Blyth pervert who tried to have sex chat with schoolgirl caught by vigilantes

A pervert who tried to have sex chat with a schoolgirl was caught by vigilantes.

David Morgan made contact with a decoy profile which was a woman pretending to be a 14-year-old girl called Lily. She told him she was 14 and the chat moved to WhatsApp during a single day of exchanges.

When told she lived in Norwich, he said he could travel if she wanted to meet before asking if she'd had sex before. When she replied that she needed to be 16 to have sex, he said he did so when he was 12.

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Newcastle Crown Court heard he said he would be gentle with her and "make it really special" and went on to send pictures of himself, including of him naked in bed with bed clothes over his private parts.

Morgan asked for naked images of the girl, said he was committing a sex act and encouraged her to do the same and asked her to have a video call with him. A video call did take place, during which he was carrying out a sex act. The following day the decoy tried to contact him again but he had blocked her.

His details were passed to a vigilante group in the North East and they confronted him at his then-home in Blyth.

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Morgan, who has previous convictions from when he was a youth for indecent exposure and indecent assault, admitted attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity.

Morgan, who had been remanded in custody since April, was sentenced to two years suspended for two years with 200 hours unpaid work and a community order. He will be on the sex offenders register and be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for ten years.

Lorraine Mustard, defending, said: "The offences came about as a result of a week-long binge of drinking and taking drugs. He doesn't suggest that is an excuse but it is the background against which he didn't employ proper self-control.

"The communication took place over a single day. He has been remanded in custody since April."