A pervert who tried to have sex chats with girls aged 12 and 13 has walked free from court.
Peter De Hart thought he was communicating with children but he was actually messaging three undercover police officers working for Northumbria Police's Paedophile Online Investigation Team, who had set up decoy profiles pretending to be young girls.
Newcastle Crown Court heard the first profile, purporting to be a 12-year-old girl, was contacted on a website called Chatiw in April last year. Omar Ahmad, prosecuting, said: "The defendant engaged first and asked if she liked older men. She immediately told him she was 12. This didn't perturb him."
