Former Royal Mail employee jailed for 18 months for explicit sexual suggestions to what he believed was a 13-year-old girl.

Ian Kelly, 60, was snared by an adult decoy working for the online action group Paedophile Hunters, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Kelly, of Byron Street, Halifax, pleaded guilty to attempting to cause a female aged 13 to engage in penetrative sexual activity.

Prosecutor Carmel Pearson said that Kelly began communicating with the fictitious child in May 2021. The decoy said she was aged 13 and lived in Leeds.

Kelly asked the decoy to keep the chat a secret and it soon became sexualized. He wanted to meet up with her to 'kiss and cuddle her and be her first with everything.' By September 7, he said he wanted to kiss every inch of her. He asked her to remove her clothes and lie naked on the bed.

He said her photograph looked beautiful and that he loved her. He wanted to show her images of himself, but he didn't actually send any.

On October 16, 2021, members of the Paedophile Hunters group attended Kelly's home address and contacted the police. Officers seized his electronic devices and found the explicit sex chat.

The court heard that Kelly had a conviction for indecent assault on a woman dating from 1988. A more recent offence of battery had lost him his job with the Royal Mail.

John Bottomley, Kelly's defense attorney, argued that it was an attempt and there was no real child. He said that since his arrest, Kelly had woken every day with 'the Sword of Damocles hanging over him.' He was lonely after losing his employment and that and his drinking had contributed to his offending.

Recorder Christopher Rose stated that by September 2021, Kelly's online chat had become extremely explicit.

"This was in your mind a genuine 13-year-old child that you were having conversations with," he said.

The recorder acknowledged that Kelly was lonely and isolated after losing his job because of the battery conviction. He told his probation officer he had no intention of following the sexual suggestions through.

However, the court emphasized that the explicit conversations would have been enormously harmful and damaging to a real child.

Kelly was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years and he must sign on the sex offender register, also for five years.