A man who posed as an 18-year-old to attempt to meet up with 13-year-old girl has been jailed for two years and three months.
Ronald Young, 63, was tricked by paedophile hunting group Dark Justice into thinking he was communicating with a 13-year-old girl.
Young, from Montrose, Scotland, travelled over 200 miles to meet the girl after sending a number of disgusting messages to her, in which he said he wanted the girl to meet his friends while wearing a 'short skirt'.
Credit: North News
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Credit: North News
Speaking at Newcastle Crown Court, Prosecutor Jonathan Devlin said: "He was on a chat site. Dark Justice made it clear almost immediately he was speaking to a 13-year-old-girl.
"The defendant said he was 18, then later changed to 28. The defendant is, in fact, 63. He said he wanted her to meet his five friends and spoke of masturbating his dog."
Credit: North News
Credit: North News
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Young has previously been convicted of possessing indecent images in 2013 and given a community order, which included a sex offender programme he had to take part in. Here he is getting caught.
Credit: North News
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Previously, he was given a suspended sentence in 2014 after he arranged to meet an underage girl at Waterloo. As part of this sentence he was also required to undergo an additional sex offenders programme and handed a sexual harm prevention order.
In court last week, Young admitted that he attempted to meet a child following sexual grooming and that he was in breach of his sexual harm prevention order.
The court heard that he remains a "high-risk of sexual reconviction" and he was handed two years and three months.
The judge said: You clearly thought she was a 13-year-old female.
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"You spoke about what you were going to do when you met with her. You were grooming her. You planned to carry out sexual acts on meeting her.
"The sexual offenders programme has not helped you resist this sort of behaviour. The sexual harm prevention order has not stopped you talking in the way described."
What is Dark Justice?
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Dark Justice is a two-man group based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The anonymous pair joined forces in 2014 and aim to catch online predators by posing as children online.
They never contact people first, instead, setting up a profile and waiting for people to get in touch. On their website they write: "When talking to anyone, we always try to avoid sexually explicit conversation. We act young and uneducated on the subject, and we NEVER encourage sexual chat or sexual behaviour.
Credit: Facebook/Dark Justice
"The people we talk to suggest a meeting, and at this point we take over and suggest a place where we know we can control what's going on, and where we'll be safe."
If the person arrives at the pre-arranged time and place they ring the police, report the crime, hand over any evidence and give statements.
If the person doesn't turn up, the team will still hand over the evidence to the cops. So far they have been responsible for 72 arrests and 42 convictions.
They have a huge following on social media, where they will
post footage of people who they have caught trying to meet a child.