A "lonely" Burger King cook posed as a woman online chatting to what he believed was an underage girl, a court heard.
In fact fast food worker Phillip Charles Morgan was sharing lewd messages with a policeman called Steve.
The 35-year-old's barrister said Morgan – who pretended his name was Lucy – had been "lonely, on his own, and thinking about sex" when he engaged in the behaviour.
Swansea Crown Court heard in July last year Morgan began communicating online with a person who seemed to be a young girl.
Nicola Powell, prosecuting, said the profile of the young teenager was in fact being run by a "law enforcement operative" called Steve.
During their conversations, which lasted for a week, Morgan said he was a 26-year-old woman from Swansea and asked the "girl" to send him photographs of herself. He sent her a picture of a naked woman and suggested they could "go for a spin" in his car.
Morgan was arrested in October and when officers searched his phone they found a film showing a woman sexually abusing a young girl as well as a screen grab from the same movie.
In his interview Morgan said the video did not show a girl but was in fact a 19-year-old woman he knew in Llanelli though he declined to provide police with her details.
Morgan, of Picton Road, Skewen , Neath , admitted attempting sexual communication with a child, possession of an indecent image, and making an indecent image.
David Leathley, for Morgan, said his client worked as a cook in Burger King and was deeply ashamed of what he had done.
He said Morgan had been "lonely and looking for some excitement" when as "recreation" he went online and "chatted in a lewd and sexual way to others for his own sexual gratification".
The barrister said: "He was lonely, on his own, and thinking about sex when he trespassed in this most appalling way. It was a moment of madness that will effectively haunt him for years to come."
Judge Keith Thomas told Morgan the idea what he had done could be considered "recreation" would be "abhorrent to any right-thinking person".
Giving Morgan credit for his guilty pleas he sentenced him to nine months in prison suspended for two years, ordered him to complete a sex offenders programme, and made him subject to the sex offenders register and a sexual harm prevention order for the next 10 years.
