A mum pretended to be her 13-year-old daughter online to catch a suspected paedophile who had been messaging her.
Kelly Carberry, 34, was horrified when she checked her daughter, Chloe-Marie's Facebook account and saw messages from an adult male.
Logging on to the teen's account, one of the first messages she saw said: "Do you promise to keep your mouth closed about what is said on here, staying in here only and you cannot tell anyone else, OK?"
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Instantly suspicious, Kelly replied, pretending to be Chloe-Marie.
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Kelly, from Preston, said: "I couldn't believe it. This morning I thought I'd check her Facebook profile and four messages appeared from this weird person.
"I just started replying to him, pretending to be her. He said: 'Are you on your own?' and 'Go in the room and shut your door'. After a bit, I just told him I was her mum and said, 'What are you doing?'
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"He's deleted two of his accounts but I think he had at least three originally. I want to warn other children and their parents about this man."
Kelly quickly began to warn people about the man on Facebook, and it wasn't long before other parents got in touch and said they had found similar messages to their children from the same account.
After a bit of detective work, Kelly thinks she knows who is behind the messages now.
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Kelly said: "After I posted the warning, other mothers have got in contact with the messages he has sent their daughters.
"I'm going to have to keep everything checked on social media from now on. It's just what I have got to do as a parent to make sure they're safe, but it's a difficult thing when she's 13.
"With the comments I've received since posting online, I'd say he could have been talking to at least 100 children."
Some of the messages to other young girls included the man asking to be called 'master' and asking: "Who is a bad girl?"
Kelly has since gone to the police with the messages, after believing she has identified the man.
A spokesperson from Lancashire Police said: "We can confirm that a report has been made and we are investigating it."
Sources: Daily Mail
Topics: Paedophile, Internet, Motherhood