A MAN who tried to chat to underage boys online about sex acts was caught out by a paedophile hunter group's decoy.

Brian Macdonald previously pleaded guilty to five charges of attempting to engage in sexual communication with children online.

In some of those chats, the 58-year-old asked for and received indecent images of children, which Macdonald admitted possessing.

At Chester Crown Court on Thursday, February 15, Macdonald, , of Works Lane, , Northwich, was spared immediate custody as Judge Patrick Thompson said the public would be better protected by Macdonald going on programmes to address the defendant's sexual interest in children, rather than receive a short custodial term with no rehabilitation.

Prosecuting, Oliver King said the paedophile hunter group had set up a decoy posing as a 14-year-old boy, whom the defendant contacted and began messaging on WhatsApp, in October 2022.

During those chats, Macdonald acknowledged the decoy saying they were 14 years old, and later brought up discussion of a sex act, and asked if the 'boy' knew how to do it, and offered to show him how.

Macdonald asked for a photo of the 14-year-old and received a fake image in response, to which he replied he hoped 'he would get to see the rest of him some day', and suggested meeting in a hotel in a remote location.

When asked why, Macdonald replied it was 'so no-one would know what they were getting up to', Mr King told the court.

The paedophile hunter group confronted Macdonald at his address in December 2022 and police attended, where Macdonald's Samsung phone, an iPhone and tablet were seized.

Police searched the devices and found Macdonald had communicated with four other people between October 2021 and December 2022. They had said they were 13, 14, 15 and 16-year-old males, but officers could not establish from the chat logs if these were real boys or other decoys.

In some of the chats on Kik, Grindr and WhatsApp, Macdonald received indecent images and videos. Police found one indecent video of a child assessed as the more serious category B, while there was one indecent video and 16 indecent images of children assessed as category C.

In police interview, Macdonald accepted the offences, and said 'it was just a fantasy' and never had any intention of meeting up.

Defending, Peter Barnett said Macdonald had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, was a hard worker and was still in full-time employment.

It had also been 14 months since Macdonald was first arrested.

Judge Thompson said while he was 'encouraged' by the early guilty pleas, he was 'discouraged' a pre-sentence report showed Macdonald denying he had a sexual interest in children.

"I was not born yesterday," the judge said.

Judge Thompson said Macdonald needed to recognise he had 'an unhealthy sexual interest in children', and if he did not, he would likely be back before the court and would go to prison.

Macdonald was sentenced to 12 months, suspended for two years. During that time he must complete 40 days of a rehabilitation activity requirement, including 35 sessions of the Horizon sex offenders programme, plus 150 hours unpaid work.

He was handed a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order limiting his internet use, and must sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.

He was deprived of the seized electronic devices.