Callum McBrearty (pictured outside court), 23, used the gay dating app Grindr to prowl for sexual thrills when he met a ‘curious’ 14-year-old boy in June 2016
A pervert who sent a naked picture of himself to a 14-year-old boy which turned out to be a group of vigilante paedophile hunters was told he was ‘lucky’ to be spared jail.
Callum McBrearty, 23, used the gay dating app Grindr to prowl for sexual thrills when he met a ‘curious’ 14-year-old boy in June 2016.
Within an hour of finding him on the app, McBrearty, who had already been convicted of having indecent images of children in 2013, sent him a picture of his penis and suggested they meet up.
He was hauled back before a judge at Southwark Crown Court today for failing to attend a rehabilitation programme to help prevent him re-offending.
The 23-year-old was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and is now subject to a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Judge Joanna Korner, QC, told McBrearty’s lawyer: ‘I don’t know that your client knows just how lucky he was getting a suspended sentence for a crime like this.
‘A judge very rarely gives such a sentence for this type of offence.’
McBrearty, who was given a conditional discharge for his previous offences in 2013, arranged to meet the boy at McDonald’s on Eltham High Street in south east London.
But when he arrived on July 3 last year, self-proclaimed paedophile investigators from online group ‘The Hunted One’ surrounded him until the police came.
The group’s website claims they have caught out 43 people to date, but not all of these people have been convicted and some are awaiting legal action.
He arranged to meet the boy at McDonald’s on Eltham High Street in south east London. But when he arrived on July 3 last year, self-proclaimed paedophile investigators from online group ‘The Hunted One’ surrounded him until the police came
The court heard McBrearty has since lost his job as a barman and was planning to change his name to avoid the ‘humiliation’ of being publicly outed as a paedophile.
He told police: ‘As a 14-year-old I would have welcomed some guidance from an older gay person as to how he would conduct himself in the future.’
When she sentenced McBrearty in April, Judge Deborah Taylor said his offending escalated ‘from merely having images to moving to contacting young people, in fact children under the age of 16.’
But she spared him immediate custody after Chistopher Amis, defending, argued he would ‘simply emerge as an unreformed paedophile’ if he were to be put behind bars.
McBrearty, of Bromley, south east London, admitted one count of attempting to cause a child aged 14 to look at an image of a person engaging in sexual activity.
He was sentenced to eight months imprisonment, suspended for two years, and a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order was imposed, preventing him from making any contact with or possessing any images of any child under the age of 16, save for his immediate family.
One count of attempting to cause a boy aged 14 to engage in sexual activity involving oral sex and one of attempting to meet a boy aged 14 for the purposes of committing a sexual offence were left to lie on file.
He was fined £200 and ordered to pay costs of £100 for breaching the original order ‘with a warning that if this happens again the suspended sentence will be implemented.’
He was hauled back before a judge at Southwark Crown Court today for failing to attend a rehabilitation program to help prevent him re-offending. The 23-year-old was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and is now subject to a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order