A pervert who tried to pay teenage girls to perform sex acts online was snared by an undercover police officer pretending to be a 14-year-old.
A court heard Colin Archer struck up a conversation with the officer, posing as ‘Hannah’, on an online platform.
The 49-year-old dad asked the fake profile “if sex would be a problem,” suggested booking a hotel room and masturbated twice on camera to “her”.
When police raided Archer’s North Shields workshop and seized his electronic devices, they found evidence of other web chats with teenage girls over Skype, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Ian West said one conversation was with a person claiming to be a 13-year-old girl, offering to show her underwear “but nothing else” until he paid.
Another chat was with someone who said she was 16 and “looking to make £20 by getting naked on camera”.
Officers also found three indecent images of children on Archer’s electronic devices.
Mr West said police went to the defendant's business, an industrial unit in North Shields in September 2017, with a warrant to search the premises.
Mr West said: “In interview he admitted using numerous identities including one of ‘Paul’, aged 19, and having sexual conversations with what he thought to be a 14-year-old girl, stating they talked about ‘naughty sexual stuff’.
“Officers questioned him about his chat with ‘Hannah’ and it was put to him he masturbated on camera to ‘Hannah’ on two occasions.
“In their first conversation he asked about her breast size and sexual experience.
“He asked if having sex would be a problem and masturbated on camera on two occasions that day.
“The conversation moved to meeting at a hotel. The police officer ended the conversation before firm arrangements could be made.”
When officers seized a laptop and memory stick they found evidence of further web chats on Skype.
In one, the person claiming to be a 13-year-old girl “says she will show her bra and panties before he pays, but nothing else”.
Mr West said: “The defendant asks what he will get for his money. She replies ‘anything you want, except face’. The chat ends before he pays anything.
“Police found evidence of another call in June 2017 with someone who says she is 16 and says she is looking to make £20 by getting naked on camera. He offers to pay £10 before she performs and £10 after.
“The conversation ends without either one having done anything, probably because the defendant hadn’t paid, as he said he had.”
Mr West added: “There’s no evidence of how old these girls actually were.”
Stuart Graham, mitigating, said Archer “never believed they would be that young”.
He added that Archer, now of Kirkham, Washington, has managed to keep his business going and has “kept out of trouble” since these offences were discovered.
Archer pleaded guilty to attempting to incite ‘Hannah’ to engage in penetrative sexual activity, attempting to cause her to watch a sexual act by him, two counts of attempting to pay for the sexual services of a child and possession of indecent images.
The judge, Recorder Nicholas Lumley QC, sentenced Archer to two years in prison, but suspended the sentence for two years.
He was also sentenced to 25 days of rehabilitation activity and an electronically monitored curfew preventing him from leaving the house between 10pm and 6am for 12 weeks.
