A TEENAGER caught trying to arrange to have sex with a young girl was arrested when he turned up to meet her but was confronted by members of an online paedophile hunting team.

Luke Porter believed he was talking to a young girl called ‘Megan’ but was in fact sharing sexually explicit messages with an undercover vigilante.

The 18-year-old was caught when he arrived at Darlington railway station on January 23 this year to meet the ’14-year-old girl’.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Porter knew the age of his intended target as he had been clearly told in a message when he was arranging to meet her for sex.

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Paul Abrahams, prosecuting, said the defendant initially made contact with ‘Megan’ on a dating app before moving the conversation onto WhatsApp.

“It’s fair to say that the conversation turned to a sexual nature,” he said. “There was conversation around a meeting at Darlington station.

“The defendant did travel to the station to meet ‘Megan’ where he was confronted by the group who were waiting for him at the station.”

The court heard how the defendant had only turned 18 a couple of weeks before his arrest.

Porter, of Beaumont Street West, Darlington, pleaded guilty to one charge of attempting to communicate with a child to engage in sexual activity.

Ian West, in mitigation, said his client had been in custody since his arrest in January and had no previous convictions.

Judge Timothy Stead sentenced Porter to nine months in a young offenders’ institute, suspended for two years as there was no actual contact with a child.

He said: “Nevertheless, what you did was an offence because you believed you were communicating with a 14-year-old girl – a girl who was previously a stranger to you.

“In fact, you were communicating with an adult whose purpose was to bring about justice in a case such as yours, you were willing to engage in sexual offending with children, and I make no complaint about that.

That is exactly what brought you before the court and it was your wrongdoing that you are being punished for.”

Porter, who will be released from custody and housed in the Gateshead area, was made subject of a ten-year sexual harm prevention order and a notification order for the same period of time. He was also ordered to attend 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

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