South Yorkshire pervert caged after he was snared by a paedophile hunter group

Sheffield Crown Court heard on March 4 how Mark Colton, aged 47, of Burns Road, Herringthorpe, Rotherham, was twice snared by a paedophile hunter group after members posed online with two bogus, decoy profiles claiming to be 13-year-old and 14-year-old girls.

Nicola Quinney said Colton had conversations of a sexual nature with the decoy who was claiming to be 13-years-old and he sent her a picture of his genitals and discussed meeting at a McDonald’s restaurant and in Chesterfield.

Ms Quinney added Colton also sent naked pictures of himself and a pornographic video to the second decoy profile who claimed to be a 14-year-old girl.

Judge Peter Kelson QC told Colton: “You thought you were communicating with children when you embarked upon your disgusting conversation.”

Colton arranged to meet the second decoy but when he turned up he was arrested and police later seized two mobile phones which had evidence of indecent images of youngsters including images of category A, B and C with A being the most serious.

The defendant, who has previous convictions for dangerous driving and drug offending, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act from December, 2018, and to possessing or making indecent images of children.

Colton also admitted distributing indecent images of children after evidence from one of his phones showed he had sent images to two people in 2015.

Christopher Brewin, defending, said Colton has suffered with depression and has had a heroin addiction.

Judge Kelson told Colton: “You had images on your phone and you shared images of children with other like-minded perverts.

“This sort of disgusting trade must be stopped in order to try and protect the children.”

Judge Kelson sentenced Colton to two years of custody and made him subject to a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order which will run alongside the defendant’s notification requirements on the Sex Offenders Register.

Concerning the images, Judge Kelson told Colton: “The feature of these cases - that we must never lose sight of - is that they are not victimless crimes.

“The images you were looking at and you were sharing are pictures of children who were abused.”