Locations
Pewsey Road, Rushall, Wiltshire, SN9
Description
A convicted sex fiend caught by so-called "paedophile hunters" is behind bars after he admitted travelling more than 300 miles to try to meet up with 14-year-old girl.
Roger Lee, who previously got a 12-year-old pregnant and was branded a danger to children, thought he was chatting to a teenage girl called Rebecca over the internet, but it was a pair of online vigilantes.
The pervert sent naked pictures of himself and "couldn't get to Newcastle" - 310 miles from his Basingstoke home - "fast enough" after "the girl" said she was being left home alone when her mum went away.
But Lee, 45, was filmed by the duo who call themselves Dark Justice when he turned up at the city's Millennium Bridge.
At Newcastle Crown Court, he admitted attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming through website Badoo and was jailed two years and four months.
Judge Sean Morris said: You entered into a conversation with them on the internet and they pretended the female was 14 and you went for it.
You arranged to come to Newcastle from Basingstoke to have sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old child. That is extremely serious.
There was in fact no child involved at all, which limits the category into which your offending falls.
That will be quite difficult for some people to understand and I dont blame them.
Im firmly of the view that you are a dangerous individual to young children.
The court heard Lee, using the moniker ForHire, contacted Rebecca in October on Badoo, which is meant for over 18s.
Prosecutor Tim Gittins said: "These men, who describe themselves as undercover journalists, worked together in order to set up a sting operation to identify and catch paedophiles.
"They set up a false female profile on internet website Badoo. It is meant for over 18s but once he contacted her she indicated she was only 14.
"He stated he liked young girls and had previously had a relationship with a female aged 12.
"The messages continued over several days and began to become sexually explicit, at the defendants instigation and he sent a picture of his penis.
"She then said her mum was going away on October 8 and he couldnt get up here fast enough."
Lee arranged to meet Rebecca at the Millenium Bridge at 9am on October 9.
Mr Gittins said: "He was confronted by the two men, who were recording the confrontation.
"Not surprisingly, he realised that the game was up and immediately fled the scene.
"The two men reported the matter immediately to the police."
After running off, Lee sent a text message saying he was going to kill himself before being arrested on the A1 heading south.
Lee, of Pewsey Road, Rushall, Pewsey, Wiltshire, was also given an extended licence until 2020, a sexual offences prevention order, and must sign the sex offender register indefinitely.
The court heard he was convicted of having sex with a 12-year-old girl who he got pregnant in 1998.
Andrew Walker, defending, said: "This was not entrapment but it was a set up, it was a sting operation. That means there was no child anywhere near this offence or this offender. This was a website for adults and it was not even a dating website, although it was used for those purposes.
Clearly the objective of the young men on the other side was to perpetuate the conversation and give him the opportunity to propose the activity in the way he did.