Paedophile hunters snared a man in Piccadilly Gardens after he planned to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex.
David Barnes, 59, was 'humiliated' when he arrived, having expected to be met by the 'girl' he had groomed online.
But the girl was actually an adult from a paedophile hunter group.
READ MORE : Teacher arrested at school after he's caught with thousands of child abuse images spared jail
At Piccadilly Gardens he was instead approached by a member of the 'Predators Exposed Sting Team'.
Police officers also attended and Barnes was arrested.
Barnes, from Bury, had sexualised chats with the girl online, and said he would 'take her virginity'.
A judge accepted it was an 'aberration' for Barnes, but said it was 'very serious' offence and jailed him for 16 months.
Prosecutors said it was clear that Barnes was 'fully aware' that the 'girl' was 14.
The 'vulnerable' girl had told him that her mother was an alcoholic, and that her father had died years earlier.
Barnes told her that he would 'like to spend time' with her, 'kissing her all over her body'.
"He told her that kissing her body, in his words, was not a crime," prosecutor Mark Kellet said.
Mr Kellet said Barnes also spoke about sexual activity after she had turned 16, and asked 'if she would wait for him'.
In one chat, Barnes said he wished she was 16, and telling how he would 'take her virginity'.
Barnes said he wanted to meet up with her, and the girl said she was 'nervous'.
"Ok leave it sweet, it's up to you," he said.
But a meeting was arranged in June last year, when the 'girl' was set to meet him in Piccadilly Gardens.
In the days prior to the scheduled meeting, the conversation became 'more overtly sexual', Mr Kellet said.
The court heard how Barnes received a 'fairly unwelcome reception' in Piccadilly Gardens.
He was arrested and admitted the offences in interview.
"You are a mature man of 59 years, you have no convictions since 2006, and nothing of a sexual nature," Judge John Edwards told him at a Minshull Street Crown Court sentencing hearing.
"Whilst you were entrapped and indeed humiliated in your chosen meeting place in Piccadilly Gardens...as far as you were concerned, you were going to indulge yourself sexually with a real person.
"She presented to you as vulnerable, and you were only too willing to exploit that situation."
Barnes, of of Glenboro Avenue, Bury, represented himself at the hearing.
He pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, and attempting to meet a child following grooming.
He must sign the sex offender's register for 10 years, and a sexual harm prevention order was imposed for the same period.
