A MARRIED man who groomed who he thought was a 13-year-old girl with a view to engaging in sexual activity was caught out when he went to meet “a swinger.”

Unknown to John Redmond, the girl was actually a decoy whose profile a paedophile hunting group had put online - as was the swinger.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the group put a fake profile for “Hannah” on a dating app site and Redmond contacted her.

In online conversations she told him she was 13 and he gave her his true age at the time, which was 48, and they swapped various messages relating to various subjects such as asking her about her pets and her mum.

“Some grooming took place and in one of the messages he told her she would need to be careful on the internet because there were paedophiles about on there,” said Derek Jones, prosecuting.

In one conversation she said she was going for a shower and he responded by saying, “I’ll try not to imagine you getting showered.”

Mr Jones said Redmond started talking to her about his own sex life and was talking about swinging and having other partners.

“At one point he said they would meet when she was 16 and said if he touched her before he would go to prison.”

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There were “a couple of messages more sexualised” and he sent her an indecent picture and asked her to share one.

When she declined he said, “It’s fine, it’s up to you who you share photographs with.”

He made other sexual remarks.

Their conversations spanned a month before “he was outed by the group who posted the false name of an adult female swinger. He arranged to meet this female and actually told Hannah about meeting up with her (the woman) and having sex.”

He attended as arranged at a park in Clock Face, St Helens and was detained by members of the group and he remained until the police arrived.

Redmond, now 50, who made no comment when interviewed, has no previous convictions.

The defendant, of Weymouth Avenue, Parr, pleaded guilty to attempting to incite a girl to engage in sexual activity and attempted sexual communication with a child between May 9 and June 6, 2020.

Judge Stuart Driver, QC, sentenced him to two years imprisonment suspended for 18 months and ordered him to carry out 20 days rehabilitation activities.

He ordered him to sign the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for the same length of time.

He said that he took into account his good character and his willingness to work with the probation service. He had accepted the decoy’s refusal to send a photo and there had only been one conversation about penetrative sex.

Michael Bagley, defending, said that Redmond had shown “a high degree of candour” with the probation service.

“The kind of behaviour he believed he was engaging in is reprehensible and he accepts that. Society needs to know that this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated and will be punished."

But he urged the judge to suspend any prison sentence as this would benefit Redmond and society. He had been under domestic stress at the time including his wife suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome.

Mr Bagley said that Redmond “accepted a degree of sexual arousal arising out of his behaviour”.

If he was jailed his wife and daughter would lose their home and as the offences carry “enormous social stigma his life is unlikely to be the same.

“Losing his good name is a punishment and by unpaid work he would be putting something back into society,” added Mr Bagley.