Online "predator" jailed after trying to arrange meeting at a South Yorkshire bus station

Sheffield Crown Court heard how Mark Hargreaves, aged 34, contacted and communicated sexually with whom he thought was a 14-year-old.

But he was actually communicating with a fake profile run by members of the public to snare paedophiles.

Nicola Quinney, prosecuting, said Hargreaves told the profile she was the kind of girl he would like to have sex with when she was older and he would teach her. He also sent a picture of a penis purporting to be his.

Ms Quinney said Hargreaves arranged for them to meet at Barnsley bus station but when he failed to turn up the group behind the fake profile visited his home and alerted the police.

Judge Peter Kelson QC told Hargreaves: “Against that background, you as a predator – prowling the internet looking for underage girls - found her and you quickly turned conversational matters sexual.”

Hargreaves, of Emblem Terrace, Wakefield, who has no previous convictions, admitted attempting to communicate sexually with a child between September 2019 and February 2020.

Richard Canning, defending, urged Judge Kelson to consider a rehabilitative sentence.

He said: “This was a wake-up call for him and he has turned his life around and made some very positive steps and I ask your honour to allow him to continue down the right path.”

But Judge Kelson said a suspended prison sentence is not appropriate when an adult is “prowling” the internet looking for innocent children and he sentenced Hargreaves to 12 months of custody.