Locations
Wrexham Close, Callands, Warrington, Cheshire, WA5
Description
A PERVERT has been put behind bars for his vile chats with someone he believed to be a young teenager.
Daniel Kelly engaged in sexual discussions with someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl and encouraged her to send raunchy photos.
But the 36-year-old was in fact talking to an adult member of a paedophile hunter group, with members confronting him in public.
The defendant was later charged with attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child and two counts of attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity.
He appeared before Liverpool Crown Court to be sentenced, with the court hearing how the discussions took place in June last year.
Kelly, as an adult, intentionally attempted to communicate with someone he did not reasonably believe to be 16 or over for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification.
He thought he was speaking with a 13-year-old girl, but it was actually an adult member of a paedophile hunter group seeking to root out offenders using the internet to satisfy their sexual interest in children.
During the online chats, he requested nude photographs from the child, referred to her as being sexy and sent her a photograph of himself in his underwear.
The defendant was confronted by members of the Saving Our Children Online paedophile hunter group at Patten Arms Hotel.
They discussed his online activity with him before Cheshire Police arrived and officers put him into the back of a police car.
Kelly, of Wrexham Close in Callands, was sentenced by recorder David Knifton to 30 months immediate imprisonment.
He was also issued with a sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offender register both for a period of 10 years.