Description
Connor Dorritt, 22, from Gateshead, has been jailed for two years and eight months after attempting to meet what he believed was a 12-year-old girl for sex at Newcastle Central Station.
Instead, he was confronted by a vigilante group who had set up a decoy profile to catch online child abusers.
Dorritt admitted attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity and possessing indecent images of children.
He contacted the profile on December 21, 2023, with the message "hey baby, how are you doing," prosecutor David Povall said. Over several weeks of daily chats, he was repeatedly told she was 12.
Dorritt suggested she visit his home to "hug" and "play games" involving a blindfold, offering up to £50 for her pictures. He then discussed sexual acts, offering money in exchange, and said she could use the cash for her train ticket.
"He encouraged her to keep this secret," Povall said, adding "she must not tell anybody" or he "could be arrested 'because of the age'".
On February 29, 2024, Dorritt arrived at a station coffee shop expecting to meet her but was met by the group. "This was a concerted effort to meet a 12-year-old child for the purposes of [sex]," Povall said.
Police arrested him and found four indecent videos of children aged 10-13 on his phone, totaling 16 minutes—one in the most serious category, three in the second.
Recorder Paul Reid described Dorritt's two-month messages as "deeply sexualised," noting the paedophile "acknowledged her extreme youth" and referred to it "many times." "It is quite clear you had sexual interest in very young children," the judge said, adding Dorritt went to the station to "perform unspeakable sexual acts upon" a 12-year-old.
Dorritt must sign the sex offender register and comply with an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.