Andrew Barnard, a 56-year-old resident of Swansea, has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child and attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.

Barnard was caught by vigilante groups operating decoy accounts on Facebook posing as 14-year-old girls. Using the alias "William Stanley", Barnard contacted these profiles in November 2022 and engaged in sexually explicit conversations with them.

The court heard Barnard initiated conversations by asking questions about the girls' relationships and even inquired about noises coming from their parents' bedrooms. He then exchanged phone numbers with them and continued conversations via text messaging.

During the conversations, Barnard discussed masturbation with the decoys and offered to teach them how to do it. He also told one of the decoys that all men would want to have sex with her because she was "beautiful" but could not due to her age. He urged the decoys to keep their conversations secret.

The vigilante groups, operating independently, identified Barnard as the person behind the "William Stanley" Facebook page and arrived at his home address on December 1. The police were contacted, and Barnard was arrested at 7:22 p.m. that evening.

During his police interview, Barnard refused to answer any questions.

In mitigation, Barnard's advocate, Dan Griffiths, highlighted his client's difficult childhood, marked by abuse from his father, and a diagnosis of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. He argued that Barnard's life had been "lonely" and that he spent increasing amounts of time online. While acknowledging that Barnard's childhood experiences may be connected to his offending, Griffiths stressed his client's willingness to seek professional help.

Judge Geraint Walters, delivering the sentence, acknowledged the public's "huge distaste" for the kind of behaviour Barnard had engaged in. He also emphasized that if Barnard had been communicating with real girls, his sentence would have been significantly longer.

Barnard will serve up to half of his 27-month sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. He will be a registered sex offender for the next 10 years and is subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the same length of time to manage his internet access.