December 2020 Crediton farm worker placed on sex offenders register A farm worker has been sent on a sex offenders’ course after he was trapped by paedophile hunters posing as a 13-year-old girl. Daniel Lamb thought he was talking to a naïve and innocent schoolgirl called Sacha on Facebook but in reality, he was sending messages to a decoy profile set up by a group called UK Justice. He used the false name of Dan Daz and instructed the girl in how to touch herself sexually during a series of online conversations which culminated in him trying to arrange a meeting. He urged her to film what she was doing and sent it to him but she said it was too dark beneath her duvet and that her mother monitored her photos. He sent naked images of himself and told her to keep their Facebook Lite exchanges secret. Lamb was confronted by members of the group near the caravan where he was living at a farm at Crediton and the messages were passed on to the police. Officers seized 10 cannabis plants at the caravan which he said he was growing for his own use. Lamb (37), of East Pidsley, Crediton, who admitted attempting to incite a child to sexual activity and production, was jailed for 23 months, suspended for two years, by Judge Peter Johnson at Exeter Crown Court. He was sent on a sex offenders’ treatment course with 10 additional days of rehabilitation activities, put on the sex offenders’ register and made subject of a sexual harm prevention order which will enable the police to monitor his internet activity for 10 years. The judge told him: “You came upon a young person on the internet who said she was 13 at a very early stage. You groomed her over a period of time.” Mr Brian Fitzherbert, prosecuting, said the contact started on Facebook Lite in August 2019 when Sacha’s profile was set up by the paedophile hunting group UK Justice. The woman posing as Sacha told Lamb she was 13 but he responded by telling her she was pretty and hot. He used a false name and claimed to be 13 years younger than he was. After a couple of breaks, he resumed contact and renewed his sexual interest. She told him she was now 14 but he asked for photographs and sent her naked images of himself. He suggested a meeting and in January this year he asked her to touch herself sexually and send him pictures of it.