Richard Bull 62

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A paedophile from Nottingham exchanged sexual messages with a 12-year-old girl “because he was sitting at home bored”. Pervert Richard Bull asked the girl for photos of her breasts.

But ‘Dani’ was really an undercover police officer posing as a young girl to snare like-minded sex offenders like the Bestwood 62-year-old. Jailing him for three years and four months, Judge James Sampson said: “You thought you were talking to a real 12-year-old and you were trying to get that child to engage in abusive, sexual, activity.

“In the event, there was no child because this was a police officer posing as a child decoy. The custody threshold has been crossed by some margin and I have no option other than to send you to prison.”

Stephen Kemp, prosecuting, said an undercover police officer created a fake profile for a 12-year-old girl called Dani and began posting on a social media site. He said Bull began talking to her online on July 4, last year, and their conversations soon moved to WhatsApp.

The prosecutor said: “Over a period of time, Mr Bull was asking for photos of her in her underwear and photos of her breasts." The prosecutor said Bull also asked the 'teen' if he could be her "virtual boyfriend".

"He sent her an image of himself, but it is right to say it was not a sexual image," said Mr Kemp. Mr Kemp said the communication stopped on July 20, last year and Bull, of The Mount, was arrested on July 27.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to cause or incite a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and attempting to engage a child under 13 to engage in sexual communication. He has two previous convictions for unrelated offences from many years ago which the judge discounted when he sentenced him.

Mark Hemmings, mitigating, said the fact that ‘Dani’ was an undercover police officer meant that there was no actual victim and that his client had pleaded guilty to the two offences. He said: “He is 62, nearly 63 and he is not in good health.

“He has been out of work through sickness for a considerable time and Mr Bull says these offences began because he was sitting at home bored and got into this wrong element of behaviour.”

As well as the jail sentence, Judge Sampson handed the defendant a lifetime sexual harm prevention order and placed him on the sex offender register, also for life.