August 2020 Pervert tried to meet ‘teenage girl’ after sending her explicit pictures A ‘devious’ pervert who sent pictures of his genitals to a ‘teenage’ girl he was grooming online was caught by paedophile hunters trying to meet the girl for sex. Stuart Burnett travelled from his Billingham home to Sunderland after arranging to have sex with the ‘14-year-old’ while her parents were out of the house. The defendant had earlier sent the decoy two pictures of his genitals before agreeing to meet her for sex. The 35-year-old was detained by members of the Guardians of the North paedophile hunting group when he met his ‘victim’ at a Sunderland shopping centre in November last year. Teesside Crown Court heard how the defendant had even messaged the girl on his was to the illicit meet-up to make sure he wasn’t being ‘set-up’. Ian West, prosecuting, started talking to the decoy believing she was 18 but his sexual grooming continued after she told him that she was only actually 14. He said a volunteer from the group had set up the fake profile for ‘Louise’ in a bid catch deviants and Burnett soon started sending sexually explicit messages. Mr West added: “He explained that he will teach her sexual matters in the bedroom and then explained about the acts that will engage in. “He suggested that they meet, she tells him her parents will be out of the house she lives in and arrangements are made to travel to Sunderland to her house.” Within minutes of Burnett arriving in Sunderland he had been detained by the volunteers and arrested by police before make a fully confession in interview. Burnett, of Churchyard Close, Billingham, pleaded guilty to one charge of attempting to meet a child under 16 following sexual grooming and two charges of taking part in sexual conversations with a child. The court heard how Burnett had resigned from his job at Fedex due to the shame of his arrest and was now a fulltime carer for his elderly father-in-law. Judge Jonathan Carroll branded Burnett ‘devious’ for arranging to meet the teenager behind her parents backs. He said: “The moment that line appeared on your phone that she was only 14 was the moment you should have immediately desisted engaging and said ‘I can’t talk to you because you’re under 16’ – but you didn’t.” The judge passed a two year sentence, suspended for two years and given a sexual harm prevention order for five years. Barnett was also ordered to observe a three month curfew between 8pm and 8am and carry out 50 rehabilitation activity requirement days to address his behaviour.