Delivery driver caught by paedophile hunters after trying to communicate with school girl on Facebook

Michael Evans, 50, was caught by a decoy posing as a 13 year old girl, Teesside Crown Court was told.

He asked her if she had been taught about sex at school, said prosecutor Emma Atkinson.

She said that Evans admitted in the chat sessions in February that he was older than the youngster who claimed to be from Leeds.

He asked her to meet him, and she sent him a photograph which led to him commenting about her breasts.

Miss Atkinson said that the girl repeatedly told Evans that she was only 13, and he said that he would love to have her as a girlfriend if she were his age.

Christine Egerton, defending, said that he did not make many arrangement to meet her. But the vigilantes sprang a trap for him on February 26.

Miss Egerton added: “There was a sting operation which took place on Stockton High Street.

”He did not think he was meeting a child, it was an adult.

”He was ashamed and embarrassed for what he had done.”

Evans, of Wolviston Road, Billingham, was sentenced to a two-year community order with 25 days rehabititation activities and placed on a sexual offender’s scheme after he pleaded guilty to attempting to communicate with a child.

He was also given a five year Sexual Harm Prevention Order restricting his contact with children, and ordered to register as a sex offender for five years.