A MAN who was having sexual chats with who he thought was a 14-year-old girl was found to have animal pornography on his phone.

Jordan Wilkinson believed he was talking to the girl from May 29, 2020, but was in fact speaking with a woman, Denise Summers, from Our Team paedophile hunters who had set up Stacey’s profile.

Prosecuting, Joseph Allman spoke of how Wilkinson found ‘Stacey’ online and began speaking with her, with Ms Summers immediately making it clear in messages that ‘Stacey’ was 14.

Wilkinson apologised but then continued to send her messages and asked her to start talking to him on WhatsApp instead, to which ‘Stacey’ said she was not very tech-aware but the pair ended up engaging on conversation on the service.

The defendant, 31, would tell ‘Stacey’ that she was ‘good looking’, ‘sexy’ and ‘gorgeous’ before he asked her to send him a naked picture of the top half of her body.

Lewd messages and inappropriate videos were sent to ‘Stacey’ over the course of a weekend, with Ms Summers regularly reminding Wilkinson that she was 14.

At the end of the weekend, the vigilante group went looking for Wilkinson at his father’s address and after calling the police, Wilkinson, of Coal Clough Lane, Burnley, was later arrested by officers who took his phone.

Mr Allman said when police were examining Wilkinson’s phone they found a video of a person performing a sex act on a donkey. Wilkinson said the video had been sent to him by a friend on WhatsApp.

Wilkinson admitted attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause a child to look at an image of sexual activity, attempting to cause a female aged 13 or over to engage in sexual activity and possession of an extreme pornographic image.

Kristian Cavanagh, defending, spoke of Wilkinson’s embarrassment about the offences and how the thought of going to prison terrified him.

Mr Cavanagh said: "This is a defendant who has been clear in his remorse.”

Sitting at Burnley Crown Court, Judge Sara Dodd said that she was on a ‘knife edge’ about whether to send Wilkinson to prison.

She said: “I bear in mind that of course you were not talking to a 14-year-old child - but you didn’t know that.”

Wilkinson said: “I feel bad about what happened.”

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years. He must complete 50 days of rehabilitation, and has been made subject to a sexual offence notification and sexual harm prevention order, both for 10 years. He has also been ordered to pay £430 costs.