A sick pervert who shared depraved sexual messages with a ‘teenage girl’ was caught when it was revealed he had been chatting online with an undercover police officer.

George Selmer spent three days trying to persuade the girl to perform a sex act on herself little realising that his every message was being saved by the officer.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the 45-year-old told police it was just a ‘fantasy’ and he never intended carrying out the sick sex acts he was describing to ‘Carla’ after he had descended into a ‘dark hole’.

Rachel Masters said the defendant contacted the teenager online before moving the sexualised conversation to Snapchat where he was using a false name.

Armed with Selmer’s details, officers arrived at his home to arrest him after he had attempted to encourage to young girl to perform a sex act on herself, the court heard.

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Miss Masters added: “The police arrested the defendant and he said ‘I would never have met her or done owt. I wouldn’t do that. I know what I said but it was all fantasy chat’.”

The court heard police analysis of the defendant’s digital devices recovered copies of the sexualised conversation he had with the young girl.

Selmer, of Yarm, pleaded guilty to attempting to incite a girl 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity and attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child between November 17 and 19 last year.

Michele Turner, in mitigation, said her client had taken it upon himself to access services to help him to address his behaviour.

She added: “He explained to me that he was going down a dark hole that he knew it was wrong but felt compelled to do so. It was almost an instinct that he had no control over.

“This organisation has helped him understand how he got into this dark hole.”

Judge Paul Watson KC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, told Selmer he had lost his ‘good name’ as well as his wife and child as a result of his conviction.

“There were graphic and sexual messages referring to the girl, you believed her to be, carrying out a sex act,” he said.

“The fact that the girl in question was not real, an identity created by police, is of little in the way of mitigation. You weren’t to know that she wasn’t real and as far as any future meeting or action on your part, we only have your word that you wouldn’t have met up with her and this was just ‘fantasy chat’.

“The reality is you were quite eager to engage in this conversation with somebody you believed to be a young child.”

Selmer was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years. He was also ordered to attend 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days and perform 200 hours of unpaid work.

He was also made subject of a three-year sexual harm prevention order.

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