A man who was snared by paedophile hunters has been detained in a secure hospital indefinitely.

Lewis Bruce, 22, of Sunderland, thought he had been sending explicit messages to a 13-year-old girl on an adult internet dating site but had been snared by Dark Justice.

Judge Tim Gittins sentenced Bruce, who is a vulnerable adult and has a disorder on the autism spectrum, to an indefinite hospital order with a restriction which means the Secretary of State must authorise his release, if and when medical experts deem him to be safe.

The judge told Bruce: ‘Very quickly you turned the conversation into sexual matters, including references to worrying and unpleasant sexual behaviour that you wanted to do to her.

‘You went on to make plans to meet her, despite you clearly knowing her age and knowing that what you were doing was wrong, given the detail of the messages.

‘What you planned to do and what you did was very seri