AN HGV driver from Chippenham took a duvet, a pillow and a bag of condoms with him when he drove to Essex to meet a vulnerable 12-year-old girl.

But instead of an assignation with a youngster called Hannah who lived in a care home, Geoffrey Rimmington was confronted by members of a group who had placed a fake profile of her online. At Warwick Crown Court he pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity and attempting to meet a child flowing grooming.

Rimmington, 65, of Tanners Close, Chippenham, who also admitted having an image of extreme pornography, was jailed for 18 months and ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years.

Prosecutor Alex Warren said that in around March 2018 Rimmington contacted someone he believed was a 12-year-old girl called Hannah on an internet chat site.

Hannah, who was supposedly in care, was the creation of a paedophile hunter group, and after she spoke of having a boyfriend Rimmington moved their chat to matters of a sexual nature.

He asked her what words she used to describe her private parts and whether she had started her periods, and sent her a picture of him exposing himself. In one message he asked whether she touched her ‘flower,’ and whether she felt pleasure doing so - and he suggested the possibility of them engaging in a video conversation although, for obvious reasons, that did not come to anything, said Mr Warren.

At one point, when she said she was running out of credit on her phone, he sent her a £10 top-up voucher. In June 2018 Hannah, who was supposedly in Basildon in Essex, told him she was unhappy in the care home, and was in a park and thinking of running away.

Rimmington expressed concern for her, and then suggested he could get a hotel room for her, and that he would come to her location and meet her at a nearby McDonalds. He then drove to Basildon for their arranged meeting but when he got there he was met by members of the group who detained him until the police arrived.

When he was arrested, officers searched his car, and found a pillow, a duvet and a washbag containing condoms. “When he was interviewed he tried to justify what he was doing as being motivated by concern for Hannah, rather than for his own sexual gratification,” said Mr Warren.

He claimed it was Hannah who had first contacted him, but the chat logs showed that was not the case. At his home, his laptop was seized, and on it the police found an ‘extreme image’ showing an act of bestiality, as well as search terms showing he had searched for it, Mr Warren added.

Colin Charvill, defending, said: “He accepts his conduct was entirely inappropriate. He’s remorseful and motivated not to re-offend. This sorry state of affairs didn’t start off with him looking for conversation with a child.

"He was on an adult website, and her profile was Hannah 0018, and he thought she was 18 when he made the original contact. Shortly after it was made known to him that this fictitious person was 12, and he continued with the contact.”

Pointing out that the offences were now 18 months ago, he argued that Rimmington could be given a suspended sentence. Jailing Rimmington, Recorder Jacob Hallam QC told him: “Plainly these offences are very serious, even when they do not involve a real child. From a very early stage you knew she was, ostensibly at least, a vulnerable child under the age of 13.

“There was a point when matters touching on sexual behaviour arose, you asking whether she slept naked and matters of that order, and you incited her to touch what was referred to as her ‘flower.’

"You went to meet her, having groomed her, and as you said to the author of the pre-sentence report, there was in your mind at least the possibility of sexual contact with her.

“This is a case not only of a child you believed to be under 13, but also who you believed to be in care, and therefore even more vulnerable.”