A 67-year-old pervert - who boasted about being a "bit of an exhibitionist" - groomed someone he thought was a 13-year-old schoolgirl.

Surveyor Christopher Hearsey sent teenager 'Daisy' a number of naked images of himself and persuaded her to go swimming with him.

But when he turned up at the David Lloyd Sports Centre - just 100 yards from Maidstone Crown Court - there was no sign of the "naive and inexperienced" teenager.

Instead, he was met by members of the Shadow Hunters UK - a group of paedophile hunters - who had carried out the sting.

Since his arrest, Hearsey's wife has left him and he was then sacked from his job, Maidstone Crown Court heard.

Now Hearsey, of Stafford Gardens, Maidstone has been given a suspended jail sentence after he pleaded guilty to four child sex charges, which happened in November 2019.

Prosecutor Lucy Luttman said: "This was a sting operation. A group of child abuse activists, called Shadow Hunters UK had one of its members called Georgina Sanders create a profile under the pseudonym, Daisy on an over-18-year-old website.

"During their conversations Hearsey made arrangements to meet her to go swimming on November 2."

The prosecutor said that on the second day of them talking, Hearsey sent "Daisy" an image of his chest before the two then moved onto another app, Hangout.

"She asked if it was alright that they were talking because she was only little...but he replied that a friend is a friend.

"He would send her pictures which began as questionable but became far more explicit, including pictures of himself on bed in just his underwear. He also encouraged her to perform a sex act."

The court heard that police later recovered 300 pages of screen shots including Hearsey talking to her about sex, often at night and first thing in the morning.

"What you did was utterly sickening..."

In November, he directs Daisy - who claimed to have an alcoholic mother - to meet him at the David Lloyd leisure centre but instead he was confronted by the paedophile hunters in the Lockmeadow car park. They recorded the event and called the police.

Hearsey told them he needed "help" with his online activity and he had already contacted a counsellor to help him stop talking to women online.

He told police: "I turned up this time because I wanted to stop. I have had issues chatting online. There is something wrong inside me."

When police checked his mobile phone they discovered he had been talking to another girl, aged 14, but not about sexual matters.

Danny Moore, defending, said that since his arrest he has lost his job and his wife has left him and he is now living with an aged father.

Judge Philip Statman gave Hearsey a two-year jail sentence, suspended for two years, and told him he had tried to win over the trust of someone he thought was a vulnerable child.

"But I accept that from the start you have shown genuine remorse," he added. "However what you did was utterly sickening."

Hearsey was also ordered to attend 40 days of rehabilitation activity and he is also to remain on the Sex Offender Register for 10 years.

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