suspended for two years.
He was also ordered to complete a 30 day rehabilitation requirement and must sign the sex offenders register for seven years