Toni Stevens, 33, from Torquay, exchanged sexual messages with who he believed were 14-year-old girls in internet chat rooms
A charity organiser who tried to meet underage girls for sex has appeared in court after being trapped by an online vigilante group.
Toni Stevens, 33, from Torquay, exchanged sexual messages with who he believed were 14-year-old girls in internet chat rooms but in reality he was dealing with a group of paedophile hunters.
They posed as under-aged girls and responded to his online grooming, in which he sent images of his erect penis and suggested having threesomes with his adult girlfriend.
The police were called after members of the Plymouth based vigilante group went to confront him at his home in Torquay and the offices of the charity where he volunteers.
The group called UK Database passed on copies of chat logs to police which they say contained evidence of him trying to contact 39 girls online.
The group called UK Database passed on copies of chat logs to police which they say contained evidence of him trying to contact 39 girls online
Stevens admitted sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause a child to look at an indecent image.
He was remanded in custody by Recorder Mr Jonathan Barnes at Exeter Crown Court and will be sentenced once a probation report has been completed next month.
Mr Michael Brown, defending, said Stevens is of good character and will receive full credit for his early guilty pleas.
He said a probation report will be helpful to the sentencing judge. Two members of UK Database sat in the public gallery during the short hearing.
As part of the sting, members of the Plymouth Against group set up decoy profiles and spoke to Mr Stevens over messaging apps.
They were part of the organisation, sometimes also known as Plymouth Against Paedophiles, which ran the sting operation.
They have posted a video of them confronting Stevens on the UK Database Facebook page and have also put images on their own website, including one of his naked torso taken with a webcam during the chat room exchanges.
When they confronted him in Torquay on November 27 this year, they alleged he had been in contact with 39 decoy girls in chat rooms and tried to arrange a meeting with one at a hotel in Taunton.
They also alleged he had sent naked pictures of a woman who he claimed to be his girlfriend and suggested threesomes.
He is alleged to have told one decoy girl, supposedly 14, that ‘we will get you through it’ when she told Stevens she had no had sex before.