A PAEDOPHILE will serve three years behind bars after a hunter group caught him arranging to meet a 12-year-old 'girl'.

Attila Bajnoczi, of Bewsey Road, sent explicit messages and videos to an online decoy account posing as a child, set up by paedophile hunter group, Defend the Innocent.

On Tuesday, Liverpool Crown Court heard that the 25-year-old first contacted the decoy through an app called Skout on August 20, and she informed him she was 12.

Prosecutor Barnes said Bajnoczi continued to contact the decoy through WhatsApp and told her she was cute, nice and pretty.

The court heard how, on September 6, he asked her if she had ever had a boyfriend and if she was a virgin.

He told her: "Sex is awesome."

Mr Barnes explained how Bajnoczi began talking explicitly about the '12-year-old' and sent her videos of him performing a sexual act.

Bajnoczi arranged to meet the 'girl' at Warrington Bank Quay station on October 13 where he was confronted by another hunter group, Confronted and Caught, who had been briefed on the situation.

This was streamed live on the group's Facebook page and he was arrested at the scene.

Mr Rawson, representing Bajnoczi, said he has no previous convictions and has only been in the UK for one year.

He stressed that his client should be given full credit for his early guilty plea and he asked the judge to bear in mind that this was only an attempt and there was no real victim.

Judge David Aubrey, sentencing, said that nothing other than immediate custody could be justified.

He said: "The communication that this court had heard suggests to this court the needs and requirements of a paedophile, communicating to a person their sexual fantasy containing a young child.

"You believed that you were communicating to a girl the age of 12.

"You were not.

"There was in fact no real victim but you believed you were communicating to a real victim.

"The person to whom you were communicating was in fact a decoy and a member of the group known as Defend the Innocent.

"Notwithstanding that fact that there was no real victim, that which you were expressing proves to this court that you have an unhealthy and deviant interest in children."

As well as a three-year sentence Bajnoczi was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.

An NSPCC spokesperson said: “Bajnoczi is a predator who believed he was grooming and arranging to meet a real child.

“Thankfully his intended victim was fictitious, but this case shows how social media can be used as a tool by abusers to gain access to children and young people.

“The NSPCC calls on the next Government to introduce legislation to ensure social media networks can be held to account and put the safety of children first.”

Children can contact Childline 24/7 on 0800 1111.

Adults concerned about the wellbeing of a child can phone the NSPCC Helpline on 08088 005000.