Hartlepool man spared jail after being caught by internet paedophile vigilantes

Craig Peloe from Hartlepool was 36 when he engaged in sexually explicit talk with the girl in an online dating site that was actually a decoy created by a paedophile vigilante group called Incognito.

He began speaking to the decoy on the messaging app WhatsApp.

Teesside Crown Court heard the ‘girl’ repeatedly said she was 12.

Robin Turton, prosecuting, said: “The defendant initially claims he’s 17. Despite the decoy’s age having been given as 12 the conversation soon moves on to sexual matters.

"He describes variously what he would like to do with [the decoy].”

Peloe later claimed he had tried to take his own life and offered to break off contact because of his age admitting he was 36.

But the prosecution said he was manipulating the decoy as police discovered ‘strikingly similar’ talk on WhatsApp with an apparent 13-year-old girl on his mobile phone.

Peloe, now 38, returned to sexual talk soon after with the decoy and encouraged her to commit a sex act.

He was arrested on April 20 and later pleaded guilty to attempting to cause or incite a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity.

Barrister Matthew Collins, defending, said in mitigation that Peloe had a very traumatic background beginning with the loss of his family in a fire when he was very young.

Mr Collins said Peloe, of Chesterton Road, continues to be affected with self-esteem and mental health issues today and the prospect of going to prison was terrifying to him.

He said: “All the experts agree, custody would bring about a serious risk of suicide.

"This defendant knows how badly he has erred, what a mistake he’s made.”

Mr Collins added Peloe was “deeply remorseful” about his actions and said he had not tried to meet the person he talked to online.

Judge Deborah Sherwin sentenced him to two years prison suspended for two years and ordered him to take a sex offender treatment programme.

Related article: Call for action over online child sex figures

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