Description
A former car trader from Torquay has been jailed after being caught by vigilantes trying to meet a 'nine-year-old girl' for sex.
Richard Giles, 24, fell for an online sting by self-styled paedophile hunters, Exeter Crown Court was told.
The girl he thought he had groomed online was actually a decoy created by an adult on behalf of UK Database and did not exist.
Davis was confronted by members of the group after trying to lure the girl to his house.
He claimed he only wanted to play Monopoly with her.
Giles admitted that on December 23 last year he communicated on more than one occasion with who he believed to be a nine-year-old girl and attempted to meet her for sexual activity.
Prosecutor Gordon Richings said the defendant struck up a conversation online with the decoy who told him at the outset that she was just nine years old.
Within a day the conversations turned sexual said the prosecutor.
The defendant referred in explicit sexual terms to the girls body and sent her a photo of a BMW he said he owned.
The defendant suggested the girl meet him at his home address on December 23. He was confronted at the scene by members of the vigilante group.
The group filmed him making confessions and police arrived to arrest him, said the prosecutor.
Police said they found a pair of childs knickers at his address. Giles said they belonged to an adult ex-girlfriend. He said he was not sexually attracted to children and preferred older woman.
Mr Llewellyn Sellick, defending, said Giles had been married before to an older woman and divorced at the age of 19.
At the time of the offence he had been drinking heavily and looking after his blind father.
He had previously had a business trading in cars and had been studying in prison to get better qualifications.
Judge Geoffrey Mercer QC told him: You went to considerable lengths to engage in online conversation with a girl who you thought was nine years old. The conversation turned to a clear sexual element. You had a clear sexual interest in her, although you were told she was nine years old.
You arranged to meet her believing her to be a nine-year-old girl but you undoubtedly believed that she was. You went to meet her and your intentions in meeting her were clearly sexual. You were not concerned, as you suggested, to play Monopoly.
The judge said in some cases it was possible to suspend the sentence but not in this instance.
He was jailed for 18 months.
Giles was told to sign the Sex Offender Register and made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years.