A chat room predator who came to Oldham after he was snared by 'paedophile hunter' groups and interviewed by police has been brought to justice.
Shaun Taylor-Barker had lost his job and was living alone in a bedsit when he went online and made contact with who he believed were three girls aged 13 and 14.
He spent five days sending them 'sexualised messages' and photographs of himself naked, a court heard.
He also asked them to touch themselves and send him images of them.
But the 'girls' didn't exist.
They were a 'decoy' created by a group called Justice for the Innocent, report Devon Live.
That was all in Barnstaple. north Devon.
A court heard Taylor-Barker moved to Oldham after being interviewed by police and was only traced last month and brought back to Devon in custody.
The 47-year-old, of Manchester Road, Oldham, pleaded guilty to six counts of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity and one of attempting to cause a child to watch sexual activity.
At Exeter Crown Court, he was ordered to attend a sex offenders' course as part of a three-year community order.
Judge Peter Johnson told him: "You seem to have led a normal life until last February, when you encouraged three young girls aged 13 or 14, or you thought them to be, to touch themselves.
"At a very early stage you sent pictures of yourself, albeit relatively innocent but of a suggestive kind. You were told by one that what you asked her to do had hurt her but encouraged her to do it again.
"You have experienced a taste of custody and been inside for 10 weeks and I am told by the probation report that you have lost more or less everything that can be lost."
Taylor-Barker was also ordered to sign the sex offenders' register and made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, enabling police to monitor his internet activity.
The Justice for the Innocent group were joined by another group, Totnes Justice, and confronted him on the doorstep of his bedsit, the court heard.
They filmed the encounter and uploaded it onto YouTube, where it has been seen hundreds of times.
It shows the back of one of the group's members as he speaks to Taylor-Barker through a partially-opened front door.
William Parkhill, defending, said Taylor-Barker committed the offences after he had lost his job as an HGV driver and a long-term relationship had broken up.
His 'judgment' was also said to have been affected by alcohol.
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