AN online groomer who arranged to meet a schoolgirl for sex was arrested at Newton Abbot railway station after being caught by a sting operation.

Ryan Robins thought he was going to go to a guest house with a girl who was under 14 but was instead met by police.

He had been conversing online with what he believed was a schoolgirl but who was in fact a fake profile designed to flush out predators on a chat platform which is popular among teens.. 

Robins sent the decoy images with obscene suggestions written on a banner even though she had been quite clear about her purported age. He went on to ask for images of her in her school uniform and proposed a rendez-vous.

He arranged to meet her at Newton Abbot station at 10.00 pm on Friday February 24 last year so they could go to a guest house in Torbay for the night. They had discussed contraception during the online exchanges and police arrested him with the condoms.

He told police he was disgusted with himself and did not know why he had done it, but said he would not have gone through with his plan if the girl had been a real person.

Robins, aged 28, of Honeysuckle Close, Paignton, admitted attempting to commission a child sex offence and attempted sexual communications with a child and was made subject to a three year community order by Judge James Patrick at Exeter Crown Court.

He was ordered to go on a 42 session sex offender treatment programme, do 30 days of rehabilitation activities, and 80 hours of unpaid community work. He was put on the sex offenders register and made subject of a sexual harm prevention order, both for five years.

The Judge told him: “You have described your offending as disgusting, and that is what it was. Ove the course of a week, you contacted a decoy posing as a young girl and sent her pictures of yourself naked.

“You arranged to commission and commit a child sex offence, which in this case would have been a sexual assault on a child under 13, even though such a meeting was impossible.”

Miss Emily Pitts, prosecuting, said made contact with the decoy in February last year while claiming to be 18, which is 10 years younger than his true age.

He went on to ask to see the girl in her school uniform and in pyjamas before suggesting she remove the bottoms. He also arranged the meeting in Newton Abbot.

Mr William Parkhill, defending, said Robins sent the messages at a time when he was socially isolated and suffering from such poor mental health that he is now receiving treatment from his GP and therapy group.

He said working on his issues with the probation service was a far more positive approach than imprisonment. He said: ‘He is a limited young man with limited options in his life but he is trying to engage.’