A pervert was caught by paedophile hunters after sending sexual chats to two decoys he believed were underage girls.
Joshua Allott began speaking to what he believed were two 12 and 14-year-old girls on a chat app, and sent naked pictures of himself and highly explicit messages. But the 30-year-old dad-of-two was actually speaking to adult decoys who had created the fake profiles in order to capture perverts.
Allott, of Burman Road, Wath Upon Dearne, Rotherham, was arrested after he was confronted by volunteers from The Child Online Safety Team at a Travelodge, in Cobalt Business Park, near the Silverlink. The confrontation was filmed and later circulated on social media.
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Allott appeared at Newcastle Crown Court on Wednesday to be sentenced for two counts of an adult attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child. He had pleaded guilty to the offences, which happened on dates in February this year.
The court was told that a voluntary group, which aims to capture sexual predators, created a profile on the RandoChat app. Omar Ahmad, prosecuting, said: "The defendant contacted the profile on the app and almost immediately sent a picture of himself naked. He was told [by the decoy] she was 14 and was not sure she should be looking at those pictures. He then sent another picture of him naked on a bed and continued to send sexual messages."
Mr Ahmad said the conversations then moved over to WhatsApp and Allott asked to meet her, and suggested he could pick her up. However, a meeting never took place after he said he had fallen asleep but later sent her another explicit picture of himself.
The court heard that another volunteer, this time from The Child Online Safety Team, had also set up a fake profile on RandoChat of a girl purporting to be 12 years old. Mr Ahmad said Allott also sent her a sexual message and asked for pictures in return.
Allott was finally arrested at a Travelodge, in Cobalt Business Park after members of The Child Online Safety Team confronted and filmed him. Mr Ahmad said that when the video of the confrontation was circulated on Facebook, the other decoy saw it and contacted the police regarding the messages he had sent them.
Penny Hall, defending Allott, who had two previous convictions for dissimilar matters, said he pleaded guilty at the first opportunity. She said: "While using drugs and alcohol he chatted to people on the app which was for people aged 18 and over. The app randomly pairs the user with someone to chat to." Ms Hall added that Allott was a dad-of-two daughters.
Sentencing him, Judge Amanda Rippon, said the offences that Allott was to be sentenced for were "revolting". She handed him a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for two years and ordered him to complete up to 30 rehabilitation days and 150 hours unpaid work. He will be on the sex offenders' register for 10 years and a 10-year sexual harm prevention order was also imposed.
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