A paedophile who was caught by a civilian-operated hunter group after sending sexualised photographs and messages to a child decoy has been sentenced to 32 months in prison.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Giles Cockett, 39, of Dick Lane, Bradford, is autistic, suffers from a depressive disorder, lives a secluded lifestyle, and is estranged from his family. However, he has a significant record of previous convictions dating back to 2018 involving similar offending.

Cockett began speaking to what he believed was a 14-year-old girl in early August last year on a platform called Chat Hour. The profile was actually a decoy operated by a civilian group known as Protecting Kids Online. On August 2, Cockett approached the girl, engaged her in conversation and asked if she liked sex chat. She immediately told him that she was just 14.

Cockett steered the conversation towards masturbation, moved the messaging onto Kick and over the next six days, asked her to talk about her private parts, told her she would look sexy in a swimming costume, talked again about masturbation, and sent photographs of himself and where he lived plus a picture of a penis. The messaging was reported to the police and Cockett was arrested at his home. He admitted what he had done, told officers he was autistic, and that he did not believe that masturbation was a subject that was sexual in nature.

Cockett later pleaded guilty to attempting to incite sexual activity with a child, attempted sexual communications with a child and two counts of making indecent images of children. The court heard that Cockett had previous convictions for attempting to communicate sexually with a child, and possession of indecent images. For those convictions at Chester Crown Court, he received a five-year community order and later a three-year community order.

Sentencing Cockett, who appeared via video link from HMP Leeds, to a total of 32 months imprisonment, Her Honour Judge Sophie McKone said: “Over about six days you made sexual communications with somebody you believed and no doubt hoped was a 14-year-old girl. It was in fact a decoy, but you did not know that, and you engaged in sexual talk with somebody who, in your mind, was 14.”

Referring to the indecent images found in Cockett’s possession Judge McKone said: “These children were real children and were really being sexually abused. Although you did not touch these children you are indirectly responsible for the abuse of the children in those pictures.” She pointed out that although the decoy was not a real child Cockett had “made a full admission that you are sexually attracted to children. You are not an unintelligent man. You have expressed guilt and remorse. You do have a recognition that what you did was wrong.”