AN INTERNET groomer who was trapped by a sting operation sent a train ticket to enable a 13-year-old to visit him in Newton Abbot for sex.

Andrew Maddick did not realise he was communicating with an adult who had created a fake profile with the identity of a 13-year-old girl when he sent a stream of sexual messages.

He even bought five items of sexy lingerie in anticipation of the girl’s weekend visit to Devon from her fictitious home in Bournemouth. He had spent weeks grooming her on Kik messenger and Instagram.

His plan was disrupted not only because the girl did not exist but also because he set up the meeting for late March 2020, at exactly the time when the first Covid lockdown was imposed.

The group who trapped him sent their evidence to the police who arrested and questioned him in May 2020 and then released him while they carried out more research on his phone and devices.

He was still awaiting prosecution in November 2021 when he made contact with another decoy, this time posing as a 12-year-old girl, and sent her sexual messages which were far less explicit than he had sent earlier.

Maddick, 39, of Newton Abbot, admitted attempting to incite a child to sexual activity and four counts of attempted sexual communications with a child and made subject to a three-year community order by Judge Anna Richardson at Exeter Crown Court.

She ordered him to attend the Horizon sex offenders’ treatment programme and to do 300 hours of unpaid community work. She put him on the sex offenders’ register and imposed a sexual harm prevention order which will restrict his contact with children and enable the police to monitor his online activity.

She told him he would have gone to prison for five years if the child had been a real girl instead of a decoy.

Miss Mary McCarthy, prosecuting, said Maddick made contact with what he believed to be a 13-year-old schoolgirl from Bournemouth in early 2020 and sent messages on Kik and Instagram in which he turned the discussion to sex.

He sent videos of his genitals and encouraged the girl to touch herself. He claimed to work for a company making dance clothes and offered to get her to model the products. He spoke of visiting Bournemouth to meet her in a hotel and of arranging a weekend away with her in Cornwall.

His grooming came to a head just before the March 2020 lockdown when he sent her a rail ticket so she could visit him in Devon and discussed the sexual acts they would take part in, which included full intercourse.

He also suggested they smoked cannabis together and police recovered a small amount of the drug when they arrested him. He went on to do the same thing at a much lower level with another decoy, who was posing as a 12-year-old girl, in late 2021.

Police recovered search terms on hid devices which showed he had a sexual interest in children. Mr Martin Salloway, defending, said Maddick is very remorseful and has been assessed as an excellent prospect for rehabilitation by the probation service, who have suggested that a three year order was needed to give him enough time to complete the work.

He has a responsible job and also helps to care for his elderly parents, who he lives with.