A MAN was jailed for the second time this year for trying to meet what he believed was an underage girl, for sex.

Having completed a previous 22-week sentence over an attempted liaison with a 14-year-old girl, in a police ‘sting’ in January, Wayne Chester is now starting a 21-month jail term, having become the latest paedophile to fall foul of Guardians of the North vigilantes.

Durham Crown Court heard that the latest offences for which the 43-year-old defendant answered, were actually committed last September, and he was on bail for them when he was, again, caught out, in the police-run Operation Ascension, in January.

Jonathan Walker, prosecuting, said a member of Guardians of the North set up an online social media profile, supposedly posted by 14-year-old ‘Amelia’, accompanied by a randomly-selected image of a girl of about that age.

Chester responded, telling her she was, “beautiful”, and ‘she’ replied making it clear to him she was only 14.

He asked if she liked older men and sent her an intimate image of himself.

Chester told her he liked younger girls and asked her to send indecent images of herself, but she did not comply with his request.

The following day he asked her to move on to a different messenger site so he could make contact with her ‘friends’, who, in reality, were also decoys, posted by the paedophile hunting group.

Mr Walker said just three days after first contacting ‘Amelia’, Chester arranged a meeting, in Bishop Auckland.

When he was spotted looking furtively round at the rendez-vous venue, police were informed and arrested Chester.

When interviewed, he denied knowledge of any of the online exchanges.

But Chester, from Salford, Greater Manchester, and formerly of Cosgrove Avenue, Bishop Auckland, admitted two counts of attempting to incite a girl to engage in sexual activity and one of attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.

Holly Betke, mitigating, urged Recorder Rachael Harrison to impose a suspended prison sentence to enable Chester to attend a sex offender treatment programme to address his problems.

But, imposing an immediate sentence, Recorder Harrison said he had actively sought out and attempted to meet several young girls within a short period of his initial contact.

Chester must comply with police notification as a sex offender for ten years and remains subject of a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order, imposed when he was last jailed.