A 58-YEAR-OLD man messaged what he thought was a 14-year-old girl asking for pictures of her and suggesting he wanted to have sex with her.

Brian Andrew Matthews believed he was interacting with a child but he was in fact speaking to a vigilante who set up the Facebook account to trap offenders.

The account was set up in the name of Dani, who was said to be a 14-year-old girl from Derby.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard Matthews sent Dani a friend request before going onto engage in extensive messaging.

He pleaded guilty to a single charge of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

Judge Brian Forster QC told the defendant: “You were dealing with someone who you thought was 14 years of age. The fact that the person was a decoy and was trying to trap people illegally using the internet does not mitigate the offence.

“You thought you were dealing with a 14-year-old and the characteristics of the offence are serious in themselves because you were asking the person whether they had touched their private parts, you were asking for pictures, you were also suggesting that you would like to have sexual intercourse with that person.”

Prosecuting, Alec Williams said Matthews sent the friend request to Dani on April last year Mr Williams said the vigilante running the account of the girl made it clear throughout that she was a 14-year-old.

The court heard the messaging quickly went from “hello, where are you from” to sexual communication.

On May 4, 2021, the defendant said in general terms he wanted to meet up with her sometime in the summer for a swim. At that point the communication concluded and the matter was alerted to police.

Kevin Hill, mitigating, said Matthews came to court “extremely anxious” about the prospect of going to prison.

The judge said the defendant had not appeared to understand how serious the courts took offending of this type, but Mr Hill said he “certainly realises now that the courts take these matters very seriously”.

The barrister said his client was not currently working because of ill health.

Matthews, of Green Close, Sturminster Newton, recognised his wrong doing when he spoke with the probation service, the court heard.

Judge Forster QC said: “Any parent would be shocked to read that you were acting in this way.

“People, in particular parents, are entitled to allow their children to use the internet and you people using the internet should not be at risk from people like you and it is because of that that courts take such a serious view of this type of offending.

“The offence took place when you were clearly at a low ebb yourself, deal with a number of matters, including your health and probably consuming too much alcohol.”

Judge Forster QC said the offence crossed the custody threshold but he decided to impose a three-year community order so the probation service could work on rehabilitating the offender over this longer period.

A suspended sentence could only provide requirements for a maximum of two years.

The community order included a requirement to complete 50 rehabilitation activity days.

Matthews was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order and placed on the sex offenders register for five years.