A PERVERT who sent vile, sexually explicit messages to a ‘teenage’ girl was caught out by a team of paedophile hunters.

David Standley befriended the ‘14-year-old girl’ online and started bombarding her with compliments before the messages became increasingly sexually motivated over a nine-month period.

The 27-year-old was arrested when paedophile hunter group, the Angels of Innocence, handed over the information to police, including messages where the defendant asked for naked pictures of the decoy.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Standley called the girl ‘stunning and beautiful’ before asking her to perform a sex act on herself and sent her a picture of his genitals.

The decoy asked Standley why he didn’t have a profile picture of himself on the social media platform he replied - ‘because I’m an ugly ***’.

The Northern Echo: David StandleyDavid Standley

Emma Atkinson, prosecuting, said: “He asked how old she was and she replied 14 and he said he was 20, asking if that would be too old for her.

“He asked her if she had a boyfriend and if she was a virgin. Being reminded that the decoy was 14and didn’t want to get into trouble, he said he was 13 when he lost his virginity.

“He went on to tell her how good sex felt.”

The messages then became increasingly sexualised following the initial contact in April 2019 and by January 2020 he was asking to meet up with the girl for sex before sending her a picture of the beach where his home overlooked – later identified as the defendant’s Redcar home.

Miss Atkinson said Standley had admitted with possession of a bladed article and a public order offence following an altercation in Redcar on New Year’s Eve 2000 – while he was on bail for the sex offence.

Standley, of Station Road, Redcar, pleaded guilty to attempting to incite a child into sexual activity.

Robert Mochrie, in mitigation, urged the judge to pass a sentence to reflect the case that his client had not been in contact with an actual teenager but an adult decoy.

Judge Howard Crowson jailed Standley for a total of three years and two months – two years for the sex offence and 14 months for possession of a knife.

He said: “You believed she was 14, you were at the time 26, a significant age difference but you were lying about your age to give her a false impression in a bid to sound more attractive to her."

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