June 2022 Pervert clutches his chest and slams door as paedophile hunters confront him at home A pervert who sent vile videos to a “14-year-old girl” slammed the door on paedophile hunters when they turned up at his home. John Croxford, 68, of Highfields, Prescot, started messaging who he thought was a 14-year-old girl on Facebook on February 16, 2020. But he was actually communicating with a paedophile hunting group based in Hampshire. Croxford continued to communicate with the girl in a sexual way and encouraged her to watch porn until March 7, 2020. On the day the communication came to an end child protection team Captis Malum confronted Croxford at his Prescot home. The team started videoing Croxford, who said multiple times how he “felt sick” and began clutching his chest. When they called him a “dangerous man”, he responded by saying “you’re kidding aren’t you”. Before police arrived at his home, Croxford led the paedophile hunting group outside before pushing past them and slamming the front door in their faces. The police arrested the 68-year-old and he was charged with a number of offences. Croxton pleaded guilty to three offences involving attempted sexual communication with a child, attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity and attempting to encourage a child to watch images of sexual activity. He was sentenced to 19 months imprisonment suspended for two years, 18 days of rehabilitation, and has to complete the Horizon programme. He was also given a 10 year sexual harm prevention order and was ordered to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.