This is the shocking moment a convicted paedophile was snared trying to meet an underage girl again four months after early release from prison.
Mark Thornton was snared in a Morrisons car park in Darlington after telling what he thought was a 14-year-old that he had ‘been a naughty boy’ after serving around half of his 24-month sentence for trying to take a 13-year-old’s virginity.
The 51-year-old had only been out of prison for four months when he started messaging the decoy, telling her she was ‘sexy’ and confessing he’d been jailed for trying to meet an even younger girl that also turned out to be a decoy.
The unemployed father was snared in an Asda car park last year and sentenced to a two-year prison sentence in September 2016 for explicit chats with who he believed to be two 13-year-old girls.
But following his release in July Thornton was caught using a dating app to try and meet a young girl for sex on November 8 – while still being subject to a sexual harm prevention order.
Thornton attempted to shield his face when he was confronted by Dark Justice after trying to meet a 14-year-old girl in a Morrisons car park
Shaken from his previous arrest, he acted more cautiously, telling the ‘girl’ he was scared and referring to his prison term as being ‘grounded in a different way’.
He told her he had to trust she was a real 14-year-old girl before meeting and complained how bad prison food was, adding: ‘I did plenty of crying.’
The unemployed father admitted he found the decoy sexy despite being told she was a 14-year-old girl
Thornton was only out of jail for four months before he sent these messages, in which he casually discusses time served for trying to take a 13-year-old’s virginity
‘This will be my second Christmas on my own with no one to spoil,’ he moaned, before calling the Dark Justice decoy ‘beautiful’ on the Waplog app, which aims to quickly match singles aged 17 and over with the attractive people who have similar interests.
And just four days after he first messaged the decoy, Thornton arranged to meet her at Darlington train station.
The 51-year-old is shown being arrested yet again for trying to meet an underage girl using a messaging app
But he then grew scared and re-arranged – only to be caught trying again in a Morrisons car park later that day.
A Dark Justice spokesman said: ‘He messaged us first, he clearly hasn’t learnt his lesson.
This picture shows the first time Thornton was caught by paedophile hunters, when he was trying to take a 13-year-old’s virginity
In messages to what he thought was a 14-year-old girl, Thornton confessed that he’d tried to meet a 13-year-old girl
‘He started talking in a sexual way but he was more cautious this time.
‘He was scared to get caught again, he was telling me about his time in prison.
‘He deserves everything he gets but he also didn’t receive any help in prison.
‘He has been given two years in prison again, it clearly isn’t working.
Messages to what Thornton thought was a 13-year-old girl show him claiming to have had sex with a 15-year-old he met online
‘Come Christmas next year he’ll be out and back on the apps.
‘Who’s to say it won’t be a real child next time, they should be given longer sentences so they can get help.’
He was jailed after being caught trying to get a 13-year-old to send him explicit pictures in these messages
Thornton, from Darlington, was sentenced to another two-year sentence and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years after pleading guilty to attempting to meet a girl under 16 years old following grooming.
He also pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching a sexual harm prevention order.