A pervert was caught by paedophile hunters after asking a ‘schoolgirl’ to send him topless pictures


A pervert was caught by paedophile hunters after asking a ‘schoolgirl’ to send him topless pictures – and saying he wanted them to have sex.

Scott Reynolds, 33, thought he was communicating with a 13-year-old called Jodie during explicit online chats. Yet the ‘girl’ was an adult member of a group which had set up the fake profile in a bid to trap paedophiles, Warwick Crown Court heard. Reynolds, of Curdworth, Sutton Coldfield, was later arrested when group members confronted him at the home of his parents.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity and attempting to meet a child following grooming. Reynolds was given a three-year community order with a condition of taking part in the Horizon sex offender’s programme.

He was also ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work, to take part in a rehabilitation activity, and to register as a sex offender for five years.

Prosecutor Ian Windridge said a member of a group called ‘Stand Together 4 Our Kids’ had set up a decoy profile of a 13-year-old girl on social media sites.

Reynolds made contact with ‘Jodie’ at the end of December 2017 and she told him she was a 13-year-old schoolgirl. He gave his real age and their early exchange was ‘general chit-chat’ before it became more sexual at his instigation, the court heard. During one exchange Reynolds asked to see her in her bra, and when Jodie said she was in bed and did not wear a bra in bed, he asked: “Can I see you topless then?” He also asked to see her in her uniform, offered to send her a picture of his private parts and told her he wanted to have sex with her.

On January 5 the group went to an address in Castle Vale, where they believed he would be, but he was not there. A few days later they found he was at his parents’ home in Curdworth, where they then turned up. The police were contacted and arrested Reynolds, but he made no comment when he was interviewed, added Mr Windridge.

Judge Anthony Potter told Reynolds: “I have to sentence you for communications you had with a view to meeting up with someone who you believed to be a 13-year-old girl.

“Thankfully it was an adult who had sought pro-actively to protect children from people like you with a sexual interest in children.
“You expressed an interest in having full sexual intercourse with someone who was 19 years younger than you and three years off the age of consent, as far as you were aware.”