BURNLEY MAN JAILED FOR ONLINE GROOMING AND ATTEMPTED MEETING WITH A CHILD

A pervert who attempted to meet a 13 year old girl he met on an online dating site has been jailed. Jason Collier, 31, believed he was talking to a teenager when he was snared by a paedophile hunters' group in June 2022. Preston Crown Court heard Collier was prepared to travel from his home in Brierfield to meet the girl at Potters' Bar. He even told her he was "too old for her" in a string of explicit messages. Now the predator has been jailed for 45 months after it emerged he promised to book a hotel to have sexual activity with the 'teenager'. He has been shunned by family and friends after they learned of his sickening online activity. The court heard Collier, of Union Street, matched with the profile on a dating site. When messages moved to WhatsApp, the person he was speaking to said she was only 13 despite her dating profile saying she was 18. Collier told the girl "you're way too young for me". But he did not end the conversation. Between March and July 2022, Collier messaged the girl, asking to meet up and for her to send him photographs. He said the pictures did not have to be nudes, but Recorder Michael Maher, sentencing, said: "You accepted from the outset she was 13 years old." "You candidly acknowledged that you were too old for her in that text message. Just after 24 hours of first texting her you suggested meeting her - a subject you returned to over the next 12 weeks. Why did you want to meet her? Self evidently, because you regarded her as sexually attractive." "You were, in effect, sexually grooming her, seeking to gain her trust and asking for pictures of her. You were prepared to drive three to four hours south to Potters' Bar, where you believed she lived, where you would engage in sexual activity in a hotel as you planned." "You have effectively been excommunicated and you say you are ashamed of what you have done. I have to set that against your re sentence report in which you say you have no sexual interest in children. You present a risk of danger to the public and in my judgement only immediate custody is appropriate in this case." He jailed Collier for 45 weeks.