A builder has been jailed for eight years after the 12-year-old girl he groomed then arranged to meet in Brighton turned out to be an adult man who filmed the rendezvous.
Danny Watson, 37, had been convicted for possessing indecent images of children less than a year before he arranged to meet the online contact he believed to be a young girl in a Brighton street.
But Watson, of Crowborough, was surprised to meet the online paedophile hunter instead – along with police officers who promptly arrested him.
Watson pleaded not guilty to arranging to meet a child aged under 16 following grooming, two counts of possession of cannabis and cocaine, and possession with intent to supply cannabis but was found guilty after a trial at Hove Crown Court on Friday.
Watson was already serving a suspended sentence, having been convicted in October the previous year to possession of indecent images of children at his address. He had been sentenced to three months imprisonment suspended for 12 months, and was also a registered sex offender for seven years.
He is now a registered sex offender for life and was also given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) to last until further court order, severely restricting his access to children and computers until further court order.
He was also banned for life from any work with children and young people.
Detective Constable Steve Smith said; “Watson was already a convicted sex offender less than a year previously, but clearly decided to take a chance at further offending.”
