Man sent sexual picture to ‘girl, 13,’ to fulfil ‘fantasy out of boredom’
A married man was tracked down by a group of paedophile hunters after sending an explicit photo to an online account he thought was a child.
Vincent Allott, 64, from Withington in Manchester, began chatting with the decoy – set up by Justice4Kids – in December 2017.
He soon began asking questions “of a sexual nature”, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Allott then sent “Kara” an explicit photo of a naked man and woman, and was arrested that day.
The Justice4Kids had gone to his house and confronted him, telling him one of their representatives had posed as the child, the Manchester Evening News reports.
Allott has previous convictions, the most recent dating back to 1996, of an unrelated nature.
Defence lawyer Clare Ashcroft told the court her client has anxiety, as well as a number of physical health issues.
"He tells me this was borne out of a degree of boredom and I think some degree of fantasy," she added.
"He told the girls he was a baker and owned a bakery.
"He said when one of the girls went to search for the address of the bakery on Google he said 'don’t, I've made it up'. He is remorseful.
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"He has a wife and a long standing marriage.
"She unfortunately opened the door to the group when they came to confront him.
"She has been suffering a lot because of that and she felt in fear in their own home – they had to move. She is standing by him."
Sentencing Allott to a three-year community order, Judge Elizabeth Nicholls said: "You engaged in inappropriate communication with this young woman, pretending to be a child.
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"You also sent her a picture. On January 6 this vigilante group attended your home address and the person who had to deal with this was not you, but your wife.
"She felt terrified by this and has since been forced to move out of your house.
"There was no victim in this case, but there was potential grooming."
Allott, of Dermot Murphy Close, was also ordered to complete the Horizon Programme; made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order and made to sign onto the sex offender register for five years.
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