March 2018 Paedophile hunters catch Kempston man A father who was caught by paedophile hunters sending an indecent image of himself to a fictional 13-year-old has been given a suspended jail sentence. Steven Dass, 43, of Molley Moore Avenue, Kempston, also sent explicit messages. He admitted two charges of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child. He was sentenced to nine months, suspended for two years, at Luton Crown Court. Sukwinder Dhadda, prosecuting counsel, said Dass thought he was talking to a girl in Wales in October, despite it being made it clear she was 13. “He had sexualised talk with her and sent her indecent images of himself and a pornographic video,” he said. The messages were actually from members of a vigilante group called Stand Together for Children. The group then went to find Dass and called the police. When Dass’s phone was examined by officers, they discovered he had also been chatting to a real-life 13-year-old girl in Northamptonshire between August and September. The court heard Dass said in text conversations that he was ‘”bored and randy”, “buzzing in his boxer shorts” and he had also sent indecent pictures of himself to her as well as to the fictional girl. Judge Richard Foster told the defendant: “You must be ashamed of your behaviour. “The internet is a great source of information and an asset to modern life, but has great capacity to be misused and that is what you did on these occasions.” He must take part in treatment programme, register as a Sex Offender and abide by the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years.