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Sheffield Crown Court heard on July 3 how John Sanders, aged 69, of Thorncliffe Way, Tankersley, Barnsley, started chatting online in 2018 with a member of the paedophile hunter group The Forbidden who was posing as a 13-year-old girl.

Sanders and the contact swapped to Whats App, according to prosecuting barrister Gordon Stables, and the defendant’s conversations became sexual asking her to masturbate and whether she had pubic hair, and he told her he was masturbating.

Ian Brook, defending, said: “He retired in 2016. He found himself alone in the house while his wife was still working. He had his first computer access to the internet and he found himself exploring the worldwide web and he came across pornography which led to indecent images and so-on and so-forth.”

A pervert has been given a suspended prison sentence at Sheffield Crown Court, pictured, after he was trapped by a paedophile hunter group and caught with indecent images of children and extreme pornography.

Mr Brook added: “He developed a preoccupation with sexual thoughts and fantasies and his behaviour became a habit lasting several months and he seems to have become somewhat addicted to that behaviour and this led him to chat rooms.”

Sanders agreed to meet the contact twice but the group cancelled, according to Mr Stables, but in July, 2018, they arranged to meet in Chesterfield town centre and Sanders said he wanted the contact to perform oral sex but police were called and he was arrested.

Mr Stables added Sanders told police he had not been going to do anything.

Police seized Sanders’s phone and two laptops and category A, B and C indecent images of children were found – with category A being the most serious – and officers also discovered extreme pornography.

Sanders pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a child after sexual grooming, to making class A, B and C indecent images and to possessing extreme pornography.

Mr Brook, defending, said: “He was wrapped-up in an internet-fuelled fantasy.”

He added Sanders’s age would make him vulnerable to Covid-19 if he was given a custodial sentence.

Judge Sarah Wright sentenced Sanders to 23-months of custody suspended for two years with a rehabilitation requirement.

Sanders was placed under a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and made subject to the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.

Elderly South Yorkshire pervert snared by paedophile hunters after he became "wrapped-up in an internet-fuelled fantasy"