AN internet predator who tried to chat up a 13-year-old girl online has been jailed after he was caught by a group of paedophile hunters.

Toby Webb believed he was talking to a teenaged schoolgirl on Facebook but was actually in touch with an adult woman who worked with a group who call themselves the Child Online Safety Team.

Webb asked the girl to send him pictures of herself in bed and suggested that she touch herself sexually. He also offered to send sexual images of himself but did not do so.

He has a history of sexual offending and had indecently assaulted a real girl in 2002. He sent the messages when he was depressed and drinking too much and later admitted to police his activity was “sickening”.

He also gave police an old address when he registered as a sex offender and an officer who went to check the house in Tiverton found it was empty and boarded-up because he had moved to stay with a friend elsewhere in Mid Devon.

Webb, aged 45, of no fixed address, admitted attempted sexual communication with a child and failing to comply with the sex offenders’ register and was jailed for nine and a half months by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

The judge imposed a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order which enables the police to monitor his online activities and put him on the register for a further 10 years.

He told him the sentence had to be immediate because of Webb’s offending history which includes four previous failures to register and other breaches of community orders.

Mr Greg Richardson, prosecuting, said Webb contacted the fake Facebook profile in November last year and continued sending messages even after being told the girl was 13 and not interested in dating.

He claimed to be 30 and said he would have liked to have dated her if she was 18 or 19 but then went on to send obscene suggestions, ask for an image of her in bed, and offer to send pictures of himself.

He was put on the sex offenders’ register after admitting the offence at magistrates but gave an address at Siddalls Gardens at Tiverton, which turned out to be a boarded-up and empty council house.

Mr Warren Robinson, defending, said Webb’s only contact offending was more than 20 years ago and his last breach of the register 15 years ago. He said he committed these offences while depressed and drinking too much.

He was staying at a friend’s house close to his former home when he gave the wrong address to police. He is now keen to attend a sex offenders’ course and to try to overcome his difficulties.