Description
A shamed Birmingham soldier who planned to meet an underage girl for sex has been jailed for two years after he was caught by a self-styled paedophile hater.
Craftsman Sam Dallow, 25, thought he was sending explicit messages to a girl of 14.
But, after a meeting was arranged, he was confronted in a railway station car park by campaigner Shane Brannigan.
The footage was broadcast online and details of the messages were handed to police.
Dallow, of 6th Battalion The Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, was jailed for two years and placed on the sex offenders register for ten years at Winchester Crown Court on Thursday.
He had previously admitted attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.
Sentencing Dallow, the judge said although he had only been communicating with a persona, his conduct had been persistent and demonstrated a reckless, predatory behaviour towards children.
He was snared by Mr Brannigan, who runs a Facebook page called Shaneannigans Nonce Haters Association, and his team at an arranged meet-up location at Andover railway station in Hampshire on April 11.
Video of the encounter showed Dallow being confronted in a car and claiming he was waiting for a friend called Emma.
He gave his name as Sam and confirmed he was from Birmingham.
Dallow was then shown an image and admitted sending it was a mistake, before more exchanges were read to him and a police officer arrived at the scene.
After the sentencing hearing, childrens charity the NSPCC branded him disgusting and called on social media firms to work harder to make accounts safer for children.
A spokesman said: Although the target of his disgusting advances was fictitious, Dallows grooming behaviour is a stark reminder of the risks children and young people face online.
Parents and carers have a key role to play and must talk to their children about online safety.
The NSPCCs Net Aware website offers tips on how to start these conversations and offers a simple guide to the most popular social networks, apps and games.
Meanwhile social media platforms can do more to protect children by making sure they provide safer accounts which offer default privacy settings and mechanisms to guard against grooming.
The Army said previously it would consider what action to take against Dallow after sentencing.